Research & the Analysis of Research Hypotheses

The design of this book owes much to M. David Merrill, Ph.D., who in the 70s was a professor at Brigham Young University. At the time, he was researching concepts for designing curriculum. He developed a method of designing instructional materials that used the principles of Rule Example - Practice. The term rule covered such items as a mathematical rule, a classification paradigm, a descriptive category, or other information that gives the students a rule for understanding the main concept being taught. The term example covered the criterion showing how the rule worked. The term practice gave the student a way to perform an exercise, that is, in practicing with other variations of the example to gain experience in using the rule. For Merrills principles to be effective, the example must match the practice and the governing rule. RESEARCH & THE ANALYSIS OF RESEARCH HYPOTHESES has been designed employing Merrills theories. The rule is described and defined in the portion of each unit of instruction labeled PURPOSE: The example and matching practice are described in the portion labeled OBJECTIVES: The body of the unit describes the rule in more detail giving examples as needed. Finally, there is an assignment which requires the student to put the rule into practice. The two volumes provide a basis for doing a research study which graduate students can use as a model for their thesis or dissertation. Volume 1 covers basic principles and processes for doing a research study and Volume 2 covers the five major procedures for testing research data: the z-test, the t-test, the Pearson correlation test, the Spearman correlation test and the Chi Square test. Note: Chi is pronounced Kai; the Chi-Square symbol is: ?2