Example Objectives & Questions

Example Formats for
Objectives and Questions

Example 1

School or Library Staff Reactions to Challenges
to School or Library Materials

The objectives of the study are:

1. to regress the formal behaviors of school or library staff by community type to determine the formal factors which are most likely to predict a successful overruling of a challenge to school or library materials. Specifically, the following questions will be asked:

A. Is there a consistent set of formal factors which can be identified within each type of community?
B. Does the level of importance of they key factors vary by type of community for which a set of factors was found?
C. If so, what factors are most important for a given community type?
D. If not, what key factors can be generalized?

2. to regress the informal behaviors of school or library staff by community type to determine the informal factors which are most likely to predict a successful overruling of a challenge to school or library materials. Specifically, the following questions will be asked:

A. Is there a consistent set of informal factors which can be identified within each type of community?
B. Does the level of importance of the key factors vary by type of community for which a set of factors was found?
C. If so, what factors are most important for a given community type?
D. If not, what key factors can be generalized?

3. to regress the external influences by community type to determine the external factors which are most likely to predict a successful overruling of a challenge to school or library materials. Specifically, the following questions will be asked:

A. Is there a consistent set of external factors which can be identified within each type of community?
B. Does the level of importance of the key factors vary by type of community for which a set of factors was found?
C. If so, what factors are most important for a given community type?
D. If not, what key factors can be generalized?

4. to regress the formal behaviors, informal behaviors, and external influences by community type to determine the combination of factors which are most likely to predict a successful overruling of a challenge to school or library materials. Specifically, the following questions will be asked:

A. Is there a consistent combination of factors which are found to exist within each type of ommunity?
B. Does the combination of factors vary by type of community for which a set of factors was found?
C. If so, what combination is most important for a given community type?
D. If not, what key factor combination is generalizable?
E. How does the combination of factors change the results found in the individual regressions?

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Example 2

Adult Learners

Objectives

1. To measure adult learners' perceptions of the college environment.

2. To compare the environmental perceptions of adult learners in three types of postsecondary institutions.

Questions

1. To what extent do adult males and females perceive the learning environment in the same way?

2. How do the environmental perceptions of adult learners with previous college experience compare with the perceptions of those with no previous college experience?

3. How do the environmental perceptions of adult learners under 40 years of age compare with the perceptions of those over 40 years of age?

4. How do the environmental perceptions of adult learners from high socioeconomic backgrounds compare with those from middle and low socioeconomic backgrounds?

5. How do the perceived environmental characteristics of white adult learners compare with those of black adult learners?

6. To what extent do adult learners from rural settings and those from urban settings perceive the learning environment in the same way?

7. How do adult learners in different academic fields compare in their perceptions of the college environment?

8. How do the environmental perceptions of adult learners enrolled in a research university compare with the perceptions of adult learners in a comprehensive university?

9. How do the environmental perceptions of the adult learners attending a community college located in a rural setting compare with the perceptions of adult learners enrolled in a community college located in an urban setting?

10. How do the environmental perceptions of adult learners attending a research university compare with the perceptions of adult learners enrolled in a community college located in a rural setting?

11. How do the environmental perceptions of adult learners attending a research university compare with the perceptions of adult learners enrolled in a community college located in an urban setting?

12. How do the environmental perceptions of adult learners in a comprehensive university compare with the perceptions of adult learners enrolled in a community college located in a rural setting?

13. How do the environmental perceptions of adult learners in a comprehensive university compare with the perceptions of adult learners attending a community college located in an urban setting?

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Example 3

Investigation of Innovativeness Among Nurses

This study will investigate the characteristics of nurses in an effort to:

1. Describe the innovative nurse in terms of her demographic characteristicsas well as those of her spouse (if she is married, and if he is recognized as the head-of-the-household).

a. occupation
b. education
c. income
d. age
Questions.
Is the innovative nurse still employed in nursing?
Does she function in a traditional role, or in an expanded role?
Is she a college graduate?
What was the basic nursing education of this innovative nurse?
Has she pursued graduate education in nursing?
How does her income compare to national averages?
Is innovativeness confined to an age group, is it diminished or enhanced by age?
Is the innovative nurse married, or has she been?
If she is married, is she a major source of income for her family?
When (or at what age) did she become a nurse?

2. Describe the innovative nurse in terms of her personal characteristics

a. willingness to break with tradition
b. empathy
c. belief in practice autonomy
d. cosmopolitanism

Questions. Is she likely to break with tradition?
Is she highly empathetic?
Does she believe in a highly autonomous practice for nursing?

3. Describe the innovative nurse in terms of her environmental characteristics

a. degree of specialization in the work setting
b. size of the agency/organization where employed
c. hours of work per week
d. level of responsibility on the job
Questions. Is she practicing nursing in highly specialized settings?
Is she more likely going to be found in a large agency/organization?
Is she employed full time or part time?
How many hours per week are devoted to career?
Is she more frequently found in an administrative role?
Does her practice involve direct service to consumers (patients/clients)?

4. Compare the Hurt, Joseph and Cook instrument to data obtained by self-report on actual adoption of an innovation.

Question. Does self-report data about the actual adoption of an innovation correlate highly with the "willingness to change" instrument?

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Response to Scarcity in Institutions of Higher Education

The first objective is to compare and contrast the organizational climate, leadership style and external relations of passive and innovative institutions. Questions related to this objective are: What are the similarities and differences on measures of organizational climate, leadership behavior and external relations of institutions which have passive and those which have innovative scores on the response measures? Which unit variables are in greatest contrast for passive and innovative institutions? Which unit variables are most similar for passive and innovative institutions? What are the differences among passive institutions? What are the differences among innovative institutions?

The second objective is to correlate measures of organizational climate, leadership behavior, and external relations with response-to-scarcity measures. Questions related to this objective are: Will innovative institutions have higher scores than will passive institutions on measures of organizational climate, leadership behavior, and external relations? Are there institutions which differ significantly from the mean? Are there unit variables such as measures of public relations and changes in size of student body which are more highly related than is true of the correlations in general? Are there unit independent variables which are not related to the dependent variable? Are there independent variables which are more highly related to the dependent variable than others? Do the observed variables seem to be related to the dependent variable? Are there implications for further study?

The third objective is to correlate measures leadership behavior with organizational climate and external relations. The questions related to this objective are: Will institutions with higher scores on leadership behavior measures also have higher on organizational climate and external relations measures? Are there significant differences among institutions in the relationships among these three variables? Can tendency of organizational response to scarcity be predicted by the measure of any single variable cluster?

The fourth objective is to compare and contrast the findings of this study with the findings of the Smith (1977) study and the study of colleges supported by the Hill Family Foundation. Questions related to this objective are: What are the similarities and differences between the findings of this study and the findings of the two other studies? Are there areas of convergence which have implications for practitioners? Are there areas of difference which can be explained? Are there areas of difference which are worthy of further study?

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Example 5

Field Independence/Dependence and Classroom Behavior of Teachers

OBJECTIVE 1: To describe the behavior episodes of relatively field-independence and
field-dependent teachers.

What is the structure of the behavior episodes of field-independent and field-dependent teachers?

What is the quality of the behavior episodes of field-independent and field-dependent teachers?

OBJECTIVE 2: To describe the behavior settings of relatively field-independent and field-dependent teachers.

What are the structural attributes of the behavior settings of field-independent and field-dependent teachers?
What are the dynamic attributes of the behavior settings of field-independent and field-dependent teachers?
What are the varying attributes of the behavior settings of field-

independent and field-dependent teachers?

OBJECTIVE 3: To compare and contrast the behavior episodes of relatively field-
independent and field-dependent teachers.

How is the structure of behavior episodes of field-independent and field-dependent teachers similar? Different?
How is the quality of behavior episodes of field-independent and field-dependent teachers similar? Different?
Do similarities and differences in the structure and quality of behavior episodes of field-independent and field-dependent teachers relate to howextremely field-independent or field-dependent teachers are?
Do similarities and differences in the structure and quality of behavior episodes of field-independent and field-dependent teachers relate to structure and quality of effective and ineffective teachers?
Are there field-independent teachers whose behavior episodes, in structure or quality, resemble those of field-dependent teachers? Are there field-dependent teachers who resemble field-independent teachers in structureand quality of behavior episodes? What are these points of resemblance and distinction?
Are there other variables which might mediate the observed similaritiesand differences such as age, sex, training, teaching experience, subject matter, and level of instruction?

OBJECTIVE 4: To compare and contrast the behavior settings of relatively field-
independent and field-dependent teachers.

How are the structural attributes of behavior settings of field-independent and field-dependent teachers similar? How are they different?
How are the dynamic attributes of behavior settings of field-independentand field-dependent and field-dependent teachers similar? Different?
How are the varying attributes of the behavior settings of field-independent and field-dependent teachers similar? How are they different?
Do similarities and differences in the attributes (structural, dynamic, and varying) of behavior settings of field-independent and field-dependent teachers relate to how extremely field-independent or field-dependent teachers are?
Are there field-independent teachers whose behavior settings resemble those of field-dependent teachers?
Are there field-dependent teachers whose behavior settings resemble those of field-independent teachers?
What are these points of resemblance and distinction?

OBJECTIVE 5: To relate the behavior episodes of relatively field-independent and field-
dependent teachers to their corresponding behavior settings.

Are there similarities and differences in the structure and/or quality of the behavior episodes of field-independent and field-dependent teachers which show up across behavior settings with different structural, dynamic, and/or varying attributes?
Are there similarities and differences in the structure and/or quality of the behavior episodes of field-independent and field-dependent teachers which show up only within behavior settings with similar structural, dynamic,and varying attributes?

OBJECTIVE 6: To formulate hypotheses of future study of the relationships between field-independence/field-dependence and teacher behavior

Questions will emerge in the last stages of research