Which of the following studies most likely uses quantitative methods?

Comparing test results across groups to understand the effects of a particular instructional approach.

Understanding historical perspective for an educational topic.

Understanding the shared beliefs and practices of teachers in a school.

Developing a theory grounded in the beliefs of the group being studied.

Which of the following is most aligned with a researcher using quantitative methods?

Studying a large number of subjects as a detached, objective observer.

Studying an interesting phenomenon in the context in which it naturally occurs.

Communicating the results of the study in a loosely structured report that uses informal language.

Using a research design that changes as narrative data is collected and analyzed.

Which of the following problems is most appropriate to a quantitative experimental approach?

Studying the effect of using formative quizzes on student's knowledge of key concepts.

Studying the nature of student interactions in an inclusionary classroom.

Analyzing the use of a site-based decision making model as it is being implemented in a local high school.

Understanding the experiences of a veteran teacher who has been moved into an administrative position in her school.

Experimental designs can be differentiated most clearly from descriptive, correlational, or causal-comparative designs on which of the following characteristics?

A clear intent to establish cause and effect relationships.

The statistical analysis of data.

Which of the following problems is most appropriate to a qualitative approach?

Identifying the characteristics that differentiate students who drop out of high school from those students who do not drop out.

Describing the relationship between students' math attitudes and their math achievement.

Describing the effect of creating a student-centered assessment environment on students' achievement.

Understanding what it is like to work in a school that is changing the decision-making process from a top-down, administratively driven model to a bottom-up, teacher driven model.