given only 100 to finance the study; and one term's sabbatical.)
Define the variables in the given title
After a Research Statement has been formulated it is very important that the
researcher defines any variables within it. A variable is any word whose meaning
may be ambiguous or which could have several different meanings. This is a
crucial stage in the planning process as a vague title renders any results at
the end of the research without true meaning.
In this case, the Research Statement is the given title ‘Describe how you would
plan and undertake an investigation into why some of this College's students do
not complete their degree courses.' Within this Research Statement there are
several variables : ‘college's', ‘students', ‘complete' and ‘degree courses'.
These variables will be defined as follows:
`College's' We will take this to mean students at Royal Holloway
and Bedford New College, University of London.
`Students' Undergraduates on a first degree (excluding post
graduates and so on).
`Complete' Graduate
`Degree courses' The course for which the student originally registered.
By defining the variables above there can be no confusion as to the meaning of
the Research Statement. This process also helps the researcher to focus on the
group of people that he wishes to study.
Decide on the purpose of the research
Having defined the variables in the Research Statement, the researcher now needs
to focus his attention on the purpose of the research, and consequently lay down
the Research Objectives. This part of the planning process allows the researcher
time to consider what he hopes to achieve from the research and ensures that the
research represents his objectives.
The purpose of our research is to identify the reasons for students failing to
complete the degree course for which they were originally admitted (variables
already identified). The results of the research would allow the college to take
action to encourage students to continue their studies and could even be used to
aid the selection process and perhaps prevent problems from the outset. This is
the final purpose of the research.
Who is to be studied
The researcher needs to identify the group of people upon which to base the
study. The process is made easier by the fact that we have already defined the
variables in the Research Statement. The research group has been thus so far
defined as those students of Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, University
of London who did not graduate from the first degree course for which they
originally registered. To concentrate the study group further, the research will
be based on those students who left during the academic year 1995/6 only. The
study will include students who were registered in all faculties within the
University.
Initial sources of information
Once the research group has been identified the researcher needs to consider how
to identify those individuals which fall within the specified group. In this
case, the information we require will be held in the College Registry and also
in the Faculty Offices. This information is confidential and is not available to
the public, and this difficulty will be dealt with in the next section.
How to begin the investigation
This particular research project requires the cooperation of a group of ex
students of the college on what may be a sensitive subject. Therefore, the first
action that we would take is to send a contact letter out to all those within
our potential research group. The letter would describe the research that we are
carrying out, it's purpose and the method by which we intend to conduct it
(thereby informing the recipient of what they will ...
“描述你将怎样计划和实施一项关于为什么这所大学的一些学生没有完成他们的学位课程的调查。”（你只有100美元的研究经费，以及一个学期休假的时间。）
定义给定题目中的变量
在形成研究陈述（research statement）之后，研究者明确地定义其中的变量就显得非常重要。一个变量是指含义不确定或具有不同含义的任何词语。这是计划过程当中的一个关键阶段。因为含义模糊的题目会使得研究结束时任何研究结果失去其实际的意义。
在我们的例子中，研究陈述是指这样一个给定的题目“描述你将怎样计划和实施一项关于为什么这所大学的一些学生没有完成他们的学位课程的调查。”在研究陈述中有这样几个变量：“大学”、“学生”、“完成”和“学位课程”。这些变量的定义如下：
大学 在这里我们是指伦敦大学哈洛威学院的学生。
学生 正在攻读第一个学位的本科生（因此排除了毕业后的人和其他人）。
完成 指毕业。
学位课程 学生最初注册的课程。
通过定义上述变量，对于研究陈述的含义就没有任何困惑了。这一过程能够帮助研究者将精力集中在他们希望研究的人群上。
确定研究目的
定义研究陈述中的变量之后，研究者需要将注意力集中在他的研究目的上，以此来确定研究目标（research objective）。计划过程的这一阶段需要研究花时间考虑他希望从研究获得什么，并且保证该研究反映了他的目标。
我们研究的目的是为了发现大学生没能完成他们最初注册的学位课程的原因（已经发现的变量）。研究结果可以帮助大学采取措施鼓励学生继续他们的学业，甚至可以用来辅助甄选过程，或者从一开始预防问题的发生。这是研究的最终目的。
谁将被研究
研究者需要确定研究所基于的人群。我们已经定义了研究陈述中的变量，因此这一过程会更加简单。目前研究群体已经被定义为还没有从他们最初注册的第一个学位课程中毕业的伦敦大学哈洛威学员的学生。为了使研究群体更为集中，研究将只关注在1995和1996两个学年离开的学生。研究将包括这所学校所有学院的学生。
最初的信息来源
一旦确定了研究群体，研究者需要考虑如何找到属于研究群体的这些个人。在我们的研究中，我们所需的信息能够在大学注册中心或学院办公室找到。这一信息是保密的，并且不会对外界公开。在下一阶段我们将解决这一问题。
如何开始调查
这一特殊的研究项目需要曾经就读于这所大学的一些学生就一可能较为敏感的问题展开合作。因此，我们采取的第一个步骤就是向所有属于我们潜在的研究群体的个人发送联系信。在联系信中我们会向他们介绍我们正在实施的研究，研究的目的以及我们计划实施的方法......
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