Undergraduate
Research:
Critical Thinking
in Action
Lynn Grinnell, PhD
College of Business
Agenda
• Background: Why is primary research an
awesome way to teach critical thinking?
• Case study: Market research in Sustainable
Business Strategies
• Activity: Develop an undergraduate research
projects
SPC’s Critical Thinking Definition
• CASPER
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–
–
–
–
–
Communication
Analysis
Synthesis
Problem-solving
Evaluation
Reflection
Mapping SPC’s Critical Thinking
Definition to Primary Research Projects
Research
Critical Thinking
Research the literature
Evaluation
Identify a key question in the
field
Communication
Design the study
Problem solving
Create/validate instrument
Evaluation
Gather data
Analyze the data
Analysis
Draw conclusions
Reflection
Write/present
Synthesis
Team Project:
Market Research on Mass Transit
CASE STUDY
Prior Research:
What works in products
•
•
•
•
•
•
From: Convincing the Unconvinced
Saving money
Convenience
Perceived quality
Personal relationships
Technology and innovation
Solutions that work, not that sound
good
Prior Research:
What works in policy language
• Independence
• Personal responsibility
– Helping people personally
•
•
•
•
•
Integrity and ethics
Stewardship
Local solutions
Limited, not big, government solutions
Concern about
– Costs
– Next generation
– Personal health
From: Convincing the Unconvinced
Key Questions
• If prior research (focus group) shows
Participants Agree/Strongly agree:
–
–
–
–
Alternatives to cars
Reduce gasoline use
Reduce use of natural resources
Reduce waste
• Then why do the affluent not ride mass transit?
(e.g., buses)
• What features/benefits would convince them to
ride the bus?
Green Marketing Research:
Research Methods
• Primary research
•
•
•
•
•
Questionnaires/surveys
One-to-one interviews
Telephone interviews
Focus groups
Blogs
– Bottom line – what sells?
• Secondary
From: Green
Business
Practices for
Dummies
– Strategies for the Green Economy EarthJustice market
research
– Convincing the Unconvinced: presentation to Sustainable
Florida conference
– Information from already published sources: Books,
journals, papers, libraries, Internet
Developing Surveys
1.
Decide the information required.
2.
Define the target respondents.
3.
Choose the method(s) of reaching your target respondents.
4.
Decide on question content.
5.
Develop the question wording.
6.
Put questions into a meaningful order and format.
7.
Check the length of the questionnaire.
8.
Pre-test the questionnaire.
9.
Develop the final survey form.
Sampling
• Practical planning
•
•
•
Convenience sampling
Targeted demographics
At least 10 apiece
(minimum 25-30)
• Discuss proper sampling
•
•
•
Sample size
Random
Stratified
• (if needed)
Inclination to Ride Survey
This survey was developed by SPC Sustainability Management students to help them design a viable, eco-friendly bus company.
This will be followed by a Willingness-to-Pay survey in two months – please help by completing both!
1.
How many miles do you commute to and from work each day?
2.
Less than 10 miles
What is your average daily commute?
3.
Less than 15 minutes 15-30 minutes
How do you feel about driving in heavy traffic?
○
○
○
○
Very angry or
annoyed
Angry or
annoyed
○
○
Very negative
Negative
○
○
Over 30 miles
N/A
○
○
○
○
○
30-45 minutes
45-60 minutes
Over an hour
N/A
○
○
○
□
□
Cost
Inconvenience
○
○
○
Somewhat
happy or
satisfied
Happy or
satisfied
Very happy or
satisfied
○
Somewhat
Neutral
negative
Why do you not currently ride the bus? (Mark all that apply)
5.
6.
○
20-29 miles
Somewhat
Neutral
angry or
annoyed
How do you feel about public transportation in the Tampa Bay area?
4.
Survey Research
in MAN 3781
Sustainable
Business
Strategies
○
10-19 miles
□
□
○
○
○
Somewhat
positive
Positive
Very positive
□
□
□
□
□
□
□
□
□
Convenient
stops
Convenient
times
Comfortable
interior
Competitively
priced
Eco-friendly
buses
Amenities (TV,
Internet, radio,
working tables)
Access to
coffee/snacks
7.
What is the longest you would wait for transit before opting to use your personal vehicle?
8.
Less than 10 minutes 10 minutes
Are you concerned about environmental issues?
○
○
○
○
○
○
○
15 minutes
20 minutes
30 minutes or more
○
○
○
Very
Unconcerned
Somewhat
Neutral
Somewhat
unconcerned
unconcerned
concerned
9. How interested are you in high-tech solutions to traffic and/or environmental problems?
○
○
○
○
○
Very
Uninterested
Somewhat
Neutral
Somewhat
uninterested
uninterested
interested
10. How concerned are you in future development in the area? (traffic, commercial, residential)
Survey developed by:
Tara Bennett
Dan Deaton
Louis Neary
Caleb Stallard
□
Uncomfortable
Freedom of
Daytime meetings
Not
Other _________________
ride
own car
elsewhere
available
What features would be most important to you in an alternative transportation system: (Mark all that apply)
○
○
○
○
Very
Unconcerned
Somewhat
Neutral
unconcerned
unconcerned
11. How do you react to environmental advocacy marketing?
○
○
Concerned
Very concerned
○
○
Interested
Very interested
○
○
○
Somewhat
concerned
Concerned
Very concerned
○
○
○
○
○
○
○
Very negatively
Negatively
Somewhat
negatively
Neutral
Somewhat
positively
Positively
Very positively
12. Do you consider yourself:
Thank you for answering our survey!
○
○
○
○
Very affluent
Affluent
Comfortable
Other
Validating Instruments
(not done for this study)
• Content
– Construct validity
– Expert validity
• Reliability
– Internal consistency
• Generalizability
– From multiple locations, random sampling
• Clarity
– One-on-one test
– Small sample
– Field test
Online Survey Development
• Zoomerang or Survey Monkey
– Survey Monkey
•
•
•
•
10 questions/survey
100 responses/survey
Real-time results
Collect data via weblink, email, Facebook or embed in
blog/website
– Zoomerang
• 12 questions/survey
• 100 responses/survey
• Real-time, online reports
– Example:
• http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22D5EM2QKFJ
Analysis: Histograms
•
What does a histogram show?
– Number of cases in each group along a continuum
– Example: Amount of paper used
– Likert scale: Very satisfied to Very dissatisfied
– Shows the central tendency and variation
•
When do you use it?
– When you have questions like:
• How does the number of low users compare with the number of
moderate users and high users?
• Are more people satisfied or dissatisfied?
distribution skewed?)
(Is the
• Are most people in a broad range or a narrow range? (How
wide is the variation?)
• Are there one or two that are really out of line?
outliers?)
(Are there
How do you build a histogram?
•
Use Likert scale for opinion questions
–
•
Very satisfied to very dissatisfied
For continuous variables
–
(e.g., amount of paper used)
–
Determine number of bars to have
• <50 data points = 5-7 bars
• 50-99 points = 6-10 bars
• 100-249 points = 7-12 bars
• 250 points = 10-20 bars
–
Bar size = Range/number of bars
•
Sort data from lowest to highest
•
Plot frequency on the histogram
•
Each data point falls in only one bar
–
(e.g., 0-9 miles, 10-19 miles, 20-29 miles)
Analysis: Pareto charts
• When do you use them?
– Problem-solving: To identify the problems that, if solved, will
have the greatest effect on improvement
– To prioritize solutions
– Categorical variable (not continuous)
• What does a Pareto chart show?
– Separate the “vital few” from the “trivial many”
– Combination chart: raw number and percent of total
– Based on the Pareto principal
• 80% of the problems result from 20% of the causes
How do you build a Pareto chart?
Example: Water Audit
Pareto Chart - Step 2
72.2%
90.5%
96.6%
98.1%
98.9%
99.6%
100.0%
8000.0
105.0%
7000.0
85.0%
6000.0
65.0%
5000.0
45.0%
4000.0
3000.0
25.0%
2000.0
5.0%
1000.0
8000.0
7000.0
7000.0
6000.0
6000.0
BY
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50.0%
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BA
Gallons used
8000.0
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Pareto Chart - Step 3
Pareto Chart - Step 1
Gallons used
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-15.0%
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7131.8
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64.2
42.9
9881.7
Gallons used
LAWN
BATH
FLUSH
WASH. MACH.
SHOWER
DISHWASHER
WASH BY HAND
TOTAL
Publishing/Presenting Results
• Local/state conferences
• Web publishing
– Blogs
– Peer-reviewed
• IRB requirements
– Approval
– Consent (include in online survey form)
Activity: Research Study
Critical thinking in your discipline
• Given prior knowledge of stakeholders in your discipline,
develop a questionnaire on a controversial issue* in your
discipline:
– Individually: Develop 4-5 survey questions
– Share survey questions with partner/small group
– Brainstorm additional questions
– Discuss the demographics you want to collect
– Create a 1-page, 10-question survey (including
demographics)
* Controversial issues will promote critical thinking on different
points of view, assumptions, inferences that can be made
QUESTIONS?