Educational research conclusion

This week you will be posting and replying on this canvas discussion instead of the usual zoom discussion meetings. You need to make one post, and then reply to one other post. Please prioritize replying to someone who hasn’t received any replies yet.

Prompt: Post your research question for the class project. Pretend that you have already received the data and completed the analysis. What will your conclusions be? Assess at least one aspect of the external validity of your conclusions.

Now think about one of the constructs in your research question. How do you operationalize that construct? Assess the content validity of your operationalization. Below is an outline and example of what your post should look like. You only need 1-2 sentences for each number.

Post Outline:

1. 1. Your Research Question
   2. Conclusion
   3. External Validity
   4. Construct and Operationalization
   5. Content Validity

Post Example:

1. 1. How does high-intensity exercise relate to feelings of performance anxiety during tests?
   2. If my data shows a strong correlation between high-intensity exercise and a lack of performance anxiety, it may be evidence that the repetition of the physiological experiences involved in intense exercise help mitigate the similar physiological experiences related to testing anxiety.
   3. This research was done on college students so we can’t expect the same results in other populations who may have different reactions to exercise or different levels of performance anxiety.
   4. One construct is high-intensity exercise. I operationalize this via a survey question that asks respondents to indicate how many times per week they find themselves out of breath due to physical activity.
   5. Being out of breath may not fully capture high-intensity exercise as it may also be capturing times when the respondent is out of breath not explicitly due to exercise – such as for physical labor for work. It also is potentially missing exercise that may be considered intense but the respondent was not out of breath – such as heavy weightlifting for fewer repetitions.

For your reply, please choose one comment and follow this general outline:

Reply Outline:

1. 1. What do you think the results of their research question would be? Do you agree with their conclusion?
   2. Do you agree with their assessments of external and construct validity?

Reply Example:

1. 1. This is an interesting research question, but I am not sure if you will find a relationship between the intense exercise and performance anxiety. If you do, I think your conclusion might be sound, but could there also be a confound causing both constructs? Maybe healthier students are both more likely to engage in high-intensity exercise and are less likely to feel anxious during a test? Or maybe a lack of performance anxiety helps students feel more comfortable performing exercise?
   2. We should also consider that the respondents are college students who may have different levels of test related performance anxiety than individuals of the same age who didn’t attend college. Would the results be the same? I agree with your comments about content validity, but maybe the physical labor for work could still be considered exercise if it’s enough to get them out of breath.