Adeniyi Taiye To use the Solomon Four-Group design to write your objectives and analysis in your study with two treatments of teaching methods, you need to structure your study to account for the pretest, posttest, and the two teaching methods. The Solomon Four-Group design allows you to control for the effects of the pretest and the interaction between the pretest and the treatments.

1. Understanding the Solomon Four-Group Design

The Solomon Four-Group design involves four groups:

• Group 1: Receives a pretest, treatment 1 (e.g., Teaching Method A), and a posttest.
• Group 2: Receives a pretest, treatment 2 (e.g., Teaching Method B), and a posttest.
• Group 3: Receives treatment 1 (e.g., Teaching Method A) and a posttest without a pretest.
• Group 4: Receives treatment 2 (e.g., Teaching Method B) and a posttest without a pretest.

2. Writing Objectives

Your objectives should be focused on comparing the effectiveness of the two teaching methods while also accounting for the potential influence of the pretest. Here are sample objectives:

3. Conducting the Analysis

To analyze the data from the Solomon Four-Group design, you would typically perform the following steps:

4. Reporting the Findings

In your report:

• Start by restating the objectives of your study.
• Present the results of the descriptive statistics for each group.
• Report the results of the ANOVA, including any significant main effects and interactions.
• Discuss the implications of the pairwise comparisons.
• Conclude by summarizing the overall findings, addressing each of your objectives, and providing recommendations based on your results.

This structured approach will allow you to comprehensively assess the effectiveness of the two teaching methods while considering the potential influence of a pretest.

You can find detailed explanations in research methods in education (Cohen and Manion, 1998).

Basic steps:

Setting goals:

General objectives: What is the research question you are seeking to answer? Do you want to compare the effectiveness of two teaching methods in improving academic performance, acquiring specific skills, or changing beliefs?

Specific goals: Set measurable goals, such as increasing average scores on a particular test by a certain percentage, improving problem-solving skills, or changing attitudes toward the study material.

Configure groups:

Divide the study sample into four equal groups at random:

The first experimental group: It receives the experimental treatment (the first method of teaching) and is subjected to a test before and after the treatment.

The second experimental group: receives the experimental treatment (the first method of teaching) but is not subjected to a test before the treatment.

The first control group: does not receive the experimental treatment and is subjected to a test before and after the treatment.

The second control group: does not receive the experimental treatment and is not subject to a test before the treatment.

Application:

Apply the experimental treatment to the two experimental groups, and leave the two control groups without any intervention.

Conduct pre- and post-transaction tests for the identified groups.

Analysis:

Comparison of the two experimental groups: Compare the performance of the two experimental groups to determine the effectiveness of the experimental method.

Comparing experimental and control groups: Compare the performance of the experimental groups and the control groups to determine the effect of the experimental treatment.

Analysis of the effect of pretests: Compare the first and second experimental groups and the first and second control groups to determine the effect of the pretests on the results.