Reflections on the Process of Writing an APA-Style Research Paper
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Transcript of Reflections on the Process of Writing an APA-Style Research Paper
Reflections on the Process of Writing an APA-Style Research Paper
Rebecca M. Wood, Alexandra Hebert, Kristina Schultz, and Kristina Soultatos
The Class
•Psychology 361: The Psychology of Early Childhood
•Students: 90% education majors
The ObservationUse the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (Revised*) to evaluate the quality of a local pre-K program.
Goals:
Research skill: naturalistic observationEvaluate the quality of pre-KApply research about the importance of
pre-K to a real-life situation
*Harms, T., Clifford, R. M., & Cryer, D. (2005). Early childhood environment rating scale (Revised Ed.). New York: Teachers College Press.
The APA-Style Paper
•Abstract•Introduction•Method•Results•Discussion•Reference section•Table
The Pieces
• 1. Find two peer-reviewed articles regarding the importance of pre-K and summarize them.
Include an APA-style reference section and in-text citations (article assignment; 5/250 points)
• 2. Fix mistakes in the article assignment, include corrections in a memo to the instructor,
and use the article summaries to help build a complete introduction section. Also, make a
skeleton of the headings for the rest of the paper and include a corrected reference section (Draft 1; 22.5/250 points)
•3. Summarize ratings given by the student and his or her partner on the ECERS-R in an APA-style table (Draft 2; 22.5/250 points).
•4. Correct mistakes in the introduction section, headings, and references, and complete the paper (Final ECERS-R Paper; 50/250 points).
The Process• Student confusion about the assignments,
especially Draft 1.▫Sample paper distributed▫ Instructor’s questions: More samples? Format
of samples?
• Students’ inexperience with APA style▫Resources were given at the beginning of the
semester, with numerous examples▫ Instructor’s questions: How to effectively
teach APA-style? Anxiety management?
Discussion of student feedback
•Themes▫The feedback on writing did help some
students think about their writing and apply what they learned to other courses. The memo seemed to facilitate this.
▫Confusion over Draft 1▫APA-style is confusing ▫General anxiety▫Article assignment is low-stakes. Is it too
low stakes?