Particular Type of Sampling in Research Process - Assignment Example

Education CHAPTER SIX Question One This particular type of sampling, convenience sampling might get biased through some ways. First,all those students who will not be passing on the street in the middle of the campus will not be interviewed or rather asked the questions about the union. Secondly, not all the students who will be passing through this particular street will be willing to get interviewed some will be unwilling to give their views. Thirdly, those students who will agree to give out their opinions will probably be those who strong opinions concerning the recreational services available in the student union. Lastly, depending on the time of the day, those students who will get interviewed quite possibly will have no classes; hence have the free time to walk around. Question Two The result of this particular study may get generalized in some populations, the first one being those that exhibit high levels of the eternal validity of the study (Fraenkel &Wallen , 2009). Secondly, the population should produce a sample nature as well as the environmental conditions that prove for generalization to get made. The particular sample of study must also represent the population of interest, the sample has to be relatively large so that the usefulness of the findings become unlimited. If these particular two communities meet the conditions for generalization, then the researcher can conclude by saying that playing soft classical music increases the ability of scholars in understanding arithmetic studies. Question Three At times, a researcher may feel not interested to generalize the result of a study, and this mostly happens when the particular samples used fails to show the external validity of the study. It may also occur in those samples used shows high levels of relevancy about the characteristics of the population under study. In some cases, the samples may fail to demonstrate some of the essential part of the population under study as well as the representation of the relevant variables. Finally, when the sample size is reasonably small or narrowly defined, the generalization from this particular study becomes limited. Question Four It is true, to some extent, that the larger a sample, the more justified a researcher is generalizing from it to a population. This can only be more valid if the researcher takes into account the issue of timing and proximity, among other factors depending on the given case study (Fraenkel &Wallen , 2009). The larger sample always tends to take into consideration on most of the essential and other relevant characteristics of the entire population, thereby increase the significance levels. Finally, broad cross-section tends to reduce some of the sampling error that are most likely to committed during the study, hence increasing the reliability of the study for generalization. Question Five It is very wrong to say that no population can ever get studied in its entirety, my firs reason being that availability adequate of finance will always enable the researcher to complete his/her education. If the researcher has enough time and plans it well, then it means that he/she will get in a position to adequately undertake the data collection irrespective of the population size. Also, strategizing on such issues such as the population patterns, structure among other factors will enable the researcher to conduct his/her research throughout the given population size. Finally, some population may be made of members who with resistive cultural values, and to permeate through this, the researcher needs to create a good rapport with the population, among other skills, to get welcomed by the community under study. Question Six It is very true that the more narrowly researchers define the population, the more they limit generalization. Firstly, by narrowly defining the population, most of the essential parts of the population are omitted (Fraenkel &Wallen , 2009). Secondly, it eliminates most of the fundamental and other relevant variables of the population that need to get taken into account to enhance efficiency in generalization. Finally, when researchers narrowly define the population, they reduce the rate of external validity of the study; hence the particular generalization made will have a lot of faults and law reliability. Question Seven It is indeed right to say that the best sampling plan is of no value if the information is missing in a sizable proportion of the initial sample. This is because the sample size should be a direct reflection and proportion of the population size. The sample size has the relevancy of reflecting all the sectors of the entire population, regardless of the differences and different in patterns among others. For this matter missing information on the sizeable proportion of the initial sample will mean that a lot of information regarding the population will be missing, hence can be rendered valueless. Question Eight The use of random sampling is almost never possible with respect to ecological generalizing, and this get based on the fact that random sampling exhibits different conditions in all the important aspects. The potential study in which environmental generalizing is possible is when conducting purposive non-random sampling. In this case, ecological generalizing is made possible by the exhibition of similar conditions in all the important aspects. Problem Sheet Six: Sampling Plan 1. My intended sample consists of traders at the municipal market and the sample size is 100. 2. The key demographic of my samples is both male and female operators, irrespective of their ethnic background, as long as they are all traders. 3. I plan to use the simple random sample. 4. I will gain access to and get contact information for my sample by visiting the local banks where they bank their cash, visiting them at different cafes’ where they take refreshments. 5. The inclusion criteria for participation in my study will be giving a chance to those who are willing to participate, and exempting those who are not willing to give their views. 6. It will get difficult for me to make generalization in my study, mainly because my sampling method of choice tends to lack the core of external validity. CHAPTER SEVEN Question One According to me, measuring student interest in a poem would be the easiest to conduct, among the other three. This is because; I will simply administer questionnaires, rating scales, interview schedules and other performance checklists. The hardest to measure will be the attention level of a class. This is because most of the students in the class may fake their attention and due to this, I may think to have garnered the right data, yet they are all vague. Question Two It is possible to measure a person’s self-concept. This can be done by administering to one’s self some data collection instruments that require the particular subject in question to complete. They may include; questionnaires, self-checklists, attitude scales, personality inventories and other projective devices. It is also possible to measure one’s body image. Though for this one it will require the use of other measurement instruments from the other physical sciences, especially physics. Question Three I don’t think that there exist objects that cannot be measured. I firmly believe in my opinion because even those distant objects from the moon can still be measured using telescopes among other instruments. Also, nearly all the ideas existing in the planet earth can be measured by use of the different technological know-how. For those ideas and objects that seem to lack a way of measuring them, it’s just a matter of time before other inventories are made on ways of conducting their measurements. Question Four Of all the instruments presented in this chapter, those that I think would be the hardest to use are sociometric devices, projective devices, and anecdotal records. I believe so because they tend to require a lot of expertise and technicalities when dealing with them. The easiest ones to use may include questionnaire, interview schedules, observation forms and tally sheets. The reason is that they are less technical and requires less expertise when operating with them. The instrument that I think would provide the most dependable information is the face-to-face interview. This is because the interviewer can expand on his question, and the interviewer too can expound on his/her response and give more clarification. Question Five Any individual raw score, in and of itself, is meaningless, and I strongly agree with this statement. Once the raw scores get collected, they can’t be used to develop an analysis of any kind, not unless they are processed to give more meaningful information. Also, before processing them, no hypothetical assumptions can be made as well as generalization of the same objects, from the data collected among them. Finally, if any generalization or theoretical conclusions get made from this individual raw score, they will all be vague and lack validity as well as empirical evidence. Question Six Derived scores give meaning to individual raw scores. This statement is true basing on the fact that most of the derived scores possess high levels of validity and reliability of the statistical tests conducted on them (Fraenkel &Wallen , 2009). When comparing them to individual scores, if they show characteristic signs such as variance, standard deviation, then it will be right to have a pre-assumptions that the particular individual score have credibility. Therefore, the stronger the correlation between the two different raw scores, the more the meaningful of the individual raw score is. Problem Sheet 7: Instrumentation Question One 1. For my study, I am planning to use a questionnaire, as an instrument of education. 2. It is a pre-existing device. 3. The name of this particular device is “Effects of Salary Increment towards Workers Motivation”. 4. The device is supposed to assess the effects and changes realized in the workers motivation, through the increased salary and other employee packages, in the Wal-Mart Organization. 5. The instrument will contain some items that are relevant to the rates of production, employee marginal output, among other factors that are noted by the different departmental heads in the organization. 6. To interpret the data, I will first score them then tally or rather tabulate them in a way, by transferring them to the data sheet. CHAPTER EIGHT Problem Sheet 8: Validity and Reliability Question One I am planning to use a questionnaire, which is an existing document, and, in this case, am looking upon the face-to-face interview that I will conduct orally. I have learned a lot about the validity as well as the reliability of this particular instrument. When it comes to the validity of this particular instrument, I will have to look at its appropriateness, meaningfulness as well as the usefulness of the inference I will draw from my research. For the case of reliability, I will study the consistency of scores from the administration of this instrument to the other from a different set of items. Question Two When planning to develop an instrument, I will try to ensure the validity as well as the reliability of the results by the following way. Firstly, I will conduct validation to determine whether the other evidence available can support the given references that I will have drawn in my conclusion. For the same purpose, I will carry out content-related evidence of validity, criterion-related proof of validity, construct-related proof of validity. For the case of reliability, I will conduct different surveys to find out the rate of consistency when the various researchers get done by the same instrument. Question Three a) Internal Consistency. I will check for internal consistency by using the split-half procedure. For this case, I will score two halves, the odd versus the even items, and conduct carry out calculations for these sets to determine their coefficient of correlation. Those with a coefficient of correlation close to one will indicate high levels of internal consistency. b) Stability. To check for stability, I will conduct my test for two different groups and make inference on them. I will later do the same test for the original two groups and make an assumption. After this, I will conduct an analysis to figure out if the two references have some similarity and whether they are stable over time. c) Validity. To check for the contend-related evidence of validity, I will welcome an individual who can render an intelligent judgment about the competency of my instrument of choice. I will ask him to look at the content and format of the instrument and make a conclusion whether it is appropriate or inappropriate. Discussions Questions from Chapter Eight 1- Scores from a tool may be reliable but not valid, yet it may not be valid and not reliable. This get based on the fact that scores may have consistencies or answers provided by an instrument yet they may all be inappropriate, incorrect and lack usefulness. On the other way, whenever the scores exhibit appropriateness, correctness, and usefulness, they must all have consistencies. 2- Criterion-related evidence is the easiest to obtain since it only involves comparing the degree by which the information provided by an instrument is in hand with the other information generated from other independent ones. Construct related is the hardest one to obtain since one has to find out the extent to which the totality of the evidence produced is in hand with the general theoretical expectations. 3- The format of an instrument may affect its validity by altering with its validity coefficient, hence changing the rate of correspondence between scores of a tool and a particular measure. 4- The statement pertaining that there is no single piece of evidence that satisfies construct related validity is not valid. 5- Validity is harder to obtain that reliability. The reason is that security only needs observations for successive experiments or rather inferences drawn on the same. The opposite emerges when it comes to validity that requires a series or experimentation and technical calculations for estimating the different levels of coefficient values. 6- Reliability might not be more important than validity. This is because most of the technical analysis will only draw their conclusion from validity. Furthermore, reliability is a subset of validity while validity is not a subset of security (Fraenkel &Wallen , 2009). 7- To assess the Q-E intelligence test with respect to validity, I will have a technical observation of its particular content-related evidence, criterion-related evidence, and the construct-related evidence. 8- The importance of using valid instruments in research cannot get overstated due to the reason that most of the instruments have given levels of errors. These errors pose them to a lot of faults; that later leads to invalid results as well as faultiness in validation. More on Operational Definitions The following are operational definitions for the term “motivated to learn in a research method class”: 1- Is observed to ask questions about past and present reading assignments. The students who continuously raise question pertaining the concepts taught in both the present and the current reading assignments can be generalized as a validation test for the motivation gained in the class. This is due to the fact that the particular student in question has gained a lot of interest in the teachings form the research method class. This also portrays some degree of motivation since ot is possible that the student is raising question as a result of the controversies he realized when going through his or her research work when alone. The student in question may also be raising some controversial question they came across while working in a group. 2- Claims she would rather conduct a literature review rather than watching her favorite television program. When such statements are raised by a student, female student, herself, then this can validate that the particular female student has gained a lot of motivation towards learning in a research methods class. The first reason behind this is that, nearly all the female students, among other post graduates, like watching some of their favorite television programs. Researchers have found out that with time, they, female students, all become addicted to these particular programs to an extent that they highly prioritize them, among other things. They tend to give up on ding other important things, but instead to sit back and make follow ups on their favorite television programs. Therefore it will be very valid, as well as having reliability, as an operational definition from such a statement, towards motivation to learn in a research methods class. 3- Is described as student who hands in all assignments on time. In a college or a university class, there are a number subjects or units that are being undertaken by the students. They also have other school cocuricular activities that they have to attend to, besides their general class work and their individual life to attend to. This simply means that the students have a lot of assignments to do and cannot hand all of them once in time. They can only manage to handover particular assignments which they have a lot of interest in them. Therefore, if a student hands over the research methods assignments in time, then it will be valid and more reliable to draw an inference that he/she has gotten motivation to learn in the research methods class. 4- Voluntarily checks out books on research design at the library. As discussed in the above point (3), college and university students have ma lot of books, among other extracurricular activities to look at. In the library there are a number of books for different subjects, shelved, among other pictorials and other traditional sections and magazines. If a student is continuously observed to voluntarily checking out for books on research design at the library, then it’s right to conclude that the student likes research studies. Then it will be right to make an inference that the student in question has gotten motivation to learn a research methods class. 5- Ask the instructor if she can prepare an extra credit assignment on recent trends in the field of educational research. I will still base my argument on the issue raised on the above points concerning the degree of getting busy that college and university students usually exhibit. It will be therefore very valid to conclude that this particular student have abandoned other activities she is having, and to concentrate on research methods. Hence it will be an operational definition for saying that the student has gotten motivation to learn in a research methods class. 6- Voluntarily creates an interactive Web site for the class, so that students can discuss course material online. College and university students have a lot of online activities that can conduct in the internet, be it on their free time or when they are busy. By voluntarily taking their time to create an interactive website for the class, then we can draw a conclusion that they have gotten motivation towards learning in a research methods class. References Fraenkel, J.R., &Wallen, N.E . ( 2009). How To Design And Evaluate Research In Education. Seventh Edition. The McGRAW-Hill Higher Education Press. Read More