CHAPTER 9
DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH
TEACHING ACTIVITIES FOR CHAPTER 9
Activity 1. Designing a questionnaire or interview schedule.
Many students think that it is easy to design a questionnaire or interview schedule. They do not write items
with a critical eye or see the need for pilot–testing items. To help your students understand the factors involved in
writing good items, you can start by giving them a homework assignment requiring them to write five interview
items about a construct. For example, you might ask them to write items that assess educators’ attitude toward
Activity 2. Analysis and evaluation of the article reprint.
You can ask students to read the reprinted article about online learning at the end of Chapter 9 and evaluate it
using the criteria in Appendix 3 and those specified on page 218. In class, you can call on students to state what
they consider strengths and weaknesses of the study. Also, you can ask them to form small groups in which they
discuss the practical significance of the study’s findings.
MULTIPLE-CHOICE TEST ITEMS FOR CHAPTER 9
1. Descriptive research primarily
a. yields knowledge that directly improves educational practice.
b. yields knowledge about current problems and successful practices in education.
c. is more similar to basic research than to applied research.
d. investigates behavior more than opinions or attitudes.
2. Among the major surveys about the public’s attitude toward education is (are) the
a. New York Times Polls.
b. National Assessment of Educational Progress.
c. PDK/Gallup Polls.
d. All of the above.
3. Survey research
a. is synonymous with descriptive research.
b. is descriptive research that is done at a national level.
c. involves the construction of databases of educational statistics.
d. involves the collection of data about people’s beliefs and behavior using standardized measures.
4. Descriptive research differs from other types of quantitative research, because it
a. does not focus on the study of cause-and-effect relationships among variables.
b. uses descriptive data to infer cause-and-effect relationships among variables.
c. does not use measures that yield quantitative data.
d. does not focus on populations or samples that represent populations.
5. A panel study is a type of longitudinal research in which
a. the same sample is followed over time, but not necessarily the same members of the sample at each
data collection point.
b. the same sample is surveyed at each data collection point.
c. a different sample is surveyed at each data collection point, and the population represented by the
sample does not remain constant.
d. each data collection point includes a different sample representing a different population.
6. Cross-sectional research involves the study of
a. gender and ethnic differences in a research sample at one point in time.
b. socioeconomic classes from a longitudinal perspective.
c. different stages of individual development using a sample from each stage and collecting data from
them at the same point in time.
d. different stages of individual development by selecting a cohort at the initial stage of development
and collecting data from the cohort across subsequent stages.
7. The development of a questionnaire or interview schedule begins with the
a. writing of a comprehensive list of items.
b. collection of validity evidence.
c. collection of reliability evidence.
d. identification of relevant constructs.
8. Internet-based research surveys can be conducted by sending each research participant an email message
with
a. the survey embedded as part of the message.
b. a file attachment containing the survey.
c. a direct link to an Internet website containing the survey.
d. All of the above.
9. A Likert scale requires respondents to
a. express the intensity of their feeling about a statement in the item’s stem.
b. express the intensity of their feeling about a series of statements in the item.
c. agree or disagree with items that measure different attitudes.
d. agree or disagree with items that measure an attitude with one dimension.
10. The quantitative data for a variable in a descriptive research study typically are analyzed by
a. computing an effect size.
b. computing the mean and standard deviation.
c. performing a test of statistical significance.
d. converting raw scores into standardized scores.
SHORT-ANSWER TEST ITEMS FOR CHAPTER 9
1. Decide whether an interview, a questionnaire, direct observation, or a paper-and-pencil test would be
the most appropriate method of data collection for each of the following research problems, and explain
why.
a. The study concerns parents’ level of monitoring of their eighth-grade child’s completion of
homework assignments.
b. The researcher wants to determine whether first-grade male students who are only children are less
aggressive on the playground than male students with younger siblings.
c. The researchers are investigating the relationship between teachers’ religion and their attitudes toward sex
education.
d. An investigator wants to classify kindergarten students as having high, medium, or low pre-reading
skills.
2. State two guidelines for writing questionnaires or interview items.
3. State two criteria for judging the quality of a descriptive research study.
CHAPTER 9
DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH
Multiple-Choice Test Items
Short-Answer Test Items