Running head: ABBREVIATED TITLE
[Title of your Document]
[Your Name]
A Proposal Submitted to the Faculty of
The Chicago School of Professional Psychology
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
For the Degree of Doctor of Education
[Month, day, year]
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Intoduction.........................................................................................................1
Background......................................................................................................................1
Problem Statement...........................................................................................................1
Purpose of the Study........................................................................................................1
Research Questions and Hypotheses................................................................................1
Theoretical/Conceptual Framework.................................................................................2
Scope and Delimitations..................................................................................................3
Definition of Key Terms..................................................................................................3
Significance of the Study.................................................................................................3
Summary..........................................................................................................................4
Chapter 2: Literature Review...............................................................................................5
Introduction......................................................................................................................5
First Main Topic...............................................................................................................5
Subtopic Here...............................................................................................................5
Subtopic Here...............................................................................................................6
Summary and Transition..................................................................................................6
Chapter 3: Research Design and Methodology...................................................................7
Chapter Overview............................................................................................................7
Background......................................................................................................................7
Research Question............................................................................................................7
Action Research Design...................................................................................................7
Population........................................................................................................................7
i
Researcher's Role.............................................................................................................8
Procedures........................................................................................................................8
Validity.............................................................................................................................8
Instrumentation................................................................................................................9
Data Processing................................................................................................................9
Assumptions.....................................................................................................................9
Limitations.....................................................................................................................10
............................................................................................................................................
Ethical Assurances.........................................................................................................10
Summary........................................................................................................................10
References..........................................................................................................................11
ii
1ABBREVIATED TITLE
Chapter 1: Introduction
Background
The background section should be 2-3 pages of information that will: (a)
introduce your topic to the reader, (b) establish the importance of the topic, and (c) tie the
topic to the literature. Ensure that all assertions are well supported with citations that
reflect current APA formatting standards.
Problem Statement
Clearly define the problem that is the focus of your study. Use citations to support
facts, statistics, and assertions. Include your rationale for choosing this problem.
Purpose of the Study
Using work you have drafted in discussions, clearly define the purpose of the
study. What purpose will your findings have? For what purpose are you undertaking the
study and how your findings will be used? Why are you collecting data? Describe the
general purpose of the study, and how you will examine the phenomenon by stating the
specific research approach and methods, proposed participants, and location/setting.
Include an overview of action research and how it differs from traditional research.
Research Questions and Hypothesis
In this section, you will need to describe the general research questions that your
study is trying to address. You should also provide a description outlining your
educational and/or professional practices and experiences that led to this study.
Additionally, discuss how these are “working research questions” that may evolve and
change throughout the study. You will also need to make certain that the research
questions are consistent with the purpose of the study.
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Theoretical/Conceptual Framework
Literature citations are essential in this section. For quantitative studies, you will
present a theoretical framework—showing the reader what theories your study is
grounded in. Keep in mind that this is an introduction and detailed information will be
presented in the literature review section (Chapter 2). Steps to follow when developing
your theoretical or conceptual framework:
1. Clearly state the phenomenon you want to address in your study.
2. Search and review theories, concepts, or models that explain some part (if not all)
of your study.
3. Take note of the strengths and limitations of the theories, concepts, or models in
terms that best explain the phenomenon or aspects of the phenomenon being
studied.
4. Integrate the relevant components of the theories, concepts, and/or models with
the aim of explaining or describing the phenomenon or aspects of the
phenomenon.
5. After synthesizing this information, you will need to identify/create a testable
theory or you clearly identify a gap (i.e. unexplained phenomenon or aspects of
the phenomenon) in the literature you will attempt to fill.
6. If possible, create a diagram to show the relationship among the various concepts,
theories, and/or models.
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Scope and Delimitations
Delimitations are those characteristics that limit the scope of the inquiry. For
example, delimitations could be decisions made throughout the development of the
proposal that include the research objectives and questions, additional theoretical
perspectives that could have been adopted, etc.
Note that delimitations and limitations are often confused but serve very different
roles. Your limitations will be presented in Chapter 3 and will relate to the various
aspects of the design that you have no control over that could potentially impact your
findings.
Definition of Key Terms
Alphabetical. List your key terms in alphabetical order utilizing this format. Key
terms include all words that are unique to your study or distinctly used in your study.
Supported. Most key terms you include will need to be supported with a citation.
However, you do not need to cite key terms that are being operationalized specific to
your study (e.g., child is defined in your study as anyone under the age of 12).
Uncommon. If using a common definition then there is no need to include the
term in this list. For example, you will not include key terms related to theories, models,
or methodology.
Significance of the Study
When writing the significance of the study, you should reflect on your potential
findings. The following are several questions you may want to reflect on while writing
this section: Who will care about the findings? Who will be interested in your research?
How might your findings impact the educational and research communities? Try not to
4ABBREVIATED TITLE
be too grandiose in your thoughts but instead think of the individuals who might be
affected and how these findings may impact them. You will also need to provide a brief
overview of why you selected the action research approach to your study. Specifically,
you should describe the purpose and implications of conducting action research and how
it differs from a traditional dissertation.
Summary
In two or three paragraphs, you will need to summarize the main points of this
section and provide an appropriate transition into Chapters 2 and 3. Particularly, you
should explain how the document is organized and related to the subsequent dissertation
chapters. Based on our prior research question examples, you could state “Chapter 2 will
present literature related to writing groups and dissertation writing services. Chapter 3
will present a detailed look at multiple case studies and how this methodology was used
to investigate the efficacy of writing groups.”
5ABBREVIATED TITLE
Chapter 2: Literature Review
Introduction
You will need to include a brief introduction on your research. However, you
should not provide an in-depth overview since your entire first chapter is focused on
introducing your topic. This section of your paper should be approximately one page or
less. In this introduction section, you will need to explicitly state the topics that will be
extensively discussed in the literature review. You will need to keep in mind that this
chapter serves as a “report” of what other researchers have already found and discussed
regarding your topic of study. Also, you should include information regarding what is
still unknown in the literature. You will need to clearly outline what is known or has been
researched and the gaps that still remain in the literature. Therefore, the literature review
section should be reported in a way that compares, makes contrasts, and analyzes what is
found in the existing body of literature.
First Level Heading
Begin with the body of your literature review, organizing by main topics. You are
not required to incorporate a certain number of sources per paragraph; however, you
should to try include at a minimum one to two appropriate citations in each paragraph. In
your first level heading, you will need to bold and center the heading. The paragraph text
following this heading should begin on the next line and be indented.
Second Level Heading
When you include a second level heading in your paper, you will need to bold the
heading and keep it flush left. You will only capitalize the first letter of each word in
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second level heading. The paragraph should begin directly below the heading and should
be indented.
Third level heading. If you need to include a third level heading in your paper,
you will need to bold and indent it. You will also need to only capitalize the first letter of
the heading and all proper nouns. The first paragraph for this heading will begin
immediately following it on the same line.
Summary and Transition
In your summary, you will need to indicate a gap in the literature. Other things
you can include (and your chair might require you to include) in the literature review is a
more robust look at your theoretical or conceptual framework.
No two literature reviews are alike—this is truly your chance to contribute some
original thought on existing research. However, all literature reviews must contain an
analysis and synthesis of recent (typically within the last 5-10 years), peer-reviewed
literature. This chapter is typically around 40 pages and includes at least 100 sources (this
is just approximate and there is not a specific number of pages or citations that need to be
included).
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Chapter 3: Research Design and Method
Chapter Overview
You may begin this chapter by explaining the purpose of your study. You should
align this statement with the information outlined in Chapter 1 but you should not provide
a word-for-word repetition.
Background
In this section, you will need to provide background information relating to your
study. For instance, in this section, you can share your educational and professional
experiences that led to your current research interest and the pursuit of an action research
study.
Research Questions and their Rationales
You will need to state your research questions. You should also clearly outline
how these questions may change and evolve throughout your study. You should also
provide a rationale explaining how you initially developed your research questions and
why it is important to address them.
Action Research Design
Identify your research design and its connection to the research questions. State
how you have designed your study to ensure that you are able to answer these questions.
Explain your research method, the characteristics of this method, and why this method is
appropriate for answering your research questions. Provide a detailed description of
action research and its purpose. Describe how your study design will meet the key tenets
of action research. Include a brief description and rationale of your intervention(s). You
8ABBREVIATED TITLE
will also need to identify any key data sources that will be used in your study. Essentially,
you will need to develop an action plan to address the practical problem that you
identified in your study.
Population and Context
Provide a description of the context of your study and why you selected it. You
will also need to state how your study may be impacted by the context you selected and
the reason that you selected it. Describe your role in the study. Identify the population,
research site, and the sampling method used. Explain the inclusion criteria and targeted
sample size. If quantitative in nature, mention the calculating tool used to determine the
sample size. If qualitative in nature, explain your rationale for the number of participants.
Researcher’s Role
You will need to explain your role in the study. Further, you will need to describe
your background and how you will maintain a bias-free state.
Procedures
You will need to describe your proposed procedures in detail. This section should
begin with a detailed description of your recruiting procedures. You will also need to
include the following: 1) data collection tools or strategies, 2) a description of how data
will be collected, and 3) any follow-up sessions that made need to be scheduled with your
participants. If you plan to conduct a pilot study, describe this in detail and explain how it
will inform your main study.
Validity
You will need to provide a description of all potential threats to the validity of
your study. If you plan to conduct a qualitative study, you will need to describe how you
9ABBREVIATED TITLE
plan to ensure credibility, dependability, confirmability, and transferability. If you plan to
conduct a quantitative study, you will need to describe in detail all potential threats to
internal and external validity.
Instrumentation
If your study is quantitative in nature, you will need to state your data collection
instrument, where and how it has been used, and how the validity and reliability were
established. If your study is qualitative in nature, you will need to describe any
researcher-created or established tools and the rationale for using them. For qualitative
researchers, include your role as the researcher and how you plan to control potential
biases. You will need to include all instruments (e.g., surveys, interview guides) in the
appendices.
Data Processing
Identify any software that will be used in the analysis of your data. Describe, in
detail, the strategy or strategies proposed for organizing and analyzing the data you will
collect.
Assumptions
You will also need to provide the assumptions that related to the mechanics of
your study. For example, what aspects of your study have not yet been discovered that
required you to assume they are true? In qualitative studies that include interview
procedures, you must assume that participants are answering honestly. You must also
assume they are participating willingly. All researchers must also assume that their
chosen methodology is the most appropriate for their investigation. Typically,
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researchers’ list approximately three assumptions related to their study; however, there is
not a set minimum or maximum number of assumptions that must be provided.
Limitations
Limitations are elements of your study that are outside of your control. For
instance, is there a weakness in your design? Are there uncontrollable biases? For many,
one limitation in the proposal is the possibility of not having access to participants or not
being able to recruit enough participants to satisfy the minimum sample size. In this
section, you will need to describe the aspects of your study that you may be unable to
control and how you plan to do to address these issues.
Ethical Assurances
How do you plan to ensure the ethical protection of your participants? Explain
your recruitment strategy, consent form (include the actual form in your appendices), any
Institutional Review Board (IRB) permissions that will be needed, whether participants
will be confidential or anonymous, and how you plan to protect the data collected. Note
that participants are considered confidential if you know their identities but do not share
them (through the use of number codes, descriptors, or pseudonyms).
Summary
You will need to provide a summary of the entire chapter, which will go just
beyond restating the headings. You should incorporate one to two paragraphs highlights
the major sections of your proposal. Your reader should be able to read your summary
and have an understanding of the following aspects of your study: 1) overview of action
research, 2) context, 3) instrumentation, 4) data collection methods and procedures, 5)
data analysis plan, and 6) unique research characteristics.
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References
Here are examples for the most commonly cited sources
Article retrieved from an online database:
Patterson, J., Laing, I., & Soltz, A. (2012). Title of the article here in sentence case, plain
font. Title of the Article Here in Italics and Title Case, 4(5), 6-8. doi:
10.x3425604
Book:
Walsh, L., & Patterson, J. (2009). Title of the book in sentence case and italics.
Minneapolis, MN: Name of the Publisher.
Website:
Zuckerman, J. (2003). Title of the web page here. Retrieved from
http://www.exacturlhere.com
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