Topic: children’s understanding of the earth
Remember that word limits are for the body of an assignment, only. They do not include the title page, abstract, quotes or references, or in this case, the method and results sections that we are giving you.
– Abstract: You should include an abstract (approximately 150 words) that states the central issue(s), what you did and what you found, and what conclusions you can draw from the findings. Obviously, you will need to write very concisely to fit this all in.
Introduction: Here you need to provide a rationale for the study. You need to (briefly) describe the research domain and discuss prior research that provides a basis for your expectations (research questions) and for the methodology we have used. You should end up with one research question relating to age, and one research question relating to methodology.
Discussion: Here you need to start by describing the relationship between your expectations (research questions) and the findings, and between the findings and prior research before going on to consider how the findings can be interpreted and whether any implications can be drawn from them.
Do link your findings back to previous research and theory before going on to talk about methodological issues.
It is certainly desirable to think critically about what we did (and you can draw on your own experiences in data collection with your participant to illustrate this, if you wish) but don’t just list a whole raft of things that may have been wrong with this study. Do remember that you were one of the researchers! Always discuss how any problems you identify may have affected the results. Is there any evidence of this?
