Below you will find a document that will guide you in writing your research project. Pay attention to the resources provided to guide your writing process.
Introduction
1 page
What to include:
Write here three to five paragraphs in which you state what your research project is about; tell the reader what led you to conduct the project and announce the contents of the document specifying what will appear in each of the chapters (Nuñez & Tellez, 2018). As O'Leary (2010) says, "the main job of this section is "to ... convince your readers that the problem you want to address is significant and worth exploring" (p. 64) (As cited in ÚNICA, 2016).
You may want to do this part later in the process of writing since you might not be clear about all of these aspects right now. Try to avoid overgeneralizations to start (i.e. In a globalized world…)
Statement of the problem
3 to 5 pages
What to include:
Present the problem or define it: an aspect you have observed in the classroom to clearly focus the reader's attention on it. Mention the origins of the problem, which should have been identified by means of a needs analysis (applying 2 or 3 assessment instruments) (Nuñez & Tellez, 2018). Add the deficiencies in the literature. How has the existing literature failed in addressing the problem?Include the context where the study will take place and the audience (population) for whom it is directed (if you will, this is a sort of justification for your project).
Add the objectives of the project into this section: Aims and objectives are often written in bullet points as 'to' statements, such as, 'to' develop, 'to' identify, 'to' measure, 'to' explain, 'to' compare. Use the words: The purpose of this study is to...
Additional resources / suggestions:
Educational Research by Cresswell, J. Chapter 2. Page 58 https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BziRLLQUark_NElCMF92U0c0QUE/view?usp=sharing
Research Questions
Half a page tops
What to include:
Include your inquiry question that will provide direction for your work. Explain your approach to the problem and how your approach will address it (Nuñez & Tellez, 2018). You can introduce this section by writing: The research questions that guided this study were:
Literature review
5-7 pages including
15 - 17 references
What to include:
Present previous related studies and explain what these are about, their objectives, methodologies and their findings and the way in which they help you share your proposal. (Nuñez & Tellez, 2018). Remember that you are not doing an annotated bibliography or simply reciting the studies you read, but you are constructing a narrative between authors and stating what they found in regards to your field of study. This is not merely a “shopping list” of references but we want to know that you are able to analyze and synthesize the works read.
Think of a review of literature as a puzzle that you will put together with individual pieces from various sources of literature in order to reveal a whole picture of the state of knowledge about your topic. The review of literature for your proposal should provide the context for your thesis.
In general, there is a five-year span from the present for the date of literature you should use except for an older, landmark study, which should be identified as such.
Build a strong case for your topic's importance and the need for a project that will address the issues surrounding it. Explain how you propose to address these issues with your project. Support your case with citations from the literature (ÚNICA, 2016).
Don’t start your paragraphs with quotations but with a solid thesis statement that explains one key point. Citations are used to support your claims.
Additional resources / suggestions:
Writing the literature review:
Organizing your Literature
Theoretical Framework
4-5 pages
What to include:
In this section, name and define the theoretical or conceptual model that underpins your proposal and future project. Choose your constructs and clearly define them so that your reader knows “where your thesis stands”. You might want to create a diagram illustrating the theoretical framework used. A diagram guides the reader in understanding the relations between concepts that you see for your work. The constructs are the “pillars” of your house. On the constructs you “build” your thesis.
Additional resources / suggestions:
Using Canva for diagrams: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpA7ZKVht-s
How to choose a theoretical framework https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdXVq_9aoms&t=288s
Research design
1 to 2 pages
What to include:
Methodology
Describe the type of study you did (case study, action research, etnography, etc). Support the case study chosen with a conceptual account. (i.e. if you chose case study, whose definition of case study do you abide by?).
Context (1-2 paragraphs)
This should be a sub-heading in this section. In this sub-section you clarify all aspects about the setting where the study took place. Is it a public or a private institution? Is it basic, middle, high school, higher education, vocational, etc? Where is the institution located? What are the socio-economic conditions of the school? Mission and vision of the school. Type of learners they receive (All of this should be factual information, no opinions).
Participants (2-3 paragraphs)
This should also be a sub-heading in this section. In this sub-section you clarify all aspects about the participants involved in the study. How many were they? Did you include only students or parents, teachers, administrative workers, the psychologist, the speech therapist, or other? How many female and how many male participants were involved in the study? Which are their affective, cognitive and learning needs? How was their attitude toward the study? (All of this should be factual information, no opinions.
Pedagogical Intervention
(If your study is an action research)
1-2 pages + appendixes
What to include:
Write in detail what you did for the pedagogical intervention.
How many lessons did you plan?
What activities did you do per week/lesson? (Add a chart with the activities week by week and label it “Timeline”).
What was the lesson planning format that you used (attach a sample in the appendix)
What were the particular activities you carried out? Discarded? Decided to do after a few lessons had been implemented?
Additional resources / suggestions:
This part is the easiest one for teachers doing an action research type of study. The tip is to write it first in order to gain momentum while writing.
Data collection instruments
(or data sources)
1-3 pages
What to include:
Write a brief introduction as to how you collected your data. How much time did it take you and in what scenarios did you do it? Then, mention the connection between the data collection instruments and the RQ you were trying to answer.
Then, present the data collection instruments as sub-headings for this section. Include the name of the instrument, a definition of it from the literature and the specifics of the instrument in your particular study.
Additional resources / suggestions:
Sample paragraph:
Online surveys
For this paper, there were two online surveys used, they were designed in Google forms. According to Cohen, Manion & Morrison (2000), “surveys gather data at a particular point in time with the intention of describing the nature of existing conditions, or identifying standards against which existing conditions can be compared” (p.169). Additionally, using online surveys highly facilitates the data collection and analysis since there’s no physical but digital transcription, and in Google forms some data is graphed for the user. In this research project, the first online survey was done to preview PSTs’ autonomous learning (Appendix 10), and the second one to assess both the pedagogical intervention and PSTs’ performance in class (Appendix 11). Although most questions in these surveys were quantitative, there were some open questions that collected numerical data as well.
(Student: Luisa Ramírez - used with permission from the author)
Data analysis and interpretation
5-10 pages
What to include:
Data analysis procedures
First of all, Describe your data analysis procedures. There are different ways of analyzing qualitative data, you can choose any, as long as you follow the procedures carefully and document them in this section. In this part you basically explain what you did with the data you collected.
Data analysis and interpretation
According to the Thesis Guide from ÚNICA (2019), you need to clarify:
Facts: What you DID (brief summary) to get the information regarding each theme. How you gathered your data, how you analyzed it.
Interpretation of facts: Explain your interpretation of your analysis of the data for each theme. Tell the reader what all that data “means”
Analyze the data in the light of the constructs for your literature review and make sure you provide a clear answer to your research question(s).
Nuñez and Tellez (2018) suggest to “Develop your categories of the analysis and support them with samples from your data and relevant theory”(p. 4). Thus, it is advisable to use diagrams to illustrate the codes and categories for the reader and to include excerpts of participants’ words. Make sure all of your data is triangulated with i)other instruments, ii)theory.
Additional resources / suggestions:
Chapters (Must read!) Educational Research by Cresswell, J. Chapter 6 (p. 174)
¿Cómo analizar datos cualitativos?
How to analyze qualitative data (interviews)
Data analysis 1
Data analysis 2
Findings
1 page
What to include:
According to ÚNICA’s research document guide:
Summary of your final findings/interpretations which directly or indirectly answer your research questions.
Can be in bullet point format.
This is just a list of what you found in summary form.
Conclusions
1-3 pages
What to include:
This is the closing for your paper. Explain to what extent you answered your research questions and connect to the literature review and your theoretical framework. Locate your study within the body of literature and explain its contribution. Mention the struggles and difficulties you may have experienced during the process. Talk about the impact the research study had on your participants and on you. Mention the research questions that arose from the process.
Action plan
1 page
What to include:
Write the actions that you will take in the future based on the findings you got from your study. Write this in future (I will) and in bullet points (ÚNICA, 2019).
References
As many pages as necessary
What to include:
Write your list of references in APA style.
Additional resources / suggestions:
References list basic rules
Appendixes
As many as necessary
What to include:
Append any document you feel the reader needs to see in order to understand what you did. Examples of appendixes are:
Consent letters
Lesson plans
Data collection instruments (blank)
Observation protocols
Journal prompts
Interview questions
Questionnaires
Ask your research advisor if you have other ideas for appendixes.
References
Dirección de Investigaciones, ÚNICA. (2019). Guía estandarizada para la presentación de trabajos de investigación y de grado. Institución Universitaria Colombo Americana, ÚNICA. Bogotá.
Nuñez, A. & Tellez, M. F. (2018). Introduction to research. Master in English Didactics. Universidad Externado de Colombia. Bogotá.
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