Research proposals

Okay, so today in 610 class, we talked about "operationalizing" concepts in postivist social science research. How about actually operationalizing the term "operationalizing"? :)

I did get many useful things out of this class. We talked about the first steps of research. I remain unclear about the process, so this was helpful to me. I'm trying to apply these specific steps to my own research proposal. Draft one that I submitted a week ago Monday missed the mark, to say the least. I'm not surprised because I didn't know what I was doing. However, I do feel my thoughts about research are progressing, and I'm beginning to better understand this process. The theory of research is clarifying; the doing remains daunting. I'm not alone, I can tell by the queries in my class.

To capture some of my understanding of the process and possible applications to my research: (note - this follows a positivist, deductive approach to research)

1. General statement of interest - How people use new information to build/transform knowledge, and how we can measure this knowledge change.

2. Reframe as initial question - Do successive (before and after) measure knowledge change?

3. In what ways can I get an answer? - Look at before and after concept maps. Before map --> new info --> After map
Is there a change?

4. Reframe as research question - Does a college environmental science student's concept map change (become more complex) after receiving new information?

5. Operationalize (know what I'm doing; identify, refine, concepts, relationships)

6. Hypothesis

Possible variables: (variables must be observable)
Independent - before concept map
Intervening - new information
Dependent - after concept map

Possible hypothesis(es):
Successive concept maps measure knowledge change.

Null - No difference in before and after concept maps.
Alternative - After new information concept maps are more complex than before new information concept maps. (one-directional change)

Possible method(s):
Five independent judges will evaluate the before and after maps.
Average the five.

Just some ideas I wanted to jot down before losing them!!