BlumKTeachingStudentsHowtoWriteaChapterFourandFiveofaDissertation.docx

1、BlumKTeachingStudentsHowtoWriteaChapterFourandFiveofaDissertationTeaching Students How to Write a Chapter Four and Five of a DissertationBy Dr. Kimberly Blum (With input from gathered by Dr. Marilyn Simon -Drs. Raghu Korrapati, Dr. Jim Goes, Dr. Frank Morelli, Dr. Carolyn Salerno, and Dr. Rita Edwar

2、ds thank you!)Copyrighted 2006The process of getting a dissertation proposal approved is often so stressful and time-consuming that the student has a hard time refocusing on the next step of writing chapter four and five of the dissertation. In some cases, overwhelmed students do not understand how

3、difficult gathering data can be, despite extensive notes by the student in year three residency where chapter four and five instruction is given. When the reality of analyzing data and presenting findings in chapter four and five occurs, students can be lost. A good dissertation mentor will help lea

4、rners re-establish an academic passion when gathering, analyzing, and presenting data in chapter five. A good dissertation mentor will help learners show academic passion for implications and practices of results in chapter five. The purpose of this article is to share a general outline of how to te

5、ach students to write chapter four and five of a dissertation. Students will find this outline helpful when beginning the process of writing chapter four and five of a dissertation after gathering data. Dissertation mentors can share this outline with students as a general guide. A discussion on Cha

6、pter four and five tips and outlines of sections follows. A qualitative method outline is included with information on a quantitative outline for chapter four and five.Definition of Chapter Four and FiveChapter four of a dissertation presents the findings from the data gathered by the researcher. Th

7、e nature of the design determines the presentation of the data. For example, one students “purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to determine the relationship between superintendent tenure and academic achievement scores” (Segori, 2006, p. 73). In this example, the student would organ

8、ize results by the significance of each hypothesis; present first any hypothesis that clearly showed a significant and high degree of correlation in chapter four.Section titles organize the data in a logical manner. Findings are presented in detail, in sufficient manner (Simon, 2006), and describe t

9、he systematic application of the methodology (Simon). Literature reviews for similarity are not part of chapter four and are generally part of chapter five (Creswell, 2004).Chapter five of a dissertation is often the hardest dissertation chapter for students to write, but if the learner is excited a

10、bout the findings presented in chapter four, a clear academic passion is apparent in chapter five. Chapter five summarizes presented in chapter four, but with a caveat who and why would leaders care about the results? For example, one student is researching if interventions enable nurses to pass the

11、 certification the first time to increase the numbers of nurses available (Carl, 2006). There is a large shortage of nurses and many nursing students do not pass the certification on the first or second time; the number of nurses certified limits any national disaster where a large number of nurses

12、is needed (The Pennsylvania Workforce Investment Board, 2005). The leaders who care about the results of this study are the nations leaders, health leaders who operate with a shortage of nurses, and sick or affected by catastrophic emergencies who will suffer when not enough nurses are available to

13、help during extreme times of national need (Veenema, 2003; World Health Organization, 2006; Center for Disease Control, 2006b).Chapter five should report findings in chapter four reporting a knowledge not reported by any other literature. Why do educational leaders care? Report the importance, meani

14、ng, and significance with passion in chapter 4 (Simon, 2006).In general, chapter five should have the same section titles as presented in chapter four to ensure that the flow of chapter five matches what titles in chapter four. A common student mistake is to present an analysis in chapter five that

15、has nothing to do with what information in chapter four so using the same section titles keeps the student on track. The mentor should remind the student that the reader needs to see a clear connection; there should be a connecting thread between all chapters. The student should remind the reader of

16、 the purpose of the study in chapter four and five as part of the introduction to each chapter (Creswell, 2004). The remaining sections of chapter four depend on the methodology employed and is divided by qualitative and quantitative designs in the following parts of this article.Chapter Four Qualit

17、ative VersionChapter four in qualitative studies by the nature of the design is typically longer than a quantitative chapter four where descriptions are the results of statistical tests in numerical format. In general, the length of a qualitative chapter four is 25-35 pages (Simon, 2006), depending

18、on how many themes chapter four discovered.Following the introductory paragraph where the researcher reminds the reader of the purpose statement. Simon (2006) recommends that the researcher include a section on the data demographics explaining the age, gender, or relevant related information on the

19、population. The researcher narrates a summary of the demographics of the sample, and if the table is concise, presents demographics in a table format after the narration. Otherwise, the table is included as an Appendix and referred to in the narrative of chapter four (American Psychological Associat

20、ion, 2001).Qualitative Chapter Four FindingsThe next section in chapter four should relate to the findings in the data. There is no single way to present the findings of a dissertation because the presentation depends on the design, but in general, a qualitative study typically analyzes qualitative

21、data for patterns or themes, and is presented based on the major themes found in the data. Common methods to present themes are based on the unit of analysis. For example, a unit of qualitative measurement could be leadership traits and organized into major patterns (Yin, 2004). If the design is his

22、torical, organize the findings by time (Creswell, 2004). If the design is a single-case study, the unit of presentation is the entire case being studied (Yin, 1993).Chapter four should not include a comparison of findings with previous literature studies that is part of chapter five. Chapter four sh

23、ould present the findings.Employ Section Titles for Themes and Sub-Themes.Regardless of the method of organizing the findings, use section titles to guide the reader. One example is to group the data by major themes found in the data itself, with each section title a theme of significance in the res

24、ponses. Significance in the responses means that a major count or percentage of the number of the population participating in the research study gave the same or very close responses. For instance, if the researcher interviewed 25 CEO women on how they broke through the glass ceiling to obtain top l

25、eadership positions commonly held by men, and 24 out of 25 women reported one method was to network on a daily basis, these similar responses would be a major theme. In contrast, if only seven out of 25 women responded in a similar manner, this lower percentage would not be defined as a significant

26、them. The researcher would report the theme in chapter four with this section title: Theme One: Daily Networking under the findings general heading.Under each theme, if sub-themes are noted, group sub-themes by the next level of section title headings following APA formatting rules. For example, if

27、under Theme One: Daily Networking, a sub-theme of 16 out of 20 women said that accomplishing daily networking meant picking up the phone, these responses would be a sub-theme. Another sub-theme could be networking by walking around the office, and with examples of what the women did while walking ar

28、ound the office presented. Present examples of what the women said on the phone after describing the sub-theme in chapter four.Add Outliers.An outlier is a response that one or a few of the respondents in the research study stated (Sproull, 2004). For example, if 2 out of 25 women responded that the

29、y did nothing different from their mail counterparts to break the CEO glass-ceiling this should be reported as an outlier with examples of exactly what the women said to back up the response.Outliers can be an indication of a significant theme the researcher often has a hard time noticing but the di

30、ssertation mentor can help the researcher become aware that the opposite response of the majority of the responses can be significant (Yin, 1993). For example, if four out of 20 participants in a research study about how many participants in the FBI said they used FBI provided computers to catch cri

31、minals this results would not be a significant theme. However, the same response means that 16 out of the 20 participants are not using a government issued computer despite to catch criminals. Report these results as a major pattern and not an outliner. Should all outliers be included in chapter fou

32、r? The answer depends on the design and the number of outliers included outnumbers the patterns, then the researcher should choose the most significance outliers that relate to the problem statement and purpose.Summarize Themes; Add Examples and Tables, Code Names.Under each theme and sub-theme, the

33、 researcher describes the pattern and adds counts or percentages in a narrative format (Creswell, 2004). After the pattern is explained, being careful to code the participants names such as R1 (respondent one), or W1 (women one), examples of some of the responses is typically included after the pattern summary. If the counts are n