Educational Leadership, School and Diversity in a Weak State - Essay Example

Critique on Three Journal Articles Article I – Bianarosa, G. (2005) After Third Grade. Educational Leadership. 63(2). Article II – Ash, K. (2007) School Dropouts. Education Week. 26(41). Article III – Margarida, M.M., Rosa, M.J.V., Martins, J.L. (2007) School and Diversity in a Weak State. Journal of Ethnic & Migration Studies. 33(7):1145 – 1168. Student’s Name Instructor’s Name Subject / Course Date 1. What is the problem statement? What is the purpose of the study? Article I – Older students in urban areas have problems decoding words. The purpose of the study is to improve the literacy rate of older students by going through nine key instructional strategies. Article II – Educational Problems Related to School Dropouts. The purpose of the study is to determine the individual and family factors that may cause a student to drop out from school. Article III – Migrants in Portugal who belongs to low socio-economic status are prone to poor educational performance. The purpose of the study is to analyze the existing school performance indicators, select, and develop a more effective monitoring device on school performance. 2. Does the writer state research questions and/or a hypothesis? If so, what are they? Article I – No. The author simply stated as a fact that more U.S. adolescents are having difficulties in reading and writing proficiency. Article II – No research questions or hypothesis were provided. The article only reports the factors that cause students to drop out from school. Article III – Yes. The authors stated the hypotheses that there is a probability that student who migrated to Portugal that belong to low socio-economic status are likely to get poor educational performance. 3. Is the literature review comprehensive? Does it present a balanced picture of the research problem? Provide examples. Article I – The literature review is comprehensive since it provides more than two important factors that support each of the nine key instructional strategies. For example: In motivation and self-directed learning; the author stated that allowing the students to read instructions or to decide their preferred learning strategy could trains them to be self-directed learners as it increases student’s motivation, sense of competence, reading comprehension, and strategy use. Article II – There is no literature review since the article was written as a news report. Article III – The literature part is comprehensive since it provides general information such as the races that migrates to Portugal in the past up to now; the national institutional regulations on the academic achievements of migrant children; etc. 4. What is included in the methods section? What design was used? Article I – No research method included since it only discuss about the nine key instructional strategies that could improve the literacy rate of older students. Article II – Not applicable to news article. Article III – Quantitative survey questionnaires were used to gather data required to test the correlation among the variables related to socio-economic status, nationality, and the history of their family migration with school performance. The authors adopted Portes and Rumbaut’s (2001) questionnaire design. 5. How many participants were involved in the study? What were their characteristics? Were they chosen by random selection? What is the target population? Article I – None. Article II – N/A. Article III – A total of 1,843 respondents participated in the survey. Respondents are composed of 53% Portuguese children, 44.3% immigrant children, and 1.9% emigrants. Target respondents are students between the age bracket of 14 to 24 including few students who are about to turn 14 years old. The authors did not mention whether they have randomly selected the respondents from the state secondary schools in Oeiras – a municipal located in the Greater Lisbon Metropolitan Area in Portugal. 6. If an experimental or quasi-experimental study, what is the treatment? Article I – N/A. Article II – N/A. Article III – Aside from testing the variables related to socio-economic status, nationality, and the history of their family migration with school performance, the researchers used two-fold category for children born in Portugal of first generation immigrant parents; and those born abroad with the exception that those who were born abroad and came to Portugal before the age of six were included in the first category. The purpose of categorizing the respondents is to test whether migration is a factor for having a low academic performance. 7. If a survey or causal comparative/ex post facto study, how were the instruments distributed and collected? Article I – N/A Article II – N/A. Article III – The researchers distributed the quantitative and qualitative type of survey questionnaires to state secondary schools in Oeiras where they selected respondents between the age brackets of 14 – 24. Upon completing the survey questionnaires, the researchers collected the survey forms accordingly. 8. What was the basic timeline for the study? Article I – N/A. Article II – N/A. Article III – Research study was conducted between October to November 2004. 9. What method of analysis was used? How were the results reported? Article I – N/A. Article II – Results were reported based on the study conducted by communities in schools based on Alexandria, Va, and the National Dropout Prevention Center. Article III – The researcher uses simple statistical analysis in analyzing the survey results. The researchers presented the report according to the factors that contributes to good, bad, and average academic performances. 10. What are the major findings of the study? Article I – Strategies to improve older students learning includes: (a) Using direct, explicit comprehensive instructional materials; (b) teachers using informal teaching styles, outlining the content of reading materials, and providing the students with comprehensive instruction; (c) allowing students to learn be a self-directed learner; (d) allowing students to collaborate with other students; (e) tutoring; (f) extending wide range of reading materials to students; (g) assign students with challenging assignments; (h) use technology in teaching; and (i) provide them with frequent formative assessment to measure their academic performance. Article II – Risk factors that contribute to higher rate of school dropouts include: long hours working, large family circle, failure to talk about school related activities with the family members, and having other interests outside school activities. Article III – (1) lower socio-economic status is associated with school repetition; (2) students with poor academic performance are usually the older students, native-born male students, and has link with Cape Verdean ancestors; (3) good academic performers are younger students belonging to higher socio-economic status as well as those with mix parents; (4) average performing students usually are foreign-born children. 11. After reviewing the author’s conclusions, did you note any obvious limitations? Article I – The author did not include any conclusion part in the article. Article II – The author did not mention other specific factors related to having low self-esteem, being a member of a gang, or being involved in substance abuse. Article III – Conclusion part is well written and complete except for a fact that the study did not focus much on the factors that makes most men perform badly in school. 12. What future research is needed about this problem? Article I – Conduct a peer-reviewed journal to test which among the nine key instructional strategies is more effective in terms of improving the literacy rate of older students. Article II – The study on school dropouts needs to be conducted in peer-reviewed journals including factors related to street gangs, the use of substance abuse, and having low self-esteem. Article III – A more comprehensive study that relates gender issues with poor academic performance. 13. How does this research tie into your three problem statements? Article I – This article (related to problem statement number 2) provides nine key instructional strategies that could help older students improve their literacy rate. The problem with this article is the fact that it did not mention much regarding the reason why older men have poor writing skills except for the statement the author has included stating that older people have difficulties in decoding words. Article II – This article is related to my first problem statement regarding the factors behind the high rate of school dropouts between schooling. Article III – This article (related to problem statement number 3) discuss about the possible factors why native and migrant students have significant differences in terms of academic achievements/performance. *** End *** Read More