Applied Research Project: The Impact of Digital Reading Formats for EFL Learners,

6-8th Grades.

by

JP Murphy

An Applied Research Proposal Presented in Partial Fulfilment

Of the Requirements for the Degree

Master of Education

University of the People

Dr Michael Patterson

January 2023
 Research Procedure

The research will be carried out with the full cooperation of the administration and

staff at the author’s current school. The project was introduced during the Autumn

professional development seminar in September, 2022. The headmaster has been very

enthusiastic from the beginning and has introduced the topic to the governing body of the

school where it has also received support. Since that time regular updates have been provided

and the applied research intents and methodology have been discussed in department

meetings. This has resulted in the establishment of a professional learning community (PLC)

that is focused on following the development of the research, its implementation and

assessing the values that the results may have for the school. While the author, as primary

researcher, will be responsible for most aspects of the project, all activities will be regularly

reviewed, and all information shared with the PLC in an effort to provide ongoing assessment

of the consistency and quality of the research being carried out as well as providing a greater

number of informed professionals to communicate effectively with queries originating with

any of the school’s stakeholders or participants in the research.

Soliciting Participants

Participants involved in data collection will be in three groups. The first group will be

students, the second parents, and the third teachers. While the student participants will be

clearly informed of their right to opt out of the study population, due to the nature of the

research it is expected that most will choose to be involved. The students will be aware of the

research from its earliest stage and that participation will have no influence on their grade for

the lessons. While Briggs (2019) points out that when the teacher acts as researcher students
may feel they have no option but to participate, that ethical challenge is not expected in this

scenario.

Parents will be informed through the course of regular communication in both

physical and digital media. It is expected that they will also express an interest in

participation as the value of their input will be stressed as well as the greater possibility of

improving the educational environment, an environment that exists largely due to their

financial support, with their assistance. The research exists as tangible proof that their input is

respected and valued and provides a medium through which it may be recorded, analysed

and acted upon in the most advantageous manner.

Colleagues have been aware of the study since its inception and while it is not

expected that there will be 100% participation, there should be enough input from this sector

to create a valuable addition to the research. As they are aware that their participation, like

that of all individuals involved in the research, will be entirely voluntary no amount of

coercion or effort to enforce conformity can be ethically applied (OHRP, 1979). Therefore,

though this group might provide valuable data to contextualise the performance of the student

groups that comprise the focus of the study, it is expected that their input will represent the

smallest numbers of participants.

Informed Consent

Leaflets, as proposed by Briggs (2019) will be composed and distributed both

digitally through the school website to the parents and guardians as well as physically in

printed versions of the same text handed out to students. These leaflets will be bilingual, in

both English and Turkish to increase awareness and clarity of the intended research activities

and also comprise the consent form. The aim will be to not just to inform participants and all

stakeholders in the research, but to educate them on the exact focus and intended purpose of
the effort. In creating educated consent, it is proposed that participants not only agree to

become involved, but are made aware of what they will be asked to do and why they are

being asked to do it at the very outset of the project (David, Edwards, & Alldred, 2001).

Respect and autonomy will be valued aspects of the research to follow, and the most

beneficial approach is to instigate these features at the earliest stage of the data gathering

process.

Due to the relatively small number of participants it is felt that all questions that arise,

beyond those addressed specifically in the leaflet, can be answered personally and directly. If

a topic is raised that has an impact on the study population as a whole, it will be answered in

the most inclusive and transparent manner possible. Again in digital and print media to reach

the greatest number of stakeholders as possible. Those parents who do not provide feedback

for the consent form, either positive or negative, will be contacted personally by a member of

the PLC to clarify their position on the intended research. As the research does not approach

any of the indicators of potential physical or emotional harm those persons who might not

furnish a clear consent, either verbally or written, will be assumed to have supplied implied

consent (UCSF, n.d.). Similarly those given anonymous questionnaires will have given

consent by participating in answering the questions, a fact that will be made clear in all forms

of contact with the members of the study.

Data Collection Procedures

Data collection will comprise both qualitative and quantitative sets (Sani, 2013).

Quantitative data will be in the form of exam scores of the students, both past and present.

While qualitative data will be collected by questionnaires and interviews.

Student involvement will entail their exam scores, homework input and for some

individuals, interviews. The exam scores will be collected from results provided by
Cambridge A1 Movers, A2 Flyers, A2 Key for Schools and B1 Preliminary for Schools

exams. These are intended to provide background for the language abilities of the groups

involved in the research as well as a predictive diagnostics against which the results

following the research intervention can be measured. The school supports the administration

of the Movers exam for 4th Grade students, Flyers in the 5th Grade, Key in 6th Grade and

Preliminary for 7th Grade students. As the 7th Grade will be the focus group of the study,

exam results exist for most students covering the three previous years of their schooling

which should provide an opportunity for grounded analysis of the results of the exams

(Morgan & Harmon, 2001). The exams are administered by Cambridge trained personnel and

therefore represent data sets beyond the researcher’s perview and therefore not representative

of any bias or susceptibility to risk of the research study as a whole (Briggs, 2019).

Homework will be delivered, assessed and recorded using Google Classroom. For the

purposes of this study the assessment will be valued simply as completed or not completed

with no gradient applied for the quality of responses. This is intended to supply data relating

to the involvement of students in homework activities that are of interest to them, or merely

assigned classwork that will not be graded. It will be made clear that participation in

homework activities will not be reflected on their grades.

Interviews will be semi-structured (Taherdoost, 2021) in an effort to supply a flexible

structure that will create the most comfortable environment for the participants and

researcher. These interviews will be archived as audio recordings only and any use of the

participants' responses will be scripted and anonymous. Interviewees will be selected from

participants in each of the three 7th Grade classes involved in the proposed intervention. This

is in an effort to gather the insights and opinions of those involved in each level of the study.

The candidates for the interviews will be identified by those exhibiting both the highest and

lowest exam scores from each classroom, a total of six interviewees. This is hoped to garner
the greatest scope of data though it is understood that there is a risk of cognitive bias when

intentionally selecting participants based on exam performance (Murphy, 2022). However

this is deemed as justifiable given the intention of the study to judge the impact of student

interest in a specific genre in regards to their subsequent performance on these exams. The

researcher as an ‘insider’, i.e. a person known to the interviewee prior to the interview

(Briggs, 2019), can be perceived as an advantage in this stage of data collection as the

interviewee will be as comfortable as possible during the session and therefore be able to

express themselves in the most valuable manner possible to the benefit of not only the

research but of their personal autonomy.

For both parents and colleagues there will be short questionnaires, less than ten

questions, that ask specific questions with limited multiple choice questions The intention

here is to limit the data collection parameters to facilitate data analysis (Morgan & Harmon,

2001). There will also be a single short answer intended to provide the opportunity for

participants to input their own perspectives on the study which may open areas of

consideration previously beyond the researcher's attention. The questionnaires will be

delivered and assessed using Google Forms which will be relied upon to provide the overall

and statistical analysis for all responses. This application is able to consistently and

accurately translate the information provided into usable graphic representations, a facility

constantly beyond the ability of this researcher.

Briggs, S. (2019). Ethical research in the Secondary School Classroom. Teachers and

Curriculum, 19(1), 61–66. https://doi.org/10.15663/tandc.v19i1.332

Data collection strategies II: Qualitative research. (n.d.). California State University, Long

Beach. http://web.csulb.edu/~msaintg/ppa696/696quali.htm

David, M., Edwards, R., & Alldred, P. (2001). Children and school-based research: 'informed

consent' or 'educated consent'? British Educational Research Journal, 27(3), 347–365.

https://doi.org/10.1080/01411920120048340

Morgan, G. A., & Harmon, R. J. (2001). Data Collection Techniques. Journal of the

American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 40(8), 973–976.

https://doi.org/10.1097/00004583-200108000-00020

Murphy, N. (2022, May 27). Types of bias. CPD Online College

https://cpdonline.co.uk/knowledge-base/safeguarding/types-of-bias/

Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP). (1979, April 18). The Belmont Report.

HHS.gov. https://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/regulations-and-policy/belmont-report/index.html

Sani, L. I. (2013). Data collection techniques a guide for researchers in humanities and

education. Journal of Computer Science and Information Systems (IRJCSIS).

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Lawal-Sani/publication/278523873_data-collectio

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Taherdoost, H. (2021). Data Collection Methods and Tools for Research; A Step-by-Step

Guide to Choose Data Collection Technique for Academic and Business Research
 Projects. International Journal of Academic Research in Management (IJARM), 10(1),

10–38. https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03741847/document

University of California, San Francisco. (n.d.). Verbal, electronic or implied consent (waiver

of signed consent). Human Research Protection Program (HRPP).

https://irb.ucsf.edu/verbal-electronic-or-implied-consent-waiver-signed-consent