Primary Task Response: Within the Discussion Board
area, write 200-300 words that respond to the following questions with
your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for
future discussions by your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use
examples to reinforce your ideas.
An important task in the research
process involves the development of a conceptual framework to guide your
study. Although the conceptual framework appears in chapter 1 of the
dissertation, it is related to the literature review in that it
identifies key concepts and topics that will be important for you to
address as you seek pertinent literature related to your proposed study.
You will continue to learn more about this as your dissertation journey
advances. You are no doubt already thinking about what some of the key
concepts are that are related to your topic as you have begun to explore
pertinent literature. Based on your literature review so far and the
topics you have uncovered, develop a graphic and short narrative that
represents how these key concepts are related to each other. Consider
how you envision the puzzle pieces fitting together.
Based on your literature review so far and the topics you have yet to
craft into the narrative (but have studied or annotated), develop a
graphic and short narrative that represents the logic and the story
illustrated in your literature review. Consider how you envision the
puzzle pieces fitting together.
Complete the following:
Take small pieces of paper or index cards, and put each key topic
and concept on a card. You may also put your assumptions and the context
surrounding your research topic on cards. Place the cards in front of
you, and move them around until you see a flow or logic. Note that few
conceptual frameworks are linear. Feel free to be nonlinear.
After you have determined the orientation of the pieces of your
conceptual framework and you are satisfied, for now, that your
conceptual framework depicts the logic of your approach to the research
topic, open your software of choice. The simplest way to do this is to
use PowerPoint. Duplicate the arrangement you developed with your cards,
using shapes, arrows, and so forth. Save the file. Then, save it again
as a JPEG file. Once you have saved it as a JPEG (or other graphic
file), then you can easily insert your graphic into a Word document.
Write a short narrative of no more than 200–300 words that describes your graphic.
If you would like a refresher on the concept of conceptual framework, go
to the CTU Library and click on the Research Methods (SAGE) database.
Once there, do a search on the term conceptual framework.