Evaluating Different Research Texts - Essay Example

Introduction; This essay is intended on demonstrating my understanding on a range of different research approaches towards social topics especially in the field of education where I work in. The essay also demonstrates my skills in evaluating different research texts. Part 1: Perspectives on research The issue that I have chosen in my field is extremely important for the education sector. My Research Topic is: strategies of the schools and the college linking process: evaluating the effects of high schools on college enrollment. This research topic is approached and evaluated in the perspective of the following distinguished research paradigm/approach that is positivist interpretive constructionist Connoles (1993) research approaches as it is also a part of the study guide. In the Connoles research approach she has discussed Anorexia Nervosa is detail (Connole’s 1993 research approaches). Definition of Problem: Different school strategies influence the various outcomes for the students in different manners from various ethnic/racial and socioeconomic aspects and backgrounds (Avery, C. M. 1999). The Approach to Research; For finding out the relationship between the high school strategies which they use to facilitate college enrollment and students’ postsecondary outcomes, I have utilized data from the High School Effectiveness Study (HSES), which was convened union with the first and second follow-ups of the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS: 88-94). The sample used at the conjunction included urban and suburban high schools in which at least five students from the original NELS: 88 samples were enrolled (Paglin, C. 2001). The sample of NELS: 88 students in each high school were increased to create a representative sample of students for each school in HSES (Avolio, B. J., & Bass, B. M. 1999). Brief Description of Conceptual Framework: The study presented is based on the conceptual framework established in the literature that gives suggestions regarding the school resource structures and norms in order to facilitate college transitions that is an important mechanism through which schools influence college enrollment (Bass, B. M., & Avolio, B. J. 1993). This mechanism also depicts various and distinctive school strategies that have implication for stratification. By the use of a large sample of high schools and multiple analytic methods, the analysis was able to specify a typology of college linking strategies and model their effects on college enrollment, with particular attention to how these effects may differ for disadvantaged students (Bennis, W. 1982, May 31). So, in this way, the analysis offers an empirical extension of the literature that seeks to shed new light on the nature of stratification among high schools and its implications for students and its implications for students from different racial/ ethnic and socioeconomic status (SES) groups (Bryk, A. S., & Schneider, B. 2002). Main Hypothesis: Those Schools promote important racial / ethnic differences in students’ outcomes that primarily works and operates as a resource clearinghouse, in which organizational norms restrict their role as agents in the college-linking process (Burns, J. M. 1978). Major variables and their relationships: The other major variables that are inter-linked with each other include; (a) students/ teachers ratio and the minority concentration (School SES). (b) The math achievement of the school. (c) The Urban student’s ratio. (d) Catholic Private students. (e) The requirement of foreign language. (f) The ratio of male/female students. (g) The students who are Asians Black and Latino. (h) Parental education and income. (i) Family Based College Planning Resource. (j) College Matriculation. (k) Coefficient, odds ration between dependent and independent was also studied through the means of modeling statistics i-e chi square in differential and P-Value. Measure of Major Variables: I have used empirically valid major variables and indicators, given below: Student measures: It is the dependent variable that determines and predicts the College enrollment as a three category measure indicates if the student was not enrolled in college, enrolled in a two year institution or enrolled in four year institution in the fall following high school graduation. School measures: The use of a hidden class measurement helps in modeling the school strategy for proving facilities to the college linking process in order to conceptualize in terms of schools organizational structures and school resources (Murnane, R., & Levy, F. 1996). Other School Characteristics: The model that predicts the college enrollment involves the control for school context and composition, average academic achievement and average SES with reference to the ratio of students and teachers, construction of the racial and ethnic differences of the students(Meier, D. 2002). Data Collecting Methods: The sample provided for the study included 188 schools for which 1990 and 1992 survey data were available. The student-level sample included 1,354 students and was restricted to members of the NELS: 88-94 panels who attended the same school in the 10th and 12th grades and for whom postsecondary outcome data were also available. Missing values for school and student-level independent variables were attributed by using IVEware imputation and variance Estimation software (for a complete discussion of this multiple imputation technique (Chrislip, D. D., & Larson, C. E. 1994). Research Findings: The main Edifice of the hypothesis setup by me was only following basis: What are the strategies that the schools use to facilitate the college-linking process? How do organizational characteristics vary among schools that use different college-linking strategies? How do the background characteristics of students differ among schools that use different strategies? Do different school strategies affect students’ odds of enrolling in college? If so which strategies more effectively influence college enrollment? Do the relationships between high school strategies and college enrollment differ for students from different racial / ethnic and SES backgrounds? ( Cobb, C. D., Glass, G. V., & Crockett, C. 2000, April 24-28). If so, what are the patterns of these differential relationships and what are the implications Findings The Findings of this Empirical Research have corroborated the Hypothesis and identified the three college linking strategies as traditional, clearing house and brokering. The results indicants that these results differ in their influences on the college linking process and that the effects of clearing house strategy significantly differ amongst rational and ethnic groups the finding suggests. Additional insights about links between school effects and enrollment in college and the stratification of racial / ethic in post schools will emerge from future research. Various methodologies and researches; Different researches that are considered valid regarding the different school strategies for the enrollment of students are; (a) Ethnography, (b) Grounded theory, (c) unobtrusive Research, one of the most commonly used methodology in this perspective is Indexes (Cotter, J. 2002). The Personal interviews are often used for various data collections and this technique has its own advantages which are given as below; the researcher is able to read the respondents mind as they are discussing (Datnow, A., & Castellano, M. E. 2001). There is that atmosphere of free expression between the interviewer and the interviewee. Confidence is built between the researcher and the respondent as there is a provision for confidentiality (Desimone, L. 2002). As the discussion takes place, new information comes into the fold, some which may be beneficial to the researcher. Information gathered is reliable. The information that is collected through this method deals with the feelings, emotions, sentiments etc. Only the person who is affected can give description of their depth (Earl Babbie, 2007). However, this method has its own disadvantages which are as follows; the method is time consuming; at times the respondents can talk for too long at the expense of the researcher. Sometimes it becomes very difficult to control them and so persevere till the exercise is over (Edelman, M. 1988). Language barrier- the researcher may not be able to speak the local language and therefore need the services of an interpreter. Some clients may not be willing to give out some confidential information to the researcher for fear that they may tell the same to other people. They could rather prefer write it on paper but not including their names (Evans, R. 1996). For the purpose of data collection the questionnaires are also used. This method of data collection as certain benefits and disadvantages, that is as follows; the method saves time (Finn, C., Manno, B., & Vanourek, G. 2000). The respondent is able to answer the questions on the questionnaire within a very short time without asking any other additional questions. The researcher is able to get many respondents (Fred Leavitt, 2001). The questions in the questionnaire are easy to understand and so respondents answers quickly and return to them to the researcher who then moves to the next respondent. Free from external influence (Fowler, F. C. 1995). The respondent is able to all the questions without being influenced by anybody, hence provide information according to their knowledge, views and attitudes (Griffee, D. 2002). Nonetheless, this technique of collecting data via questionnaire also has certain drawbacks that are; It is expensive to many copies of the questionnaires. The researcher may not be able to have enough resources for making the copies for the target number of respondents (Giroux, H. A. 1991). Sometimes, if questionnaires are left with the respondents, there is a possibility that they may not be sent back to the interviewer. This can seriously affect the end result of the study (W. Phillips Shively, 2008). Respondents may answer some questions irrelevantly. This will force the researcher to make a follow up on the respondent so that he can answer the question well (Giroux, H. A. 1992). This method applies best to those respondents who are able to read and write. For those who are unable to read and write will shy away from the exercise. Incomplete entries and bad handwriting (Goleman, D. 1995). Respondents are sometimes not responsive and aware of the importance of the study and so they will leave out many questions unanswered, and some have very poor handwriting which cannot be clearly visible to the researcher (Good, T. L., & Braden, J. S. 2000, June). Tony Wagner Tony Wagner had developed an article describing all the necessary elements and factors that effect the enrollment of students in schools and he has also elaborated certain criteria on the basis of which the deserving students should be enrolled in the schools (Graham, P. (Ed.) 1995). He has chalked out certain footings which are regarded quite helpful for the schools in making their strategies in order to enroll the students in the schools, while keeping in view all the required requisites. According to Wagner; (a) the workers that are the teachers should be highly skilled so that they can help out the student in developing their capacities (Green, M. 1994). (b) The teaching-learning process should be strong and well-integrated that is the learning should be constructive in which the learner is driven to discover by an inbuilt need to make sense of the world. (c) There should be motivation for learning in the students; they should yearn to learn more (Greene, J., Forster, G., & winters, M. 2003). The vision of Wagner encompasses all the spheres related to students and schools. He promotes portfolios which are according to him more authentic of performance based competencies instead of standardized tests (Heifetz, R. A. 1994). However, Wagner has acknowledged the very superior cost and time efficiency of the tests, but he has not provided any sound argument for portfolios. Wagner has also propagated the concept of “new village schools”. Wagner has also impressed upon the role of the leaders, politicians, bureaucrats, special interest groups, colleges of education, and teachers unions (Holloway I and Freshwater D. 2007). Mc Taggart Mc taggart gas also described the ways and means in order to mould the strategies of the schools for the enrollment of the students in schools and colleges (Lacireno-Paquet, N., Holyoke, T. T., Moser, M., & Henig, J. R. 2002). She has referred the teachers union as a small group of action researchers belonging to different backgrounds gathered to discuss their experiences of developing action research project (Kanter, R. 1983). When they meet they try to identify important and significant divergence between those things, which they considered and felt that was their experience of research and their interpretations of how action research was described in the literature (Kahneman, D., Slovic, P., & Tversky, A. 1982). Conclusion; The research approaches addressed in the topic attempted by me involve all the possible paradigms on research and classically typify them while making use of them in a best possible manner. References; 1- Avery, C. M. (1999). All power to you: Collaborative leadership works. Journal for Quality and Participation, 22(2), 36-40. 2- Avolio, B. J., & Bass, B. M. (1999). Re-examining the components of transformational and transactional leadership using the multifactor leadership questionnaire. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 72(4), 441-463. 3- Bass, B. M., & Avolio, B. J. (1993). Transformational leadership and organizational culture. Public Administration Quarterly, 17(1), 112-122. 4- Bennis, W. (1982, May 31). Leadership transforms vision into action. Industry Week, 54-56. 5- Bryk, A. S., & Schneider, B. (2002). Trust in schools: A core resource for improvement. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. 6- Burns, J. M. (1978). Leadership. New York: Harper and Row. 7- Connole’s (1993) research ’approaches’ empiricist interpretive critical deconstructive post structural. 8- Chrislip, D. D., & Larson, C. E. (1994). Collaborative leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 9- Cobb, C. D., Glass, G. V., & Crockett, C. (2000, April 24-28). The U.S. charter school movement and ethnic segregation. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, LA. 10- Cotter, J. (2002). The heart of change. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press. 11- Desimone, L. (2002). How can comprehensive school reform models be successfully implemented. Review of Educational Research, 72(3), 433-479. 12- Datnow, A., & Castellano, M. E. (2001). Managing and guiding school reform: Leadership in success for all schools. Educational Administration Quarterly, 37(2), 219-249. 13- Earl Babbie, 2007, the Practice of Social Research. 11th ed. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth. 14- Edelman, M. (1988). Constructing the political spectacle. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 15- Evans, R. (1996). The human side of school change. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 16- Finn, C., Manno, B., & Vanourek, G. (2000). Charter schools in action. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 17- Fred Leavitt, 2001. Evaluating Scientific Research: Separating Fact from Fiction. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, Inc. 18- Fowler, F. C. (1995). The neoliberal value shift and its implications for federal education policy under Clinton. Educational Administration Quarterly, 31(1), 38-60. 19- Griffee, D. (2002). Portfolio assessment: Increasing reliability and validity. 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Leadership without easy answers. Cambridge, MA: Belknap. 28- Holloway I and Freshwater D. (2007); Narrative Research in Nursing; Blackwell Publishers. 29- Kahneman, D., Slovic, P., & Tversky, A. (Eds.). (1982). Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases. London: Cambridge University Press. 30- Kanter, R. (1983). The change masters. New York: Simon and Schuster. 31- Lacireno-Paquet, N., Holyoke, T. T., Moser, M., & Henig, J. R. (2002). Creaming versus cropping: Charter school enrollment practices in response to market incentives. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 24(2), 145-158. 32- Meier, D. (2002). The power of their ideas. Boston: Beacon. 33- Murnane, R., & Levy, F. (1996). Teaching the new basic skills. New York: The Free Press. 34- Paglin, C. (2001). Why charter schools stumble--and sometimes fall. Northwest Education, 6(3), 20. 35- W. Phillips Shively, (2008). The Craft of Political Research. 7th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Top of Form Read More