The simplest and the most popular experimental research design, the Pretest-Posttest Control Design ensures internal validity, that is, allows the researcher to know whether the treatment makes any sort of difference at all (Pretest-Posttest Control Group Design; Ohlund & Yu, 1999). In order to test whether the Alternative Treatment Educational Course for Parents of Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is beneficial at all; the researcher must take at least two sets of parents, randomly place them into two groups – the control group and the group that takes the course – and measure the results at the end of the course.
The dependent variable in this research could be the school reports or grades that the students with ADHD obtain, both before and after the course has been taken by a group of parents (Morgan, Gliner, & John). Of course, the control group is the randomly assigned group of parents that never has to take the Alternative Treatment Educational Course. For the sake of uniformity, all parents of ADHD students chosen for this research may be guardians of children of a particular grade in school, e. g. grade 4 in public schools.
The researcher may first divide the chief guardians of the children with ADHD, that is, parents holding the greatest responsibility over their children’s education at home, into groups based on gender. As a separate portion of the research, the chief caretakers of children with ADHD may be divided according to their educational backgrounds, e. g. high school diploma holders, college graduates, master’s degree holders and so on. The Pretest-Posttest Control Design allows the researcher to examine the benefits of the Alternative Treatment Educational Course by administering the test on a group of parents, e.
g. female guardians holding the greatest responsibility over their children’s education at home, against female guardians that do not take the course, thereby acting as the control group. If the Alternative Treatment Educational Course is taken by a group of female parents for a year, the dependent variable, that is, the school grades received by their children would be examined both before and after the course. The school grades of children of the control group of female parents would also be examined both before and after the experimental group has taken the course.
If, after taking the course, the female parents of children with ADHD have not benefited at all, and this is proved by the changelessness of their children’s grades in school – it would be clear to the researcher that the Alternative Treatment Educational Course is not viable. If, on the other hand, the researcher finds that the grades of children of those female parents that took the course have indeed improved, it would be clear that the Alternative Treatment Educational Course is beneficial for children suffering from ADHD.
At the same time, the children of the control group of female parents are not expected to see an improvement in their school grades. After all, the Alternative Treatment Educational Course is meant to help parents help their children with ADHD do better in school. By allowing the researcher to test whether a course is actually educational or something that is created soullessly for profit – the Pretest-Posttest Control Design saves money too that may be wasted on a course that has not been proved to be beneficial at all.
What is more, by allowing the researcher to test the course on different sectors of the population, e. g. parents that are high school diploma holders versus PhD holders, the Pretest-Posttest Control Design makes it easy to eventually offer the course to the population that is best receptive to it. This population may be specially targeted when it is time to market the course.
References
Morgan, G. A. , Gliner, J. A. , & John, R. Understanding and Evaluating Research in Applied and Clinical Settings. Retrieved Oct 19, 2008, from http://books. google. com. pk/books? id=8zJQ2muWTXsC&pg=PA90&lpg=PA90&dq=Pretest-Posttest+Control+Group+Design&source=web&ots=IwoKET3NRS&sig=Qouqe8F3Ng1tVOBkmi0GvR-0hJE&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=9&ct=result#PPA91,M1. Ohlund, B. , & Yu, C. (1999). Threats to Validity of Research Design. Retrieved Oct 19, 2008, from http://www. creative-wisdom. com/teaching/WBI/threat. shtml. Pretest-Posttest Control Group Design. Retrieved Oct 19, 2008, from http://www. fammed. ouhsc. edu/tutor/prepost. htm.