Research Proposal – Benefits of Inclusive Classrooms in Early Childhood Education

The culminating project for the semester (which acts as the final) will be a research proposal on a topic of your choice. The topic should provide generalizable knowledge and fill a “gap” in the literature. At the beginning of the semester, you will select a research question(s) and apply what you learn about research methods during the semester to propose a study that might answer your question. IRB approval is not required for this assignment since it is only for in-class use and since you will not actually conduct the study you are proposing.

You will use Creswell and Creswell (2017) as a basis for designing your proposal. After introducing your question(s) supported by a balanced literature review, you will choose a worldview and a research design, and propose research methods that will be appropriate to answering your research question(s).

Your proposal should include the following sections:

• 1. A brief 150-250-word summary of your proposal.
  2. Summarizes problem, study purpose, and proposed method.(qualitive)
• 1. Background: Short discussion of relevant literature to support the importance of your research question(s). Discuss the:
     1. Research background (brief introduction to problem)
     2. Research problem (e.g., what is the gap in the literature?)
  2. Literature Review:
     1. Thorough review of relevant literature.
     2. Must include at least 15 scholarly citations
  3. Study Purpose:
     1. Describe significance of study (e.g., how it addressed “gap”)
     2. Clearly state research questions.
• 1. Proposed Sample: Describe the characteristics of the sample in question.
     1. Potential size.
     2. Defining characteristics.
     3. Inclusion/exclusion criteria.
  2. Design: A description of the design used.
     1. Type of design.
     2. Worldview associated with the design.
     3. Rationale/justification for the design.
     4. Design diagram (if necessary).
     5. Independent/dependent variable.
  3. Instrumentation: A description of data collection tools.
     1. Describe any tests/assessments/surveys/interview protocols, etc. in very clear detail (include a copy in the appendix).
     2. Describe background on their use in other studies.
     3. Describe development (how were they created).
     4. Describe validity/reliability information.
  4. Procedures: Describe the procedures used to collect data.
     1. Describe what the participants will do.
     2. Give information about interventions/treatments or how interviews will be conducted, etc.
  5. Analysis: Description of a proposed method of analysis.
     1. Should be appropriate to research design.
     2. Describe how data will be analyzed.
• References: APA style list of references.
• Appendix: Any supporting documentation such as instruments, etc.

There is no word limit or page requirement for this assignment. However, reasonable proposals may likely range from 20 – 30 pages, including all elements. You need to provide as much detail as is sufficient to provide strong support for your proposal. Please see the examples on Canvas that I have provided for you. The proposal is worth 100 points.