Research Paper Guidelines

The research paper synthesizes 5 or more research studies published within the last decade to answer a question you find interesting in your study of educational psychology. The research paper should integrate course concepts, principles, and theories with the research articles. APA style is required in this 7-8 page, double-spaced paper (the length excludes the references page and cover sheet).

The paper should include references to at least 5 empirical research articles in peer-reviewed journals. Use the library databases to locate peer-reviewed articles within the last 10 years.

Finding Articles in Subscription Databases:

The PsycARTICLES database covers general psychology and specialized, basic, applied, clinical and theoretical research. The database contains more than 40,000 articles from 56 journals - 45 published by the American Psychological Association (APA) and 11 from allied organizations.

JSTOR is an electronic archive of titles, often going back to the first issue of a journal's existence. Articles can be found in the following collections: Arts and Sciences I, II, III, IV, V and Complement; Health & General Sciences; Business II and Biological Sciences. JSTOR does not include current issues of journals.

How can I find the Journals cited by the databases above that are not full-text?

Resources for Writing a Paper in Education and Psychology

APA style refers to the required formats and writing style of the American Psychological Association (APA). The fields of education and psychology use APA style and all papers in this course are to be written in this format.

APA style requires the use of non-biased language. Be as specific about individuals as possible and avoid using language that labels people ("at-risk students"). Avoid the use of "he" and "she" unless you are referring to a specific person. APA Style also encourages the use of writing in the first person ("I observed students in a multi-age second-grade classroom" rather than "Students were observed in a multi-age . . . "). Your textbooks and the research articles you will read in this course are written in APA style, so you should become more familiar with its format as you read more widely in the course.

Two major ways in which you will need to apply APA style in this course is in citing your sources in your papers (in-text citations) and creating a reference list of your sources for each paper. Examples of these types of formatting and citing are provided din this packet. At the end of the packet are samples of former students' work in citing and using APA style.

The following websites are recommended:
http://www.apastyle.org/
http://library.osu.edu/sites/guides/
http://www.library.appstate.edu/reference/howTo/cite/intextcitations.html#apa
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook

Examples of APA Style in a Student Paper

The following excerpts have been adapted from a student research paper (used with permission).

A sample research synthesis question:

Does a low socioeconomic status negatively affect social behavior in the classroom?

A sample paragraph of in-text citations:
Students with a low social-economic status (SES) have been shown to have lower communication skills, which can deter them from positive social interaction with their peers.

Bagby, Rudd, and Woods (2005) found that when students having a low SES work together they are more likely to use negative physical behaviors twice as often as students

working together in a mixed SES situation. Thus, these students are more likely to use physical behavior to communicate with an emphasis on negative communication when

necessary. Students with low SES are less likely to initiate interactions with peers, so their behavior is reactive (Bagby et al., 2005). Also, if they lack emotional knowledge

skills, they are more likely to exhibit aggressive behavior towards other students in the classroom (Miller et. al., 2005). Because of this lack of knowledge, the aggressive

behavior exhibited would more likely be physical (Bagby et al., 2005). Verbal and emotional skills are related to literacy because literacy encompasses the area of word

recognition and word usage, which are important in communicating with verbal and emotional knowledge.

A sample reference list with five research studies and the course textbook:

References

Ackerman, B.P., Kogos, J., Youngstrom, E., Schoff, K., & Izard, C. (1999). Family instability and the problem behaviors of
  
	Childrm from economically disadvantaged families [Electronic version]. Developmental Psychology, 35, 258-268.
 
Bagby, J.H., Rudd, L.C.,& Woods, M.(2005). The effects of socioeconomic diversity on the language, cognitive and	

	social-emotional development of children from low-income backgrounds. Early Child Development and Care, 175, 395-405.

	retrieved April 25, 2006 from PsychINFO database.

Chase-Lansdale, P.L.& Gordon, R.A. (1996). Economic hardship and the development of five and six-year-olds: Neighborhood

	and regional perspectives. Child Development, 67, 3338-3337.

Miles, S.B.,& Stipek,D.(2006) Contemporaneous and longitudinal associations between social behavior and literacy achievement

	in a sample of low-income elementary school children [Electronic version]. Child Development, 77, 103-117.


Miller, A.L., Gouley, K.K., Seifer, R., Zakriski, A., Eguia, M.,& Vergnani, M. (2005). Emotion knowledge skills in low-income

	elementary school children: Associations with social status and peer experiences [Electronic version]. Social Development, 14,
	
	637-651.


Ormrod, J.E.(2006). Educational psychology: Developing learners. (5th ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.