This is a final exam question for a Phd level educational research methods class:
An educational researcher is interested in the relationship between students' participation in two after school programs and academic achievement. She states the following hypothesis in the description of her study:
Children who participate in an after school program that emphasizes critical thinking skills will score higher on measures of academic achievement and self-esteem than students who participate in a program that emphasizes rote memorization.
- Propose an appropriate research design and provide a justification for the selected design.
- Explain potential threats to validity with the selected design.
- Describe the specific population, sample, and sampling procedures.
- Identify at least one independent variable and one dependent variable that will be measured. Describe how the identified variables will be measured.
- Thoroughly explain how data would be collected in this study.
- Define ethical issues with the study, if any.