شبكة المعلومات العربية التربوية

The current study aimed at identifying the standards that should be met in the research proposals of the postgraduate students approved by the academic departments of the College of Education at King Saud University as represented in the practice of the postgraduate studies committee, the standards which are met and not met in the research proposals of the postgraduate students approved by these academic departments and the importance of these standards. To achieve the objectives of the study, the researchers reviewed the literature available in this field, examined the references of academic research, the evidence from refereed educational articles and the evidence from the college and its departments regarding the elements of the research proposal, its specifications and the way of producing it. Based on the above work, the researchers developed a list of standards that should be available in the research proposals of the postgraduate students approved by the academic departments. The list included fifteen elements which are the title, the introduction, the statement of the problem, the objectives of the study, the significance of the study, the terms of the study, the limitations of the study, the theoretical framework, the literature review, the questions and hypotheses, the approach of the study, the statistical methods, the population and sample of the study, the tools of the study, the references and common mistakes. The list included 76 performance indices through which the extent of meeting the above-mentioned standards in educational research can be determined. The validity and reliability of the list have also been checked in appropriate ways. The above standards were applied to the evaluation of the ma and PhD proposals approved by the departments of the college of education in the academic year 1435/1436 AH which were 444 proposals, the population of the study. Whereas the sample of the study consisted of 44 research proposals selected randomly. The study found that both the male and female students met the element of statistical methods to a fair extent, whereas the other elements were met to a poor extent. Most departments of the college of education agreed on the procedures of approving the postgraduate students’ proposals, whereas there were very few differences which can be limited to the name of the committee, a presentation by the student of his/her preliminary research proposal in cooperation with his/her supervisor, submitting the proposal after the discussion to the proposal committee and discussing the proposals at the usual department session. The standards which were available in the research proposals of the postgraduate students approved by the departments to a good extent were the statistical methods, the population and sample of the study, the title, the questions and hypotheses, the objectives and significance of the study, the introduction and the terms of the study. The standards which were met to a poor extent were the literature review, citations and references, the statement of the problem, common mistakes, the theoretical framework, and the limitations of the study and the approach of the study. (Published abstract)