PHASE I

• Chapter I: Purpose
  • Problem Statement
  • Outcome Objectives
• Chapter II: Research and Planned Solution Strategy
• Chapter III: Implementation Plan and Matrix
  • Verbs for Measurable Objectives
• Chapter IV: Evaluation/Assessment  Plan
• References List
• Copyright Laws
• Appendixes
• Finishing Touch Components

2.1 Proposal Chapter I: Purpose

Background:
Students must describe the setting in which the problem occurs. The description provides information regarding the facility, the personnel, and existing programs at the setting. A description of the community from which the target group comes to the facility should be included. In some cases, the focus will be on the socio-economic characteristics of the community. Other factors such as the level of parental involvement, data about total school enrollment, class size, or teacher pupil ratios might be important for a school project. The clientele using the facility or agency should be described. Be sure to include data about all factors that may be contributing to the "problem" you are planning to address.

Problem Statement

Define a problem at the target setting in operational terms: a discrepancy between "what is" and "what should be." Statistics will show "what is." State or agency imposed standards may show "what should be." A newly emerging set of negatives or a foreseeable difficulty may be predicted. The origins of such difficulty can be documented early with needs assessment data. In other words, "Why is this a problem?" There must be a discrepancy, a difference, between what is and what should be happening. What is must be supported by hard evidence (data, statistics—not opinion) that such a gap exists in the project setting. The administrator/verifier might help the student secure the statistical documentation. The purpose of the project, then, is to close that discrepancy gap.

For example: "Eleventh grade students are reading at the ninthgrade level, as documented by test scores." That would be a problem. The discrepancy is the 2-grade-level gap between actual and expected reading levels; the evidence is in the test scores. Scores must be presented for each member of the target group. The compilation of all this preliminary data to support the problem is called a needs assessment.

A needs assessment is made up of statistics that provide evidence of the problem. Students and their Advisors/Coaches decide which group of documents can provide appropriate statistics. Examining records or committee reports, or observing routines, may be useful in establishing the core of a problem. An applied research student must look beyond the outward indicators of the problem and get beneath the surface to find out what is really wrong. A way to find what is beneath the surface might be to question former teachers and find out what the causes of the problem may have been.

Data gathered by observation methods must have criteria and include structured observation instruments used in the collection process. The critical term here is "structured." The observation must be deliberate, conducted formally, systematically, and often enough over time to give the collected data some reliability. Informal observations will not produce the necessary statistics.
See Constructing a Needs Assessment for assistance.

Students must include a clear description of the target group. Students can use such facts as ages and grade levels, special needs, behavior, attendance, health, and other factors that may have bearing on the problem for a school project. Students working in the private sectors can use such facts as numbers of workers at each level, qualifications of those workers, services provided to the community, goals and expectations of the administration, and/or perhaps responses of the community to the services. There may be more than one target group in some cases. For example, teachers helping with the implementation must be trained in the solution strategies. Their students who will receive the new strategies become a second target group. Target groups may include students, parents, volunteers, teachers, staff, or personnel at the facility. In private facilities, target groups may include staff, clientele, service organization members, etc.

Educational Specialist Students' Convention 1 of 4

The participating subjects must be comprised of a minimnum of two target groups with whom the student will be interacting. Data must be provided for both groups.

The problem statement chapter should not include a review of literature. If it is necessary to show the relationship of the local problem to a general (global) problem, related reviews should be written in Chapter II. This definition of the problem provides the basis for projecting outcome objectives (terminal performance objectives/results) that you will create..

These are the main factors to include in the problem statement.

• Description of the problem to be addressed
• Current practices and reasons for their ineffectiveness, as indicated by the needs assessment data
• Complete description of the target group (or groups)
• Statistics of the target group(s) to document the problem
• Discussion on probable causes and effects of the problem, based on data
• Discrepancy statement

Educational Specialist: Convention 2 of 4

The  topic must address an issue of significance to the educational community, rather than one restricted to the setting alone. Students should attempt, within this project, to extend their influence beyond the boundaries of their current professional responsibilities.  

2.2 Proposal Chapter II: Research and Planned Solution Strategy

The review of professional research is important in considering how to achieve the project objectives. Students are to look for literature on the identified problem.The Research and Planned Solution Strategy chapter has two parts.

The first part of this chapter, Research, contains reviews of related literature on the problem, must be at least 10 pages in length, and should contain descriptions of the authors' projects. It should reflect a literature search of a minimum of 15 primary sources (Ed Specialist: 30 primary sources). The second part, Planned Solution Strategies, should be only a few paragraphs long and should identify, in general, the strategies that have been selected for use from the research reviewed in the first part of the chapter. Primary sources are those articles, reports, or books written by the individual(s) who conducted the research. These can be found in professional journals. Examples are listed in all course syllabi.:

Educational Specialist: Convention 3 of 4

Students must review a minimum of 30 primary sources.

Before making strategy decisions, students must examine a number of reasonable possibilities. Sources other than classics must be recent, within the last 10 years. The topics of cited research should include at least:

• theory related to the problem;
• suggestions for solutions to the problem; and
• reviews of programs attempted to solve similar problems elsewhere.

DANGER! ...........................................SLOW DOWN and THINK!

 Library Services

Students' computer search should be done online. The best place to look for the primary sources that you need is in the NSU Library in the ERIC database. You will find a great many articles and projects there. If you are having difficulty accessing the NSU library with your NSU email account and password, telephone the Helpdesk (262-HELP or 800-986-3223-HELP) for assistance.

If there is little information from the requested descriptors, students could use the abstracts from related descriptor topics as guides for possible alternative descriptors. Reference lists from these selections may lead to works by other authors on a similar topic. The important point to keep in mind is that articles should be primary in nature. They should be from the professional literature in the field and not from textbooks.

In addition to ordering research articles from results of the required computer search, students could gather information about possible strategies from Educational Impact or:

• visits to other facilities,
• consultation with specialists,
• discussions with staff,
• manual searches of current books and journal articles in the library, and/or
• previews of the latest technology and software.

How to Review the Literature.

See Analyzing Research for additional help.

The first step in preparing the literature review is to read abstracts obtained from the search to eliminate inappropriate material. The strategies selected to deal with a problem must bear some relationship to what others have done before, whether parallel or opposite in nature. The literature review should articulate this relationship. For example, with a prpject on improving faculty relations in a community college, the writer could draw from the resources on group dynamics although the cited resources were not directly related to a community college problem.

As students select current literature related to the problem, they must obtain entire articles and summarize the reported methods and results. Although a minimum of 15 primary sources in separate reviews is recommended, (10 for 3 credit MS, 30 for EdS), most master's students and their advisors find that 20 or more reviews provide a more complete picture (more than 30 may be needed for a comprehensive representation of the literature for EdS. students).

Students may report on exemplary strategies observed in a particular setting. This can be especially helpful if prospective project strategies are being used there. Students acknowledge these items on the reference list as unpublished manuscripts or proceedings of meetings and symposia. Theories and applications should be explained. Students should review as many methods and results as possible. Then they can compare those situations to the locally identified problem, noting the uniqueness of the particular perspective. By remaining open to ideas practiced by others, students can develop unique strategies to address the identified problem.

Organize all articles into a cohesive narrative, remembering to use citations of authors for each paragraph. Students must synthesize the articles into a comprehensive whole, providing a logical progression of support for the proposed solution. Grouping the studies that share the same characteristics will help to create a smoothly prepared chapter. Paraphrase information from original articles as much as possible, using direct quotes only for coined terms or other unique wording. In reviewing each piece of literature, students must state:

• the author and date,
• what was done (description of the study),
• how it was done (target group and strategies),
• what was accomplished (results of the study), and
• possible applicability to the projected project.

The review of one author's work may be complete in as little as two or three paragraphs, or it may be as long as two pages. It is not appropriate to use computer search abstracts in place of complete reviews. All reviews of literature should be written in the "historical present" or past tense, since they have all been done previously. The only exception would be in using direct quotes, which must be exact. This will save time in making verb tense changes for the final report. The References list should contain only items that were actually reviewed and cited within the text. All sources cited in this chapter must be included in the References list.

The Planned Solution Strategy, the second part of this chapter, should be separated from the reviews with a subheading. After reviewing all of the collected literature, students should name, and generally explain, the strategies selected for use as a planned solution to their identified problem. Students can combine the strongest of the reviewed methods to create a unique implementation plan. The rationale for strategy selection should include names of the authors whose works inspired their selection.

The rationale should explain how the literature review accomplishes at least one of the following:

• shows that strategies have been used successfully in similar situations,
• shows that using strategies from dissimilar situations is suitable for this setting,
• shows that an unsuccessful strategy from another setting can be expected to work in this setting.
   

To summarize instructions for the contents of this chapter, students should:

• review professional literature including theory and strategies,
• weigh and select the most promising and workable solution strategies, and
• explain the reasoning behind strategy selections.

2.3 Chapter III: Objectives and Implementation Plan
Outcome Objectives

Outcome objectives, or terminal performance objectives, explain what will be achieved by the end of the project in measurable terms. Each objective should be related to statistics presented in the problem statement and should specify expected changes. Purposes of the objectives may be skill improvement, group cooperation, program evaluation, self-evaluation, staff evaluation, or others, as needed. The desired outcomes and what the target group can be expected to accomplish should be specified before making decisions on new strategies. Students also must specify criteria for measurement (achievement or change) and name the evaluation tool (or tools) to be used.

Educational Specialist: Convention 4 of 4

Students must conduct formative procedures prior to or during implementation, so immediate procedural needs or adjustments to the setting can be addressed early in implementation. The formative procedure can be stated as an objective if it is completed during implementation rather than while collecting preliminary data.

• The time in which the student expects the change to occur:
  

  "Over a period of four months... OR "At the end of the unit on water power..."

• The target group (every member of the target group):
  

  "....the targeted fourth-grade students.... OR "....Group A will...."

• The expected observable/measurable behaviors (the minimum expected success criteria for all):
  

  "...will increase multiplication skills by 10 %... OR "....read at least one book from the reading list each week..."

• The evaluation tool that the student will use to measure the expected results:
  

  "...as measured by the Mathematics Abilities Test." OR "...as indicated on the Parent Reading Checklist."

Students should be careful to avoid wording that states that the target group "will receive instruction." Instead, the transitive (active voice) should be used. A suggested replacement should be that they "will participate in…" The objectives should clearly state how the target group will participate in learning, in terms of its activities—the performance. Students should not include objectives for their own tasks, such as preparing materials or making arrangements for meetings. The following examples are provided as models. Citations are used for teacher-made items that would be placed in appendixes.

From an elementary or intermediate education project:

•  Over a period of 12 weeks, the students in the target group will increase their skills in public speaking by 90% as shown by the Jones Public Speaking Rater scores on the final presentation (Appendix L:)

From a mathematics project:

• After 14 weeks of participating in a project using hands-on activities,the 10 targeted students will demonstrate increased computation skills as shown by scoring a minimum of 70% mastery level or above on the Math Computation Posttest (Appendix E).

• During a 12-week program of using specifically designed software, the target group will use 15 of 20 procedures in initiating individual computer-generated architectural designs with 85% accuracy as evaluated on the Procedure Rating Scale (Appendix C).

• After the target group has participated in a 16-week collaborative project to rewrite and use a revised science curriculum guide, the sience faculty will rate the guide at a minimum of level four on a 5-point Likert-scaled Curriculum Evaluation (Appendix D)

Tests used to measure objectives are to be identified by title in the objectives. Whether these are teacher-created assessments or standardized tests, the reader can judge the effectiveness of the new strategies by looking at the comparison of pre- and posttest scores. Therefore, all scores are to be tallied and reported. Other evaluations might include formal observation, or portfolios. Students select the format according to the objectives' requirements. Types of measurements used might be surveys, rating scales, essays, multiple choice tests, true/false, charts, tallies, grade books, school records, formal observation, formal interviews, and so on. 

CAUTION: SLOW DOWN

If increased achievement is the educational goal, increases in scores would be proof of that achievement. Students may use scores from an annual test regularly administered at a school as baseline data for selection of a target group. But, annual tests cannot be used to measure 12 weeks of skills improvement. Carefully word objectives so they show how you will measure an increase in skills or concept mastery.

Click on the link below for assistance with finding appropriate verbs for your objectives. This list is also located on the Student Services page under Academic Writing.

The implementation plan chapter describes the action phase. Usually, students achieve successful implementation without difficulty by simply following the strategies and timelines outlined in this chapter.

Administrators/verifiers can bevaluable resources during the implementation planning phase, especially when students wish to solve problems that have implications beyond the immediate setting. Permission from the administrator/verifier is needed to conduct the implementation. Examples could include informing parents of any changes to be made and soliciting their cooperation, involving volunteers or peer educators, changing the daily schedule, asking for cooperation of other teachers or administrators, or using new computer software.

The following are all actions that may require the administrator/verifier's help.

• brief identification and sequence of necessary tasks,
• identification of people, materials, and equipment needed,
• establishment of a weekly timeline of specific target group activities,
• establishment of a process for monitoring progress, and
• development of an evaluation/assessment schedule.

Creating the Matrix of Activities*
A matrix is a type of table that contains cross references.
One factor must be the timeline.
Another is the tasks to be done by the writer.
A third is the activities to be completed by the target group(s).
It might look like this for a 12-week implementation:

This matrix will become part of the Appendixes in the final report

2.4 Chapter IV: Evaluation/Assessment  Plan

This chapter should include the Outcome Objectives. Properly written objectives include the name of the evaluation tools. Students should describe tools named in the objectives, thus accounting for each objective. Students must include a copy of each teacher-made or teacher-adapted test in the appendixes. Standardized tests should not be included in the appendixes, but their function within the project should beexplained. Students should briefly describe the testing procedures.

Students should use this chapter to:

• describe each evaluation tool named in objectives and
• explain the procedure planned for pretest, median, and posttest use.
• explain how the data will be collected and reported.

The References list should be arranged in alphabetical order by author without subheadings. Students should cite authors in the body of the proposal by surnames (without given names or titles) and copyright dates exactly as written on the Reference List. In writing citations, students should not change the order of authors' names when citing an item by two or more authors. The citation must match the References list entry.

Copyrighted documents that CAN be included in personal documents (that means your proposal and report) with only a reference citation are:

• one page of a longer original document
• one page of a workbook sample.

• original documents,
• photocopies of original documents,
• retyped or rearranged copies of original documents,
• redesigned materials originated by anyone other than the student,
• standardized tests.

DANGER!

If the school, school district, facility, or student has purchased commercial materials, there is no need to secure permission for their use during implementation. Written permission from the publisher is needed only for their placement in the student's proposal or final report.

Appendixes should include the items that have been named and cited in the main body of the document. At the very least, the appendixes should include copies of any survey forms, interview questions, and student- or teacher-made tests related to the documentation of the problem and the objectives. For instances in which students include only selected data from problem-defining surveys (or interviews or tests) in the body of the proposal, it is proper to provide complete tabulation of the responses in the proposal appendixes. Students should place appendixes in the same order as they were first cited in text and designated as A, B, C, etc.

2.6 Finishing Touch Components for the Final Proposal

Creating the title:

Components of the title should provide information about:

• the major area of study,
• the problem to be solved,
• the target group, and
• strategies to be used.

Example #1

ANALYSIS: major, TESOL

• target group/major: high school ESL students
• problem/objective: increase English writing skills
• strategy: journal writing

ANALYSIS: major, Ed. Media

• strategy/major: CAI /Media
• target group: media center volunteers
• objective/ problem: cataloging audio visuals

The abstract should be about ½ page long, single spaced, and placed as page 2.

Place it immediately following the title page and before the table of contents.

The following components should be written in future tense:

• identify the program that is planned,
• state the problem,
• identify the target group, goal, and objectives,
• list strategies to solve the problem, and
• state the names of measurement tools that will be used.

Submit your finished proposal to your advisor in this order:

• Cover Sheet, no page number
• APA Checklist, complete it with no page number
• Title Page, no page number, but it is really page 1
• Abstract, page 2
• Table of Contents, page 3
• Chapters, page 4-.......
• References, next page after last text page
• Appendixes,next page after References, continue numbering.
  
  
  

  WARNING:
  Students who implement their projects before Advisor/Coach
  approval of the completed proposals will fail the course
  and be required to register again to complete a new project.

  • Students may not use projects that have been implemented before registering for the applied research project.

   What should you do?   CALL YOUR ADVISOR!

     YOU ARE IN DANGER OF FAILING!

  
  

  Everything OK? Wait for your proposal review, then go to:

  • The Final Report
  • GTEP Project Guide Table of Contents
  • Back to Top
  • Forms

  09/15/05