Quantitative Research Methods 141
aPPenDix 5.4. example of an experimental research study
In order to help you better understand the entire process of an experimental study, I have
included the study’s problem and purpose statements, research question, and hypothesis that
would be included in Chapter 1. As you will see, each of these sections is brief but does cover
the pertinent material.
items from Chapter 1 of Your Proposal
Problem Statement
Students aspiring to earn a master’s degree in business administration (MBA) are, in most
instances, required to take the Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT) as part of
their admissions process. Scores on the GMAT range from zero to 800; students with higher
scores are generally admitted to higher-level MBA programs. Successful Tutoring, a private,
for-profit tutoring company, wants to investigate possible modifications to their programs
in an effort to help their clients potentially raise their GMAT score. More specifically, recent
literature has suggested that the gender of the instructor may affect student performance.
Purpose Statement
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of instructor gender on scores from a
practice GMAT test.
Research Question
Will instructor gender affect the practice GMAT scores of students being tutored in a pri-
vate, for-profit tutoring program, depending on the gender of the instructor?
Research Hypothesis
There will be a significant difference in practice GMAT scores between students who have
a male instructor and students who have a female instructor.
Research Limitations
The chosen research method may not control for the pretest– treatment threat to external
validity. Because of that threat, generalization to other groups outside of the study may be
limited.
items from Chapter 3 of Your Proposal
The Quantitative Paradigm
In this study, the researcher will serve as an objective observer and is independent from the
actual study. The research process will be deductive and value-free and the results will be
used to determine if a relationship exists between success on the GMAT and the gender of
the instructor in a test preparation service. Based on this objective, the use of a quantitative
approach is appropriate.
142 W RITIN G A PRO P O S A L FO R YO UR DIS SER TATI O N
The Research Design
This study will use a pretest– posttest control group design to test the hypothesis. Clients
will be randomly assigned to one of two groups wherein both instructors will cover the same
material. Students will be pretested using a practice version of the GMAT and, after 4 weeks
of instruction, posttested with a practice version of the GMAT. Scores will be compiled and
statistically analyzed in order to test the hypothesis.
Participants and Sampling
Each spring, while preparing for the following fall semester, a large number of students
enroll in tutoring programs to prepare for the Graduate Management Admissions Test. Suc-
cessful Tutoring, a private, for-profit tutoring company, has an average of 50 students start-
ing their 4-week program each week from March through May. In order to test the firm’s
hypothesis, management will randomly assign registering students into one of two sections;
one with a male instructor, one with a female instructor.
Instrument Used
The Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT), published by the Graduate Manage-
ment Admission Council, is a standardized assessment that measures test takers’ levels of
analytical writing skills, integrated reasoning, quantitative ability, and verbal fluency. It is
used as part of admissions applications by business schools throughout the country and has
been shown to be highly predictive of achievement in those schools. For this study, achieve-
ment will be measured using practice GMAT examinations available at the publisher’s offi-
cial website, [Link].
The Research Procedures
Management at Successful Tutoring will select a random sample of 30 clients from the 50
clients who generally start a class in a given week. These clients will be randomly assigned,
in groups of 15, to one of two preexisting instructors, one female and one male. Prior to
starting the program, clients will be asked to sign a confidentiality form giving administra-
tors permission to view their examination scores while enrolled in the tutoring program, as
well as an assurance of anonymity and any reporting of scores only in the aggregate. Should
a client not agree to sign the form, he or she will be placed into another class and another
client randomly chosen from the initial population to take his or her place. This process will
continue until the two classes of 15 students have been formed.
During the two class sessions each week, instructors will cover the same material, and
both instructors will be encouraged to use traditional face-to-face teaching tools (lecture,
Power Point presentations, etc.). All students will receive identical homework activities. At
the end of the 4-week term, all students will be tested using a separate version of the practice
GMAT. Appropriate descriptive and inferential statistical tools will then be used to test the
hypothesis.
Plans for Data Analysis
Descriptive statistics will be computed for all participants, both the population and for each
group. A repeated-measures ANOVA will be used to compare differences in post-intervention
Quantitative Research Methods 143
scores on the practice GMAT. Pre-intervention scores from the practice GMAT will be used
to control for differences in the groups prior to participating in the class.
Ethical Considerations
Students will be assigned an anonymous user ID that will be used for group identification,
as well as matching pre-intervention and post-intervention scores on the practice GMAT.
Beyond that, there will no manner by which students can be identified by name or by any
other manner during the remainder of the study. All data will be kept in a locked filing cabi-
net and destroyed after 1 year.
Plans for Presenting the Results
All results will be included in the dissertation report and a report will be written and deliv-
ered to the administration at Successful Tutoring. Given their permission, the work would
be anonymized and submitted to appropriate journals and conferences.
Summary
This study will investigate the concerns of owners of a private tutoring company regard-
ing the interaction between achievement and instructor gender. Students will be randomly
assigned to one of two groups: one taught by a male, the other by a female. Pre- and posttest
scores will be compared in order to answer the research question and hypothesis.