Course 6, week 7 application

Research Method Choice
James Manning
Walden University






Kathryn Arnold
Introduction to Educational Research (EDUC – 66531 – 4)
December 20, 2009






Research Method Choice
Scenario 3: A school counselor is interested in knowing how student attitudes affect the value of peer mediation to decrease the number of office referrals that are being filed for inappropriate interactions.
How should a carrying, competent professional tackle an issue such as scenario 3, ? An inappropriate interaction is a common enough scenario in any setting where people are involved, especially children. I think peer mediation is an excellent way to tackle the issue, but is it working? Is it the best choice? What does the community it is serving think?
To start off with I would use secondary data analysis, to review literature, to see if there was any meta-analysis of the topic to determine if peer mediation was the correct direction for the school. Dr. Canipe (Laureate Education, Inc., 2008) stated the benefits of using someone else’s study as it is very inexpensive, saves time, and the studies would prove to be much more in-depth than what I could do in a short period of time with a limited budget. Under the assumption that I would find plenty of data on this broad topic, and it was favorable to what I was trying to implement, I would want to get more information specific to the demographics of the school I was in. This would involve a mixed method approach of exploratory research. According to Dr. Canipe (Laureate Education, Inc., 2008) exploratory research is when you begin with qualitative research and then move onto quantitative research.
By using a qualitative research method to begin with, where I would be interacting, with the students through interviews, I would be developing not only better relationships with the students, important for any counselor, but I would also be able to better explain the positive benefits of the program. When people spend time working on something, students included, they develop a connection, a vested interest to see that it succeeds. Qualitative research also allows for the researcher to better absorb and interpret the multiple changing dynamics of a school culture.
The second phase of mixed method exploratory research is a quantitative study. The counselor would have a better understanding developed through their qualitative research to narrow down the area of study. By using an internet tool such as zoomerang.com to develop a questionnaire, the researcher would be able to collect very specific, concrete data on what is working and what needs to improve. This quantitative data would be much more conducive to sharing with the school community; it would allow for the easy dissemination of information with students, parents and administrators.

References
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008). Program seven. Additional Research Methods [Motion picture]. Introduction to educational research. Baltimore: Author. Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2000). Managing behavior in the diverse classroom. Baltimore: Author.