Egovernment Issues, Technology And Applications - Essay Example

Running Head: Determinants of Academic performance. Title: To investigate the effects of home environment and learning motivation on academic performance amongst adolescents. Name: University: Course: Date: Table of contents 1.0 Introduction…………………………………………………….. 1.1 Statement of the problem……………………………………… 1.2Literature Review………………………………………………… 2.0 Significance of the study………………………………………… 2.1. Limitations of the study………………………………………… 3.0 Scope of the study………………………………………………. 4.0 Methodology…………………………………………………….. 5.0 Conclusion……………………………………………………….. 6.0 Appendix…………………………………………………………. 6.1 Appendix A………………………………………………………. 6.2 Appendix B…………………………………………………………. 6.3 Appendix C…………………………………………………………. 1.0 Introduction 1.1 Statement of the problem. There has been a general concern in US government and the public about the high adolescent drop out of school. This has been coupled with poor academic performance, low learning motivation, drug use and abuse among the adolescents, early pregnancies bad morals and ethics resulting to poor discipline and poor interpersonal relationships as well as harbouring violent behaviour. In spite of the government and the public are then dedicated to establishing the causes of these problems and how they can be addressed. They have done this by giving incentives and quite recommendable support to the researchers who have committed their efforts to research on these problems. 1.2 Significance of the study. The study is timely especially in the advent of poor academic performance and high dropping from the school by adolescents. In the advent of these challenges, the results of the investigation into the problem will provide crucial information and data to educational officers and policy makers who will in turn use the results to come up with new policies to address the problem. The study is also significant to the school Heads, teachers and parents who may use the data gathered so as to strategize on how to encourage and motivate the adolescent students in learning to improve their academic performance and stiffly face the challenges that comes their way. 1.3 Limitations of the study. The study will be limited in that it shall draw a lot from existing data much of which may not be reliable. It is also expected that lack of previous research in the field might also pose challenges to the researcher. The researcher may also receive untrue information from some of the interviewees and this may lead to lack of truth and validity in his findings. 1.4 Scope of the study. The study shall restrict itself to the factors and effects surrounding the poor academic performance among adolescent students in the US. It will specifically look into factors and effects that arise from the home environment and the learning motivation of the learners. The study shall restrict itself to the specific schools in the US with a possibility of generalising the findings to other schools of the US. The study shall target on the effects of home environment and learning motivation on academic performance of adolescents because it is an area which has not been well researched, and therefore any study focused specifically to that category would yield into timely results. 2.0 Literature review. 2.1 Introduction This is a review of the past research conducted by different researches on this area of how home environment and learning motivation affect academic performance amongst the adolescents. It will also help in establishing the solidity of the researches and in stating the hypothesis of this research. 2.2 Home environment Home environment refers to the factors that are found within the family set up that influence the academic performance of the adolescent. 2.2.1 Educational level of the parents The level of education of the parents is an underlying factor that strongly determines the academic performance of an adolescent student. According to a study conducted by, McIntosh, (2003), the educational status of the parents has a direct positive correlation to the academic performance of the adolescent student. The researcher examined 50 adolescent students from families of different background in terms of educational levels of parents. In his conclusions, he stated that, the education levels of both parents were likely to influence a child’s academic performance. According to Strom, & Strom, (2003), the students whose parent had no educational privilege or had very minimal education tended to perform poorly as compared to those students whose parents were educationally stable. Out of the respondents, 57% said that, they felt they were not receiving enough assistance from their parents. The researcher further stated the reasons that adolescent students from academically disabled parents performed poorly than those from the parents who have a strong level of education as lack of enough encouragement, support and the necessary advice on making their educational goals from the parents (Peiffer, 2003). Further a research conducted by, Trusty, J., Plata, M., & Salazar, C. F. (2003), surveyed how different couples from different educational levels valued education. The researchers used random sampling of one hundred married couples. Results revealed that a higher number of married couples with good education placed a very strong value in education than those couples who had a low level of education. The latter claimed that they enjoy no fruit from education and yet they still survive satisfactorily. This reflected on how adolescent students from the parents of lower level or no education at all can perform poorly academically than those from parents of higher level of education. 2.2.2 Economic status of the family Adolescent students from poor families have been thought to experience a lot of difficulties throughout their academic life, a research conducted by, Morrison, Kauffman, & Pianta, in (2003) to establish the effects of the problems experienced by adolescent students from families. The researchers used voluntary basis on the students and they conducted a study on a thousand students. They finally revealed that some of the problems that those students were experiencing were lack of up-to-date learning materials, lack of school fees leading to school dropping out, lack of learning motivation both intrinsic and extrinsic, lack of self-esteem and depression. They established that these problems led to poor academic performance among the adolescent students as well as gambling problems, suicide attempts and drug abuse and addiction. Van Voorhis, (2003), examined the relationship between students from economically stable families and academic performance. They did a sampling of students who were from well-off families; found that most of them were high achievers. They revealed that these students enjoyed their academic life, they had enough learning materials, and they were highly motivated, had high self-esteem and had no depression. Their research generally showed a relationship between learning in an economically stable family and high academic performance. Ways of how to save those students from poor families have been manifested. According to (Holloway, & John2000), 80% of those students from poor families are potential academic achievers but their brains are wasted due to the challenges they encounter. Holloway, & John (2000) suggested that the government should give bursaries, loans to supplement education of these adolescent students from poor families, who cannot afford paying school fees. 2.2.3 Type of the family Different adolescent students come from different family set-ups. These include nuclear families, extended families and single families. A study conducted by (Schlenker, 2003).) on the relationship between academic performance and the type of family where the student was from showed that there was a significance relationship between these. He revealed that students from single families performed poorly compared to those from the other family set-ups. They experienced psychological traumas, were less confident, lacked enough support both financially and morally and most important of all, they lacked one parental love. The researcher also observed that these students from single families experienced very low motivation as compared to students from nuclear and extended families. According to (Lackney, Jeffery. (1999), students from extended families experience more family constraints and disintegration, which affect their academic performance as compared to those students from nuclear families. 2.2.4 Motivational level of the family members The family members who constitute of the parents and the siblings have a significant contribution to academic performance of the adolescent student. A research was conducted by (Lyons, & John 2001) on the relationship between academic performance and those students who grew in highly motivated family members. The researchers noted that those students performed well academically than those who came from low motivated family members. Since as they reported it was due to the fact that they had a positive attitude towards education, they made realistic goals and they were motivated towards achievement of these goals. According to (Toney, L. P., Kelley, M. L., & Lanclos, N. F. (2003), highly motivated students tend to develop insight learning and also become high achievers and very successful in their academics. 2.3 Learning motivation This is an internal drive or desire to learn. 2.3.1 Role of the Teacher Xu, J., & Yuan, R. (2003), examined the relationship between academic performance of the student and the role the teacher plays. It showed that teachers, who constantly motivate their students, give and mark assignments to provide feedback on progress tot heir students and constantly encourage their students as well as giving assignments and holding remedial classes contributed to high academic performance among the adolescent students. According to, Anguiano, (2003), teachers who don’t boost the morale of their students and those who do not provide feedback on students’ performance contribute to poor academic performances among students. Trusty, J., Plata, M., & Salazar, C. F. (2003), observed that the positive role and contribution of the teacher on learning activities and the overall learning experience contribute positively to high academic performance. Holding tutorial classes and practicing motivational techniques like use of rewards and reinforcements by the teacher can boost the academic performance of the adolescent student tremendously (Schlenker, 2003). 2.3.2 Type of the school () noted that there are different types of schools that exist and transmit knowledge to the students. He classified these schools as boarding schools, day schools and public schools. A research was conducted by (Holloway, & John, 2000). On several types of schools to identify the relationship between academic performance and the type of the school. The researchers used stratified random samplings in their study where they sampled fifty (50) students from boarding schools and fifty (50) students from day schools. The researchers established that those students who were in boarding schools performed well academically than those who were in day schools. They noted the reason as due to the fact these students had an ample time in their studies and also the schools kept a conducive learning environment to the students. This is opposed to the day schools where students morale was low and disruptions to the learning process was common. 2.3.3 School performance. According to (Lackney, & Jeffery1999), the performance of the school plays a very crucial role to the academic performance of the students. He noted that those schools that perform well motivated their students in learning and consequently led to high academic performance of their students. 4.0 Methodology: The study will interview different students from different family backgrounds, different schools and with different learning motivation levels. Contacts and addresses of these students will be obtained from principal’s offices of the various schools. Further, an extensive survey of medium sized students will be conducted in order to determine how they differ and perhaps develop clues on how to uplift those students who are fit upstairs and are highly motivated in learning but come from poor families that are incapable of paying school fees. A total of 100 randomly selected students from both rich and poor families will be interviewed. What makes this study unique is that the students who shall answer the survey will be drawn from various schools, both boarding and day schools using a randomized sampling approach. The researcher will utilize the survey method in which questionnaires and interviews will be used as data collection instruments. Analysis. Significance tests will be performed on all relationships and only those with statistical significance will be presented here. Data analysis, both the qualitative and quantitative data gathered in the data collection would be analyzed using statistical software called SPSS in order to arrive at findings. Generalizations will then be drawn after which a conclusion is drawn. 5.0 Conclusion Adolescent students are faced with a lot of challenges during their academic lives. So many effects on their academic performance are paramount and for them to improve, these effects must be found out and addressed accordingly. This is possible only if the government and the public realize the significance of good academic performance among the adolescents, their continued stay in school without dropping out of school and their positive contribution to the nation and the society at large. The government and the public should therefore empower and support researchers in all ways. This is only possible if the challenges stated above shall be resolved and a long-term solution found REFERENCES Anguiano, R. P. V. (2003). Families and schools: The effect of parental involvement on high school completion. Journal of Family Issues, 25(1), 61–85.Clark, S. N., & Clark, D. C. (2003). The Middle School Achievement Project: Involving parents and community in school improvement. Middle School Journal, 34(3), 12–19. Hollie-Major, R. D. (2003). Parent involvement for college-bound, first generation African-American high school students. Dissertation Abstracts International, 64(01), 74A. (UMI No. 3077551) Holloway, John H. (2000). Healthy Buildings, Successful Students. Educational Leadership, 57 (6), 88-89. Lackney, Jeffery. (1999). The Relationship between Environmental Quality of School Facilities and Student Performance. Paper presented as part of a congressional briefing to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science. Lyons, John B. (2001). Do School Facilities Really Impact a Child’s Education? Issuetrak, November, 2001. Scottsdale, AZ: Council of Educational Facility Planners International. Morrison, E. F., Rimm-Kauffman, S., & Pianta, R. C. (2003). A longitudinal study of mother-child interactions at school entry and social and academic outcomes in middle school. Journal of School Psychology, 41(3), 185–200. Peiffer, P. A. (2003). An examination of attitudes of high school principals toward parental involvement in Michigans schools. Dissertation Abstracts International, 64(2), 361A. (UMI No. 3081414) Schlenker, S. W. (2003). Parent involvement in public high schools. Dissertation Abstracts International, 64(3), 851A. (UMI No. 3085444) Seidman, E., Lambert, L. E., Allen, L., & Aber, J. L. (2003). Urban adolescents transition to junior high school and protective family transactions. Journal of Early Adolescence, 23(2), 166–193. Strom, P. S., & Strom, R. D. (2003). Teacher-parent communication reforms. High School Journal, 86(2), 14–21. Toney, L. P., Kelley, M. L., & Lanclos, N. F. (2003). Self- and parental monitoring of homework in adolescents: Comparative effects on parents perceptions of homework behavior problems. Child & Family Behavior Therapy, 25(1), 35–51. Trusty, J., Plata, M., & Salazar, C. F. (2003). Modeling Mexican Americans educational expectations: Longitudinal effects of variables across adolescence. Journal of Adolescent Research, 18(2), 131–153. Van Voorhis, F. L. (2003). Interactive homework in middle school: effects on family involvement and science achievement: Teachers involve parents in schoolwork (TIPS). Journal of Educational Research, 96(6), 323–338. Xu, J., & Yuan, R. (2003). Doing homework: Listening to students, parents, and teachers voices in one urban middle school community. The School Community Journal, 13(2), 25–44. Xu, J. Z., & Corno, L. (2003). Family help and homework management reported by middle school students. Elementary School Journal, 103(5), 503–517. 6. APENDIX A: GANTT CHART/SCHEDULE OF ACTIVITIES Timing Activity Resource person Expected output Week 1 Preparations. N/A Obtain first hand information/ true situation on the ground. Administering Questionnaires/Data collection. Research Assistants Filed questionnaires capturing data for the research. Week 2 Final touches on questionnaires /sorting for valid questionnaires Research assistants Consolidate primary data for the study. Week 3 Data analysis and documentation Interpreting and compiling the research findings. Week Dissemination of research finding to the supervisor APPENDIX B RESEARCH BUDGET The project has a Budget, which will be shouldered by the researcher. Activity Item Units Cost/unit in $ Total cost $ 1. Familiarization tour Field travel Local assistance N/A N/A Sub- Total 2. Data collection Field travel And materials N/A N/A Sub total 3. Primary data collection Field travel Allowances Days Days 7 03 Sub total Data analysis and documentation A4 papers plain Graph papers Typing services Duplicating Binding services 1 Rim Booklet 36 Pages 36 Pages 3 copies Sub total Consultancies Data Analysis 160 Questionnaires Sub total TOTAL APPENDIX C: TABLES OF TABLES Read More