1. Scholarly Inquiry in WF ED
11 November 2013

2.  Measurement – Assigning numbers to
phenomena according to rules
 Research Design – Collecting and
organizing data to reveal relationships and
causation
 Data Analysis – Inspecting, cleaning,
transforming, and modeling data to
discover useful information

3.  Variables – Attributes that can take on two
or more mutually exclusive values
 Variables describing entities are measured
 Measurement involves the interaction
between a measurement instrument and
the entity measured
 Measures can be manifest or latent
 Measures must be reliable (accurate) and
valid (have meaning)

4. 
A and B must covary


A must precede B


A, and only A, must be
the cause of B

Covariation –Changes in
cause must be changes
in the effect
Temporal Precedence —
Changes in the cause
must precede changes
in the effect
No plausible
alternatives — Changes
in cause are only
explanation for effect

5.  Information is desired about a populati0n
 But, data is usually from a sample
 Problem is to estimate population
parameters from sample statistics

6.  Level – What is typical?
 Dispersion – How much do entities vary?
 Relationship – Do variables covary?