Running head: ABBREVIATED TITLE

[Title of your Document]

[Your Name]

A Proposal Submitted to the Faculty of

The Chicago School of Professional Psychology

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

For the Degree of Doctor of Education

[Month, day, year]

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Intoduction.........................................................................................................1

Background......................................................................................................................1

Problem Statement...........................................................................................................1

Purpose of the Study........................................................................................................1

Research Questions and Hypotheses................................................................................1

Theoretical/Conceptual Framework.................................................................................2

Scope and Delimitations..................................................................................................3

Definition of Key Terms..................................................................................................3

Significance of the Study.................................................................................................3

Summary..........................................................................................................................4

Chapter 2: Literature Review...............................................................................................5

Introduction......................................................................................................................5

First Main Topic...............................................................................................................5

Subtopic Here...............................................................................................................5

Subtopic Here...............................................................................................................6

Summary and Transition..................................................................................................6

Chapter 3: Research Design and Methodology...................................................................7

Chapter Overview............................................................................................................7

Background......................................................................................................................7

Research Question............................................................................................................7

Action Research Design...................................................................................................7

Population........................................................................................................................7

i

Researcher's Role.............................................................................................................8

Procedures........................................................................................................................8

Validity.............................................................................................................................8

Instrumentation................................................................................................................9

Data Processing................................................................................................................9

Assumptions.....................................................................................................................9

Limitations.....................................................................................................................10

............................................................................................................................................

Ethical Assurances.........................................................................................................10

Summary........................................................................................................................10

References..........................................................................................................................11

ii

1ABBREVIATED TITLE

Chapter 1: Introduction

Background

The background section should be 2-3 pages of information that will: (a)

introduce your topic to the reader, (b) establish the importance of the topic, and (c) tie the

topic to the literature. Ensure that all assertions are well supported with citations that

reflect current APA formatting standards.

Problem Statement

Clearly define the problem that is the focus of your study. Use citations to support

facts, statistics, and assertions. Include your rationale for choosing this problem.

Purpose of the Study

Using work you have drafted in discussions, clearly define the purpose of the

study. What purpose will your findings have? For what purpose are you undertaking the

study and how your findings will be used? Why are you collecting data? Describe the

general purpose of the study, and how you will examine the phenomenon by stating the

specific research approach and methods, proposed participants, and location/setting.

Include an overview of action research and how it differs from traditional research.

Research Questions and Hypothesis

In this section, you will need to describe the general research questions that your

study is trying to address. You should also provide a description outlining your

educational and/or professional practices and experiences that led to this study.

Additionally, discuss how these are “working research questions” that may evolve and

change throughout the study. You will also need to make certain that the research

questions are consistent with the purpose of the study.

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Theoretical/Conceptual Framework

Literature citations are essential in this section. For quantitative studies, you will

present a theoretical framework—showing the reader what theories your study is

grounded in. Keep in mind that this is an introduction and detailed information will be

presented in the literature review section (Chapter 2). Steps to follow when developing

your theoretical or conceptual framework:

1. Clearly state the phenomenon you want to address in your study.

2. Search and review theories, concepts, or models that explain some part (if not all)

of your study.

3. Take note of the strengths and limitations of the theories, concepts, or models in

terms that best explain the phenomenon or aspects of the phenomenon being

studied.

4. Integrate the relevant components of the theories, concepts, and/or models with

the aim of explaining or describing the phenomenon or aspects of the

phenomenon.

5. After synthesizing this information, you will need to identify/create a testable

theory or you clearly identify a gap (i.e. unexplained phenomenon or aspects of

the phenomenon) in the literature you will attempt to fill.

6. If possible, create a diagram to show the relationship among the various concepts,

theories, and/or models.

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Scope and Delimitations

Delimitations are those characteristics that limit the scope of the inquiry. For

example, delimitations could be decisions made throughout the development of the

proposal that include the research objectives and questions, additional theoretical

perspectives that could have been adopted, etc.

Note that delimitations and limitations are often confused but serve very different

roles. Your limitations will be presented in Chapter 3 and will relate to the various

aspects of the design that you have no control over that could potentially impact your

findings.

Definition of Key Terms

Alphabetical. List your key terms in alphabetical order utilizing this format. Key

terms include all words that are unique to your study or distinctly used in your study.

Supported. Most key terms you include will need to be supported with a citation.

However, you do not need to cite key terms that are being operationalized specific to

your study (e.g., child is defined in your study as anyone under the age of 12).

Uncommon. If using a common definition then there is no need to include the

term in this list. For example, you will not include key terms related to theories, models,

or methodology.

Significance of the Study

When writing the significance of the study, you should reflect on your potential

findings. The following are several questions you may want to reflect on while writing

this section: Who will care about the findings? Who will be interested in your research?

How might your findings impact the educational and research communities? Try not to

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be too grandiose in your thoughts but instead think of the individuals who might be

affected and how these findings may impact them. You will also need to provide a brief

overview of why you selected the action research approach to your study. Specifically,

you should describe the purpose and implications of conducting action research and how

it differs from a traditional dissertation.

Summary

In two or three paragraphs, you will need to summarize the main points of this

section and provide an appropriate transition into Chapters 2 and 3. Particularly, you

should explain how the document is organized and related to the subsequent dissertation

chapters. Based on our prior research question examples, you could state “Chapter 2 will

present literature related to writing groups and dissertation writing services. Chapter 3

will present a detailed look at multiple case studies and how this methodology was used

to investigate the efficacy of writing groups.”

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Chapter 2: Literature Review

Introduction

You will need to include a brief introduction on your research. However, you

should not provide an in-depth overview since your entire first chapter is focused on

introducing your topic. This section of your paper should be approximately one page or

less. In this introduction section, you will need to explicitly state the topics that will be

extensively discussed in the literature review. You will need to keep in mind that this

chapter serves as a “report” of what other researchers have already found and discussed

regarding your topic of study. Also, you should include information regarding what is

still unknown in the literature. You will need to clearly outline what is known or has been

researched and the gaps that still remain in the literature. Therefore, the literature review

section should be reported in a way that compares, makes contrasts, and analyzes what is

found in the existing body of literature.

First Level Heading

Begin with the body of your literature review, organizing by main topics. You are

not required to incorporate a certain number of sources per paragraph; however, you

should to try include at a minimum one to two appropriate citations in each paragraph. In

your first level heading, you will need to bold and center the heading. The paragraph text

following this heading should begin on the next line and be indented.

Second Level Heading

When you include a second level heading in your paper, you will need to bold the

heading and keep it flush left. You will only capitalize the first letter of each word in

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second level heading. The paragraph should begin directly below the heading and should

be indented.

Third level heading. If you need to include a third level heading in your paper,

you will need to bold and indent it. You will also need to only capitalize the first letter of

the heading and all proper nouns. The first paragraph for this heading will begin

immediately following it on the same line.

Summary and Transition

In your summary, you will need to indicate a gap in the literature. Other things

you can include (and your chair might require you to include) in the literature review is a

more robust look at your theoretical or conceptual framework.

No two literature reviews are alike—this is truly your chance to contribute some

original thought on existing research. However, all literature reviews must contain an

analysis and synthesis of recent (typically within the last 5-10 years), peer-reviewed

literature. This chapter is typically around 40 pages and includes at least 100 sources (this

is just approximate and there is not a specific number of pages or citations that need to be

included).

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Chapter 3: Research Design and Method

Chapter Overview

You may begin this chapter by explaining the purpose of your study. You should

align this statement with the information outlined in Chapter 1 but you should not provide

a word-for-word repetition.

Background

In this section, you will need to provide background information relating to your

study. For instance, in this section, you can share your educational and professional

experiences that led to your current research interest and the pursuit of an action research

study.

Research Questions and their Rationales

You will need to state your research questions. You should also clearly outline

how these questions may change and evolve throughout your study. You should also

provide a rationale explaining how you initially developed your research questions and

why it is important to address them.

Action Research Design

Identify your research design and its connection to the research questions. State

how you have designed your study to ensure that you are able to answer these questions.

Explain your research method, the characteristics of this method, and why this method is

appropriate for answering your research questions. Provide a detailed description of

action research and its purpose. Describe how your study design will meet the key tenets

of action research. Include a brief description and rationale of your intervention(s). You

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will also need to identify any key data sources that will be used in your study. Essentially,

you will need to develop an action plan to address the practical problem that you

identified in your study.

Population and Context

Provide a description of the context of your study and why you selected it. You

will also need to state how your study may be impacted by the context you selected and

the reason that you selected it. Describe your role in the study. Identify the population,

research site, and the sampling method used. Explain the inclusion criteria and targeted

sample size. If quantitative in nature, mention the calculating tool used to determine the

sample size. If qualitative in nature, explain your rationale for the number of participants.

Researcher’s Role

You will need to explain your role in the study. Further, you will need to describe

your background and how you will maintain a bias-free state.

Procedures

You will need to describe your proposed procedures in detail. This section should

begin with a detailed description of your recruiting procedures. You will also need to

include the following: 1) data collection tools or strategies, 2) a description of how data

will be collected, and 3) any follow-up sessions that made need to be scheduled with your

participants. If you plan to conduct a pilot study, describe this in detail and explain how it

will inform your main study.

Validity

You will need to provide a description of all potential threats to the validity of

your study. If you plan to conduct a qualitative study, you will need to describe how you

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plan to ensure credibility, dependability, confirmability, and transferability. If you plan to

conduct a quantitative study, you will need to describe in detail all potential threats to

internal and external validity.

Instrumentation

If your study is quantitative in nature, you will need to state your data collection

instrument, where and how it has been used, and how the validity and reliability were

established. If your study is qualitative in nature, you will need to describe any

researcher-created or established tools and the rationale for using them. For qualitative

researchers, include your role as the researcher and how you plan to control potential

biases. You will need to include all instruments (e.g., surveys, interview guides) in the

appendices.

Data Processing

Identify any software that will be used in the analysis of your data. Describe, in

detail, the strategy or strategies proposed for organizing and analyzing the data you will

collect.

Assumptions

You will also need to provide the assumptions that related to the mechanics of

your study. For example, what aspects of your study have not yet been discovered that

required you to assume they are true? In qualitative studies that include interview

procedures, you must assume that participants are answering honestly. You must also

assume they are participating willingly. All researchers must also assume that their

chosen methodology is the most appropriate for their investigation. Typically,

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researchers’ list approximately three assumptions related to their study; however, there is

not a set minimum or maximum number of assumptions that must be provided.

Limitations

Limitations are elements of your study that are outside of your control. For

instance, is there a weakness in your design? Are there uncontrollable biases? For many,

one limitation in the proposal is the possibility of not having access to participants or not

being able to recruit enough participants to satisfy the minimum sample size. In this

section, you will need to describe the aspects of your study that you may be unable to

control and how you plan to do to address these issues.

Ethical Assurances

How do you plan to ensure the ethical protection of your participants? Explain

your recruitment strategy, consent form (include the actual form in your appendices), any

Institutional Review Board (IRB) permissions that will be needed, whether participants

will be confidential or anonymous, and how you plan to protect the data collected. Note

that participants are considered confidential if you know their identities but do not share

them (through the use of number codes, descriptors, or pseudonyms).

Summary

You will need to provide a summary of the entire chapter, which will go just

beyond restating the headings. You should incorporate one to two paragraphs highlights

the major sections of your proposal. Your reader should be able to read your summary

and have an understanding of the following aspects of your study: 1) overview of action

research, 2) context, 3) instrumentation, 4) data collection methods and procedures, 5)

data analysis plan, and 6) unique research characteristics.

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References

Here are examples for the most commonly cited sources

Article retrieved from an online database:

Patterson, J., Laing, I., & Soltz, A. (2012). Title of the article here in sentence case, plain

font. Title of the Article Here in Italics and Title Case, 4(5), 6-8. doi:

10.x3425604

Book:

Walsh, L., & Patterson, J. (2009). Title of the book in sentence case and italics.

Minneapolis, MN: Name of the Publisher.

Website:

Zuckerman, J. (2003). Title of the web page here. Retrieved from

http://www.exacturlhere.com