Ethics

It's funny, when I start to think about ethics within the realm of educational research I can't help but come to the realization that ethics are ensuring that no real definitive conclusions can be reached. And I say thankfully for the simple reason that the scientific method really does not apply to research done in an educational setting. For instance, a control group will never receive a "placebo" education. Meaning, researchers would never knowingly offer a substandard or false education in order to prove the effectiveness of another.

This is a crucial characteristic that not only separates educational research from medicinal, it also speaks to the sheer number of educational interventions that exist. It also unfortunately speaks to the number of bogus/ineffective interventions out there too. This is a double-edged sword that, as an educator, I must walk and be aware of when doing research or simply Google-ing lesson plan ideas. Believe me, there's a lot of crap on the internet.

I digress, but it's this human element combined with the fact that you really need to keep the best interests of the student in mind when conducting any research in education that speaks to the separation I spoke of a paragraph ago. And do me, this need to provide the means for a child/student to access the best possible outcome should be the crux of any educational research. At the heart of all research should be the student. Whether they are divided into groups, classes, or treated as individuals, good educational research needs to somehow, regardless of topic or stated research problem answer simple questions like "what helps students engage in learning, what helps students retain learning, and what helps students apply learning".

The text mentions ten specific guidelines that must be adhered to when conducting research with humans. They are all great, but unless I missed it, there was little abut keeping personal information confidential. The issue of confidentiality is especially important when I think about my particular research problem in regard to athletic activity and self-esteem in learning disabled students. When we're talking about personal things like a clinical diagnosis and issues of self-image, sensitivity to your research subjects must also be a component of your research as, in this case, key details like names, school names, and school location may actually prove to be counterintuitive.

Blog Post 3

For the purposes of this assignment, the research problem I will examine are the factors that contribute to the resignation of first-year teachers. With that in mind, the participants I will use need to be individuals who worked as teachers for only one year and resigned, never to set foot in a classroom again.

Probability Sampling

Simple Random Sampling
Pros
* Good for small populations
* Every member/individual of population has an equal chance for being selected
Cons
* Not good for large populations
* May be technologically dependent -- computers for randomization

Systematic Sampling
Pros
* Good with large populations
Cons
* Can be manipulated due to patterns within population -- periodicity

Stratified Sampling
Pros
* Through grouping, the results can be more representative of the population as a whole
* Less errors
* Grouping also leads researcher to consider more variables i.e. male v. female
Cons
* Can lead to lots of groups
* Cumbersome

Cluster Sampling
Pros
* Saves time and money
Cons
* Less accurate

Nonprobability Sampling

Convenience Sampling
Pros
* Availibilty
* Good at finding relationships
Cons
* Not precise
* Haphazard
* May lead to bias

Quota Sampling
Pros
* Representative of entire population
Cons
* Not random
* Subjects selected based upon specific criteria

Based on these breakdowns I would have to choose the method of stratified sampling to best discover the results. I imagine that there are a number of former first year teachers who never saw year two. These people will no doubt be as diverse as the school systems and students they educated. the use of grouping would help me, the researcher, place the resigned teachers in different groups and sample these groups in order to find any similarities in their responses.

Blog Post 2

The first article I chose is titled "Academic and Athletic Self-Concept of Students with Learning Disabilities". The title is what really drew me to the article due to the fact that it basically asks the same qualitative research problem I posed last week. The interesting thing though is that the results I expected in my problem are not the same as the results found in the study. I expected to find the research credit sports for increasing student self-concept among the population. This article, however, really only serves to further prove the point that students diagnosed/classified as having a learning disability have lower self-esteem and than their typically developing peers in regard to academics. Seems pretty obvious, especially if they've been told they are learning disabled and/or receive education in separate classrooms/schools.

The study was essentially a student poll taken at a private school for students with learning disabilities that reinforced the negative self-concept among this population and, to my surprise, found that athletics are no different. Essentially, students with learning disabilities don't think they're good at sports and don't really want to play them. 6% play because they want to and 83% of respondents said they only play them because their parents expected them to.

Dev, P., Smith, J.M., Lescynski, M., & Ladrigan, P.M. (2006). Academic and athletic self- concept of students with learning disabilities. International Journal of Learning, 12(5), 341-344.

The second article was titled "Relating Physical Education and Activity Levels to Academic Achievement in Children". Much like the first article this one is unique in that it is similar to the qualitative research problem I posed last week. This article looked at both physical education classes and how vigorous an activity or a routine a student performed in relation to academic achievement. The study found that the more vigorous the activity a student participated in the higher the academic outcome they achieved in relation to their more inactive peers.

This article was very short, but it answered a lot of questions and even left more open as the author addressed an point, students who participate in more sports are generally from a higher socio-economic class. The study was also interesting in that it championed phys ed in the curriculum but found that participation in phys ed produced no measurable affect on academic achievement.

Siegel, Donald (2007). Relating physical education and activity levels to academic achievement in children. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance, 78(1), 10.

The biggest problem I've encountered with my research has been finding a good amount of articles that relate to my research problem. This can be easily alleviated by toying with my research problem and/or looking at the problem from a new perspective.

Qualitative V. Quanitative

For the purposes of this assignment, I am taking a look at sports participation and its affect on high school students diagnosed with learning disabilities. More specifically, I will be looking at the positive affects organized sports can have on those students as they transition through high school and move toward adulthood.

If my aim was to pose a qualitative research question, the title of my article and/or the research problem I'd try to solve would probably look something like: Self Identity, Self Esteem, and Self Confidence: A Study of High School Athletes Diagnosed with Learning Disabilities and the Role of Organized Sports in Identity. This qualitative distinction is apparent due the subjective nature of the research problem. There's not going to be a whole lot of hard data in an article with that title. An article that carries that title will no doubt be more narrative in tone and nature and full of interviews in order to best describe the results.

A quantitative research problem that tackles the same issue would pose a research problem that asks a question like: Academic Performance and High School Sports from 1980-2000: Do Student Athletes Achieve Better Outcomes than Non-Athletes? This is apparent in the use of variables associated with the question as well as the prevalent use of data over a long period of time. This will question would no doubt over a number of participants and a very objective result.