Step 3 // Selecting our outcomes

In order for us to select our outcomes, we used four focus questions to help us plan our study:

What questions did we want to answer?

We wanted to find out whether music helped people to study and get higher scores in a test. We also wanted to discover whether listening to classical music or pop music is better for studying and test scores. As well as that we wanted to find out if listening to music with headphones or speakers is better for studying. We had a lot to do.

What would our testing environment be like?

We used two classrooms and a library to do the tests. The control group would do the test in sixth classes classroom, the pop speakers and classical speakers would take the test in fifth classes classroom and the pop headphones and classical headphones would do the test the in the library. We would try our best to stop any attempts of cheating and any messing while the testing and studying went on.

What jobs would we need?

Everyone had a job to do, so we just picked them at random. We needed two people to write the consent forms and two people to write the post test and pretest. We also needed two people to split fourth and fifth class into groups (randomly). There was five administrators, who were in charge of the different groups, they had two or three helpers in the room with them. We would have two photographers to take pictures of the different stages of the trial. The whole class would pitch in with brainstorming ideas and analysing the tests and information. We would work together as a class to get the website and trial done.

How would we assess the study?

The material to study was a list of the Prime Ministers of Australia, and the years they were in office for. We chose this as we knew it was a random thing to study and would be a good measure for assessing our study. We would use a pre-test to show that this was an area that was new to the children, and would compare results of the post tests in order to find out what method was most effective. We would also distribute questionnaires to the children on completion of the post test to give us their opinions. The test results would give us quantitative data and the questionnaire answers would give us qualitative data for which we could use to complete our analysis.