INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND
This section contains the background information to the study. It usually includes a
description of your school, class, students, city and state. When you give information
about these points, you’ll need to cite everything that is factual. Use school/district websites, communication with administrators and/or a site like city
-data.com. Most people describe the rationale for the study, leading up to the focus question/statement. That sets up the transition to the conceptual framework section.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
This defines, from the literature, the relevant information being used in the study. There
are no first person references included here. Everything is from the literature and all
information needs to be properly cited.
METHODOLOGY
This section is a description of the methods, both treatment and data collection, used to collect and analyze the data that seeks to answer the research question. All data collection instruments are named, capitalized and referenced in the appendix. Each instrument is described, along with a description of how the data was analyzed for the analysis section. If there is a particular scoring scheme that was reported in the analysis section, it needs to be described here. A brief description of the study population is also
included, including the sample size. Also include a description of the treatment that
occurred during the study. Be sure to include the IRB statement in this section:
The research methodology for this project received an exemption by Montana State
University’s Institutional Review Board and compliance for working with human subjects
was maintained. In most cases, the order of writing is as follows: a description of the
study population with the IRB statement worked in, a description of the treatment and finally the data collection instrument description.
DATA AND ANALYSIS
This section is entire about the data. It doesn’t contain any reflection or interpretation of
the data, just the facts. There should be a clear connection from all other sections of the
paper to this point. Before writing this section, the researcher needs to determine what
the data says. Usually this is done by identifying themes that emerge from the data and
reporting those themes. Don’t report item by item or instrument by instrument. Instead,
once themes have been determined, use data from multiple sources to support those
themes. This is the meat of the project because it tells what the data story is.
INTERPRETATION AND CONCLUSION
This section should contain some of the following: identify those pieces of the data that
show transformation ;making judgments about the quality of your research; raising more questions based on the results; connection your findings to the literature or connecting the
finds with personal experience. Choose one or two of these and develop
them. This is not a long section…up to 2 pages. Know when to say no more writing.
them. This is not a long section…up to 2 pages. Know when to say no more writing.
VALUE
Discuss the value of the study. This can be in terms of what it accomplished for the
students, the class, etc. Also include a reflection piece on how YOU changed as a teacher
as a result of being involved in the action research process.
OTHER POINTS TO KEEP IN MIND
Corrections: If I make a correction on one aspect of the paper, then I expect every
occurrence to be corrected from then on in every draft.
Example: A student wrote: The
girl said, “I love school”. I corrected it to read: The girl said, “I love school.”
Note, it’s ALWAYS period/quote.
If you have common errors that you seem to repeat, make yourself a cheat sheet and
place it by your computer and refer to it as you write.
EVERY correction/suggestion I make should be incorporated by rewriting the paper and
making corrections. Since each draft builds on the
next, make the corrections promptly.
I find too many students who do nothing to their drafts from December to May and I’m
spending a great deal of time correcting what I’ve already marked. This does reflect on
one’s final Capstone Project grade.
Abbreviations: Don’t use abbreviations for schools, data collection instruments, etc.
unless they are fairly common AND they are used in close proximity to the full title and
used often throughout the paper. A common error is to use an abbreviation in the
introduction of the paper and then not again until page 20 or so. Avoid that.
Repeated References: If you use the same citation in the same paragraph, you don’t need
the DATE the 2nd time and beyond. If you refer to the same Appendix in the same
paragraph, you don’t any reference the 2nd time and beyond.
Try to put all references at the end of sentences (Table 1).
