Capstone Components
11 Needs Assessment & Guiding Questions
The story continues…
Another day, another piece of cheese … the mice are still in Harry’s house and Pickles is still not catching the mice. Harry and Physicus have a hunch about Pickles being overwhelmed by the number of mice.
Physicus asked Harry, ” What do you need to know now?”
Harry wanted to test the hypothesis of Pickles being overwhelmed by seeing too many mice at once. “Well,” said Harry, “I want to know if Pickles will attack any mice and how many mice cause Pickles not to attack.”
Physicus replied, “So, maybe your research or guiding questions are something like…How many mice will Pickles attack at one time? How many mice cause Pickles not to attack?”
“Right!” said Harry. “This would tell me what I need to know to build a strategy to solve the problem. If I know how many mice will cause Pickles not to attack, perhaps I can control the number of mice Pickles encounters at a time. Then Pickles will get rid of all the mice and solve my problem!”
Interpreting the Story
The friends now form questions they will use to test their hypothesis about Pickles’ motivation to attack the mice. The first question about how many mice Pickles will attack is important. This tells Harry that Pickles will attack the mice. Since the number of mice seems to influence Pickles’ motivation, then finding the maximum number of mice Pickles will attack at one time provides valuable information. The answers to these guiding questions will tell them what they need to know to fulfill the purpose of Harry’s research project, which was to save his cheese by building a strategy to get Pickles to hunt the mice. These questions will guide the design of the needs assessment.
Harry’s guiding questions:
- How many mice will Pickles attack at one time?
- How many mice in the room causes Pickles not to attack?
Needs Assessment
The Needs Assessment heading explains how the empirical evidence obtained supports and informs the development of the capstone product. The heading occurs in Chapter 2 of the capstone project document. The heading introduces the chapter and provides an overview of the needs assessment.
A needs assessment involves active research to collect and analyze data to answer the guiding questions. The needs assessment is conducted to determine what is “needed” to build into the product to solve the problem. For example, a survey of specific strategies teachers desire to learn can provide important the needed information for creating a professional development series (product). The writing explains the applied research methodology used, and the findings obtained. The Needs Assessment and the Literature Review are used to support the development of the capstone product.
Guiding Questions
The Guiding Questions express what data you seek in the project. The guiding questions, are also known as research questions. The questions are writing narrowly to obtain one piece of information, reflect the problem to be addressed, and indicate whether data are collected qualitatively or quantitatively. Guiding Questions also connect the problem to the project frame. These are written in such a way that when the questions are answered, the results will guide the development of the product.
The Guiding Questions are crafted to obtain a single numerical result or are crafted with open-ended questions. Guiding questions are never answered with a “yes” or “no” response. Instead, questions use phrases, such as “to what extent,” “how frequently,” etc. to express the intended result.
How the guiding questions are phrased indicates how to collect the data to answer the question. If the questions ask how frequently, then the data collected would need to be frequency data. If the question refers to average assessment scores, then the data would be average scores. This is an important consideration in building a capstone project.
The Guiding Questions heading is written as a list of numbered questions. Generally, there are four or five questions. The heading does not need a narrative unless required by an instructor or institution. Simply stating, “The following questions will guide the project:” is usually sufficient.
Telling the Research Story
The Guiding Questions heading asks the questions that guide the research story. The questions address the conflict, relate to the point of view, and guide the plot of the story (methodology). The questions are answered in the climax of the research story and guide how the story will resolve in the end. The questions also increase the tension and anticipation in the story.
The Guiding Questions heading appears in Chapter 2 of the capstone projects. The guiding questions in a capstone project are answered by the analyzed data collected from the needs assessment.
