Team oral presentations

Each student will make an oral presentation as part of a team. PowerPoint(tm) slides must be used.  Making an oral presentation is required to earn a grade higher than "F" on this course.

Purposes

1. Students will learn how research methodology and statistical techniques are applied in real-world criminal justice research
2. Students will learn to read and interpret scholarly articles in criminal justice
3. Students will have an opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of basic methodology and applied statistics

Selecting an article

Issues of the scholarly journal Criminology will be passed around in class. Each team will select an article from one of these issues to summarize and present. Select an article where the hypothesis is  explicit and the essential research question seems fairly straightforward. The article must be pre-approved by the instructor.

NOTE:  This journal is available online through the library portal.

Presenting the article

Presentations will be split up among the team. The following issues must be covered, in approximately the following order, using one or two PowerPoint(tm) slides for each.

Maximum time limit per team member is five minutes. Less is more!  Please rehearse.  You MUST bring notecards to use as reference when needed. BUT DO NOT SIMPLY READ TO THE CLASS (you will lose points).

Time will be allotted for teams to meet with the instructor in advance to go over their presentation.

TEAMS WITH FOUR STUDENTS:

Student 1 - INTRO

1. Article title, authors.

2. Nature of the research and its purpose.

3. Specify the hypothesis and briefly identify the variables.

4. Mention examples of prior research from the literature review and explain how they relate to the article's hypothesis.

Student 2 - VARIABLES AND MEASUREMENT

1. Formally restate the main hypotheses.  If there are more than one, explain.

2. Identify, in detail, the principal independent and dependent variables and state how they were measured.

3. For each key variable, discuss any validity and/or reliability concerns. Do the variables accurately represent the real world?  Do the measurement scales or categories make sense?

Student 3 - RESEARCH DESIGN AND SAMPLING

1. Restate the main hypothesis and briefly identify the key variables.

2. Identify the specific research design used in the study (experimental, quasi-experimental, non-experimental).  Be sure to explain how this design was used and why.  If existing data was used (e.g. a national survey), explain. If original data was collected, explain.

3. Identify the sampling technique used.  What was the sample? How was it drawn?

Student 4 - FINDINGS

1. Restate the main hypothesis and briefly identify the key variables.

2. Use one or two key tables to explain the main findings.  Was the principal hypothesis supported? Any of the others? Begin with the most important independent variables, then move on to other key independent variables.

TEAMS WITH THREE STUDENTS:

Student 1 drops literature review and includes variables and measurement.

Student 2 does research design and sampling.

Student 3 does findings.
 

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