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1
The greatest project the human mind can undertake, as maintained in "Back from Chaos," is to:
A)understand the meaning of God in life.
B)understand how history has shaped modern life.
C)reconcile the sciences and humanities.
D)prove the superiority of the sciences over the humanities.
2
According to "The Connection between Research and Practice," the reason why educational research is not often adopted by practitioners is:
A)a mystery to investigators.
B)now well understood by researchers.
C)due to resistance from experienced teachers.
D)because researchers are often reluctant to share their findings outside their field.
3
Decisions made now in the field of qualitative research, as explained in "Evolution of Qualitative Research Methodology: Looking Beyond Defense to Possibilities," are important because they may affect:
A)future project development.
B)the vocabulary used to define these methods.
C)public opinion of qualitative research.
D)university support for complex qualitative projects.
4
The overall purpose of the quantitative research methods described in "Quantitative Research Approaches" is to:
A)guide study questions in the direction the researcher determines.
B)help the researcher to analyze the relationship among variables in the study.
C)ensure the reproducibility of the study.
D)help to control or eliminate all possible variables that could distort the study's findings.
5
The current debate over acceptable research in the field of education, as presented in "What Is (and Isn't) Research?" began over:
A)recent criticisms of frivolous research projects.
B)a lack of consistent findings in educational research.
C)a novel submitted as a research project.
D)videotaped interviews presented as research.
6
The most serious criticism of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, as identified in "Human Subjects and Informed Consent," was that:
A)study subjects were exclusively African-American men.
B)researchers offered the men no information on preventing the spread of the disease.
C)participants were denied effective antibiotic treatment for their disease.
D)participants did not clearly understand the nature and consequences of their disease.
7
The process of synthesizing and reviewing research reports, as explained in "Types of Errors in Synthesizing Research in Education," include all of the following steps except:
A)collecting research reports for inclusion in the review.
B)analyzing the collected reports.
C)generalizing from the reported results in the review.
D)opening the review to outside professional critique.
8
Some of the greatest changes in educational research, as maintained in "Ethics, Institutional Review Boards, and the Changing Face of Educational Research," have come about as a result of:
A)the development of institutional review boards.
B)an increase in qualitative research.
C)recent reports of fraudulent research methods.
D)concern over the exploitation of research subjects.
9
There is great uncertainty among historians about when the truth of a past event is truly understood, as reported in "Standards of Evidence in Historical Research: How Do We Know When We Know?" in part because:
A)some sources turn out to be inaccurate or fraudulent.
B)new evidence is always coming to light about past events.
C)the field of historical research can be fragmented and relativistic.
D)interpretations of events are sometimes contested and refuted.
10
The review of literature often required of advanced-degree students, as explained in "Research Students' Early Experiences of the Dissertation Literature Review," is frequently problematic for students because they:
A)encounter difficulty in finding primary-source material.
B)do not devote enough time to researching the review.
C)view the review process in varying ways.
D)do not find the review relevant to their work.
11
Counselor education, as reported in "The Best Kept Secret in Counseling: Single-Case (N=1) Experimental Design," has often been faulted for:
A)inadequately protecting the privacy of research subjects.
B)not providing extended studies of effective techniques.
C)failing to train counselors adequately in practical research methods.
D)relying on outdated research methods.
12
Participatory action research methodologies, as explained in "Issues in Teaching Participatory Action Research," are especially well suited to students of:
A)education.
B)public health.
C)psychology.
D)social work.
13
According to "Practical Issues for Teachers Conducting Classroom Research," the most important benefit of teacher-conducted research in education is:
A)increased enthusiasm from teachers.
B)gaining public interest in education.
C)increased learning of students.
D)closing the gap between researchers and practitioners.
14
When research subjects are videotaped, as presented in "Videotaped Behavioral Observations: Enhancing Validity and Reliability," one of the possible difficulties is:
A)subject hostility to the technology.
B)a lack of subject confidentiality.
C)the subject reacting to the fact of the videotaping itself.
D)the videotaping process influencing the researcher's behavior.
15
According to "The Future of Focus Groups," in recent years focus groups have increasingly been used by:
A)nonprofit and public-sector organizations.
B)marketing and advertising companies.
C)educational researchers.
D)corporate lobbyists.
16
For professionals, as described in "Self-Assessment at Work: Outcomes of Adult Learners' Reflections on Practice," the goal of reflective practice is to use an awareness of past events to:
A)reduce risk taking.
B)enhance one's career.
C)shape current decisions and actions.
D)avoid careless mistakes.
17
The main issue to be resolved when using electronic mail to conduct survey research, as stated in "Using Electronic Mail to Conduct Survey Research," is related to:
A)confidentiality.
B)layout and presentation of the survey.
C)editing and analyzing the responses.
D)the demographics of the research sample.
18
Collecting data every day from research participants, as stated in "Daily Data Collection: A Comparison of Three Methods," can be particularly valuable when:
A)research conditions change frequently.
B)researchers wish to ask different questions during different time periods in the study.
C)researchers want to investigate relationships between a number of different behaviors.
D)there is the possibility of a high drop-out rate over the course of the study.
19
According to "Quantitative Attitudes Questionnaire: Instrument Development and Validation," measuring graduate students' attitudes towards quantitative research methods is valuable because:
A)instructors can determine whether a particular student would be more comfortable with quantitative or qualitative research.
B)the assessment itself can encourage an appreciation of quantitative methodology.
C)instructors will gain a better understanding of the particular needs of their students.
D)the students themselves may not realize that preconceived attitudes about research are influencing their research projects.
20
Research students in the social sciences, as presented in "Misconceptions about Sample Size, Statistical Significance, and Treatment Effect," generally believe that the reliability of statistical significance:
A)depends on the effect to be determined.
B)can be established no matter what the size of the sample is.
C)is increased in studies with large sample sizes.
D)is impossible to determine until several similar studies are available for comparison.
21
The writing process in qualitative research is currently of great interest, as explained in "On Writing Qualitative Research," because:
A)it has stagnated in recent years.
B)it is now moving into areas generally thought of as belonging to other forms of writing.
C)research institutions are less likely to accept written research reports that do not fit into an established form.
D)many research students are confused about the writing process.
22
Survey research, as presented in "A Primer in Survey Research," is highly appropriate for researchers in the field of adult education because:
A)most of their research would concern adults, who are as a group most likely to respond positively to surveys.
B)they tend to take a practical, practice-oriented approach to their work.
C)survey subjects are easy to locate within the institution.
D)a similar group of study subjects, such as a single class, reduces the likelihood of errors.
23
According to "The New Frontier in Qualitative Research Methodology," the new frontier in qualitative research in education is involved in all of the following except:
A)merging traditional forms of qualitative and quantitative research methods to form a new hybrid.
B)new assumptions about cognition and learning.
C)understanding what research is and what it means.
D)broadening and complementing traditional research methods by incorporating new strategies.
24
In order to improve the learning of at-risk students, as described in "Action Research: Empowering Teachers to Work with At-Risk Students," teachers focuses on presenting:
A)graphical cues.
B)reading and writing strategies.
C)lessons in which students could become actively involved.
D)lessons to smaller groups of students at a time.
25
Ethical codes of conduct for human-research studies, as stated in "The Need for Better Ethical Guidelines for Conducting and Reporting Research," were first established:
A)in the time of the ancient Greek philosophers, who were the first to understand the potential dangers of research.
B)at the end of the nineteenth century, when psychology became popular.
C)after World War II, when evidence concerning the research done by Nazi scientists came to light.
D)only in the past several years.
26
As maintained in "Education Should Consider Alternative Formats for the Dissertation," the traditional dissertation format may be impractical for doctoral students of education in part because it:
A)requires significant investments of time that could be better spent in classrooms.
B)does not effectively deter those students who are unsuited for the field of education.
C)does not involve the creation of original research.
D)is not readily accessible to professionals working in the field.
27
A test of statistical significance, as explained in "Chance and Nonsense," will tell a researcher:
A)what the most important finding of a study is.
B)if a result occurred only by chance.
C)what the likelihood is that the study contains statistical error.
D)the probability that a result occurred by chance.
28
The most significant recommendation of the Task Force on Statistical Inference, as reported in "Statistical Methods in Psychology Journals: Guidelines and Explanations," was for the American Psychological Association to:
A)screen applicants more carefully.
B)require its approval on studies submitted for publication.
C)revise the statistical sections in the publication manual.
D)explain the presentation of research studies more carefully.
29
Often ignored in the field of education and social-science research, as maintained in "The Social Consequences of Bad Research," is the:
A)issue of researcher bias.
B)practical application of research findings.
C)development of new methodologies.
D)relationship between research reports and later funding.
30
One of the most important steps for researchers to take now, as identified in "Future Directions in Qualitative Research," is for them to:
A)sharpen the distinctions between various disciplines.
B)engage in debate and critique of various methods.
C)work together to eliminate some of the harshest criticisms from quantitative researchers.
D)restore public confidence in qualitative studies.
31
In order to increase the scientific basis of sociology research, as explained in "Rethinking Sociology: Applied and Basic Research," researchers should focus their efforts on:
A)laboratory experiments.
B)statistical analysis.
C)investigating social structures.
D)individual behaviors.
32
Without the inclusion of some qualitative data, as described in "Salvaging Quantitative Research with Qualitative Data," quantitative data runs the risk of being:
A)redundant.
B)uninteresting to the reader.
C)ambiguous and inconclusive.
D)too rigidly tied to a particular theory.







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