A researcher plans to study graduate-level achievement in all students who were educated under the Vermont public school system, in a small town that used both state-mandated texts and enrichment texts of the school board's choosing
Considering the limitations to generalizability, how can the researcher justify conducting the study to the institutional review board? (Select all that apply.)
a. The researcher does not have to justify conducting the study. It has not been performed before, and so there is a gap in the literature.
b. The researcher could argue that if graduate-level achievement is markedly lower in this group, the results could cautiously suggest revision of the town's educational practices.
c. The researcher could write a proposal to study all towns in Vermont, so as to have been generalizability, and then study only this one.
d. The researcher could justify conducting the study on the basis that it might enlighten the public school system in its decisions to mandate chosen texts.
e. The researcher could reason that if graduate-level achievement is markedly higher in this group, the results could cautiously suggest a similar educational approach for other similar communities.
ANS: B, D, E
External validity is concerned with the extent to which study findings can be generalized beyond the sample used in the study. With the most serious threat, the findings would be meaningful only for the group being studied. To some extent, the significance of the study depends on the number of types of people and situations to which the findings can be applied. Sometimes, the factors influencing external validity are subtle and may not be reported in research reports; however, the researcher must be responsible for these factors. Generalization is usually narrower for a single study than for multiple replications of a study using different samples, perhaps from different populations in different settings.
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