EPSY 640 EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN IN EDUCATION I Syllabus,

SPRING 2008

CLASS TIME: 3:55pm – 5:10 pm Tuesday and Thursday

 

Victor L. Willson, Professor                                       Office hours: M 3-5, TR 2-3:30, or by appt

 

718B Harrington 845-1808 /fax: 862-1256                    email: v-willson@tamu.edu

All powerpoints may be accessed at http://www.coe.tamu.edu/~vwillson/

Texts:   Glass, G. V, & Hopkins, K. D. (1996). Statistical Methods in Education and Psychology. Boston:       Allyn & Bacon.

Cohen, J., Cohen, P., West, S., & Aiken, L. (2003). Applied Multiple Regression/Correlation for the Behavioral Sciences, 3rd Ed. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum

 

Students with Special Needs

   The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal anti-discrimination statute that provides comprehensive civil rights protection for persons with disabilities.  Among other things, this legislation requires that allstudents with disabilities be guaranteed a learning environment that provides for reasonable accommodation of their disabilities.  If you believe you have a disability requiring an accommodation, please contact the Office of Support Services for Students with Disabilities in Room 126 of the Student Services Building.  The telephone number is 845-1637.

Handouts

   The handouts used in this course are copyrighted. By "handouts" I mean all materials generated for this class, which include but are not limited to syllabi, quizzes, lab problems, in-class materials, review sheets, and additional problem sets. Because these materials are copyrighted, you do not have the right to copy the handouts, unless I expressly grant permission.

Plagiarism

   As commonly defined, plagiarism consists of passing off as one's own ideas, words, writings, etc. which belong to another. In accordance with this definition, you are committing plagiarism if you copy the work of another person and turn it in as your own, even if you should have permission of that person. Plagiarism is one of the worst academic transgressions, for the plagiarist destroys the trust among colleagues, without which research cannot be safely communicated. If you have any questions regarding plagiarism, please consult the latest issue of the Texas A&M University Student Rules under the section "Scholastic Dishonesty."

 

Date                    Topic                                    Reading                     Assignment due          Activity

 

JAN 15            Organization of Quant.                                                  none                             none

            Methods, Exploring data           GH (1-3), CC (1)                                             SPSS PC

                                                                        LEC 0

        17            Correlation 1                            GH (7), CC2)                                                  SPSS-PC

                                                                        LEC 1

        22            Correlation 2                            GH (8) "                       Exercise 3a                   SPSS-PC

                                                                        LEC 2

 

        24            Sampling 1                               GH (10)                       Exercise 3b                  SPSS-PC

                                                                        Willson

Chapter 4 handout

                                                                        LEC 3

 

        29            Sampling 2                               GH (7-8)                      Exercise 4a                   SPSS-PC

                                                                        LEC 4                          A1 due

 

       31, Feb 5  Intro to Hypothesis Testing       GH (11)                       Exercise 4b

                                                                        LEC 5                                     

 

       12             Testing Single Group Mean                   "                       Exercise 5a                   SPSS-PC

 

        14, 19      Experimental Design 1              LEC 6                         Exercise 5b                  EREL

                                                                        Ch 6 Handout               A2 due                         Vignettes                                                                                 

 

21        Experimental Design 2  GH (12)                                   Article 1 review            SPSS-PC

                                                            LEC 7

 

        26,28       Two Group hypothesis  GH(12)

                        tests about means                     LEC 9

 

MAR 4            review

 

         6             MIDTERM EXAM

 

       18             Review of exam

Hypotheses about                     GH (13)                                                           SPSS-PC

                        Proportions                              LEC 10

 

       20             Hypotheses about                     GH (14),CC(2)            Exercise 7a                   SPSS-PC

                        Correlations                              LEC 11                        A3 due

                                                                       

       25, 27       Multiple Regression                  CC(2,3)                       Exercise 7b                  SPSS-PC

                                                                        LEC 12           

 

APR 1, 3          Path Modeling                          CC (3,4,5)                   Exercise 8                    SPSS-PC

                                                                        LEC 13

      

       8,10          ANOVA designs                      GH (15) CC(8)            Article 2 review            SPSS-PC

                                                                        LEC 14                                    due

 

       15, 17       Contrasts 1                               GH (17), CC(8)           Exercise 9a                   SPSS-PC

                                                                        LEC 15                        A4 due

       22, 24       Contrasts 2                               LEC 16

           

MAY 1            Review

 

         6             1pm - 3pm                   FINAL EXAM                        A5 due


 

Grades: Quizzes:         25%                               A: 90-100%

             Final                30%                             B: 80 - 89%

            Projects                                                C: 70 - 79%

              and Reviews   25%                             D: 60 - 69%

Homework       20%                             F: < 60%

 

2 Article Reviews: (100 pts @) You will select an empirically based research article from your field of specialization or interest and critique it methodologically and conceptually. Use internal and external validity criteria from Willson Chapters 4, 6, (and 8 and 9 for the second review)

 

Projects (100 pts @)

A1: Analyze a correlational study using either your own data or instructor supplied data with at least 4 variables; select correlational methods appropriate to each variable’s scale of measurement. Write up a Results section using APA format.

 

A2: Construct a stratified random sampling plan for a national sample of educators or psychologists. Use Evans Library resources to estimate population sizes. Write up as a proposal to a funding agency or grant contractor. Include an estimate of the relative standard error of estimate for a simple random sample and for the stratified sample you propose using a variance value of 1.0.

 

A3: Write up a brief Introduction, Summary of Research (brief), Problem Statement, Method, Results, and Discussion sections using APA format for a study comparing two groups on at least 3 dependent variables. While not intended to be a full article, it should look like one. You may use your own data or from the instructor-supplied database.

 

A4: Conduct a multiple regression with at least 3 predictors for a dependent variable from your data or the instructor-supplied databases and write up using APA format a Results section. Be sure to include a path diagram of the results.

 

A5: Conduct an analysis of variance with at least 3 groups; plan it using planned contrasts or if unplanned, use the flow chart for group comparisons to guide your analysis. Write up a Results section using APA style; You may use your own data or the instructor-supplied database.