Title page

1. Near the top of the Title page, type your title and press enter once. Then type your name.  Press enter, then type your affiliation (Fayetteville State University) and press enter.2. Center the title, your pen name and your affiliation.

Abstract

All papers should have an abstract. As usual, the abstract should summarize the paper and should consist of approximately 75 words. The paper should describe your proposed change and the results you expect to have.

Introduction

The text of your report begins on a new page (do not type “introduction”).  Each subsequent section of the text (method, results, discussion) follows without any page breaks.  Each section is marked by a centered header (Method, Results, Discussion), with no extra blank lines between the sections.  

In this section of your paper, you want to discuss the background related to the “experiment” or proposed changeyou have chosen.  In particular, you want to discuss and explain the questions or problems that your “experiment”addresses.  Why is the question important?  To what other issues does the question relate?  How will the results of the experiment answer the question?  What are the major psychological or educational theories that are being tested?  

When you talk about the work of other people, it is imperative that you cite their contribution to your paper. So, as usual, you will have a References page with at least three sources.

Method  

This section typically has three subsections, Participants, Stimuli and Procedure (but your paper can probably just focus on the procedure or approach that you recommend). But for the purposes of our paper, it can be one section of 2-3 paragraphs. This would likely be the longest and most detailed section where you discuss how your experiment would be implemented. If it was a new course, you could list possible assignments, activities, lectures, and other features of the course. If it was a recommended assignment for my course, you could talk about the “scaffolding” for that assignment. What would you do each day of the assignment? If it was a paper, how would it be structured or evaluated?

Results

Normally, this would involve summarizing the results of an experiment, but in this case you will be describing anticipated results. Usually this is a single paragraph of about 75 words. If it was for my course, you could explain here why you think more students would be successful or pass with a higher grade. If it was for something added to the university’s curriculum, you could explain why student success at the university would be higher.  

Discussion

The discussion section begins by summarizing the project and explaining the implications of the results.  You should be sure to compare the results obtained (or expected) with those reported in the literature. Finally, the discussion should touch on broader issues.  For example, what implications does this research have for education, in general (or for HBCUs or non-traditional students or military students in particular)?  What are the limitations of the study, and more importantly, how might you overcome these limitations yourself? What other questions does the study raise?  How might you design an experiment to answer those questions?  You also might discuss what implications this study has in the real world.