The following is an example of a proposal for a research based dissertation.
While you will find that many sections have been dramatically shortened, for
illustrative purposes, all necessary sections are here.  While this is not a
perfect example, a student in one of my research classes certainly wouldn't go
wrong by having his or hers follow this general model and flow!  Attention
should be paid to the fact that necessary underlinings, etc are omitted due to
the technical restrictions of our system.

This proposal can be accessed and downloaded for your perusal from:

/home/terrell/SCIS/models/research.html
 



                             CHAPTER I

               Introduction and Statement of the Problem

          Motivation is the heart of the learning process.        
          Adequate motivation not only sets in motion the activity 
          which results in learning, but also sustains and directs 
          it.  Reflection, interest, effort, all the outcomes most 
          desired by the teacher and most valuable to the pupil,  
          spring into being with adequate motivation.  The average 
          pupil works below his  maximum capacity: his achievement 
          quotient is rarely 100, because of lack of adequate     
          incentive to learn. (Pinter, Ryan, West, Aleck, Crow and 
          Smith, 1970, p. 84)

     Decreasing standardized test scores, increasing drop out rates
and the constantly voiced opinion that the students of today are
not being adequately educated  to be the leaders of tomorrow are
only a few of the problems that educators face today.  The
preceding quotation suggests that motivation is a variable to 
consider when one attempts to rectify these problems.  Stated
simply, we must provide an environment that motivates students.

                        Research Questions

     The purpose of this study will be to increase understanding of
how graphical feedback, used in a learning environment, affects a
student's level of achievement and motivation.  The specific
research questions are:

1.  What is motivation and how did the construct develop?   

2.  What is meant by intrinsic and extrinsic motivation?  How
    did these constructs evolve and how do they relate to 
    academic achievement?

3.  How can educators incorporate the ideas of intrinsic and
    extrinsic motivation into their classrooms?


Definitions of Terms

     Achievement -  Achievement as it relates to this paper can be
defined as the act of accomplishing or finishing something (Morris,
1976).  Achievement motivation, then, is the ". . .energy aimed at
attaining excellence, getting ahead, improving on past records,
beating competitors, doing things better, faster, more efficiently
and finding unique solutions to difficult problems" (Alschuler,
Tabor and McIntyre, 1970, p. 6). 

     Graphic Feedback -  For the purpose of this paper, graphic
feedback will refer to computer generated X-Y graphs printed
specifically for each student.  Each graph represents the
relationship between time (up to a maximum of nine weeks) and a
students weekly subject grade (0-100).  In addition to the
student's weekly grade, the graph also shows the class average
grade and the average grade for the student's stanine group.  The
software used to create these graphs will be developed specifically
for this project (Terrell, 1991).  An example of these graphs can
be found in Appendix A.

     Intrinsic Motivation -  Motivation is intrinsic when a 
person does something because they get a reward directly from doing
the activity as opposed to performing an activity solely for a
reward that comes when the activity is completed (Csikszentmihalyi
and Nakamura, 1989).  According to Higgins and Sorrentino (1990),
a person engages in an activity for its own sake based on
curiosity, a need for optimal arousal and psychological consistency
and a need to be effective and in control when dealing with the
environment.  Deci and Ryan (1985) agreed with this postulation by
stating that intrinsic motivation is based on a person's need to be
competent and in control.  


                          Limitations  
     
     The following limitations to the investigation are noted:
   
1.  Only those students that return the parental permission form
will participate in the study.  This may adversely affect the
composition of the population.

2.  The school in which the study will be conducted is an
experimental school in that one-half of the subject-area
instruction in a given day is delivered in Spanish with the other
half delivered in English. Generalizations to other environments
and populations may be limited, even in similar conditions. 

3.  Only one subject area, mathematics, will be used to measure
achievement in this study.  Generalizations to other subject areas
may be limited, even in similar conditions.


Delimitations

     The following delimitations to the investigation are noted:

1.  Only those students in the 5th grade at the experimental
school at the inception of the project will participate in this
project. 

2.  Students who attend the English for Speakers of Other
Languages (ESOL) program will not be included in this study.  This
affects approximately ten percent of the population.
    
3.  Students in the population that participate in the Exceptional
Student Education (ESE) program will not be included in this study.
This affects approximately five percent of the population.

Assumptions
      
1.  Students in the 5th grade have the cognitive skills necessary
to interpret data presented in a graphical format.
   
2.  Students in the 5th grade have the metacognitive ability
necessary to realize the cause and effect relationship between
classroom performance and the resultant graphic feedback.


                    Organization of This Study

     Chapter One has served to introduce the study as well as 
establish the basic purpose and processes of the study.     

     Chapter Two offers a review of the related literature and is
divided in several sections.  It begins with a review of 
related research regarding the limitations, delimitations and
assumptions made in this chapter and continues with a review of
motivational theory, an investigation of both intrinsic and
extrinsic motivation and a review of the research concerning the
effect of motivation on academic achievement.  The chapter
continues with the presentation of a theoretical model on which the
research design in Chapter Three is based.

     Chapter Three presents a detailed design of the study and
includes the methods of data collection and the variables to be
tested.


                           CHAPTER II
                  Review of Related Literature
   
     This review of the literature will investigate several
distinct areas related to the investigation of the effect of
graphic feedback on student motivation and achievement. 

     The first section includes issues arising from delimitations,
limitations and assumptions presented in the previous chapter.    

     The second section will include previous research in
motivation and concentrate on the emergence of the constructs of
intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.  This will involve examining
the development, evolution and synthesis of several divergent
motivational viewpoints from the first sixty to seventy years of
this century.

     The third section will continue by presenting those factors
that comprise the constructs of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
This will involve reviewing many of the more prominent studies and
presenting the three major schools of motivational thought that
have evolved during the last twenty to thirty years.  Attention
will be paid to the relationship between a student's motivational
inclination and his or her level of academic achievement as well as
the relationship between situational factors and a student's
motivational preference. 

     The fourth section contains a theoretical framework from which
a person may investigate the effect of various environmental
factors on a student's level of intrinsic motivation.

     The last section presents a summarization of the findings of
the previous sections and provide a basis for the research design
presented in Chapter III. 

Section One: Limitations, Delimitations and Assumptions

     Several of the statements made in the previous chapter
detailing limitations, delimitations and assumptions of this
research need further justification.  These include a student's
ability to interpret data delivered in a graphical format, the
metacognitive abilities expected of 5th grade students and what
influence, if any, time of day has on student learning.  This
section presents findings from the literature to support or justify
statements made as limitations, delimitations or assumptions. 


Section Two: The Emergence of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation
   
     The history of motivational research spans the last several
hundred years.  The terms intrinsic motivation and extrinsic
motivation, however, have only recently appeared in the literature.

     During the latter part of the nineteenth century William James
alluded to the concept of intrinsic motivation, however the first
mention of an intrinsic motivation construct is credited to
Woodworth in the early part of this century (Deci and Ryan, 1985). 
Woodworth (1918) believed that any activity could be motivated
extrinsically  but acknowledged the importance of intrinsic motives
by stating: "only when it is running by its own drive . . . can it
run freely and effectively"  (p. 70).  

     While the work of both James and Woodworth is important, it is
generally agreed that the scientific study of motivation originated
with the work of Sigmund Freud circa 1920 (Weiner, 1986) but was
not actively pursued until the early 1940's.



        Section Three: Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation

     The last twenty-five years have seen a raging debate over how
educators should respond to the evidence that the academic
achievement of our students is falling behind the achievement
levels of students in other parts of the world (Ryan, Connell and
Deci, 1985).  There are two divergent viewpoints concerning how to
address this problem:  one group is calling for stronger controls
and sanctions within the classroom (extrinsic motivation) while the
second group believes that students learn better in a less
traditionally controlled environment that offers room for
exploration and discovery (intrinsic motivation).  The focus on the
construct of intrinsic motivation has seen a steady growth in
influence since the mid-seventies (Ames and Ames, 1985), with  most
of this research reflecting the work of three major groups of
motivational theorists: competence theorists, cognitive theorists
and attribution theorists (Condry, 1987; Gottfried, 1983;
Gottfried, 1990).

                  Section Four: A Research Model
   
     The constructs of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation have
evolved over the last twenty to thirty years with many different
researchers offering a multitude of explanations, with supporting
research, to explain the factors that influence a student's
motivational inclination as well as how the level of motivation
affects his or her classroom performance.  While there may be
argument about the origin of a student's motivational inclination
or about what factors positively or negatively influence that
orientation, Deci and Porac (1978) argued that it is clear that
motivated behavior is voluntary and is based on a person's
understanding of what is necessary or desirable in order to
accomplish a goal.  They further pointed out that all motivation is
intrinsic in that it occurs within a person and is based on that
particular person's needs or desires.   Having noted these facts,
they have developed a cognitive/affective framework to be used for
the study of human motivation (Figure 1). 
   
                      Section Five: Summary

     This chapter presented a comprehensive review of related
literature.  It began by addressing a student's ability to
understand and interpret graphic feedback as well as the meta-
cognitive issues surrounding the typical 5th grade student's
ability to understand the cause and effect relationship that exists
between that feedback and their classroom performance.  The chapter
continued by detailing the development of motivational thought, the
constructs of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and the effects of
various personal and environmental factors on a person's
motivational inclination.  The chapter concluded by presenting a
theoretical framework that not only affords the researcher a viable
model from which to work, but also ties together several divergent
lines of motivational thinking. 

     Although an exhaustive search of both traditional and
computer-based resources was undertaken, none of the research found
related directly to the effect of graphic feedback on student
motivation.  In spite of this fact, it seems obvious that the
research presented is sufficient in terms of supporting the
previously stated hypotheses as well as the research methodology to
be presented in the following chapter.


                              CHAPTER III
                           Research Methodology

     The purpose of this chapter is to: (1) detail the hypotheses
that will be tested in this study; (2) describe the population
of this study; (3) describe the three instruments that will be used
to collect data relevant to the study, and, (4) describe the
procedures that will be used to collect data. 

Hypotheses to be Tested

     Based on a review of literature and the research questions,
the following hypotheses are presented: 


Hypothesis 1:  

     There will be a significant correlation between a student's
level of intrinsic motivation and his or her level of achievement
in mathematics.

       
Hypothesis 2:  

     Students receiving graphic feedback will demonstrate a
significantly higher level of intrinsic motivation than those
students not receiving graphic feedback.

Hypothesis 3:  

     Students receiving graphic feedback will demonstrate
significantly higher mathematics achievement than those students
not receiving graphic feedback.
    
                      
Background of the Project
     
     This project will be conducted under the auspices of a project
entitled "Graphs for Performance Assessment (Project-GPA)", an on-
going project in the College of Education at Florida International
University (FIU).

     FIU, a member institution of the State University System of
Florida, was established by an act of the state legislature in 1965
and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and
Schools.  The University operates two campuses in Dade County,
Florida and offers degrees at both the undergraduate and graduate
level as well as well as academic and professional certificate
programs in a variety of disciplines.  In addition to the
traditional campuses, FIU supports outreach programs and
educational centers throughout south Florida (FIU, 1990).

                      Preliminary Procedures

     At the inception of this project, a proposal was developed and
submitted to the Office of Educational Accountability of Dade
County Public Schools (DCPS).  Following approval of the proposal,
planning for this project was initiated.     
                
               Demographics of the School District
    
     The study will be conducted in the DCPS system, Florida.  Dade
County, located on the southeastern tip of the Florida peninsula,
is the most populous county in Florida (Shermyen, 1991).  Census
figures for 1990 show a total population of 1,937,094 which is
broken down into 18.99% non-Hispanic White, 33.27% Black, 46.50%
Hispanic, .04% Native-American and 1.2% Asian.  The majority of
persons (32%) in Dade County are between the ages of 25 and 44,
with 20% falling between birth and 14 years of age, 14% falling
between 15 and 24, 20% between 45 and 64 and 14% over the age of
65.  There are slightly more females than males in Dade County with
females accounting for 52% of the population.  The average per
capita income is $12,401 per year.   

     There are no independent public school districts within Dade
County, as all public schools are under the jurisdiction of the
DCPS system.  In 1990, DCPS operated 352 schools with an enrollment
of 278,789 students (Shermyen, 1990).
    
The Experimental School

     At the present time, the school where the study will be
conducted has a student population of 1190 which is comprised of
95% Hispanic, 3% non-Hispanic White and 2% Black.  The Hispanic
population of the school represents many countries from the
Caribbean island nations and Central America, with the largest
number coming from Nicaragua and Cuba.

     The school is classified as an experimental school within the
DCPS system in that all students are receiving content area
instruction in both English and Spanish. The school is open to all
students in Dade County who wish to work in such an environment,
however students commuting from outside the normal boundaries of
this school represent less than 5% of the total population.
 

Selection of the Population

      The 5th grade population of the school was chosen to be the
subjects of the research described in this paper in order to
emulate the previous investigation of Greenberg and Rendulic in the
same school.  Their initial selection of this school was determined
by a partnership between FIU and the elementary school that
provided for a sharing of resources as well as a training location
for student teachers and researchers.  Greenberg and Rendulic
selected 5th graders since they felt that the cognitive ability to
interpret and use the graphs was present by that age (Personal
communication, May, 1991). 
  
     Prior to the initiation of the study, the eligible students
will be required to have their parents complete and return to the
researcher a parental permission form (Appendix B).  In order to
allow for the diverse ethnic population, this form will be supplied
in both English and Spanish versions.  

     Although there are five classrooms involved, the study will be
organized with three experimental groups and one control group.  In
order to understand how the groups will be created, it is first
necessary to understand the structure of the 5th grade.

     There are two sets of paired teachers, each consisting of a
language arts teacher and a mathematics/science teacher.  Each
teacher has a homeroom class.  The homeroom class receives
instruction during the morning class hours depending on the
particular homeroom teacher's area of expertise. At noon the
students move to the classroom of their homeroom teacher's partner
for instruction in the other subject area. 

     The four homeroom teachers involved in the paired teaching
concept will be randomly selected by the researcher to receive
graphic feedback or to serve as the control group.  The first
experimental group will receive graphic feedback reflecting only
grades in mathematics, the second will receive feedback only in
language arts.  The third group will receive feedback in both math
and language arts while the fourth group will serve as a natural
control group and receive no feedback.

     The fifth section of 5th graders works in a self-contained
classroom and receives both language arts, math and science
instruction from the same teacher.  This class was also selected to
serve as part of the natural control group. 

Instrumentation  

     Data for the study will be collected by using the following
instruments: (1) The Children's Academic Intrinsic Motivation
Inventory (CAIMI); (2) a mathematics achievement test, and, (3) a
student questionnaire.  

The Children's Academic Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (CAIMI)
     
     It should be noted that very few non-projective instruments
have been designed explicitly for the measurement of student
motivation.  Because of this fact, there are few alternatives to
choose from.  The Children's Academic Intrinsic Motivation
Inventory (CAIMI) was selected for its validity and reliability as
well as for the fact that it is the only such instrument that
provides motivation scores for specific subject areas.     

     The CAIMI was developed by Gottfried (1985) and is used to
measure student intrinsic motivation.   It is comprised of four
content scales measuring motivational attitude in (1) reading, (2)
math, (3) science and (4) social studies and one scale measuring
general motivational orientation.  

     Posey, in reviewing the reliability of the instrument (Buros,
1987), stated: 
     
     Reliability of the CAIMI appears to be adequate.  Two-       
     month retest coefficients ranged from .66 to .76.            
     Internal consistency coefficients range from .83 to .93.     
     Thus, reliability has been demonstrated, with no             
     differences found as a function of race, sex or IQ. (p.162)
        
     Since the population for this study was so culturally diverse,
it is important to note that Posey stated, "The scales appear to be
free of sex and racial bias, and should be fairly resistant to
response sets" (p. 162).  

    Construct validity is based on modest correlation (.17 to .64)
with the Harter (1981) Scale of Intrinsic Versus Extrinsic
Orientation in the Classroom.  In summing up his review of the
CAIMI, Posey stated:

     The CAIMI appears top be a reliable and unique measure of
     an attribute labeled "academic intrinsic motivation ".
     (p. 162)


The Mathematics Achievement Test

     The researcher reviewed several standardized mathematics tests
prior to deciding to develop an examination specifically for this
study.  The researcher feels that the development and
administration of an instrument that could accurately and rapidly
judge the mathematics computational achievement of 5th grade
students would be less time consuming than the logistics of
acquiring and administering one of the more popular standardized
tests. 

     The mathematics achievement test will be used as both a
pre-test and post-test instrument.  It will be developed
specifically by the researcher for this study by referencing the
grade level mathematics goals published by DCPS and a textbook used
throughout the county to teach 5th grade mathematics (Abbott and
Wells, 1985).  

     In developing the instrument, sampling and item validity will
be assured by randomly selecting a twenty-five item test from
quarterly and end-of-year examinations published in the previously
mentioned textbook.  The test will then be reviewed by an
independent panel of certified 5th grade mathematics teachers
employed by an elementary school with demographic characteristics
similar to that of the experimental school.  The panel of teachers
will examine the instrument and rate its validity as well as
observe for language or cultural bias.

     The test will be administered to a 5th grade sample
demographically similar to that found at the research school.  In
order to establish the reliability of the examination, a split-half
reliability coefficient will be calculated.  Split-half reliability
is one measure of reducing certain sources of errors of measurement
that is reliable and works well regardless of the layout of the
test (Gay, 1987).  The answer sheets will be analyzed and two sets
of scores will be developed for each examination, one score
representing the odd-numbered questions on the examination with the
other score representing the even-numbered questions.  The results
of the two scores will be correlated.  Since the split-half
coefficient is a measurement of only half of the original test, it
is acceptable to apply a correction formula to the coefficient
(Gay, 1987).  The Spearman-Brown prophecy formula will be applied
to the calculated coefficient.  It is anticipated that a
correlation coefficient greater than .70 will be deemed acceptable
for this instrument (Gay, 1987).
 
                           Methodology
     
     Due to the use of pre-formed groups, the design of this
research will be  quasi-experimental in nature.  Gay (1987)
suggested that the experimental model is the only way in which
hypotheses concerning cause-and-effect relationships can truly be
tested.  It should be noted, however, that certain qualitative data
collection techniques will be used to abet the data collected from
the experiment.

     The researcher will test and measure several constructs in
order to test the hypotheses presented earlier.  These included the
measurement of math achievement in conjunction with both math
motivation and general motivation in order to test Hypothesis 1. 
Due to the unique nature of the Children's Academic Intrinsic
Motivation Inventory, it was possible to measure math motivation,
language arts motivation and general motivation in order to test
Hypothesis 2.  Hypothesis 3 was tested by measuring math
achievement only.

     These constructs will be measured and the results tested using
the following methodology:

Pre-Test Procedures
   
1. The researcher will meet with teachers whose classes were
selected for the study to introduce the project as well as give
brief training as to how to administer the motivation and
mathematics instruments.  


2. Students participating in the study will be identified as those
not participating in the English for Speakers of Other Languages
(ESOL), Exceptional Student Education (ESE), or Career
Opportunities Motivated through Educational Technology (COMET)
programs as well as having returned the parental permission form
with an affirmative response. 

3. Student demographic and enrollment data will be collected for
each student involved in the study.  This data will be entered into
the computer-managed instructional system by the researcher.

4. The classroom teachers involved in the study will administer the
Children's Academic Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (CAIMI) to their
homeroom students that were identified as participants in the
study.

5. The mathematics test developed specifically for this study and
designed to measure 5th grade mathematics achievement will be
administered by the homeroom teachers to their students
participating in the project. 
           
6. A randomly selected group of students will be interviewed by the
researcher.  The interview  will concentrate on several areas
including the student's feelings about their classroom environment, 
their  achievement, their knowledge of or concern over their
standing in their class, their parent's knowledge of or concern
over their child's standing in their class and their study,
homework and test preparation habits.  

Treatment

     After this step, all the information necessary to start the
experiment will have been collected.  At this point, and for the
following eighteen weeks, the teachers participating in the study
will supply the researcher weekly grade reports for the students
included in the experimental groups in the study.  The researcher
will enter the data into the computer-managed instructional system
and create X-Y graphs, plotting those grades that are entered. 
Each graph will show a particular student's current grade for a
given subject area, plotted along with his or her grades in the
same subject area for the past several weeks (A maximum of nine
weeks, a standard grading period, will be shown on a single graph). 
Included on each student's individual graph will be a graph line
plotted for the student's class average as well as the average for
the student's stanine group (Appendix A). 

     During the time in which the student's are receiving the
graphs, distribution and discussion of the graphs in the classrooms
will be periodically observed to note environmental differences
among treatment groups.  
     
Post-Test Procedures

     At the end of the experimental period, the following steps
will be taken:
      
1. The teachers involved in the study will administer the
mathematics post-test to their homeroom students that had
participated in the study.  

2.  The teachers involved in the study will administer the CAIMI to
their homeroom students that had participated in the study.

3.  The group of students interviewed earlier will be
re-interviewed by the researcher to assess any changes in their
attitudes.  Attention will be given to the student's feeling about
the use of the graphs, as well as the reaction of their peers,
their teachers and their parents.  Particular attention will be
paid to the manner in which the students interpreted the
information presented to them in the graphs as well as what use the
student made of the graph.

     At the conclusion of the experiment, the data will be examined
to determine the effect that the graphic feedback had on each
student's level of intrinsic motivation, math achievement as well
as any correlation between motivational inclination and mathematics
achievement.