I am working on a doctoral dissertation, entitled, “Investigating the effect of Universal Design framework to design a pre-college-level math course.” My research will be overseen by my faculty mentor and the School of Education doctoral committee at Capella University.
I will use a quasi-experimental, quantitative research design with non-probability purposive sampling techniques to examine whether there a statistically significant difference in the mean gain scores between students taking a pre-college-level math course designed using a UDL framework and students taking a pre-college-level math course that is not designed using the UDL framework. To conduct my research, I will need to compare two classes with the only difference between the classes being that one will be treated by implementing the UDL framework in the design, while the other one will not be treated at all. Both courses will be otherwise identical in course objectives (i.e., learning outcomes, learning material, and one instructor teaching both the experimental and the control groups).
I am requesting permission to conduct my dissertation research at a community college that teaches a pre-college level math with one teacher who delivers the same course twice in the same section. By pre-college level I mean a course that students need to take because they are not eligible to take college-level math yet based on their college placement exam. Specifically, I am requesting permission to engage in the following research activities:
· Implement the UDL guidelines and touchpoints into the course design (please see Guidelines document attached). This will form the experimental group. All modifications made to the course will be recorded and collected for data analysis.
· The redesigned course will be presented to a UDL expert for review and approval, then presented to the faculty and Dean at the research site to ensure that the course meets the College design standards.
· Once the course is approved, it needs to be delivered by a faculty member so that I can collect the data (pre- and post- tests grade information with NO personal identifiers to protect student information).
· Interested participants will fill out required consent forms, per IRB standards.
· All post-test scores will be collected from each course and analyzed using a two-tailed t-test with SPSS statistical software.
Hello Ivette,
Please reconsider the use of "gain" scores as an outcome variable for your study. In general, gain (difference, change, growth, etc.) scores are less reliable than either of two scores from which they are generated.
A far better approach, especially since you propose to use existing groups (rather than true randomization), would be to use the baseline scores as a covariate, and the final scores as the dependent variable. As well, it might be a good idea to incorporate some sort of verification that the activities associated with each class are, in fact, genuinely different and distinctive.
Good luck with your study.
Thank you! I wish I had posted my research question while I was preparing my research proposal. Unfortunately after all the comments and edits requested by my dissertation committee I ended up with this. I will look into this. Thanks again.
Not sure what your question is but if you are seeking general comments,Ii can see a few possible difficulties.
If the UD framework has already been proven to be beneficial in other fields, depriving the control group of this may be unethical.
The teacher will know which system he is using and may try to compensate in some way.
You would have to measure relative improvement ( % change (after-before)/ before)) in an assessment of this area of maths before and after course in each individual and compare difference in means of these between control and experimental group
- Badges
- Science method
- Similar topics
- Mathematics
- Statistics
- Statistical Techniques
- Meta-Analysis