Details:Your assignments in this class will take place in two parts. In Part 1, you will choose a topic that you may use for your dissertation. You will discuss the theoretical foundations found within the literature to support the topic and suggest why this topic should be studied and the possible research questions your proposed study will answer. Although the 10 Key Strategic Points may inform your paper, this paper will not be your prospectus.General Requirements:Use the following information to ensure successful completion of the assignment:This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.Use the Proquest Dissertations and Theses @ Grand Canyon University link located on the database page at GCU Library to research/explore other GCU learner dissertations that have a topic similar to the one you have chosen.Review the 10 Key Strategic Points template located in the DC Network.Doctoral learners are required to use APA style for their writing assignments. The APA Style Guide is located in the Student Success Center.Use academic sources, including peer-reviewed journal articles, scholarly books, government reports, and other instructor-approved texts.Include a minimum of five scholarly topic-relevant sources (majority of articles should be published within past 5 years)You are required to submit this assignment to Turnitin. Refer to the directions in the Student Success Center.Directions:Using current empirical sources (i.e., published within past 5 years) to write a paper of 2,000-2,250 words in which you address the following issues:Choose an I-O topic of interest that you intend to use for your dissertation and delineate why it is important for the discipline of I-O psychology to study this topic.Identify the gap in the literature that your study will fill and discuss the problem you will address through the study.Identify the theoretical foundations (e.g., model or theory) and seminal author(s) of the model or theory.Discuss how the identified problem will be understood: Identify the questions your study will answer. Describe the location of your study. Define variables (for a quantitative study) or phenomenon (for a qualitative study).I have attached the ten Point Strategic Template as well as the link for the Proquest Dissertations and Theses site. My username is KCoyle2 and my Password is Twinzees96. This should allow you to access the site and find the five articles needed for the research. Please note they have to be within the last 5 years. My dissertation topic is on “Employee Morale and the effects it has on employee motivation in the workplace.” Please ensure that the paper and references is in APA 6th edition format and please use the 10 points strategic template to complete the assignment. The template is on the last page and the work should be completed within the template.http://search.proquest.com.lopes.idm.oclc.org/pqdt…
ten_strategic_points_template_with_instructions__1_.docx
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The 10 Strategic Points for the Prospectus, Proposal, and Dissertation
Introduction
In the Prospectus, Proposal and Dissertation there are ten key or strategic points that need to be
clear, simple, correct, and aligned to ensure the research is doable, valuable, and credible. These
points, which provide a guide or vision for the research, are present in almost any research. They are
defined within this 10 Strategic Points document.
The 10 Strategic Points
The 10 strategy points emerge from researching literature on a topic, which is based on, or aligned
with, the defined need in the literature as well as the learner’s personal passion, future career purpose,
and degree area. The 10 Strategic Points document includes the following ten key or strategic points that
define the research focus and approach:
1. Topic – Provides a broad research topic area/title.
2. Literature review – Lists primary points for four sections in the Literature Review: (a)
Background of the problem/gap and the need for the study based on citations from the literature;
(b) Theoretical foundations (models and theories to be foundation for study); (c) Review of
literature topics with key theme for each one; (d) Summary.
3. Problem statement – Describes the problem to address through the study based on defined needs
or gaps from the literature.
4. Sample and location – Identifies sample, needed sample size, and location (study phenomena
with small numbers and variables/groups with large numbers).
5. Research questions – Provides research questions to collect data to address the problem
statement.
6. Hypothesis/variables or Phenomena – Provides hypotheses with variables for each research
question (quantitative) or describes the phenomena to be better understood (qualitative).
7. Methodology and design – Describes the selected methodology and specific research design to
address problem statement and research questions.
8. Purpose statement – Provides one sentence statement of purpose including the problem
statement, methodology, design, population sample, and location.
9. Data collection – Describes primary instruments and sources of data to answer research
questions.
10. Data analysis – Describes the specific data analysis approaches to be used to address research
questions.
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The Process for Defining the Ten Strategic Points
The order of the ten strategic points listed above reflects the order in which the learner does the
work. The first five strategic points focus primarily on defining the focus for the research based on a
clearly defined need or gap from the literature as well as the learner’s passion, purpose and specialty
area focus. First, a learner identifies a broad topic area to research for their dissertation based on a
clearly defined need or gap from the literature — that they are interested in because based on their
personal passion, future career purpose, and degree. Second, the learner completes a review of the
literature to define the need or gap they will address, the theories and models that will provide a
foundation for their research, related topics to demonstrate their expertise in their field, and the key
strategic points behind their proposed research. Third, the learner develops a clear, simple, one sentence
problem statement that defines the problem, or gap, their research will address. Fourth, the learner
identifies some potential target populations they would have access to in order to collect the data for the
study, considering the fact the quantitative study sample sizes need to be much larger than those for
qualitative studies. Fifth, the learner develops a set of research questions, which define the data needed
to address the problem statement.
Based on the above five strategic points, the learner next defines the key aspects of the research
methodology in the following five strategic points. Sixth, the learner either describes the phenomena to
be studied (if it is a qualitative study), or develops a set of hypotheses (matching the research questions)
that defines the variables that will be the focus for the research (if it is a quantitative study). Seventh, the
learner determines if the study will be qualitative, quantitative or mixed research based on (a) the best
approach for the research, (b) the size of the sample they can get permission to access, (c) availability of
data collection tools and sources, and (d) time and resources to conduct the study. In addition, the
learner selects the best design approach considering these same four factors. Eight, the learner develops
a purpose statement by integrating the problem statement, methodology, design, sample, and location.
Ninth, the learner identifies the data they will need to collect to address the research questions or
hypotheses and how they will collect the data (e.g., interviews, focus groups, observations, tested and
validated instruments or surveys, data bases, public media, etc.) Tenth, the learner identifies the
appropriate data analysis steps, based on their design, to be used to answer their research questions and
address their problem statement.
Criteria for Evaluating the Ten Strategic Points: Clear, Simple, Correct and Aligned
When developing research, it is important to define the ten strategic points so they are simple, clear and
correct in order to ensure anyone who reviews them will easily understand them. It is important to
align all of the ten strategic points to ensure it will be possible to conduct and complete the research.
The problem statement must come out of the literature. The research questions must collect the data
needed to answer the problem statement. The methodology and design must be appropriate for the
problem statement and research questions. The data collection and data analysis must provide the
information to answer the research questions (qualitative) or test the hypotheses (quantitative).
Developing the 10 Strategic Points as a two to three-page document can help ensure clarity, simplicity,
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correctness, and alignment of each of these ten key or strategic points in the prospectus, proposal, and
dissertation. Developing these ten strategic points on a two to three pages also provides an easy-to-use
use template to ensure the ten strategic points are always worded the same throughout the prospectus,
proposal, and dissertation.
Value of the 10 Strategic Points Document
The learner can use the 10 Strategic Points document for communicating and aligning key
stakeholders for the dissertation. The learner can also use the document to get agreement between the
learner and the chair on the initial focus and approach for their research. The 10 Strategic Points
document is useful when reviewing the proposed research with the people or organizations where the
learner needs to get permission to conduct their research. The learner needs to obtain this permission to
conduct research, or site permission, before developing their Proposal. The document is useful for
communicating the dissertation focus when attracting a Content Expert as well as for reviewing the
proposal with the dissertation committee and the AQR reviewers. Further, submitting this document
with the prospectus to the methodologist will assist in demonstrating to the methodologist the
methodology, design, data collection, and data analysis align with the problem statement, research
questions, and hypotheses or phenomena.
Examples of the 10 Strategic Points Document
It is important that the ten strategic points are clear, concise, doable, and aligned throughout the
prospectus, proposal, and dissertation. Following are samples for a quantitative study and a qualitative
study. GCU does not recommend using a mixed method study, which requires the completion of a 10
Strategic Points for both the quantitative and qualitative method. A mixed-methods study should not be
proposed unless the learner has lots of extra time and resources to complete it. Additionally the learner
must be able to do both qualitative and quantitative data analysis. A qualitative study with numbers or
descriptive statistics does not mean it is mixed method study. Qualitative data can be displayed using
tables, charts, graphs and descriptive statistics. Following the examples below, there is a table to use to
develop your 10 Strategic Points.
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Example 1: Ten Strategic Points for a Quantitative Correlational Study:
1. Topic – Provides a broad research topic area/title: Relationship of Servant Leadership behaviors
in principals, school culture, and student performance
2. Literature review – Lists primary points for four sections in the Literature Review: a.
Background of the problem/gap; b. Theoretical foundations (models and theories to be
foundation for study); c. Review of literature topics with key theme for each one; d. Summary
a. Background of the problem/gap;
i.
The national call for school accountability is a critical issue that has gained
attention from federal educational lawmakers given the rate at which American
students are falling behind other countries influenced federal lawmakers in the
creation of the NCL Act (Koretz, 2009).
ii.
The school principal of the twenty first century has been asked to do and be
competent in more and more tasks than the previous two centuries of school
principals including improving student performance and the school culture
(Kafka, 2009).
iii.
The characteristics of school culture are complex, and a leader must understand
these complex variables before they create change with the school (MacNeil et al.,
2009).
iv.
Black (2010), who conducted a mixed method study showing relationship of
servant leadership and school climate, suggest additional studies in this arrea.
v.
Pritchard et al. (2005) explored the relationships between district and school
culture and student achievement.
b. Theoretical foundations (models and theories to be foundation for study);
i.
Servant leadership model (Greenleaf, 1977; Patterson 2003)
ii.
School culture models (MacNeil, 2009; Schein, 1985)
iii.
Broad set of studies exploring relationship among these two models and
performance in school. (Halawah, 2005; MacNeil et al.,2009)
c. Review of literature topics with key theme for each one;
i.
National Agenda: Need to improve the performance of students in schools to be
competitive as a nation (Koretz, 2009).
ii.
Changing Role of Principal: The role of the principal in American schools has
changed dramatically from its beginnings of uniformed education (Rousmaniere,
2007).
iii.
Servant Leadership in Principals Leads to More Effective leaders: The study
used the Self-Assessment for Servant Leadership Profile (SALS) to assess
whether or not a leader was a servant leader and the Leadership Practices
Inventory (LPI) to assess principal effectiveness. (Taylor et al., 2007).
iv.
Principal’s Behavior Influence School Culture: The principal’s influence on
school culture has an indirect effect on organizational and cultural factors of a
school (MacNeil et al., 2009).
v.
School Culture Influences Student Performance: A strong relationship exists
between school culture and student performance (McCoach et al., 2004).
vi.
Measuring Servant Leadership Behaviors: About 10 validated/tested
Instruments exist to measure Servant Leadership Behaviors some of which have
been used in schools
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vii.
viii.
ix.
Measuring Culture: Validated/tested instruments to measure culture exist and
have been used in schools.
Measuring Student Performance: State Test Scores are a standardized way to
measure student performance used across all schools in a state.
Methodology: The primary design from the Literature Review used to evaluate
relationship between Servant Leadership and variables such as culture, climate,
and performance has been correlational.
d. Summary.
i.
Gap/problem: There is a need to identify different approaches to improve student
performance
ii.
Prior studies: Prior studies show various relationships between two of the three
variables (servant leadership behaviors, culture and student performance) with
only one exploring all three
iii.
Quantitative study: Instruments and sources of data exist to collect numerical data
on the three variables
iv.
Significance: research will add to the broad area of correlating leadership, culture
and performance; research may identify specific approaches to be use by school
leadership to improve student performance
3. Problem statement – Describes the phenomena to study (qualitative) or variables/groups
(quantitative) to study, in one sentence: It is not known if there is a relationship between the
level of a principal’s servant leadership behaviors and characteristics as perceived by teachers in
principals, the school culture as perceived by teachers, and level of student performance.
4. Sample and location – Identifies sample, needed sample size, and location (study phenomena
with small numbers and variables/groups with large numbers).
a. Location: Alaska
b. Population: All schools in rural Alaska
c. Sample: One district in rural Alaska with approximately 20 principals who each lead a single
school
d. Number of observations for each principal in the sample: There are 5 to 10 teachers in each
school all of whom will be asked to complete the instruments on the principal
5. Research questions – Provides research questions to collect data to answer the problem
statement: R1: Is there a relationship between teacher-perceived principal servant leadership
characteristics and teacher-perceived school culture? R2: Is there a relationship between teacherperceived principal servant leadership characteristics and student achievement? R3: Is there a
relationship between teacher-perceived school culture and student achievement?
6. Hypothesis/variables or Phenomena – Provides hypotheses with variables for each research
question (quantitative) or describes the phenomena to be better understood (qualitative).
a. H1: There is a significant relationship between a principal’s servant leadership characteristics
as perceived by teachers and measured by the SLAI and teacher-perceived secondary school
culture as measured by the SCS.
b. H10: There is not a significant relationship between a principal’s servant leadership
characteristics as perceived by teachers and measured by the SLAI and teacher-perceived
secondary school culture as measured by the SCS.
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c. H2A: There is a significant relationship between the principal’s servant leadership
characteristics as perceived by teachers and as measured by SLAI and student achievement
measured by the SIVS.
d. H2A0: There is not a significant relationship between the principal’s servant leadership
characteristics as perceived by teachers and as measured by SLAI and student achievement
measured by the SIVS.
e. H3A: There is a significant relationship between teacher perceived secondary school culture as
measured by the SCS and student achievement as measured by the SIVS.
f. H3A0: There is a significant relationship between teacher perceived secondary school culture
as measured by the SCS and student achievement as measured by the SIVS.
7. Methodology and design – Describes the selected methodology and specific research design to
address problem statement and research questions: This study will use a Quantitative
Methodology with a Correlation Design
8. Purpose statement – Provides one sentence statement of purpose including the problem
statement, sample, methodology, and design: The purpose of this quantitative correlational
study was to develop an understanding of the relationships between secondary school principals’
teacher-perceived servant leadership, teacher-perceived school culture, and student achievement in
all of the schools in the Lower Kuskokwim School District.
9. Data collection – Describes primary instruments and sources of data to answer research
questions:
a. Independent variable: Level of principal’s servant leadership characteristics /behaviors: Data
will be collected using one of the standard instruments/surveys that measure the Servant
Leadership Style by measuring level of servant leadership characteristics in 6-10 dimensions
currently used for similar studies (Dennis and Bocarnea; 2005)
b. Dependent variable: Level of culture in the school: : Data will be collected using one of the
standard instruments/surveys currently used for similar studies that measure School Culture by
measuring the different dimensions of climate (MacNeil et al., 2009).
c. Dependent Variable: Student performance will be measured by the state/school standardized
test scores (SIVS).
10. Data analysis – Describes the specific data analysis approaches to be used to address
research questions.
a. Descriptive statistics to summarize the sample demographic data and the data on the three
variables
b. A test for univariate outliers to determine if any cases may not statistically be part of the
sample collected.
c. A test the assumptions of normality and homoscedasticity
d. Inferential statistics for testing linear regression for the three hypotheses
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Example 2: Ten Strategic Points for a Quantitative Causal Comparative Study:
1. Topic – Provide a broad research topic area/title: Impact of teacher collaboration within
Mathematics PLCs on Texas state math assessments
2. Literature review – List primary points for four sections in the Literature Review: a.
Background of the problem/gap; b. Theoretical foundations (models and theories to be
foundation for study); c. Review of literature topics with key theme for each one; d. Summary
a. Introduction and Background
i. Gap exists in tactics that contribute to improved performance in mathematics state test
scores especially for low SES Hispanic students (NCES, 2010). .
ii. Opportunity to quantity the relationships between collaboration in teachers and higher
state mathematics test scores (DuFour, 2011).
b. Theoretical Foundation
i. Models of collaboration (Naughton, 2006).
ii. Models of high performing schools (Sanders, 2010; Wilson, 2011),
c. Review of Literature topics with key theme:
i. Trends in Education at the National & State Level: Gaps exist in the performance on state
mathematics tests (NCES, 2010)
ii. Characteristics of the Low SES Student Population: Although performance gaps continue
to be higher for some high minority low SES schools (NCES, 2010), others are high
performing or excelling schools on state test results (Jensen, 2009; Dyson, H. 2008). .
iii. Professional Learning Communities (PLCs): PLCs are being established with
departments to improve collaboration and identify tactics to improve student performance
(DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, & Many, 2006).
iv. Teacher Collaboration: Collaboration has been shown to contribute to school and student
success in qualitative but not quantitative studies (Piccardi, 2005; Erkens, 2008; DuFour,
2011).
v. Teacher Collaboration (independent variable) can be measured using a tested and
validated instrument (dependent variable) (Naughton, 2006); Student Achievement can
be measured using mathematics results on state test scores
vi. Methodology: Quantitative causal comparative design: The study will use a causal
comparative design to compare two groups as has been done in prior studies
d. Synthesis/Summary
i. Background: There is Need to Close the Mathematics Achievement Gap
ii. Gap/Problem: Demonstrate relationship between collaboration in PLC and mathematics
achievement in high minority low SES grade schools
iii. PLCs: The Way to Implement Change is through Collaboration through PLCs
iv. Collaboration: Collaboration is a mean to Impact Student Achievement
v. Final Thoughts
3. Problem statement – Explain the phenomena to study (qualitative) or variables/groups
(quantitative) to study, in one sentence: It is unknown what differences exist, if any, in the levels
of perceived teacher collaboration within PLCs in schools identified as high performing versu …
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