1. Benefits of Experimental Research
Jeremy M. George
CNS 721 BG SP 15
04/04/2015

2. Proposed Stages to the Experiment
Research Question
Is the reading program effective?
Pretest
Random Assignment
Control Group
Receives regular lecture, practice and assignments to complete for six weeks, no choice of book
Comparison Group
Small group discussions are added at three weeks
Experimental Group
Receives regular lecture, practice and assignments to complete for six weeks
At three weeks the reading program is added to regular coursework
Reading program is an after school program comprised of small group discussion, small group exercises and freedom of book choice (within parameters)
Posttest
Pretest
Random
Assignment
Control
Group A
Comparison
Group B
Experimental
Group C
Posttest

3. Random Assignment Guys Girls Sheldon Penny Howard Amy Leonard
Control
Group A
Howard
Amy
Leonard
Bernadette
Barry
Lucy
COMPARISON
Group B
Experimental
Group C
Rajesh
Leslie
Stuart
Priya

4. Dependent and Independent variables
Reading Scores
Style of
Teaching
Actively encouraged to read at home
Independent
Variable A
Independent
Variable B

5. Why experimental research?
Control over extraneous variables
Random Assignment
Pretest
Co-variates - “adolescents whose parents actively encourage them to read at home”
Matching participants
Blocking variables
Matching treatment conditions
Posttest
Reduces threats to validity
External validity concerns
Groups are equated by gender and grade
Four group members
Two guys and two girls each
Keep in mind these numbers are theoretical, and that it is not the number but the distribution that is important in our actual study
Groups are representative of population of school
Internal validity concerns
Boys and girls in each group are matched based on similar maturation rates
All boys and girls scored moderately on their pretest
All groups receive some kind of benefit (increased letter grade for participation)
Outcomes are measurable
HYPOTHESIS - those who participate in the after school reading program will score higher post participation
Comparison of pretest scores and post test scores will demonstrate if this is true
An added benefit is that we will likely see the variance between the effect of small group discussion on the reading scores as well as the effect of small group discussion and book choice on reading scores