School of Education

Students are required to submit to their research committee a dissertation proposal, a document that is considerably more detailed than the prospectus. The proposal should contain the following elements:

• A statement of purpose
• Rationale
• Literature review
• Research questions
• Proposed procedures
• The sources of data
• Methods of data collection
• Methods of data analysis or data reduction
• The contribution of the study to theory and/or to practice

A meeting of the research committee must be held to discuss and approve the dissertation proposal. A dissertation proposal approval form is available in the Office of Graduate Studies. When committee approval has been secured, the form, together with a copy of the prospectus and the human subjects approval letter, must be filed with the Office of Graduate Studies.

Use of Human Subjects

If the proposed research involves the use of human subjects, the appropriate Institutional Review Board (IRB) procedures must be followed. Human Subjects Approval must be obtained before the data collection begins.