Critical Review of an Article on Teachers Behavior to Students - Essay Example

? EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH REVIEW By 28th, November, Critical Review of an Article on Teachers Behavior to Students Introduction Educational researches differ with other kinds of research in their strategy, methodology, and content of the study. Unlike other analysts who focus on individual’s motives, intentions, and reasons, educational research, go beyond the intentions and motives. An educational researcher has to start with collection of data in an attempt to understand the individuals understanding of the reality using either unstructured or interviews. After data collection, an educational researcher will construct social scientific theories about human relations. A major challenge that confronts educational researchers is access to data. Educational institutions are structured in a way that those in authority have the power to manipulate those in lower ranks who may be part of your respondents. In addition, for them to consent to a research, researchers need to give as much information as possible. Where the research involves children, researcher needs to seek permission from the parents (Scott & Morrison, 2007, p. 2-4). This paper looks into an educational article in quest to evaluate the scope, strategy, validity and reliability, reflectivity, and quality of the analysis. Aims and scope of the research Teachers are kind to those who have good marks’: a study of Japanese young people’s views of fairness and equity in school is an article by Emma Smith and Stephen Gorard, which investigates equity and fairness in schools. The research incorporates a substantial scope of the research and has an objective of adding on to the existing knowledge. It endeavors to educate the audience on the role of fairness in education. Apparently, equity, social justice, and fairness mean things to different people and the research delves into this understanding. Smith and Gorard suggest different meanings to the word fairness according to different people. It can mean treating everyone equally, or treating them differently so that the outcomes are similar. While it is unfair to treat students in the same class differently, Smith and Gorard provoke our thoughts to appreciate situations that may necessitate the teachers to treat students in the same class differently. For example, teachers with child with literacy difficulties in their class will offer special attention to them (Smith & Gorard, 2012, p.28) Additionally, the research embraces different paradigm necessary in educational research. They include a set of interrelated assumptions about the social world that guides the researcher in terms of tools, participants, methods, and results rendering. A good research has three paradigms including ontology, methodology, and epistemology (Mustafa, 2011, p. 24). The research follows the rule of ontology in that it has a good starting point that describes existing claims and assumptions on equality and fairness. In addition, it goes ahead to explain something beyond what is known or assumed. For instance, Smith and Gorard appreciate that not all students can be treated in the same way. Different students have differing learning needs and thus the teacher has to note them and offer quality teaching to each student. According to Riley as quoted in this journal treating students with different needs equally is unfair and encourage rebellious a behavior (Smith, Gorard, 2012, p.29). However, in their scope, Smith and Gorard suggest that students with problems in their class receive much attention than the bright students. This contradicts the purpose of the research, which is to determine if teachers are kind to those with good marks. The overall research strategy This research is qualitative in nature. The research adopted this methodology because English research they wanted to make a comparison with adopted the same. In qualitative research, researchers collect data through close observation and documentation of a particular phenomenon. By using case study, researchers were able to compare the issue of fairness, equality, and social justice in schools in both England schools and in Japanese schools. Use of semi-structured questions allowed students to make extra comments on the questionnaire and achieve the purpose of the study. In addition, by choosing qualitative method, researchers were able to capture some educational believes in the Japanese culture. It helped to capture cultural aspects of the Japanese, some of which that differ with the English culture. Validity and reliability Author’s argument and concepts seem quite reliable and valid. After selecting a certain population, a researcher needs to test if the test measures are in line with his intentions. That is validity measures the extent a test measure measures what is intended to measure. For example, the researcher can ask the question on how valid is the test to the intended decision. There are various forms of validity and researchers use them concerning what they intend to measure. In this research, Smith and Gorard make the content of the research more valid by going beyond the geographical region they intended to cover. The research involves a behavior on Japanese young people and the behavior of their teachers on the bright performers. However, research includes an even bigger population for evaluation of students from England. The study involved 1191 students from 9 Japanese schools in their final year and 2836 English students of the same age (Smith & Gorard, 2012, p.28). Other issues measured in this research that assisted in making the research valid is measuring the relationships between students and their teachers and the relationship between students with other students. Reliability refers to consistency in measurement. A test is reliable if the measurements portray the same scores or conclusions on repeated occasions. A good and reliable research is one where all the measurements have a degree of consistency over time. The research by Smith and Gorard included two similar tests. The first score measured the relationship between students, and their teachers. The second measured the relationship between the students and other students. In addition, to make them more reliable, they compared the results with those of English students to affirm the behavior. Since most of the test measurements had similar scores, the research is reliable. However, some of the test scores had significant differences, making them unreliable. Author’s reflectivity Smith and Gorard reflect on some of the strengths and weaknesses of their work. One of the strengths of this research is that respondents from English and Japanese schools have clear notion of what constitutes an unjust behavior and articulates them well (Smith & Gorard, 2012, p.42). This is an advantage to the research as it helps researchers avoid misunderstandings and complaining from students, which would interfere with the research. However, we realize that due to cultural differences were bound to bring about differences in the responses. The research does not articulately tell us how they overcome this bias. Another limitation is that the authors does not provide areas for future research Quality of analysis The authors concisely explain the outcome of the research, detailing similarities and challenges of the study. They acknowledge that asking some students about their experiences in school can appear intimidating to some but in this case, they were lucky to get students with a broader understanding. They also noted that many students enjoy their schooling and they feel that their learning has a purpose. The role of teachers in Japanese schools differs in that teachers are expected to serve the whole community including offering guidance on hygiene, lifestyle guidance, and behavior outside school (Smith & Gorard, 2012, p.42). In this regard, education in Japan differs with that of English but the author does not explain how he reconciles that. They fail to tell us why there is a big difference in some scores. For instance, the students who agree to teachers continued explaining until all students understood the topic is 46% for the Japanese and 63% for England (Smith & Gorard, 2012, p.40). Conclusion The study had a good scope that added to the existing knowledge on fairness, equity, and social justice. In fact, they suggest that teachers need to be reminded that equal treatment and recognition can only be applied in a specified domain. The study demonstrated validity, reliability, and overall research strategy. I recommend that future studies cover on the effect of cultural aspects on educational equality. This will help determine why some aspects have higher or lower scores from either the Japanese or England students. Works Cited Mustafa, R 2011, “The P.O.E.Ms of Educational Research: A beginners’ Concise Guide” International Education Studies, Vol.4, no. 3, pp. 23-30. Smith, E & Gorard, S 2012, “Teachers are kind to those who have good marks’: a study of Japanese young people’s views of fairness and equity in school,” Journal of Comparative and International Education, Vol.42, no.1, pp. 27-46. Scott, D & Morrison, M 2006, Key Ideas in Educational Research, Continuum International Publishing Group, London. Read More