Running head: ANALYZING QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH 1

Analyzing Quantitative Research

Chevron McDonald

Concordia University- Portland

Running head: ANALYZING QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH 2

The article Motivational Effects of Test Scores of Elementary Students (Brown and

Walberg, 1993, p.133) was conducted to determine the effect of experimentally manipulated

motivational conditions on elementary students’ mathematical scores. Some of the classes were

provided with an additional motivational speech to determine if this would show a greater

performance in their test scores.The The article is based on a comparison of test scores between

the following two groups, experimental group, and the control group. Because this study has two

groups, this study is an experiment. In an experiment, an independent variable is manipulated

and the dependent variable is measured. Because the testing instructions were manipulated, they

are the independent variable and the test scores are the dependent variable.

After students took the test, they were asked questions, and the first author, Brown,

asked students for their reaction to the script that was read to them (Brown and Walberg, 1993,

p.134). After reading the article, the only research question that I was able to conclude was the

following, “Does using special instructions that included a motivational speech instead of the

ordinary standardized-test instruction improve standardized test scores?” The control group can

be identified as the students who received usual ordinary standardized-test instruction while the

experimental group can be identified as a selected group of students that received the special

instructions before a standardized test (Brown and Walberg, 1993)

In this study, a total of 406 students from 3, 4, 6, 7, and 8 in three K through 8 chicago

public schools were assigned randomly to the two groups. The authors collected the scores of all

the students in the participating grades and compared each condition-control and experimental,

with their corresponding mean and standard deviation. They also compared the scores between
Running head: ANALYZING QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH 3

condition and school and boys and girls.In my opinion, this data collection method does match

the research question. The results show that motivation can make a substantial difference in test

scores. Students asked to try especially hard did considerably better than those who were given

the usual standardized test instructions (Brown and Walberg, 1993, p.135). According to the

results, the authors conclusions are supported by the data collected. However, it does not show

the data collected for boys and girls, it only briefly mention it when it mentioned the results for

across grades.

Dealing with students there are always ethical issues. Since students were used as

participants and according to the fundamental principles of ethics, people with diminished

autonomy should be protected since they cannot make true informed decision on their own.

Although the students were asked questions about the instructions, their opinions really wasn’t a

deciding factor on the results. Their test scores were. Also, the article did not mention that the

parents signing consent forms even though the mention the parents being involved as part of the

motivational speech.
Running head: ANALYZING QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH 4

REFERENCE

Brown, S. M., & Walberg, H. J. (1993). Motivational effects on test scores of elementary

students. ​Journal of Educational Research, 86(​ 3), 133-136. doi:

10.1080/00220671.1993.9941151