Ch. 6 - Purpose Statement

Purpose Statement

• Indicates why the researcher conducts the study and what the study intends to accomplish

• Conveys the overall intent of a proposed study in a sentence or several sentences

• Need to clearly distinguish the purpose statement, research problem, and the research questions

• Specifies the specific study addressing the problem

• Builds on a need (the problem) and is refined into specific questions (the research questions)

Qualitative purpose statement

•  contain info about the central phenomenon explored in the study, the participants in the study, and the research site

  • Conveys an emerging design where the procedures can change during the study

  • Uses specific terms drawn from the qualitative inquiry

Central phenomenon

• the one single concept being explored in the qualitative study

  • Explore by gathering data from participants and a site for research

In a qualitative purpose statement, use words like

purpose, intent, study aim, objective…to introduce this statement as the central study idea

Present/past tense

 journal articles and dissertations

future tense

proposals

Qual statements do not use

• two or more variables or compare two or more groups

Use action verbs to convey how learning will take place

Understand, develop, explore, examine the meaning of, generate, discover

Provide a general ______ definition of the central phenomenon

working

T or F? May delimit the scope of participants or research sites in the study

T

Quantitative purpose statement

differ considerably from the qualitative statements in terms of the language and a focus on relating or comparing variables or constructs

Constructs

• more abstract, general meaning of a variable

• Includes variables in the study and their relationships, the participants, and the research site

Quant Purpose statements

• Mention type of quantitative approach, researcher anticipates methods discussion and enables reader to associate relationship of variables to the inquiry approach

• Identify theory, model, or conceptual framework and how it impacts variables

• Identify all variables

• Use words that connect variables like: relationship, comparison

• Order variables from left to right

  • IV -> DV

• Define key variables

Mixed Methods definition

contains the overall intent of the study, info about both the quantitative and qualitative strands of the study, and integration of both strands