Assignment 1: The Scavenger Hunt

Due Week 3 and worth 100 points

Let’s put your investigative skills to work! In this assignment, visit the Strayer online library located in iCampus or the Resource Center tab in Blackboard and find four (4) peer-reviewed quantitative or qualitative articles related to your topic. Read each article.

My study is about what factors weigh on the decision of college students to attend college at home and reside with parents or to go off to college and live on campus. The new environment that is faced when being introduced to college is balanced highly on the student’s social foundation and social support. My research will review how dependent students are on this and how heavily various factors weigh on the decision to stay home vs venturing out to an out of town college. I would also like to determine, based on studies if one choice or the other negatively effects a student’s freshman experience.

Write a three to five (3-5) page paper in which you:

1.     Summarize each article [approximately one to two (1-2) paragraphs per article] and identify the:

a.      Purpose of the research.

b.     Problem statement.

c.      Gaps in literature that studied the problem.

d.     Research question and/or hypotheses.

e.      Theory or conceptual framework.

f.      Findings of the research.

2.     Describe one to two (1-2) aspects of each article that are relevant to the research topic you have chosen.

3.     Provide a preliminary reference page in APA format of the articles you summarized.

4.     Include at least four (4) peer-reviewed quantitative or qualitative articles related to your topic.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

·        Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.

·        Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

·        Identify a research topic and describe why it can and should be studied.

·        Determine the appropriateness of peer-reviewed literature to support research topics.

·        Use technology and information resources to research issues related to educational research methods.

·        Use quantitative and / or qualitative approaches to create research topics.

·        Analyze research methodologies that support specific research topics.

·        Describe ethical considerations in the research process.

·        Evaluate components of a research proposal.

·        Write clearly and concisely about educational research methods using proper writing mechanics.

Grading for this assignment will be based on answer quality, logic / organization of the paper, and language and writing skills, using the following rubric.