June 10 - Instruments in Your Research

After explaining who the participants will be in a proposed study, the next step (for quantitative research studies) is the Instrument subsection in the Method section. The Instrument subsection lets the reader/audience know what measuring instrument you will be using with your participants to test your hypothesis or address your research question.

Your Instrument subsection should contain at least three parts. These parts are:

1. A description of your assessment. For what is it to be used? Who created this instrument? Was it created by you or was it created by a national or state company? What sort of general purposes does the test serve?


2. A description of the validity of your instrument's use for what you are using it for. Have experts said that it is a valid measure? Who are these experts who have stated this? Does the testing company have evidence that it is a valid tool to measure what it claims to measure? Has the company field-tested it? How does the state claim it is a valid measure? Is it mapped to standards (national or state)? Have teams of experts examined it?


3. A description of the reliability of your instrument's use for what you are using it for. According to the PowerPoint on Blackboard, reliability is evidenced by a correlation coefficient. Examine the PowerPoint on Blackboard to see what is acceptable for this.

In addition to the above parts, if you are creating your own survey to use, you will need to give some example items from your survey. You will also need to indicate what the levels of your survey are for the items. In other words, does a "5" mean "strongly agree" and a "1" mean "strongly disagree?" You need to let the reader/audience know.

This is the type of information that needs to be included in your Instrument subsection of your Method section. One place to find information on potential tests that you might use is the Mental Measurement Yearbook. This is a very thorough source of testing information. You might also find information about state tests from department of education websites. In addition, certain test companies such as the Educational Testing Service, Harcourt and Brace, and Riverside may also provide information about the validity, reliability, purposes, and field-testing of their respective tests that they produce. Here are some example websites that might be of use to you:

1. http://www.unl.edu/buros/


2. http://arkansased.org/testing/index.html


3. http://www.riversidepublishing.com/index.html


4. http://www.pearsonassessments.com/HAIWEB/Cultures/en-us/Productdetail.htm?Pid=SAT10C


5. http://www.ets.org/

Please examine the model papers for additional insights on this subsection. Your instrument subsection helps give additional information to the reader/audience and should match your hypothesis or research question.