Assessing Research

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Assessing Research Skills

Throughout your program, you will build and refine your research skills. At the master’s level, it will not be enough to simply state your opinion in your writing. Faculty will expect that you support the claims and arguments you make with quality, scholarly sources.

As you reflected on in your Unit 1 discussion, you are already coming into your master’s or graduate certificate program with skills and strengths. As part of this assignment, you will assess your research and information literacy skills and identify both strengths and areas for growth. You will have an opportunity to review resources recommended specifically for you based upon your assessment results, and will then reflect on what you’ve learned from reviewing those resources.

Assessing Research Skills Scoring Guide

Due Date: End of Unit 1.  Percentage of Course Grade: 25%.

ACTIVITY WEIGHTING
Identify information or strategies related to library research that you can apply in your coursework. 25%
Describe how you can use your research and information literacy strengths in your coursework. 25%
Explain why scholarly sources should be used to support your viewpoints in your coursework. 25%
Submit your completed Information Skills Reflection Worksheet as an attachment to the assignment. 25%

“Identifying Misleading Information In An Argument”

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Find an online article (news, magazine, journal, etc.) on any subject  that interests you that uses statistics to make its conclusion. Share a  link in this thread.

Now answer these questions about that article:

  • What is the premise and conclusion of the argument based on statistics?
  • Determine whether or not the argument uses any deceptive statistics.
  • Give your opinion on whether or not the argument has persuaded you. Explain why or why not.
  • Determine the primary ways in which statistics or authority are  used in your current position in developing persuasive arguments and  provide examples here.

Dependability And Credibility In Qualitative Research

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Dependability and Credibility in Qualitative Research

Using the qualitative article that you previously selected, post the following information:

  • Describe the type of data collected in the study and how it was collected.
  • Discuss how the researchers established the dependability, or reliability, of the data.
  • Discuss how the researchers established the credibility, or validity, of the data. Use the information from the qualitative validity article assigned in this unit’s studies, linked in Resources. Discuss how the credibility and dependability of the research contribute to the scientific merit of the research.
  • Post the persistent link for the article in your response. Refer to the Persistent Links and DOIs guide, linked in Resources, to learn how to locate this information in the library databases
  • Cite all sources in APA style and provide an APA-formatted reference list at the end of your post.

Response Guidelines

After reviewing the discussion postings, choose one peer to respond to. For your response:

  • Follow the persistent link to the article being discussed.
  • Using the language of research, explain how you agree or disagree with your peer’s evaluation, offering your own suggestions for improving the research design.

Resources

  • Discussion Participation Scoring Guide.
  • APA Style and Format.
  • Capella Library.
  • Persistent Links and DOIs.
  • Validity and Qualitative Research: An Oxymoron?

Conjoined Twins and Split Brain Patients

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Conjoined Twins and Split Brain Patients

As often is the case in science, the study of unique phenomenon can provide a wealth of knowledge and information about normal occurrences. This is true with regard to case studies of both split brain patients and conjoined twins. The unique experiences of these patients have contributed a great deal to our understanding of how the brain functions in a range of both normal and extraordinary circumstances.

Split brain patients are people who have had surgery to cut the corpus callosum, which you may recall, is the main pathway connecting the two halves of the cortex. Often this procedure was done to alleviate symptoms of epilepsy. These patients acted normal enough so that for the first few years after such surgeries were performed, physicians reported that there were no consequences of the procedure. Over the years, however, careful behavioral studies revealed that these patients appeared to have two minds at work in one body. One mind, mediated by the left hemisphere, could talk and respond to questions, while the other mind, in the right hemisphere, could only communicate by gestures and action. Remarkably, the left brain seemed to be unaware that another mind controlled half of the body.

In the case of dicephalic parapagus conjoined twins, (twins who share a body but have separate brains) it is clear that there are two minds because there are two separate brains and each of them can communicate. In craniopagus conjoined twins, there are two separate bodies but a shared brain or portions of brain.

The range of behavior, from relatively normal to unique, of split brain patients and conjoined twins raises questions about what it means to be a “person.” For this week’s Discussion, you compare and contrast split brain patients and conjoined twins, and explore what “personhood” means in light of what these patients can teach us about the brain and its functions.

With these thoughts in mind:

Explain how split-brain patients demonstrate the organization of the brain. Then, describe two similarities and two differences between split brain patients and conjoined twins. Finally, define “personhood” in your own words as it relates to split brain patients or conjoined twins and use the current literature to support your definition.

APA format

Plagiarism free