True and Quasi-Experimental Research True Experimental True experimental research can be identified by three characteristics: randomly formed

groups, manipulation of the treatment (the IV), and comparisons among groups. These will be discussed in the context of the following example. We wish to know whether cooperative learning produces better achievement among 10th grade students in mathematics than a traditional lecture approach. A group of students, n = 50, will be randomly assigned to a classroom using cooperative learning or to a classroom using lecture, with 25 randomly assigned to each classroom. At the end of a semester, a final achievement test on mathematics will be administered to determine which groups scores, on average, higher in mathematics. In true experimental research, the groups studied will be randomly formed. Recall from the section on sampling that random means a systematic approach is used assign people to groups, but the systematic approach used to assign has no predictable pattern. A table of random numbers gives this result; a flip of a coin also accomplishes this. For example, if we are assigning people to one of two groups, flipping a coin and deciding group membership for each person based on whether a head or a tail shows is random since one cannot predict accurately whether the head or tail will show. It is easy to confuse randomly formed groups, or random assignment, with random sampling. The two are certainly not the same thing. Random sampling is one method for selecting--picking--people to participate in a study. Random assignment is a method for assigning people to groups--it is not a method for selecting study participants. Also note that random sampling is not required for a true experiment. Randomly formed groups are necessary for a true experiment, but one could use convenience sampling to select study participants and still have a true experiment. For the example study, students may have been selected based on who was available-based on convenience, then they were randomly assigned to one of two groups. The second requirement, that the treatment be manipulated, means that the researcher has control of who receives which treatment. Manipulation in this sense is similar to the definition of politics--who gets what. If the researcher decides who gets what, then manipulation occurred. In the example, the researcher randomly assigned students to one of two groups, so the researcher manipulated who would receive which treatment, cooperative learning or lecture. The third requirement, well, more of a characteristic than a requirement, is that groups are compared. In most experiments, there will be at least two groups, perhaps more, which will be compared on some outcome of interest, some dependent variable. In the

example, the two groups are cooperative learning and lecture, and they will be compared on performance on the final achievement test.
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