Ed.D. Doctor of Education Doctor of Education Research Methodology 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: When a researcher's own professional role as a school administrator influences how they interpret interview data from teachers, the researcher should document this through:
- Triangulation
- Reflexive journaling (Correct answer)
- Peer debriefing only
- Negative case analysis
Correct answer: Reflexive journaling
Reflexive journaling documents the researcher's positionality and potential biases, enhancing transparency and credibility in qualitative research.
Question 2: A principal component analysis (PCA) is best used in educational research to:
- Test causal relationships between latent variables
- Reduce a large number of correlated variables into fewer components (Correct answer)
- Compare means across multiple groups simultaneously
- Estimate the probability of group membership
Correct answer: Reduce a large number of correlated variables into fewer components
PCA reduces dimensionality by transforming correlated variables into a smaller set of uncorrelated principal components.
Question 3: Which philosophical worldview aligns most closely with action research conducted by educator-practitioners?
- Post-positivism
- Constructivism
- Pragmatism (Correct answer)
- Transformativism
Correct answer: Pragmatism
Pragmatism focuses on what works in practice and is the philosophical foundation most associated with action research and mixed-methods approaches.
Question 4: In survey research, response bias is reduced most effectively by:
- Increasing the length of the survey instrument
- Using leading questions to guide respondents toward accurate answers
- Pilot testing the instrument and ensuring anonymity (Correct answer)
- Sending the survey only to known supporters of the topic
Correct answer: Pilot testing the instrument and ensuring anonymity
Pilot testing identifies problematic items and ensuring anonymity reduces social desirability bias, both of which reduce overall response bias.
Question 5: A researcher finds a Cronbach's alpha of .62 for a newly developed 10-item scale. The most appropriate next step is to:
- Report it as acceptable and proceed
- Examine item-total correlations to identify and revise weak items (Correct answer)
- Discard the entire instrument and use an existing validated scale
- Increase sample size until alpha reaches .70
Correct answer: Examine item-total correlations to identify and revise weak items
Examining item-total correlations identifies items that lower internal consistency, guiding targeted revisions to improve the scale's reliability.
Question 6: When conducting a systematic literature review for an Ed.D. dissertation, PRISMA guidelines primarily help researchers:
- Select the statistical methods for meta-analysis
- Transparently report the search and screening process for study inclusion (Correct answer)
- Determine the theoretical framework of the review
- Ensure IRB compliance in the review process
Correct answer: Transparently report the search and screening process for study inclusion
PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) provides a flowchart and checklist to transparently report how studies were identified, screened, and included.
Question 7: A researcher conducting a phenomenological study interviews eight participants about their lived experience of failing a licensing exam. Data collection stops when additional interviews yield no new themes. This point is called:
- Triangulation
- Transferability
- Theoretical saturation (Correct answer)
- Data adequacy threshold
Correct answer: Theoretical saturation
Theoretical saturation is reached when new data no longer produce new themes or categories, signaling sufficient data collection in qualitative inquiry.
Ed.D. Doctor of Education Doctor of Education Research Methodology 3
When a researcher's own professional role as a school administrator influences how they interpret interview data from teachers, the researcher should document this through: