Educational Factors that Influence Student Achievement - Research Paper Example

Do college developmental math s increase success in standard math s? Lecturer: Contents Introduction 3 Purpose of the Study 4 Research Questions 5 Central Question 5 Sub-Questions 5 Limitation & Delimitation 5 Significance of the Study 6 Theoretical Framework 7 Literature Review 8 The concept of developmental learning 8 Educational factors that influence student achievement 10 Research Design 11 Population and Sampling 12 Data Collection Tool 12 Research Procedure 14 Data Analysis 15 Validity and Reliability 16 Researcher Bias and Role 17 Trustworthiness 17 Ethical Considerations 17 References 18 Introduction Success with any higher educational course is the result of several factors that are put together as a whole. One such factor has been note by Malnarich (2005) to be the level of foundation that a student has on a particular course that is being offered. It is not surprising there that most universities and other institutions of higher learning have foundation courses that they make their students go through before starting regular courses at the various institutions. In other institutions, students are expected to exhibit some levels of competence with foundational courses that would have otherwise been undertaken before admission. In line with the latter scenario, Raelin & Raelin (2006) stressed that one way for students hoping to succeed with standard math courses to be assured of having the necessary foundational knowledge to do so is by equipping themselves with college developmental math programs. As explained by the Richland College (2013), college developmental math programs are “nationally recognized program that offers students basic mathematical literacy skills to live more functionally and participate successfully in college-level mathematics curricula” (http://www.richlandcollege.edu/devmath/). Because learning is a continuous process, it is expected that after students gain competency with their college developmental math courses, they will be able to transfer their learning into standard math course. In line with the above background, a problem has been identified where students who fail to succeed with their standard math course have not been able to find the actual contributing factors to their failure. Meanwhile, until the causes of problems are known, it is going to be very difficult to put in place any interventions that are aimed at solving the problem. This study is thus designed to look at the relationship between college developmental math course and success rate among students in standard math course. This means that the study is a correlational study that relates college developmental math program to standard math in a number of ways, which will be explained under the purpose of the study. There are other researchers who have undertaken very similar studies in this area, most of who share divergent opinions on the issue (Phillips, Bolduc & Gallo, 2013 and Goldschmidt, Ousey & Brown, 2011). It is however seen that for most of these studies, their approach to data collection was secondary data collection, making it difficult to justify the authenticity of outcomes. There is therefore the need for this study as it seeks to use primary data collection approach where participants will be contacted in person to gain first hand information on the issue. Purpose of the Study Based on the issues outlined above, the purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between college developmental math programs and success with standard math courses. There are a number of ways that this purpose will be pursued as part of the study. In the first place, the relationship between not undertaking developmental math altogether and success in standard math will also be explored. Secondly, the study will explore the relationship between success rate in development math and success in standard math. As part of the letter way of approaching the purpose of the study, the researcher will look at two categories of people and how their success rate at the college developmental math level affects their success with standard math. These are those who failed or scored below average in developmental math and those who passed or scored above average in their developmental math. This means that to achieve the purpose of the study, the researcher will have to encounter all manner of students engaged in standard math course, whether these people have background in developmental math or not. Research Questions In order to pursue the purpose of the study, the following questions will be asked. These research questions represent the kind of information or data that the study will be going after. By having answers to the questions through the use of qualitative approaches, the purpose of the study can be said to be achieved. Central Question What is the relationship between college developmental math program and success in standard math course? Sub-Questions 1. How will a student’s success with standard math course be affected if the student has no background in college developmental math programs? 2. How will a student’s success with standard math course be affected if the student scored high grades in college developmental math program? 3. How will a student’s success with standard math course be affected if the student scored low grades in college developmental math program? Limitation & Delimitation In the course of the study, there are some factors that will impact on the smooth running of the research process. These are generalized as limitations of the study. One of these has to do with the time frame within which the current study has to be completed. Since the current study is an academic research which has a specific timeline within which to finish, the research process may be affected in that the research has to be done within a limited period. Also, the research method to be used which is qualitative research will impact on the research process in the sense that it guarantees the use of subjectivity rather than objectivity. Meanwhile, this may affect the research process as it may lead to procedural problems having to focus the data collection process to suit the subjective dynamics of the respondents. Apart from the limitations, there are also delimitations, which impact on the study’s transferability. The delimitations can be seen to be directly reflected in the limitations of the study identified. For example, in order to use qualitative research to obtain in-depth understanding of the research issues and about the respondents, the researcher will have to use a very small sample size. In a situation like this, it might be difficult to transfer the outcomes and findings of the study to represent a generalized theory or conclusion. Significance of the Study With successful achievement of the purpose of the study, there are two major entities that will benefit from the findings. The first has to do with students, who seek to undertake standard math courses at higher institutions of learning. Certainly, every student goes into a course with the aim of succeeding. It is therefore important for the students to know the reality behind the factors that will account for their success, especially in terms of their background or history with college developmental math programs. Based on the findings of the study, prospective students of standard math courses will know whether or not they have what it takes to succeed. For continuing students, the findings will help them understand and appreciate their current success rate with standard math, based on their history or background in college developmental math. With such knowledge, it will be possible to find the right interventions that improve their performance. The second entity that will benefit from the study is school administrators who admit students into various courses of study. As far as standard math courses are concerned, these schools can take decisions as to whether or not a student’s background with college developmental math should be a factor to consider for admission. Theoretical Framework The research problem is basically made up of two components which form two variables for examination in this study. These are developmental learning and student achievement. Relating these two variables together, the effect of developmental learning through college developmental math is being sought on student achievement in standard math course. From the two variables, there are two unique theories that address each of them. The first theory is the theory of developmental constructivism which was proposed by Jean Piaget to explain that human beings generate knowledge and meaning from their interaction with their experiences and ideas (Tobias & Duffy, 2009). By implication, the developmental constructivism refutes the idea of internalization where it is argued that it is possible for humans to acquire mathematical concepts as part of their innate ability (Kirschner, Sweller & Clark, 2006). the fundamentals of the developmental constructivism theory thus supports the variable of developmental learning, where learning is expected to be a continuous process based on a student’s past experience and ideas about a concept that has already been acquired. In a related study, Doğru (2007s) saw that in order for students to succeed with a course in a higher institution of learning, constructivism learning has to applied in such a way that there are basis and foundations created to boost students’ interest and emotional ambitions for higher learning. As far as student achievement is concerned, achievement ideology is used to explain the role of motivation in student achievement records (Ford & Harris, 2012). This is because according to the achievement ideology, a person attains a state of success through hard work and education (Barnes, 2012). Under education however, the attribution theory of achievement ideology is used to explain that where there is lack of motivation in students, students are tempted to attribute their failures to a lack of ability (Ford & Harris, 2012). Tobias & Duffy (2009) however explained that in most educational settings, motivation comes to students in two forms, which are intrinsic and extrinsic. For there to be achievement in mathematics, Barnes (2012) stressed that it is important that a student has intrinsic motivation which empowers the student to believe in their capabilities. Based on this study, the past achievement of students in college developmental math programs is seen as a major source of intrinsic motivation for students. By implication, where there are previous cases of failure or abysmal performance in developmental math, students are likely to be discouraged from believing that success can become part of their learning. Achievement ideology in general and attribution theory in specific can thus be used to understand how student achievement comes about, especially when the achievement is based on an intrinsic motivation derived from what students have already achieved before. Literature Review The literature review is performed with the ultimate goal of finding out what has already been done in the current area of study. To help define the variables of the study, two major lines of themes will be reviewed, which are developmental learning and student achievement. Through the literature review, findings that supported and refuted each other on the relationship between developmental math program and standard math shall be found. The concept of developmental learning There are theories of student development that try to define and explain how the concept of developmental learning takes place. Writing on developmental learning, Ebbeck, Teo, Tan & Goh (2014) explained that learning is a continuous process and so the rate of success with a specific level of learning is directly related to how much learning has already been done in the past. Basing on the internalization theory, Wong & Pow (2012) refused to accept the position of continuous learning, stating that humans have innate capabilities of acquiring new concepts at any point that these concepts are introduced to them. To succeed in such subject areas however, Baek-Kyoo, Song, Lim & Yoon (2012) debated that the concepts have to be presented in a manner that meet the learning aspirations of students. By implication, there are two major schools of thought when it comes to developmental learning, with the former arguing that learning takes place as a developmental process and thus the need to be a foundation based on which new concepts can be developed (Lorch, 2014). The latter however accept transfer of learning but refuse to admit that learning of a given subject such as mathematics has to be continuous for success to be recorded. Because the emphasis of the study is on developmental learning, a number of theories on student development are reviewed. On the whole, three major theories were identified in literature which focuses on student development. The first of these is the psychosocial theory, which focuses on long-term issues which create a sequence as part of student development (Malnarich, 2005). As part of the sequential development, there are life-stages, each of which represents a new level of how much of a concept in mathematics can be acquired. Contrary to the psychosocial theorists who link psychological development to social development to form an overall life stages, cognitive structural theorists hold the view that students perceive and rationalize learning through academic experiences. By this, even though learning ought to be developmental, learning is not influenced directly by non-cognitive factors (Raelin & Raelin, 2006). The last group focus on person-environment theory, where it is said that interaction between college environment and students create social function conceptualizations that make the transfer of learning possible (Goldschmidt, Ousey & Brown, 2011). Educational factors that influence student achievement There are several perspectives in literature as to what exactly constitutes student achievement within the educational setting. Two such perspectives that were found to be relevant to the study were curriculum related factors and pedagogical factors. Writing on curriculum factors that influence student achievement, Shatzer et l. (2014) explained that the overall structure and setting of the educational curriculum has a major impact on student achievement. Supporting this position, Mercier & Doolittle (2013) opined that the curriculum is an elaborative structure that contains planned interaction of learners through instructional content, materials, resources, and evaluation methods. In effect, learners have to perceive this structure as meeting their personal and cognitive developmental makeup. By saying that curriculum factors affect student achievement therefore, Moolenaar, Sleegers & Daly (2012) explained that the way in which the whole educational structure is presented to the student; even before classroom interaction takes place must be seen by students as acceptable to their personal and cognitive preference. This explains why some students have preference for some courses rather than others (Mei, Fang & Yuanyan, 2013). The pedagogical factors are set to be post-curriculum factors that tell how the curriculum is presented to the student (McMahon, Peters & Schumacher, 2014). based on this, Simpson (2013) explained that a student may find the curriculum as preferential but when the pedagogic approach used in presenting the curriculum is not appropriate, achievement will be negatively affected. Based on this, it can be said that those who argue from the perspective of pedagogical factors refuse to accept the fact that the curriculum is an important factor in influencing student achievement. Rather, for whatever a curriculum is made up of, there should be the need to present it in such a way that meets student learning needs. Skourdoumbis (2014) stressed that there are several divisional factors under the pedagogical factors that determine student achievement, including teacher’s method of teaching. Relating the educational factors to developmental learning, it would be said that the perspective of curriculum factors rather than the pedagogical factors support developmental learning. This is because the curricula of particular courses are mostly the same for different levels of education. The only difference however has to do with the inputs that make up the curriculum. Research Design The study will be undertaken with the use of a case study research design. Diriwächter & Valsiner (2006) explained a case study research design to be a type of design or approach to research where the researcher identifies a specific case or issue within a given research setting and critically studies the case through the collection of data from the research setting. In the current study, the research setting to be used is a university department where students undertake standard math courses. The case to be studied within this research setting is the factors that influence the achievement levels of student. More specifically, the impact of students’ college developmental math program on their current success rates is investigated. Hunter & Leahey (2008) saw a case study as having the advantage of allowing the researcher to undertake in-depth collection of data from the research setting. This advantage also sets the rationale for selecting case study given the fact that the study is a qualitative research, where it is important to understand how people behave within a given setting and the factors that influence their behavior or actions (Given, 2008). Generalizability has however been mentioned to be a limitation with the use of case study as case studies often deal with issues peculiar with a smaller setting and thus comes with difficulty in generalizing the outcomes of the study (Moballeghi & Moghaddam, 2008). Population and Sampling The population of the study explains the people within the research setting with whom there is a possibility of including in the data collection process (Hart, 2008). This study’s population comprises standard mathematics students of a university. There are a total of 150 students in the department, made up of 7 different classes. Of the total population, 78 are females and 72 are males. Because of issues of time and the need to collect in-depth data rather than generalized data, a sample will be drawn, made up of 20 respondents. The sampling technique to be used will be a convenience sampling technique, which allows the researcher to combine two or more sampling methods that suit the need of the study. More specifically, the researcher will first use a purposive sampling method to divide the population into males and females. The rationale behind this is to ensure fairness in the gender representation of the sample. Secondly, a random sampling method will be used to select 10 females and 10 males. The rationale for using random sampling is to ensure that there is fairness in the selection process and that the researcher does not influence the outcome of the characteristics of participants in any way (Gerrish & Lacey, 2013). The random sampling method will be used by use of the register method where students shall be counted in the department’s register. Since there is an average of 70 students in both the male and female registers, multiples of 7 will be used in the counting. Any student whose name applies on a multiple of 7 shall be included in the study. Data Collection Tool Sharan (2009) explained that the data collection tool or instrument is a medium used to collect data from the participants of the study. In the current study, an interview is going to be used as the data collection method. More specifically, a structured interview will be designed. The rationale for using an interview is directly in line with the research design, which is a case study. As noted by Given (2008), like the idea of engaging in a case study, interviews help in coming up close with respondents and thus collecting in-depth data on a given subject matter. Structured interview will be used to ensure that there is uniformity with the data collection process and that individual data collection processes are focused very directly on the scope and purpose of the study. To achieve this, the interview questions will be based on the research questions. In effect, by collecting interview responses, the research questions which embody the purpose of the study will also be answered. Construction of the structured interview was done in phases. The first was to list out the research questions. After this, questions were developed from the research questions as reflected in the outcomes of previous studies. Then a beta testing was performed as an acceptance testing within the respondent environment to know if some of the questions needed to be tweaked (Bogdan & Biklen, 2007). The outcome of the initial interview structuring produced the questions presented below. Based on the questions below, the final set of questions were set without the research questions as a guide. 1. How will a student’s success with standard math course be affected if the student has no background in college developmental math programs? a. Did you undertake a college developmental math program? b. If yes, how similar are the concepts you learnt in the developmental math program with those in standard math course? c. If yes, how easily will you say you were able to transit fully into the standard math course? d. If no, what informed your decision to start the standard math course? e. If no, how difficult will you say was your transition into the full time standard math course? 2. How will a student’s success with standard math course be affected if the student scored high grades in college developmental math program? a. If you did a college developmental math program, did you score above average? b. Would you say your success with developmental math program was a deciding factor in choosing to read standard math course? c. If you scored above average in your college developmental math program, in what ways has your previous scores motivated you in performing well in your current standard math course? d. Do you admit your experience with developmental math program influences your learning in standard math positively? 3. How will a student’s success with standard math course be affected if the student scored low grades in college developmental math program? a. If you did a college developmental math program, did you score below average? b. What motivated you to take up standard math regardless of your low performance in college developmental math program? c. Will you say your previous performance has been a hindrance to your success with the standard math course? Research Procedure The research procedure shall be divided into three major stages which are pre-collection, collection and post-collection stages. At the pre-collection stage, the researcher will be engaged in activities and processes that get the research setting, sample, and data collection tools in place to begin the actual collection of data. This means that there will be sequential activities including the preparation of a permission letter and using the consent form to seek permission from the targeted university and department. After the permission has been granted, the sample size will be constructed through the methods that have been explained above. With the sample size identified, a participant consent form shall be sent to respondents, after which the data collection tool will be constructed. The second stage will be the collection stage, where the researcher will be engaged in the actual interview process. The interview will take place among the 20 respondents over a time frame of 10 working days, which means that 2 days shall be dedicated to each respondent. The interview will be a one-on-one interview so that the privacy and anonymity of respondents can be promoted (Seidman, 2013). It is also argued that engaging in one-on-one interview promotes confidence of respondent in responding to questions (Kasim, Alexander and Hudson, 2010). It is not expected that telephone or video interview will be used. This way, the researcher will come into contact with behavioral data from respondents including facial expressions, emotions and gestures (Moballeghi & Moghaddam, 2008). It is expected that the duration for each interview session will be 45 minutes. The collection of responses will be done through the transcription of the answers. This means that the researcher shall not make use of tape recording. The last stage will be the post-collection stage where the researcher shall analyze the data collected from the respondents. Data Analysis Qualitative data analysis shall be undertaken as a means of transforming qualitative data from their raw state into a form of explanation, understanding and interpretation that will be easy to use for decision making purposes (Hunter & Leahey, 2008). Of the numerous qualitative data analysis methods, the researcher shall employ the use of discourse analysis. As explained by Diriwächter & Valsiner (2006), discourse analysis is suitable for qualitative case study as it seeks to reveal not just a language’s usage but also the socio-psychological characteristics of the person at the center of the discourse. By implication, the data analysis shall focus on the respondents as much as it focuses on the outcome of the interview (Kasim, Alexander and Hudson, 2010). In order to make the discourse analysis effective, the researcher shall construct themes and codes based on the interview responses and as related to the research questions. This way, it will be possible to make sense of the everyday academic life of respondents as reflected in how they respond to the interview questions. Some of the approaches to making sense of academic life that will be used include whether respondents express themselves in simple ways, straightforward way, vaguely, or indirectly. Validity and Reliability Validity shall be used to ensure that the items on the research instrument are appropriate for achieving the purpose for which they are set (Sharan, 2009). Reliability shall also be used to ensure that the outcomes of the study can produce a relatively same line of results when repeated in other contexts where all variables are relatively the same as the present study (Seidman, 2013). Together, a number of strategies shall be used in promoting validity and reliability. These include the use of peer review and audit trial. As far as peer review is concerned, the researcher shall construct a research team made up of colleague students who will offer various forms of academic and professional examination to the research process. The audit trial shall also be based on the research team, where the members shall help in giving detailed account of the methods and procedures used. Apart from the research team, third party experts will be used for the collection of neutral and unbiased opinion about the credibility of the study. It is expected that once the data collection tool is justified for its validity, the findings will be so neutral and well representative of the issues that replicating the study in another setting with the same variables in place will yield a similar outcome (Sharan, 2009). Researcher Bias and Role The researcher has personally been involved in college developmental math program and may be biased towards the position that developmental math program has a positive influence on success with standard math course. This bias will however be taken care of by ensuring that there is fairness in the selection of respondents. Once the respondents are selected randomly, there can be an unbiased representation of educational background of respondents based on their experience with developmental math programs. Again, the interview questions are structured to cater for students with background in developmental math programs as much as it caters for those with no such background. In all, the researcher’s role will be only to facilitate the data collection process and not to influence the outcomes with the findings in any way. Trustworthiness Trustworthiness is important in this qualitative research so as to ensure that all stakeholders affected by the outcome of the study can confidently rely on the findings to take decisions. Where there is no trustworthiness, stakeholders and entities including students and school administrators cannot find the study’s findings credible enough to base on it to influence their decisions. One important way by which trustworthiness will be promoted is by ensuring that the researcher becomes an entirely third party with the outcomes of the study and nothing more. This is because where the neutrality of the researcher is brought into disrepute it will not be possible to guarantee trustworthiness (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 2003). Ethical Considerations Undertaking academic and professional research of this nature requires that all necessary ethical considerations will be followed, especially when there are human respondents involved in the study (Seidman, 2013). For this study, there are a number of things that will be put in place to promote the ethical consideration of the study. In the first place, the researcher shall ensure that all necessary permissions needed from the research setting are sought before commencing the study. This will be done by the use of a permission letter which is sent to authorities involved. The permission letter shall be endorsed by the awarding institution of study. Secondly, the researcher shall ensure that a consent form that explains the aim of the study, role of participants, possible risks, and reason participants must be part of the study is presented to the members within the sample. Respondents have to agree voluntarily before they will be included in the study. Whiles data collection is going on, the identities of respondents shall be kept anonymous. Their responses shall also be kept confidential and made available only to the researcher and for the purpose of analysis only. 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