Research - Research Proposal, Ethics Review, and Pilot
Normally, before you are allowed to do research, you have to do
- a proposal
- an ethics review
- a pilot
Research Diary
Before you begin, start your research diary. INclude
- Any ideas
- Any changes you make
- Any problems you have
Research Proposal
- A research proposal is like a very short dissertation, without results or discussion
- Include a careful timetable under “Procedure” - you don’t want to run out of time
- Don’t forget to plan analysis.
Research Proposal Sections
Introduction
This dissertation project looks at (general topic)...This topic is important because...The research question(s) is/are...The target audience are teachers/students...+ Tell me how is the answer going to be useful, interesting or new?
Literature Review
- What have you read? ("According to Smith (1999)...etc")
- What do you plan to read?
Method
- Participants (See “Choosing Subjects and Sampling” sheet)
- Who will your subjects be (if you have any): age, education level, gender, and any other information
- How/Why will you choose those subjects?
- Materials: What tool will you use?
- Procedure: What will you actually do? Write a week by week schedule.
- Analysis: How will you analyse the data
- Issues: Any other potential problems you can predict and avoid?
....TBC (section not finished)
Ethics Review
This is to make sure your research doesn't hurt anyone. You must tell participants that their participation is voluntary and that they have the right to leave and have their data deleted without giving a reason. You need special permission to work with children / the elderly / refugees / the disabled, and if the ethical situation is tricky, you may be asked to get a consent form from each participant.
Title of Dissertation:
Name of Supervisor:
Research level: Undergraduate Masters Doctorate Faculty
Duration:
- Start of data collection : _
- End of data collection : _
- Submission date: _
1) What is the aim of your project?
2) Type of study and data collection
- Experiment (please attach procedure)
- Questionnaire (please attach questionnaire)
- Interview (please attach questions)
- Focus group (please attach questions)
- Online data collection (please attach list of sources)
- Verbal data collection (please attach list of prompts
- Written data collection (please attach list of prompts
- Observation (please attach coding scheme or method)
- Introspective (Diary, Think-Aloud) (please attach instructions)
- Other
3) If you are collecting data:
- What kind? (e.g. recorded interview, paper questionnaire)
- Do you need to secure the data (e.g. encryption, locker)? How will you do it?
- How long will you keep the data (e.g. 3 years?)
- Other than you, who will have access to what data?
- What data will be published, and how?
4) If your study has participants, describe:
- Number, sex and age
- What kind of personal info are you collecting?
- How will you find them?
- Who will see the data you collect?
- How are you protecting that data?
- What control do subjects have over the data you collect?
- Are there any dangers in participating?
- Are there any rewards for participating?
- How you will protect their privacy (e.g. pseudonyms, removing identifying details)
- Are there any risks to participants? e.g.embarassment, distraction from studies,
- What they are, why they are necessary, and how they will be minimized
- Will the true purpose of the research be concealed from the participants?
- How and when will you debrief participants after data collection?
- Will participants be able to withdraw consent after de-briefing?
- What will they do? Give details
5) Benefits
- What benefit will this have for the wider community?
- What benefit will this have for the participants?
Pilot it:
Try it yourself, on some friends, on a few of your subjects, if you can
- Follow your plan with one subject / a small goupr
- Keep writing your Research Diary.
- How did it go?
- Change your plan as needed
- Fix any problems you find
- Next start collecting your data!