Q. What are Study Characteristics?
A. See below
STUDY CHARACTERISTICS This category provides basic information about each study. It answers the questions:
- Who are the study participants?
- grade level(s)
- population (i.e., demographic information)
- sample size
- Where did the study take place?
- location of the study (i.e., domestic, foreign)
- type of institution (i.e., four-year, two-year, foreign)
- locus of application (i.e., individual, classroom, laboratory, program, department and so on)
- How was the study structured and implemented?
WHO
- Level In order for a study to be included in the database, the students in the sample had to be undergraduates: rising freshman, freshman, sophomores, juniors, or seniors. High school and graduate students are only included if the study also included students at the undergraduate level. If the seniors were in a capstone course the articles was also coded as such. Although rare, some of interventions targeted faculty.
- Rising freshman Students enrolled in summer programs that have graduated from high school and will be matriculating as freshman in the fall term.
- Capstone course A course of any form whose purpose is to provide a culminating experience for students that introduces, parallels, and foreshadows the type of project work they are likely to be confronted with on the job. In capstone design courses students must work under real-world constraints on ill-defined problems, typically in teams, and often receive industry feedback on their design solutions. Adapted from: Trevisan, M.S., Davis, D.C., Beyerlein, S., Harrison, K., Thompson, P. (unpublished). Classroom assessment in capstone engineering design courses: A review of the literature.
- Population This category provides information on the demographic characteristics of the sample as well as disability and risk status.
- General population Unless the article indicated that the study focused on a specific population, the article was coded as General Population on the assumption that the students in the study are representative of the students at the institution(s) where the study took place.
- Specific population An article was only coded "Specific Population" if the research targeted a specific group for study and/or that group was singled out in one or more analyses. Selecting "Specific Populations" will produce outcomes for articles coded Gender, Underrepresented Minority, Disability, At-risk/high-risk. However, because many articles contain many results, the verbatim result presented in the outcomes section may not necessarily refer to the specific group. Website users should consult the original article for more specific results.
- Gender An article was coded for gender if the research targeted a specified gender, or males and/or females were singled out in one or more analyses. Although some articles indicate the percent of males and females in the study, gender was not coded unless the article contained gender-specific analyses. Selecting "Gender" will produce outcomes for articles coded "Male" and "Female," however, because many articles contain many results, the verbatim result presented in the outcomes section may not necessarily be a gender-specific result. Website users should consult the original article for more specific results.
- Underrepresented minority An article was coded "Underrepresented minority" if the study targeted students from underrepresented groups or singled out underrepresented groups in one or more analyses, but did not specify which groups were being targeted or analyzed. Selecting "Underrepresented Minority" will produce outcomesA for articles coded for Race and Ethnicity, however, because many articles contain many results, the verbatim result presented in the outcomes section may not necessarily refer to a specific racial or ethnic group groups. Website users should consult the original article for more specific results.
- Disability An article was coded "Disability" if the study targeted students with disabilities or singled out students with disabilities in one or more analyses. Selecting "Disability" will produce outcomes for articles coded "disability," however, because many articles contain many results, the verbatim result presented in the outcomes section may not necessarily refer to a specific disability. Website users should consult the original article for mores specific results.
- At-risk/high-risk An article was coded "At-risk/high-risk," if the study targeted at-risk or high-risk students. Selecting "at-risk/high-risk" will produce outcomes for articles coded "at-risk/high-risk," however, because many articles contain many results, the result shown in the output may not necessarily refer to at-risk or high-risk students. Website users should consult the original article for more specific results.
- Sample SizeThis is the total number of students in the study. In studies that involved comparison or experimental groups, it is the sum of the treated and untreated students. Some articles stated the sample size in the text, in others, it was found in tables. In some cases, the number of students was estimated based on information on the number of groups/teams and students per group.
WHERE
- Location of the study This category indicates whether the study took place inside the United States or Outside the United States. The database does not provide information on the individual foreign countries or institutions.
- United States The study took place in an institution within the United States or its territories.
- Outside the United States The study took place in a non-United States institution. No data are provided on individual countries or institutions.
- Type of Institution This category provides information on the type of institution in which the study took place. The overarching subcategories are four-year institutions, two-year institutions, and foreign institutions. The four-year institutions were coded using modified Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education codes (see lll.carnegiefountation.org/Classification/index.htm)
- Four year Any U.S. institution of higher education that awards a baccalaureate or higher degree.
- Doctoral Research These institutions typically offer a wide range of baccalaureate programs, and they are committed to graduate education through the doctorate.
- Masters These institutions typically offer a range of baccalaureate programs, and they are committed to graduate education through the masters.
- Baccalaureate These institutions are primarily undergraduate colleges with major emphasis on baccalaureate programs.
- Special Engineering These institutions award most of their bachelor's or graduate degrees in technical fields of study.
- Special Other Institutions in this category include graduate centers, maritime academies, military institutions, and institutions that do not fit any other classification category.
- No institutional code The institution does not have a Carnegie Code.
- Two year Any U.S. junior or community college that offers associate's degrees and certificate programs, but with few exceptions, awards no baccalaureate degrees.
- Foreign Any non-U.S. institution of higher education.
- Locus of application This category provides information on the primary setting(s) of the intervention. It strives to be as inclusive as possible, such that a course-level intervention that took place at a consortium of universities would be coded as both "classroom/course" and "consortium of universities."
- Individual The intervention took place at the level of the individual student, often outside a formal class setting. For instance, the intervention was a computer- or web-based tutorial.
- Classroom/course The intervention took place in a course or classroom.
- Laboratory The intervention took place in a laboratory.
- Program The intervention took place throughout a program (i.e., a subfield or unit within in a department).
- Department The intervention took place throughout a department.
- Institution/college/university The intervention took place throughout an institution, college, or university.
- State system The intervention took place in all colleges/universities in a state system.
- Consortium of universities The intervention took place in every college/university in a consortium of universities.
- Business/industry The intervention took place in a business or industry.
- Community The intervention took place in the community.
HOW
- Theory This category provides information on the theory(ies) guiding the study. Studies were only coded has having a theory if they explicitly mentioned a theory or theorist and the study was motivated by or premised on the theory.
- Behavioral Behavioral theories are grounded in the works of B. F. Skinner and Ivan Pavlov. Behaviorists believe that organisms need reinforcements to keep them interested and that the use of stimuli can be very effective in controlling behavior. For the behaviorist, environment directly shapes behavior, and complex learning requires a series of small, progressive steps. Adapted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_theory_%28education%29 [Accessed 0/03/05].
- Cognitive/Constructivist/Social Constructivist This group of theories focus on the mental processes involved in learning, understanding, and knowing. Constructivism views learning as a process in which the learner actively constructs or builds new ideas or concepts based upon current and past knowledge. In constructivism, the instructor acts as a facilitator who encourages students to discover principles for themselves and to construct knowledge by working to solve realistic problems, usually in collaboration with others. This collaboration is also known as knowledge construction as a social process. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_theory_%28education%29 [Access 10/03/05].
- Learning Styles Learning styles theory is premised on the belief that most people favor some particular method of interacting with, taking in, and processing stimuli or information. Psychologists have proposed several complementary taxonomies of learning styles. But neuroscientists have doubts about the scientific basis for some learning style theories and a major report published in 2004 cast doubt on most of the main tests used to identify an individual's learning style. Although the theorists may disagree on the vocabulary to describe the four basic types of learning style, the following are representative categories: visual (learn by seeing); aural or audial (learn by hearing); reading/writing (learn by processing text); and kinesthetic or practical (learn by doing). Adapted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_styles [Accessed 09/07/05]
- Emancipatory theories are based on 'critical pedagogy', which is a teaching approach that attempts to help students question and challenge domination, and the beliefs and practices that dominate. In other words, it is a theory and practice of helping students achieve critical consciousness. In this tradition the teacher works to lead students to question ideologies and practices considered oppressive (including those at school), and encourage liberatory collective and individual responses to the actual conditions of their own lives. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_pedagogy [Accessed 10/03/05]
- Nature of research The category characterizes the methods used to conduct the study and/or analyze its results.
- Action Research Action research is a type of applied research characterized by intervention in real world systems followed by close scrutiny of the effects. The aim of action research is to improve practice and it is typically conducted by a combined team of practitioners and researchers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_research [Accessed 10/03/05]
- Anecdotal Articles were coded "anecdotal" when the "study" was simply a description of an intervention along with the author's impressions of the outcomes.
- Case Study A case study is a particular method of qualitative research. Rather than using large samples and following a rigid protocol to examine a limited number of variables, case study methods involve an in-depth, longitudinal examination of a single instance or event: a case. They provide a systematic way of looking at events, collecting data, analyzing information, and reporting the results. As a result the researcher may gain a sharpened understanding of why the instance happened as it did, and what might become important to look at more extensively in future research. Case studies lend themselves especially to generating (rather than testing) hypotheses. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case_study [Accessed 10/03/05]
- Comparison groups Comparison group studies are studies that did involved comparing the outcome of the group receiving the intervention with the outcome of a group that did not receive the intervention or received a different intervention. Unlike experimental studies, they often did not involved a pre-planned or simultaneous control group. For example, these types of studies often involved comparing end-of-course grades of the intervention group with grades received by students in the classes taught by the same instructor before the intervention was introduced.
- Experimental Studies were coded as experimental if the article used the word "experiment" to describe the study or if there was some evidence of the use of the scientific method, however weak, in the design and conduct of the study.
- Experimental with control groups Experiments in which the intervention group was compared with a control group.
- Random sample The students who received the intervention were randomly selected to participate.
- Random assignment to groups The students in the intervention group and the students in the control group were randomly assigned to their respective groups.
- Meta-analysis A meta-analysis translates results from different studies to a common metric and statistically explores relations between study characteristics and findings. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta-analysis [Accessed 10/04/05]
- Pre-/post-test or survey Pre- and post-test studies or surveys measure students knowledge, attitudes, or beliefs prior to the intervention and again after the intervention. The difference between scores indicates the effect of the intervention.
- Qualitative Qualitative research is the non-numerical examination and interpretation of observations for the purpose of discovering underlying meanings and patterns of relationships. Qualitative research is generally considered to be exploratory and inductive in nature. It is used to get a general sense of what is happening and to form theories that can be tested using further quantitative research. Some of the different methods included under the umbrella of qualitative research are ethnography, case study, focus groups, conversation analysis. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_research [Accessed 10/04/05]
- Quantitative Quantitative research is the numerical representation and manipulation of observations for the purpose of describing and explaining the phenomena that those observations reflect. Quantitative research begins with the collection of statistics, based on real data, observations or questionnaires. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_research [Accessed 10/04/05]
- Duration of the intervention This category provides information on how long an individual student received the intervention. The data are presented by the amount of time (e.g., weeks, months, terms) or the number of interventions (e.g., sessions, modules, problems, units) depending on how the duration of the intervention was described in the article. If an intervention was introduced in a course and no countervailing information about the duration of the intervention was presented, the duration of the intervention was coded as "one semester/quarter/term."
- Amount of time This is the amount of time (e.g., weeks, months, terms) an individual student received the intervention.
- Number of interventions This is the number of times (sessions, modules, problems, units) an individual received the intervention.
- Length of the study This category provides information about how long the study itself took place. In most instances, the duration of the study is the same as the duration of the intervention. However, there are a number of instances in which the intervention was studied in multiple classes of different groups of students over an extended period of time. For instance, an individual student received the intervention for one semester, but the researchers' studied the intervention over a period of three semesters with new students each semester. Similarly, there are a few instances where individual students received the intervention over several semesters, but the study itself was only one-semester long.
- Social arrangement This category provides information about how students were arranged or organized during the intervention. These arrangements include individual, pair, small group, team, whole class, or cluster. The coding is based on statements made in the articles and not the coder's interpretation of them. For instance, if an article said that students worked in teams, then the article was coded as "team," which connotes a division of roles and responsibilities, when, in fact, the social arrangement may really have been loosely formed small groups.
- Individual {definition to be developed}
- Pair {definition to be developed}
- Small group {definition to be developed}
- Team {definition to be developed}
- Whole class {definition to be developed}
- Cluster {definition to be developed}