The final draft of your research paper/journal article, will be submitted as a hard copy. What appears below is an example of what your final draft should look like. The content of the draft below is irrelevant. In fact, the content of the chapters below is not related from chapter to chapter, and in some cases, the content is incomplete. What is of interest to you is the layout and overall organization of the document.
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Example Layout of Final Report (Content is Incomplete)
The Effect of Music on the Learning of Nonsense Syllables
by
Mark J. Toci
Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Literature Review Chapter 3: Methodology Chapter 4: Results Chapter 5: Discussion References |
Chapter 1: Introduction
Problem Statement
Testing can cause stress, and according to Klick (2014), students with higher stress levels had heart rates of 67.30 beats/minute while students with a lower stress levels had heart rates of 65.54 beats/minute. People are taking tests everyday. Some are being timed and some are not. The goal of this research is to determine how timed tests affect heart rate. In answering this question, we may be able to help teachers have a better understanding of how testing conditions can impact a student's level of stress and performance. In doing this, we may be able to assist teachers in creating more appropriate testing environments. Research Question Does limiting the time allowed to take a test raise a person's heart rate more than if they were taking a test with no time limit? Hypotheses Null Hypothesis (H 0) If it is true that being timed on a test has no effect on your heart rate, then when two groups of 10 middle school students are given the same memory test, but with one group being told they have as much time as needed to complete the test and the other group being told they have 5 minutes to complete the test, the group that has a time limit will not score significantly different from the group that does not have a time limit. Alternative Hypothesis (H 1) If it is true that being timed on a test has an effect on your heart rate, then when two groups of 10 middle school students are given the same memory test, but with one group being told they have as much time as needed to complete the test and the other group being told they have 5 minutes to complete the test, the group that has a time limit will score significantly different from the group that does not have a time limit. |
Chapter 2: Literature Review
According to Palmer (1996), students who study while listening to music do not do as well on tests as students who do not listen to music while studying. Along these same lines, the web site learning.com states that listening to music can inhibit learning in a variety of ways. The site goes on to say that although some types of music seem to have less of an effect on learning, all types of music seem to have a negative impact of learning.
Charles (2002) states that certain types of music may have a positive effect on learning but the research is inconclusive and difficult to interpret. Charles goes on to suggest that the volume of the music may also have an impact on learning. Finally, memorylearning.com says that where music is concerned "the memorization of strings of numbers was negatively affected by the presence of music in the learning environment." The site goes on to say that students who listen to music while studying seem to score lower on achievement tests. |
Chapter 3: Methodology
Independent Variables
The independent variable for this experiment is whether or not the subjects listened to music while memorizing the list of nonsense syllables. Dependent Variables The dependent variable for this experiment was the number of nonsense syllables the subjects are able to recall and write down on an answer sheet. Extraneous Variables There were several extraneous variables that we needed to consider and control. Volume of the music, outside noise, and type of music could all have an impact on this experiment........ Experimental Subjects The experimental subjects were 54 randomly... Control Subjects The control subjects were 54... Methodology Step 1: The randomly selected subjects were placed into two groups of 54. The experimental group was.......... Step 2: Step 3: Materials and Equipment
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Chapter 4: Results
Raw Data - Number of Nonsense Syllables Recalled
Experimental Group - Music
9 10 9 5 7 10 9 9 |
Control Group - No Music
10 12 14 12 15 16 11 12 |
Summary Table
Distribution
Summary of Findings
The mean for the Control Group - No Music was 12.75. The mean for the Experimental Group - Music was 8.5. The difference between the music group and the non-music group was 4.25. The calculated value for t is 4.5206. The critical value is 2.145. The calculated t exceeds the critical value (4.5206>2.145), so the means are significantly different. |
Chapter 5: Discussion
Based on our results, we reject the Null Hypothesis (H 0) and we accept the Alternative Hypothesis (H 1). Listening to music while studying does seem to have a negative impact on learning.
There are many possible reasons for this negative impact on learning. Music could disrupt the learner's concentration and make it more difficult for them to... Music may also... Finally, music may play a role in .. There were a number of extraneous variables that may have had an impact on the outcome of the experiment. The room in which the group that studied with music was noisy due to a ceiling fan. There was also a number of interruptions during the test. While the group studying without music took the test... If this study were to be replicated... Given the results of this experiment the researchers suggest that learners... |
References
Learning and Memory, learning.com
Palmer (1996). Music and Learning. Charles (2002). The Effect of Music on Learning, The Journal of Learning How Learning Works, memorylearning.com |