Category: Action Research

Research design

The study will be determined through action research design due to its nature to contribute to the body of knowledge and to offer solution to the problem of tardiness in schools. It is important to change the practice of tardiness among students. Through action research design, the researcher will be able to come up with initiatives that address tardiness in school (Groves, 2010). However, the initiatives will be limited to schools subjected under the setting of the study. Action research has also been selected because it will enable the researcher to understand the context triggering tardiness among students (Mitchell & Jolley, 2012).

The selected design method is not entirely perfect because it bears itself several limitations (Mitchell & Jolley, 2012). One of the biggest limitations is the fear of validity and objectivity of the data collected. It implies collecting incomplete and inaccurate data. At the same time, it can also imply misinterpreting the collected data by the research team or laying too much emphasis on specific data while disregarding others (Mitchell & Jolley, 2012).

Participants

The participants for this research are high school students from an urban setting. Specifically, the study targets chronically tardy students. It will rely on a total of 20 students to participate in the study. The 20 participants will be selected based on information retrieved from their class attendance records within the last semester. The participants will not be limited to a particular grade or class. The researcher assumes that only few students display the problem of tardiness. Therefore random sampling techniques cannot be applied.

Data retrieved from school records may necessarily not be reliable because of the existing policy in schools where students are automatically regarded tardy when they get in class after the bell. Therefore, reasons for tardiness will have to be explored further before a participant is considered for inclusion in the study.

Data collection

The study will use three methods of data collection over the time period for the study. It will rely on observation, interviews with students, and analysis of students’ work. A school setting will be identified through data from the district education office. The population and diversity of a school is of interest to the researcher. Once a school is located, the researcher will proceed to select the participants and seek their consent to participate in the study. The process of data collection will take place within a time period of a week where the researcher will administer an intervention for solving the problem of tardiness while at the same time seeking to determine the cause of the problem.

There shall be a checklist for pre-test observation and a post test observation. The checklist will enable the researcher to collect data before and after the involvement. The survey questionnaire will involve a list of closed ended questions that are aimed at getting the relevant and correct information about the study (Mitchell & Jolley, 2012). After the survey tools have been prepared, they will be administered to the target sample population.

A few assumptions will have to be made in the process of data collection (Mitchell & Jolley, 2012). Generally, the researcher will assume that the response made by the respondent will be to the best of their knowledge (Mitchell & Jolley, 2012).

Data analysis

In order to analyze the data, statistical tools of analysis will be used. The researcher will collect data that can be quantified in numerical terms. The researcher will explore any significant differences of the data observed before and after the interventions. This will require t-test analysis to establish whether tardiness is increasing or reducing. Data will be recorded on a daily basis for the one week period.

It is important that the survey tools be tested for both reliability and validity. Determination of reliability will be done through conduction of piloting program where a small section of the sample population will be issued with the survey tools in order to identify mistakes within the tool (Bailey, 2008). Reliability will further be tested to ensure that the survey tools remain consistent. The consistency test entails rating the items over time and it is done to determine whether one specific item in the tool can yield the same response when administered at different times. Through the use of Pearson Correlation Coefficient, the result of the reliability test can be determined. The process of coding during data analysis depends on the subject and hence it is important that the consistency test be done for reliability of the tool (Mitchell & Jolley, 2012).

The test items or the questions also have to be subjected to reliability tests. These items must be able to provide the exact requirements of the study not unless the questions will be rendered unreliable. Apart from reliability tests, the survey tool must also be rendered valid before use. Validity is about the items being able to provide relevant information for the study. Criterion related validation is the most useful and important type of validity test (Groves, 2010).

References

Bailey, R. (2008). Design of Comparative Experiments. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Groves, R. (2010). Survey methodology (2nd ed.). Belmont: Duxbury Press.

Mitchell, M., & Jolley, J. (2012). Research design explained. Florence: Cengage learning.

Aidinopoulou, V., & Sampson, D. G. (2017). An action research study from implementing the flipped classroom model in primary school history teaching and learning. Educational Technology & Society, 20(1), 237–247.

The setting of the study was a primary school in Greece (a history course). The participants were 49 eleven-year-old children, who were divided into two groups: 26 in the experimental, and 23 in the control one. The hypothesis of the study was that the utilization of the flipped classroom model in primary school would allow distributing the classroom time more conveniently and effectively. As a result, according to scholars, it would be possible to increase student outcomes and promote their learning experiences. The methodology of the study was action design, the use of which aimed at investigating the potential of the flipped classroom model to enhance learners’ academic results and to lead to the more rational use of classroom time. The first action research cycle consisted of such phases as (a) planning, (b) acting and observing, and (c) reflecting and re-planning. The second cycle incorporated the phases of (a) action and observation and (b) reflection.

The authors found that the flipped classroom model made it possible to use classroom time more efficiently due to allowing for the release of time from lecturing to more interesting student-focused academic activities. In the experimental group, there was more time available for enforcing activities associated with historical thinking skills. At the same time, findings indicated that the memorization of historical content was at the same level in the two groups. The article emphasizes the advantages of the flipped classroom model for promoting students’ learning goals. The authors did not compare different study levels of schoolchildren or the achievements of boys versus girls. However, they provided valuable insights into the implementation of the model, including the benefits and challenges of the process.

Al-Naibi, I., Al-Jabri, M., & Al-Kalbani, I. (2018). Promoting students’ paragraph writing using EDMODO: An action research. TOJET: The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, 17(1), 130–143.

An English as a foreign language class at Arab Open University was analyzed with the aim of evaluating the effect of Edmodo, a social networking website, on learners’ writing performance. Twenty-five students participated in the study, the primary purpose of which was to analyze whether and to what extent Edmodo could promote students’ writing in a foreign language. The study’s hypothesis was that the use of a social network as a method of teaching writing could enhance students’ skills by providing a more engaging learning environment. The action research design utilized in the study incorporated the identification of a problem by the teacher, the creation of an action plan, the collection of data in the classroom, the analysis of data, and the teacher’s reflection on the whole process. The 25 participants were pre-intermediate students in the foundation program at Arab Open University. Out of them, 60% were females, and 40% were males. The learners studied part-time, and their ages varied between 26 and 35 years.

The authors found that Edmodo had a rather positive effect on students’ writing skills development. Whereas initially, learners did not know how to brainstorm writing ideas, their ability to write topic sentences was poor, and their paragraph structure was not effective enough. Meanwhile, the use of Edmodo increased the students’ writing skills and enhanced their awareness. The article is a valuable source for the teachers of English as a second language since it offers an analysis of how additional means of teaching can promote students’ second language writing skills. Al-Naibi et al. (2018) not only present the assets of using the social network as an educational tool but also note the potential barriers to such implementation.

Calvert, M., & Sheen, Y. (2015). Task-based language learning and teaching: An action-research study. Language Teaching Research, 19(2), 226–244. Web.

The study’s focus was on the analysis of action research as a method of evaluating language learning tasks by teachers. The authors hypothesized that action research enabled a better understanding of task-based instruction with the help of the mentioned approach. Calvert and Sheen (2015) suggested that language teachers could find solutions to crucial task-based issues that might occur in the process of teaching and learning. The method employed in the study was the action research design, which incorporated the teacher’s development, enforcement, reflection, and modification of language learning assignments with the aim of meeting the needs of students to a greater extent. The students were participants of an adult refugee English learning program, aged from 25 to 56 years. The demographic distribution was the following: seven Nepali Bhutanese learners, three Ethiopian, two Iranian, and one Eritrean. There existed considerable differences among the students’ educational background and language proficiency, as well as the duration of living in the USA.

The authors found that in a challenging educational setting, the utilization of task-based learning and teaching demanded much preparation on the part of a teacher. Specifically, the effective introduction of tasks would require the effective management of students’ literacy issues and ecological realities. Furthermore, it was found that the successful arrangement of task-based learning would entail the consideration of students’ various backgrounds and cultural experiences along with low linguistic horizons. The article will be of use for the teachers who endeavor to utilize task-based learning in their classrooms but do not know what challenges they might face or how to deal with them. The scholars suggest educators engage in critical examination and reflection in order to gain the best results of task-based learning.

Kostaris, C., Sergis, S., Sampson, D. G., Giannakos, M. N., & Pelliccione, L. (2017). Investigating the potential of the flipped classroom model in K-12 ICT teaching and learning: An action research study. Educational Technology & Society, 20(1), 261–273.

The focus of the study was the analysis of the flipped classroom model’s potential to promote teaching and learning of information and communication technologies (ICT). The authors hypothesized that there existed a potential of the flipped classroom model to promote students’ learning in various dimensions, including cognitive learning, distributing educational activities, motivating students during learning tasks, and engaging learners in various activities. The population of the study was composed of junior high school students. The methodology of the study was a quasi-experimental design as a part of the action research method. Two classes of students aged fourteen years participated in the study, which lasted eight weeks (one full semester). The participants were divided into two groups, the experimental and the control one, each consisting of 23 students. The experimental group’s ICT course involved the utilization of the flipped classroom model, whereas the control group attended a traditional course. In each of the two groups, there were 12 girls and 11 boys. Consent was obtained both from students’ parents and the school’s administration.

The scholars found that the use of the flipped classroom model allowed for a holistic conceptualization of learners’ experiences by integrating existing approaches. Kostaris et al. (2017) concluded that the use of the flipped classroom model promoted learners’ cognitive outcomes. Furthermore, the authors found that low-performing students could benefit from the model most of all, indicating the greatest improvement at the end of the program. The article is related to other works in the selected area of study, demonstrating consistent findings in the higher education context. However, scholars also pointed to the importance of utilizing the flipped classroom model in the whole sequence of the K-12 education process.

Nold, H. (2017). Using critical thinking teaching methods to increase student success: An action research project. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 29(1), 17–32.

The study focused on the investigation of how critical thinking teaching methods could promote student success. The authors noted that problem-solving and critical skills were crucial components of both the educational and professional success of learners. The hypothesis of the study was that students’ critical thinking skills could be significantly promoted by means of utilizing multiple teaching approaches, questioning stimulating deep thinking, sources’ reliability, and predicting outcomes. The population studied in Nold’s (2017) research was composed of bachelor-level college students. The methods utilized by the author were action research and the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire. Students attending three courses (strategic planning and management, business ethics, and operations management and decision-making) were participants of the intervention. All of the students were enrolled in the Bachelor of Applied Science program. The average age of participants was 33, varying between 19 and 60. Many of them were veterans who had completed their military service, and 65% of students were female. The total number of students involved in the study that lasted for 15 months was 316.

Nold (2017) found that the use of critical thinking methods allowed enhancing learners’ skills in various aspects, including both the educational and professional dimensions. Findings also indicated that an eight-week program was sufficient for a positive impact on students’ constructs and outcomes associated with success. The researcher noted that educators aimed at improving their students’ outcomes should incorporate multiple assignments, including research methods, and then provide substantial feedback on achievements and drawbacks. The study is linked to similar works in the selected area of research, namely, students engaged in multiple subject areas. The research enriches knowledge in the sphere of critical thinking development.

References

Aidinopoulou, V., & Sampson, D. G. (2017). An action research study from implementing the flipped classroom model in primary school history teaching and learning. Educational Technology & Society, 20(1), 237–247.

Al-Naibi, I., Al-Jabri, M., & Al-Kalbani, I. (2018). Promoting students’ paragraph writing using EDMODO: An action research. TOJET: The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, 17(1), 130–143.

Calvert, M., & Sheen, Y. (2015). Task-based language learning and teaching: An action-research study. Language Teaching Research, 19(2), 226–244. Web.

Kostaris, C., Sergis, S., Sampson, D. G., Giannakos, M. N., & Pelliccione, L. (2017). Investigating the potential of the flipped classroom model in K-12 ICT teaching and learning: An action research study. Educational Technology & Society, 20(1), 261–273.

Nold, H. (2017). Using critical thinking teaching methods to increase student success: An action research project. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 29(1), 17–32.

Introduction

It can be effective to use the time-series research similar to the one implemented to evaluate the effectiveness of the behavioral intervention (Babbie, 2016). The same time span and days should be used to make sure that the data obtained will be free from the influences of other factors.

At that, it can be more effective to choose the same part of the day as different factors may come into play. For instance, on other days, Kaya can be more nervous due to certain home or school factors (meeting some people, having more tasks to do, and so on). During different parts of the day, Kaya can also feel differently (as she can feel hungry, tired, homesick, and so on). Hence, the time will be almost the same but the period during classes and recess will be chosen. It can be beneficial to observe the participant’s behavior for two weeks.

Analysis

It is possible to use time and frequency domains to collect, interpret, and present data (Senter, n.d.). I would use the time domain as it can reveal some peculiarities of Kaya’s behavior at certain periods of time as well as evaluate the change in her behavior if any (see Figure 1). The graph-based framework can help analyze the data and predict the changes if any (Yadav & Toshniwal, 2011).

The data collected after the intervention show a certain improvement of Kaya’s behavior in terms of the three domains under analysis (see Figure 2). The major improvement is apparent within the domain of physical and verbal aggression as the frequency of expression of aggression decreased significantly (almost by half).

Nevertheless, the cases of physical and verbal aggression became more frequent on Wednesday, which may be explained by other factors affecting Kaya’s behavior. At that, the frequency of off-task behavior remained almost unchanged, which may mean that the intervention has no effect on this domain. The observation during the second week led to quite unexpected results. The frequency of undesired behaviors was still quite high on Monday. Such data show that the days spent at home (without the intervention) had an adverse effect on Kaya’s behavior.

The observation shows the moderate effectiveness of the intervention developed. Kaya’s behavior changed significantly and the frequency of undesirable behaviors reduced. Nevertheless, the domain of off-task behavior remained almost unchanged, which reveals the need to address this issue. Importantly, the observation during the second week unveiled the importance of parental engagement. It is clear that parents should also be a part of the intervention. They should perform the role of the instructor at home. In this case, Kaya can acquire important social skills. Although the frequency of physical and verbal violence is still quite high, it is clear that the intervention should be modified. More attention should be paid to Kaya’s off-task behavior.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is necessary to note that time-series research can help the researcher identify and predict trends. It is comparatively easy to implement, and it is rather effective. The presentation of the data obtained is also essential, so graphs should be used to make the information easy to evaluate. The analysis implemented shows that the intervention is moderately effective as the frequency of undesirable behaviors reduced, but Kaya still displayed verbal and physical violence. Therefore, it is important to improve the intervention.

References

Babbie, E. (2016). The basics of social research (7th ed.). Belmont, CA: Cengage.

Senter, A. (n.d.). Time series analysis. Web.

Yadav, V., & Toshniwal, D. (2011). Graph based framework for time series prediction. Trends in Information Management, 7(2), 74–83.

Introduction

Motivation is defined as reasons that inspires behavior and is characterized by eagerness and decisiveness (Guay et al., 2010, p.711). Inherent motivation is exhibited by personal gratification, interest, or contentment, while extrinsic motivation is governed by corroborated contingencies.

Motivation comprises of an assortment of closely related values, interest, beliefs, and conducts. Individual motivation varies across subject areas and increases with age. Motivation among the young children envisages motivation in their later life, and the strength of this relationship solidifies with age (Guay et al., 2010, p.712).

Traditionally, educationalists believe intrinsic motivation to be more desirable and always lead to better learning results than the extrinsic motivation (Guay et al., 2010, p.712). In a broad-spectrum, children tend to go into school with high levels of inherent motivation, though this level tend to decline as they progress through school.

Research studies states that motivation can be manipulated through certain teaching practices, although these studies also reveal both positive and negative effects of the same (Eisenberg, 2010, p. 681; Schunk & Zimmerman, 2007, p. 7).

In this modern world it has become an up hill task to motivate and encourage students to study. Many experts have highlighted the difficulty experienced in motivating students in the classroom setting.

Some students have low capacity when it comes to the power and intuitiveness of decoding both written and spoken words in whichever subject they undertake. This has led to a decrease in the level of motivation among this population of students (Eisenberg, 2010, p. 683; Guay et al., 2010, p.714).

This study aims at exploring different ways of promoting the initiation of the motivation process at the earliest age possible. This may involve motivating students as early as during kindergarten. This is a wondering inquiry research that entails teachers carrying out the task in a specified contextual setting.

Context setting in this case refers to a particular school within a particular state and within a particular country. Many researches have deduced that for any successful reading culture to occur there must be motivation at the earliest time possible (Dana & Yendol-Hoppey, 2009, p. 54).

There are numerous approaches that can be employed in motivation of youngsters to develop a reading culture. Appreciation of self and realization of the value reading holds goes a long way in motivating young people to develop a positive reading culture.

In addition, motivation stems from the daily occurrences such as the time spent talking about books, choice and incentives, all of which bring about motivation among the concerned young people (Gambrell & Marinak, 2009, p. 3; Guay et al., 2010, p.712).

This is the reason that has led the researcher to lay more emphasis on this study. As a result, the study has developed a wondering question: How can teachers use audio books with text to effectively engage and motivate struggling students to read?

Rationale for choosing the Wondering Question

The choice of the wondering question originates from the researcher’s passion to improve or experiment the teaching strategies and teaching techniques which motivates students. It has always been a major challenge to teach young children how to read.

This situation is further complicated in cases where the students come from low-income earning families and the teachers’ lack of prior knowledge of their social and educational experience (Dana & Yendol-Hoppey, 2009, p. 36).

Many research studies have established that the level of motivation of students declines with increase in age and as a result of this there is need to design a system that would ensure that students are constantly motivated towards reading (Schunk & Zimmerman, 2007, p. 7). Based on this, a wondering question that captures all the above issues was developed.

The wondering question is: What new strategies can I use to help motivate my students to become excited about reading? How can the use of audio books with text effectively engage and motivate struggling students to read? In addition, the wondering questions need to be supported with sub questions to ensure all areas are covered.

One sub-question asked about the effects, if any, would occur by allowing the students to choose their own text during independent reading time? From various studies carried out, it has been observed that introduction of new approaches there is a possibility of students becoming life long readers. The researcher hopes to provide more insights on ways of motivating students into lifelong readers.

Literature Review

Over the recent past, researchers have explored numerous ways students can thrive in the classroom. These studies explain that the greatest frustration of many teachers is the lack of motivation by their students to learn.

Most of these studies are centered on the classroom, where learning takes place and where students are most likely to be motivated in their quest to gain knowledge (Guay et al., 2010, p.712; Schraw et al., 2006, p. 111; Schunk & Zimmerman, 2007, p. 7).

Motivation entails an anthology of values, beliefs, interests, perceptions, and conducts that are interlinked. As a result, numerous approaches to motivation emphasizes on cognitive behaviors (such as observations and tactics use), non-cognitive facets (such as values, attitudes and beliefs) or both.

Schraw et al. (2006) defines academic motivation as pleasure of learning characterized by a mastery orientation, interest, perseverance, task-endogeny, and academic challenges.

On the other hand, Schunk & Zimmerman (2007) considers motivation to be the same as cognitive engagement, which he defines as voluntary use of high level of self regulated strategies such attentiveness, synergies, planning, and screening (Schraw et al., 2006, p. 112; Schunk & Zimmerman, 2007, p. 8).

Intrinsic motivation is exhibited by personal gratification, interest, or contentment, while extrinsic motivation is governed by corroborated contingencies. Motivation is multifaceted and is governed by numerous factors or comprises of an assortment of closely aspects.

Individual motivation varies across subject areas and increases with age. Motivation among the young children envisages motivation in their later life, and the strength of this relationship solidifies with age (Guay et al., 2010, p.712).

Early approaches to the study of motivation emphasized more on the extrinsic motivation. These studies posited that all the behaviors are governed reinforcement contingencies.

Proponents of these studies explained that positive reinforcers or rewards influences the individual behaviors they were contingent on, whereas negative reinforcers influences behaviors by eliminating or minimizing external negative stimulus. Negative reinforcers include punishments that can reduce the probability of a given behavior (Willingham, 2007, p. 11).

A series of study that led to the development of self regulation and volition theories links motivation with cognition. For instance, self regulated students have been found to use numerous strategies, have soaring self efficacy, and set their own goals. These leaner’s also regulate their own activities, assess their performance, and adjust their performance based on these results.

Therefore, self regulation theory proposes that students can strengthen their own motivation by taking part in numerous self-regulatory strategies including setting suitable and attainable goals, applying academic strategies, and assessing and evaluating their own progress (Schunk & Zimmerman, 2007, p. 7).

There are numerous evidences substantiating the existence of motivation in learning and their fundamental characteristics, as well as studies linking motivation to other types of academic results. These evidences shows that motivation varies across different domains depending on individual interest and that motivation in one domain may generalize to other domains.

For instance, Schraw (2006) established that motivation in reading envisages later motivation in academic activities. Simultaneously, motivation inn mathematics tends to be linked to motivation in other math constructs.

Students tend to be more motivated in their perception of math proficiency and teachers ratings of their math grades than in other subject areas. This suggests that motivation to learn mathematics among students in lower classes may be less generalized to other subjects (Schraw et al., 2006, p. 114).

Motivating children in the lower classes is one of the most difficult. Many of these children prefer to have books read to them rather than read the books themselves. Based on this finding, experts have developed programs that can arouse curiosity in this population of students. The books are read and critiqued together with the students (Miller, 2011, p. 8).

In a study by Buschicket al. (2007) it was observed that the maintenance of a motivational status quo as the students grow older was a difficult undertaking. The authors had set out to promote motivation among elementary and middle school students.

The authors employed various approaches in their study. One of the approaches included utilization of Silent Sustained Reading (SSR) system that entails filling of tally sheets to elaborate the behaviors associated with loss of concentration and as such lack of motivation to read (Buschick et al., 2007, p.10).

Buschick et al. (2007) also employed Student Survey as another tool aimed at identifying the habits among students that are associated with poor reading culture. From the study, it was observed that most students detested the idea of reading for fun and reading at home. In addition, it was observed that the students were a reluctant when it came to going to the library and learning new words.

So as to cover all areas, the authors carried out a teacher survey that looked at the lack of reading motivation and corrective strategies at the school under study. They observed that verbal/linguistic and interpersonal intelligences were the most common form of intelligences used while intrapersonal and naturalistic intelligences were the least common used intelligences (Buschick et al., 2007, P.12).

To counter the challenges, Buschick et al. (2007) came up with a solution that entailed designing a program that used eight multiple intelligences so as to bring about motivation of the students. These intelligences are: linguistic intelligence (word smart), logical-mathematical (number smart) and spatial intelligence (picture smart). Others are bodily-kinesthetic (body smart) and musical intelligence (music smart).

To foster relations and how people deal with emotions they included interpersonal intelligence (people smart), intrapersonal intelligence (self smart), and naturalist intelligence (nature smart) as part of the solution. After implementation, they observed that there was a change in attitudes among students and the students were motivated to choose books that suited their interests.

The number of students paying the library a visit also soared as well as the number of students willing to read at home (Buschick et al., 2007, P.12; Guay et al., 2010, p.714).

According to a study carried out by Miller (2011), there is a consensus that the level of motivation correlates with the ability of students to learn and interpreted what they learn as well as apply it in their day-to-day lives. According to the author, motivation can be in two forms, extrinsic or intrinsic.

Extrinsic motivation is the most utilized and it entails getting students to actively participate in any given chore while intrinsic motivation entails deep seated encouragement and nurturing to bring about motivation (Miller, 2011).

According to Barnes & Monroe (2011) the limitations of most forms of motivation arise from the tendency of most teachers handling different students in a similar manner and forgetting that each student is unique in his or her own way. To address this issue, the authors employed varied reading strategies.

They employed the Garfield Reading Survey that involves setting aside time each day dedicated to what is termed as silent reading time. This is with the hope that an increase in reading motivation would occur with individual student interests and at the end the student shares with other individuals what he has read.

The authors observed that at the end of the four-week study, there was an increase in the number of students requesting silent reading time. Furthermore, the students expressed desire to read on their own.

From the group sessions and book talks, the authors observed that given a chance, the motivated students were able to share whatever that was on their minds with their peers suggesting improved self confidence and as such well motivated (Barnes & Monroe, 2011, p. 5).

The use of audio books as motivational tools has been limited to second-language learners and disabled students (Johnson, 2003, p. 12). Audio books have several benefits as they have been shown to promote good interpretive reading and foster learning of new vocabulary. Consequently, they have been shown to teach critical listening and provide a read-aloud model to highlight the humor in books.

All of these help to promote engagement and motivation to read. According to Wolfson (2008) audio books bring about a wholesome language development as they foster the growth of all the language systems. In addition, audio books provide a forum through which some students are able to recall words and as such they play a role in building a positive reading culture (Esteves & Whitten, 2011, p 25.; Wolfson 2008, p. 22).

Methodology

This chapter details the research methodologies employed in this study. The study method used both primary and secondary data. Primary data collection employed interviews, note taking and standardized tests among others.

Collaboration with colleagues

During the study, the researcher collaborated with his colleagues in the school. This is because teachers in this institution are very supportive and work as a team. These colleagues have vast experience and therefore offered vital information for the study.

In addition, research is not a one man show, rather a team of individuals working together to achieve a specific result. Collaboration was not only useful for the study but also assisted the teachers as a whole in finding ways of achieving student success (Dana & Yendol-Hoppey, 2009, p. 70).

According to Sasson (2009), there are numerous benefits of teachers’ collaborations. First, ccollaboration allows teachers to learn effective classroom management techniques from one another. Secondly, Collaboration is effective in designing joint lessons that cater to diverse student needs and interests.

Thirdly, in their collaborative process, teachers will identify successful classroom activities, methods and ideas Teachers benefit from engaging in a dialogue with colleagues to understand how to incorporate oral instruction in their teaching of English language learners.

Finally, Collaboration also gives teachers insights on using oral instruction in a mixed ability class. Sharing ideas together with colleagues exposes teachers to different types of activities related to oral instruction. In Short, collaboration enables teachers to work together to better meet the needs of their students (Sasson, 2009, p. 2).

Data Collection

This study employed standardized tests, interviews, student work examples, and field notes to collect data. Field notes were used to obtain information regarding the whereabouts of the students. This was achieved by forming student groups and by integrating the study activity with the students’ independent reading time (Dana & Yendol-Hoppey, 2009, p. 74).

The information obtained using this strategy was recorded in a number of ways. The researcher recorded the data using a coded form to facilitate recording of the responses. In order to avoid student from becoming apprehensive of note taking, the researcher used a notebook. In this case, he could explain to the students that he was conducting a normal routine work (Dana & Yendol-Hoppey, 2009, p. 74).

Another strategy used by the researcher was the documentation of students work. In this case, the researcher was able to establish the students’ level of literacy. The researcher was also able to assess how the students work, both independently and in groups.

This strategy enabled the study to establish students’ progress. Interviews were conducted to determine students’ attitude towards reading and to find out their opinion on different strategies used in the learning process (Dana & Yendol-Hoppey, 2009, p. 84).

The last technique used in the data collection was conducting of standardized tests. These tests were based on Texas Primary Reading Inventory (TPRI) (Dana & Yendol-Hoppey, 2009, p. 99).

These tests were conducted four times; before the study, at the beginning of the study, when the study is half way, and at the end of the study. The researcher incorporated progress monitoring tools to evaluate the progress the study (Dana & Yendol-Hoppey, 2009, p. 103).

Analysis of Data

The study used triangulation method of analysis. Triangulation entails the application of more than one from of collected data (Dana & Yendol-Hoppey, 2009, p. 112). Triangulation may result in a layered analysis and eventually, “convergent validity” (Farmer, Robinson, Elliott, & Eyles, 2006, p. 378).

Triangulation method of data analysis has its disadvantages as well. For example, triangulation could cause and magnify bias and errors (Farmer, Robinson, Elliott, & Eyles, 2006, p. 379).

The analysis of the potential errors and biases is important, along with the common layers. An evaluation of these biases and errors could in fact enable the researcher to discover new inquiries and questions that requires to be scrutinized carefully. Besides creating more research, the triangulation tool also generates more wonderings (Dana & Yendol-Hoppey, 2009, p. 74).Analysis of data involved four steps.

First, the data collected was spread out and analyzed closely. This was to sort and group data to establish their level of significance to the study. The next steps involve, organizing data, making notes on the available data and making inferences (Dana & Yendol-Hoppey, 2009, p. 120).

Results

Research findings indicate that audio books with accompanying texts have proved to be an effective tool for assisting struggling readers to overcome this difficulty. Audio books can also increase the fluency and comprehension of students in the upper grades.

Also, these students are more likely to read more pages within a short time. The state tests require students to have increased reading comprehension, and this is a vital achievement for students between the third and fifth grades.

Teachers too will be in a better position to individualize the educational needs and plans of their students. When our students cultivate an interest in reading certain subjects, they are more likely to work either in small groups, or independently, at their own pace.

They are also likely to end up learning more because they have a keen interest in the subject. In addition, struggling readers can also follow and listen to readings from books that are above their level of reading.

Writing Plan

Writing plan provides the direction for a particular project within a given timeframe. One way of developing meaningful goals and objectives is by highlighting outstanding actions in the previous year, assessing successes, and summarizing the objectives for the coming year. Lamb (2009) states that the only way of knowing that you have reached your destination is first to know where you are headed.

Empowerment, clarification, accomplishment and generative are the four most persuasive reasons why one would need a writing plan (Dana & Yendol-Hoppey, 2009, p. 134). For purposes of clarity, the writer has to ensure that he/she has presented the topic in question to the reader(s) as if they had no knowledge of it at all. This is to facilitate a clearer picture of the information.

In completing the study, the researcher intend to make use of empowerment as a way of confronting own assumptions, along with those of the peers. The study findings will be shared with share with the peers, parents, and the administration. The study findings are also meant to motivate and empower the students, so that they can succeed in their learning.

Plan for Dissemination

The current research would be quite beneficial to a number of key groups. First and foremost, the results of the study will be shared with the colleagues of the researcher. This group fully acknowledges the significance of motivating and engaging our struggling students to read, not to mention the importance of sharing research materials, experiences, and suggestions.

Unless that inquiry is tossed into the professional conversation and dialog that contributes to the knowledge base for teaching, the inquiry has little chance of creating change. However, once tossed in the inquiry disturbs the status quo of education practices, creating a ripple effect (Dana & Yendol-Hoppey, 2009, p. 188).

A thorough assessment of the study goals, audience, objectives, sources, content access, availability, success and barriers will ensure that the results get an effective dissemination plan. The goal here is to promote comprehension, understanding, a love for reading, and motivation among all the students within the school.

The researcher will first meet with members of the team to present the research findings at the weekly planning session. The researcher will share certain key components of valuable articles with the group using power point presentation. In addition, the researcher will use audio books available in their library to disseminate the study results. This way, it is easier for the peers to offer suggestions and or/feedback in a familiar and safe setting.

Consequently, the researcher will the meet the school administration and explore the possible impact of sharing the research findings with other members of the staff who could also be faced with struggling readers. There is also the need to share the research with parents.

Electronic Audio books can be downloaded on the Internet and since many homes have access to the Internet and computers, parents too can take an active role in assisting their children with reading. The academic success of the children depends on the contributions made by each of the aforementioned groups.

There is the need therefore to forge an alliance between teachers, and parents in order to promote audio books as a rewarding and exciting experience to enhance the reading skills of students at various grade levels and ages.

Tentative Timeline

The table below shows the provisional timeline for this research project. However, the timeline could change at any one given point since it is never a clear-cut process. Reinventions and changes are likely to be witnesses at various stages.

An inquiry research tends to be “murky”, “messy” and yet, “creative”. It is important that you remain patient and focused because you are likely to discover new findings that enable you to become an efficient teacher (Dana, Yendol-Hoppey, 2009, p. 189). Inquiry research entails improving your teaching skills to ensure the success of your students.

This process has taught me the best way to formulate my wondering questions. I have also learned the need to solicit the help of others even as my research starts taking shape.

The experience has also taught me how to seek the right research, collect the needed data and prepare a resounding conclusion for my research findings. I can now claim to know when and how to share my research findings, and the importance of including others in the project.

One’s teaching skills can improve tremendously through research. It is important therefore that we all view the entire process of conducting research and compiling the findings as a way of changing how our education systems and schools operate on behalf of our students.

References

Barnes, C. & Monroe, R. (2011). Reading Motivation Strategies to Motivate Struggling Readers K-8. Edutopia. Adapted from Powerful Learning: What We Know About Teaching for Understanding. Web.

Buschick, M. E., Shipton, T. A., Winner, L. M., & Wise, M.D. (2007). Increasing reading motivation in elementary and middle school students through the use of multiple intelligences. Illinois: Saint Xavier University & Pearson Achievement Solutions. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service no. ED498926).

Dana, N. F., & Yendol-Hoppey, D. (2009). The reflective educator’s guide to classroom research: Learning to teach and teaching to learn through practitioner inquiry (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Eisenberg, N. (2010). Self-regulation and school readiness. Early Education and Development, 21(5), 681–698.

Esteves, K. J., & Whitten, E. (2011). Assisted Reading with Digital Audio books for Students with Reading Disabilities. Reading Horizons, 51(1), 21-40. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service no. ED61992966).

Gambrell, L. & Marinak, B. (2009). Reading Rockets: Reading Motivation: What the research says. Web.

Guay, F., Chanal, J., Ratelle, C. F., Marsh, H. W., Larose, S., & Boivin, M. (2010). Intrinsic, identified, and controlled types of motivation for school subjects in young elementary school children. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 80(4), 711–735.

Johnson, D. (2003). Audiobooks: Ear-resistible! Illinois: Saint Xavier University. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service no. EJ671193).

Miller, C. P. (2011). Education World: Motivating the Reluctant Reader. Web.

Sasson, D. (2009). 5 Ways Teachers Can Collaborate With Each Other. Web.

Schraw, G., Crippen, K. J., & Hartley, K. (2006). Promoting self-regulation in science education: Metacognition as part of a broader perspective on learning. Research in Science Education, 36, 111–139.

Schunk, D. H., & Zimmerman, B. J. (2007). Influencing children’s self-efficacy and self-regulation of reading and writing through modeling. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 23(1), 7–25.

Willingham, D. T. (2007). Critical thinking: Why is it so hard to teach? American Educator, 31(2), 8–19.

Wolfson, G. (2008). Using Audiobooks to Meet the Needs of Adolescent Readers. American Secondary Education, 36.

Introduction

The survey on gangs for the last 12 years points out that gang problems were at their helm in the early 90s. To be precise, the survey points out an average of 26,000 gangs in the United States of America. Starting from 1996, gang problems witnessed a steady reduction till 2003, a year that accounted for the lowest number of gangs in the country. However, the number has been increasing steadily since that year to 2007. In fact, 2007 indicated the highest number of gangs since 1998 (Egley & O’Donnell, p. 1). This points out that the problem is increasing each passing day. But what could be the cause of this disheartening trend? Could it be attributed to poor gang prevention strategies or simply a natural phenomenon? Are there any strategies that have been identified and tested and hence pointed out that they can positively impact on the effort to curb gang problems? This paper will thus identify the principles and practices that are fundamental to the process of gang prevention programs. It will achieve this through the identification of the principles, identification of programs that have been put up and resulted into improvements in the community and finally outline what entails the implementation of these programs.

Intervention principles and practices

To understand the best prevention principles, it is good to identify the characteristics of the gang first. While there is no official definition of a youth gang, several characteristics have been identified to run through all the groups identified as gangs. These have been pointed out after several research and evaluation. Most of the gangs are organizations made up of a formal or semi-formal structure. These structures have a clearly stipulated leadership which seems to be the arm that makes decisions. In addition, gangs happen to operate in a specific region or territory. Furthermore, the members of the gang seem to have specific interaction patterns that must be adhered to. Finally, most of these groups tend to engage in violent activities and criminal behaviors. One notion that has been wrongly believed by the general public is that gang membership is a life long affair. This is not the case according to researches carried out in Denver and Rochester. In these two studies, it was evidenced that more than half of male gang members belonged to a gang for a period of less than one year. In addition, the crimes committed by the gang members varied. Gang members had a disproportionate crime degree responsibility (Egley & O’Donnell, p. 2).

For an effective strategy against gangs and crime, several principles and practices must be employed. The US Department of Justice (p. 14) points out several practices and principles that offer great promise if well implemented. Firstly, before engaging in any meaningful program, the community must identify the gang problem. This forms the first step in the whole process of combating gang related problems. Secondly, the community must identify and suggest policies and strategies through which the problem will be combated. These policies should include collaborative processes management. In addition, goals and objectives are basic elements in the practices and principles to combat gang related problems. These objectives must not only involve the short term activities like suppression of the gang and outreach to the most at risk and target members but it should also involve long term strategies like training and job placement for the reformed members of the gangs.

While all the mentioned might be important, the most important step is the ensuring that all the activities, procedures and tactics are relevant to the objectives outlined. Once the relevance is ascertained, participation of the whole community must take the center stage. Coordination and mobilization should be the next step of action. Gang problems are best addressed when the community works together. All members of the community should take part in the process of addressing this problem. Another very important concept that must be considered before making decisions concerning gang problem is the accountability of the former gang members. It is logical and just to ensure that the members are held accountable for the actions that they committed but at the same time, it is important that they are given adequate opportunity to reform and also put their behavior under control. This will not only ensure that the victims feel that justice has been done but also the perpetrators will be in position to have a normal life and have hope in their future life. Another important principle that should be considered includes the staffing on the committee to be involved in the gang repression and prevention process. It is advisable that the staff consists of the most diverse representation as it can be achieved. This is attributed to the fact that gang activities are a complex phenomenon. It requires that a complex approach is used so that all the relevant aspects of gang activities are identified. Finally, after having identified the most appropriate mix of the staff that will be appropriate in the strategy of gang prevention, it is necessary that they are trained so that they have adequate knowledge in prevention, suppression and intervention (US Department of Justice, p 3)

When targeting gangs, the most effective strategy involves an integrated approach. The activities in this approach allow the community to assist the population that is already involved in gang activities and the population that is likely to be involved in the gang activities. To achieve this, there is need for primary intervention that involves targeting the whole population in areas that are considered high-crime and high-risk. This involves the use of a resource center that can be accessible to all members of the community. Secondly, there is secondary prevention that identifies children aged between seven and fourteen, who, in most cases, are the most at risk population that needs attention. The activities here involve cooperating with schools, faith based organizations and community based groups to ensure that early behavioral problems are not left to develop into serious crimes and involvement in gang activities (US Department of Justice, p 4).

The third activity involves intervention. This activity majors on gang members that are already active in gang activities. It also includes their colleagues and close friends. It involves aggressively outreaching to them and ensuring that they are given support in making of positive choices. It also involves dealing with the families of the youth involved in the gang and coming up with support strategies so that the youth are not compelled to revert to crime and gang activities. Fourthly, community based strategies to curb gang activities include suppression. In this activity, the most influential and dangerous members of the gang are identified and removed from the community. Finally, the activity of gang control involves reentry. This includes dealing with the gang members who had initially been removed from the community and are coming back. Such individuals need monitoring. Among these are those members who had an outstanding role but later got confined. On returning, they usually try to reclaim their former roles which could be assumed by someone else. This results into conflicts (US Department of Justice, p. 4).

US Department of Justice (2007, p 4) identifies several other fundamental concepts that must be considered for an effective program. Firstly, it is necessary to identify the needs of the community from the individual, the family and the community level. An assessment must be done to ensure that the real situation is understood before appropriate measures are taken. The measures should address all the necessary needs from a point of view that is comprehensive and coordinated. Secondly, the community’s resources human and financial could spew trouble. An imbalance could lead to gang involvement by the group that feels unprivileged. It is therefore important that an inventory of this is done so that all existing gaps are filled and resources are mobilized to support the gang eradication program. Thirdly, the different groups that are likely to be involved in gang activities should be addressed differently. The program should therefore identify appropriate individual activities for each group based on their age, risk categories, or the boundaries according to urgency. Finally, coordination must be encouraged. This includes vertical coordination which is the coordination between the local programs and those of the state, and the federal agencies and horizontal coordination which involves the communities and the different programs.

Successful Programs

Several programs have been implemented using these principles and shown great success. This part of the paper will point out some of the programs around the United States of America.

Baton Rouge Gun Violence Prevention Project

This is one of the community projects that have put the model programs in practice. In this project carried out in LA, the comprehensive strategy was employed so that juvenile violence would be reduced in the streets. Although the primary objective of this project was not primarily aimed at gangs, gang prevention can be part of it because it was aimed at reducing juvenile violence. In their strategy, the projected targeted 21 year olds and below in areas that were identified as high crime regions (National Criminal Justice Resource services).

They included suppression where law enforcement agencies were used to reduce violence for youth aged 17 and above. Secondly, the program involved intensive risk reduction strategies to all the high risk populations together with their families and their community. In addition, violent offenders who were deemed chronic were put to an intensive probation and parole program. Other programs included community mobilization that was aimed at reaching families that were hard to reach. Finally, long term strategies were made to help cope with the problems of strengthening resources so that the most at risk youth could be empowered (National Criminal Justice Resource services).

Data in this program pointed out great improvements in the effort to control crime. Evaluation pointed out that the number of crimes committed reduced by a margin of 27% after the implementation of the program. This period included the year 1997 to the year 1998. Apart from the reduction of the number of crimes, the Police Department pointed out that the number of arrests also witnessed some reduction. The statistics pointed out that the number of arrests for youth involved in violent crimes and those involved in drugs reduced by 21%. These improvements point out on the success of the comprehensive model strategy when combating gangs and other forms of street violence (National Criminal Justice Resource services).

The Little Village Program (Chicago)

This program was designed and implemented by Spergel and his group. It was carried out in Little Village in Chicago. This village comprised of about 90% low-income but working class Mexican Americans. This program was carried out by the Police Department. The target age was between 17 and 24 years. However, the program did not involve every gang in the area but majored on two major gangs who accounted for over 70% of all the violent activities in the neighborhoods, the Latin Kings and the Two Six (Spergel et al, p. 25).

This program relied on two major strategies. Violence control and gang suppression through probation of identified youth and service provision encourage change of behavior. The committee consisted of police officers, youth workers, probation officers and other agencies involved in gang prevention. These agencies involved church organizations, job placement agencies, the Alderman and the City residents.

The evaluation of this program at Little Village in Chicago showed several positive changes. This meant that the program, if well implemented, could give a successful ending. In Little Village, three years that were evaluated pointed out that serious crime reduced drastically as compared to other gangs that were not subjected to this program. The targeted gangs witnessed fewer arrests for serious crimes as compared to other gangs that were not involved in the program (Spergel et al, p. 28). In addition, the youth involved in this program improved their educational and job status during the period of implementation. This was a clear indicator that the program was functional if well implemented.

The North Miami Beach, (Florida)

This program was also referred to as PanZou. It was targeted to the City of North Miami. This is a working population that comprises of mostly Haitian population. The City is mostly reliant to service provision as it lacks any major industry. The activities involved the most at risk population and also those already involved in youth activities through intervention. It also engaged in programs for general awareness through the provision of a resource center. The major activities included mentoring programs for the most at risk, literacy for youth of Haitian descend, life skill classes for empowerment and midnight basketball, family strengthening programs, provision of school suspension alternatives, management of intensive cases, special social, emotional and behavioral programs for girls and boys separately and self sufficiency programs (US Department of Justice, p.15)

Intervention activities included counseling, on job training, referrals to agencies for counseling and removal of tattoos, boxing skills and opportunities to serve the community. Suppression activities involved increased patrols to hot spots, gang leader identification and coordination of gang activities (US Department of Justice, p.15)

This program also witnessed great results that point out that the comprehensive strategy is a practical approach to gang problems. Prior to the implementation of the program, violence had escalated greatly in the region. However, statistics point out that two years after the implementation of the programs gave statistics of reduced crime. The following table identifies the reduction of crimes prior and after the implementation of the program.

In addition to this, the statistics from the Police department also showed that the number of offenses and the arrests committed prior to and after the implementation of the program showed a recommendable reduction. The following table shows the trend.

All these programs have shown great success. Crime rates have gone down and fewer youth have been involved in the recruitment to gangs. This was however based on the superb implementation of the programs. The implementation involved participation of the criminal justice, team coordination, commitment to the model and crisis intervention.

This was a clear pointer that suppression was not the best way out in the prevention of gang activities. Using a combination of activities including suppression and social worker involvement reduced violent and serious gang crimes while less violent crimes were better controlled by the use of youth workers. In addition, the use of these programs also changed the perception of gang crimes by the community residents while the police were given better skills in handling of these crimes. This made the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority conclude that this approach was a success. They attributed the success to the cohesive team approach that assisted in addressing of all the aspects of gang organization and crime (Spergel et al, p 28).

Implementation

A strategy means nothing if not well implemented. It is therefore important that the implementation process is carried out in an accurate and faithful way in order to achieve the desired outcome. It is evident that the programs named above succeeded because of a good implementation of the strategies. The implementation involves participation of the criminal justice, team coordination, commitment to the model and crisis intervention etc. However, are these the ultimate success pointers that a policy maker must adhere to when implementing his strategy? What other factors need to be considered during the implementation of this program? Does the process of implementation have to be done as a joint process or does it have to be structured according to the relevant stages i.e. identification of critical elements in prevention, those in intervention, those in suppression and eventually in monitoring? Is the process of implementation carried out without a time frame or is there a specific time frame that should be allocated for the process of data collection till the final process of evaluation? These questions are very essential for a policy maker. In order to have a successful strategy, appropriate answers must be allocated to them. Otherwise, the program might fail to yield fruits (US Department of Justice, p.32).

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is evident that community wide approach to gang prevention is a more efficient way of dealing with gangs as compared to the traditional suppression method. This has been identified through several programs’ success after adhering to the principles of this program. Research has also pointed out that gangs that were subjected to this program witnessed reduced arrests for serious crimes as compared to other gangs that were subjected to traditional suppression method. However, before engaging into these programs, one must understand the underlying principles and practices. He should also understand the challenges and requirements of implementations. Failure to have this understanding may result to increased gang problems.

Works Cited:

Egley, Arlen and O’Donnell, Christina. “Highlight of 2007 National Youth Gang Survey.” Institute of Intergovernmental.

US Department of Justice. “Best Practices to Address Community Gang Problems: OJJDP’s Comprehensive Gang Model.” 2007.

Spergel, I.A., Wa, K.M., and Sosa, R.V. The comprehensive, community-wide, gang program model: Success and failure.(2006) In J. F. Short and L. A.

Hughe (eds.), Studying Youth Gangs (pp. 203–224). Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press.

National Criminal Justice Reference Service. “Comprehensive Approaches to Gang Problems.” 2007.

Panzou Project, Inc. “Outcomes.” 2009. Web.

I agree that the hospice nurses help the dying and patients in pain through strategic practices that are evident based under tight regulations.Pain and death are controllable, but at some point, they seem tough and evident practices are employed in such circumstances. Tight regulations are the primary aspect of hospice programs in the nursing field (Buckley et al., 2022). People with chronic illnesses experience great pain during their illness periods. The implementation process is challenging and requires implementors being cautious. This process enhances pain management and death interventions. Taking a death sentence is difficult for family members, but the suffering associated with pain, if well explained, improves the understanding. Hospice agencies are the transmission tools that serve the huge population in the world affected by deaths.

It is essential consider culture in hospice practices because each community has different beliefs. This provides the best community-based leadership and aid to grieving people. The field requires innovative methodologies to ensure they apply the best decisions. Treatment for patients is vital in this platform and the reason for interdisciplinary terms (Buckley et al., 2022). Considering humanity’s skills, ethics, and culture does the successful practice in all aspects, hence the movement’s importance. The best learning program is an experience that opens people’s minds to the task. This ensures the organization’s stability and smooth f; low with the cultural changes.

Pain management creates a window for community and cultural-based practices that will keep the sick free. Controlling pain requires different medical practices to influence change to the elderly and cancer patients (Buckley et al., 2022). In most cases, the elderly lose hope and seem to see their death too near. This method helps patients cooperate with the treatment practices and assure them of the best. The risk is detected through assessment; this reveals the cause of the pain and determines the medical applications. The risk factors may be cancer, cognitive impairment, and comorbid conditions.

Reference

Buckley, C., Hartigan, I., Coffey, A., Cornally, N., O’Connell, S., O’Loughlin, C., Timmons, S., & Lehane, E. (2022). Evaluating the use of participatory action research to implement evidence‐based guidance on dementia palliative care in long‐term care settings: A creative hermeneutic analysis. International Journal of Older People Nursing, 17(5) e12460, p. 1-11. Web.

The topics that are best approached through action research

It should be noted that action research is particularly applicable to specific questions that can be related to the quality of programs, instruction methods, or textbooks. As a rule, educators choose this technique when they need to address a specific educational problem arising in a certain setting. In most cases, these topics are related to the classroom activities of students and teachers. Overall, scholars argue that action research applies to so-called local-level settings (Mertler & Charles, 2011). For instance, a teacher can apply this technique to understand what kind of difficulties students face when they do certain tasks such as mathematical problems.

Moreover, in this way, the educator will attempt to design strategies that can help learners avoid these difficulties. This is the main task of the action research. In this case, the teacher will also participate in this activity, and he/she can modify the instruction strategy used during the class. One should mention that action research is more suitable to the topics that can be formulated as an open-ended question. In particular, a teacher can apply this model to identify methods that can facilitate learners’ understanding of the new material (Baumfield, Hall, & Wall, 2010). It is possible to argue that the topics examined through action research are not related to large population groups. This is one of the main aspects that can be identified. They should be taken into account by educators and other professionals who can undertake action research.

Types of evaluation of educational programs

Scholars believe that there are six types of evaluation, and they are aimed at assessing a certain phenomenon from various perspectives (Mertler & Charles, 2011, p. 358). To some degree, they have to supplement each other. Overall, it is rather difficult to conduct a study that combines each of these types of evaluation. The problem is that the techniques described in this section are based on different assumptions. For instance, a teacher can carry out research that involves a participant-oriented evaluation of a certain educational program that is designed to increase students’ interest in natural sciences. In this case, it is necessary to focus on the experiences of teachers and students.

In particular, I would focus on the extent to which a program meets the needs of these stakeholders. Moreover, educators can rely on expertise-oriented evaluation that relies on the opinions of people who are experts in a certain field (Mertler & Charles, 2011, p. 358). The problem is that these models can produce dramatically different results. For example, one can mention that educational programs that were designed by educational standards were not successful because they did not meet the needs of the major stakeholders. This is one of the limitations that should not be overlooked.

Certainly, it should be noted that educators can conduct separate studies of the same program. So, various groups of educators can carry out various evaluations of the same program. However, it is not advisable to incorporate each of the six categories into single research. Furthermore, researchers often tend to look only at the results that confirm their ideas or hypotheses. Therefore, by doing separate evaluations of an educational program, scholars can improve the validity of their results. This is one of the central issues that should be kept in mind.

Reference List

Baumfield, V., Hall, E., & Wall, K. (2012). Action Research in Education: Learning Through Practitioner Enquiry. New York: SAGE.

Mertler, C. & Charles, C. (2011). Introduction to educational research. San Francisco: Allyn and Bacon.

A school improvement team was gathered to conduct action research and identify a problem that affects student achievement and is approached by the school authorities but is not yet decently monitored. During the study, it was revealed that the students who attend the school are mainly from the neighbors, which means that students communicate not only at school. Those of the 9th grade, for instance, tend to gather in groups.

There is a group of five individuals whose seats are never occupied by others, and they tend to be the leaders of the class. The rest of the learners reveal poor motivation and self-confidence. Following the leaders, they rarely participate in the proposed activities and tend to be rather passive in class, which affects the overall performance and makes the teaching process rather complicated.

Problem Description

The class consists of 24 individuals, and 5 of them influence the whole class. The rest of the students would act just like them because they do not have any desire to get engaged in the class activities and do not feel confident enough to do the things others refuse to. As a result, there is a necessity to punish them and to beg to participate. Being asked about their attitudes towards language classes, students stated that they find their coursebook and activities offered by it boring. In addition to that, they tend to work individually because group work distracts them. Thus, there is a necessity to resort to those practices that improve both motivation and self-confidence.

The source of the issue is likely to be not the book itself or leadership in the class, but a lack of attention revealed by the school authorities towards students’ interests. To improve the situation, teachers implement activities to promote group and pair work. They focus on such objectives as:

• Show students the advantages of group work;
• Encourage students to rely on their abilities and skills;
• Use those methods that promote students’ self-confidence;
• Enhance knowledge sharing between learners and educators.

The effectiveness of the teaching process depends greatly on the students’ engagement in the proposed activities that is why it is critical to ensure that they meet students’ interests (Sadykova, 2014). Unfortunately, the lack of motivation and stimulation, as well, as the lack of confidence regarding personal skills and abilities, makes learners rather passive. As a result, they fail to reach expected progress.

Currently, teachers tend to improve their communication with students. They conduct surveys to find out what they like and use this information as the basis for the lesson plans. Activities maintained in pairs and groups are also often offered. However, the effectiveness of these initiatives is not being monitored.

Theoretical Framework

Encouragement and self-confidence are vital for positive academic results. Motivation, for example, is critical because it makes students participated in various activities because of the reward they will eventually obtain. Emphasis on the things they need increases chances of the successful task accomplishment.

According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, people need to fulfill their needs in a particular order. In this way, students will focus on class-related activities only when those connected with breathing, sleep, security, relations, and confidence, etc. will be satisfied. Thus, encouragement of students is a rather complicated task that should constantly be maintained to ensure that they are engaged in the learning process.

Motivation can be intrinsic and extrinsic, and teachers need to consider both types. Intrinsic motivation deals with the final goal of obtaining knowledge and can be seen in students only if they are highly interested in the topic itself, which is rarely observed. Being aligned with Maslow’s hierarchy, it appears to be the final goal on the top of the pyramid. Extrinsic motivation presupposes the necessity to add some reward for the successful accomplishment of a task.

Even though such an approach seems to be less appropriate, it often turns out to be extremely effective. Students who are generally reluctant to participate in class activities resort to them because they understand that it is a possibility to get the desired prize, additional marks, higher points, fewer home tasks, or other things. However, this approach should not turn into a commonly used option because it can cause additional problems.

Students’ self-confidence also requires much attention from teachers. If learners do not believe in their powers and consider that they are not able to accomplish a task, they are likely to refuse even to start it (Sharma & Agarwala, 2014). Students’ belief in their capabilities allows them to reach success, if it is not maintained, they are likely to be rather passive and to avoid any tasks. Supporting students’ self-confidence, teachers can make them participate in various activities regardless of their complexity.

Thus, teachers should offer learners to take an active part in both individual and group tasks, and to monitor their effectiveness. Being aware of the results, especially working ones, learners are likely to develop an interest in participation in more difficult activities (Wang, 2015). In this way, teachers’ feedback is crucial for students’ motivation.

Methodology

The methodology needed to evaluate the effectiveness of the initiatives that promote student motivation and self-confidence is not complicated, which means that it can be maintained by teachers as well.

The first step of the discussed comprehensive plan is already implemented. It deals with the investigation of student interests and their current participation in class activities offered by educators.

The second step is to evaluate received information and identify those topics that students want to discuss. Here, it is also possible to get in touch with learners to ensure that the choices are made correctly.

The third step is to plan classes based on the obtained information. Teachers should align those skills and abilities that students are to obtain after the completion of the course with those topics they want to discuss in class. It is significant to remember that activities maintained in pairs and groups are to be included.

The fourth step should be dedicated to the evaluation and assessment of the effectiveness of the implemented improvement effort. It should be done in several ways. First of all, students should share their attitudes toward new activities and topics. Their overall perception of classes should be considered. Then, attention should be paid to academic achievements and changes in marks. Finally, teachers should focus on their perception of students’ participation and reveal if they are more motivated to accomplish tasks and if they feel confident when dealing with various activities.

Teachers should develop a checklist that focuses on the expected results. A short questionnaire should also be created. On their basis, they should be able to identify and correct the problems they face with new activities. What is more, it will be possible to implement changes to improve the situation in the case of no positive response. In this way, it will be possible to evaluate teachers’ practice and students’ attitudes towards it. It will be advantageous to record classroom activities in detail.

Teachers will have an opportunity to reconsider them, assessing personal performance, and ensuring that explanations and instructions are clear and easy to understand. In addition to that, it will be extremely beneficial if a video per week is taken. Then, teachers have an opportunity to analyze their lessons appropriately. Moreover, they can ask a colleague to assist and share his/her ideas.

The questionnaire should be given to students. Using them, they should reflect their reactions to the class activities, and teachers’ performance. Thus, questions should be short and clear. For instance, it is possible to focus on the duration of the activities, clearness of instructions, and appropriateness of visual materials.

Of course, the evaluation of the improvement efforts is impossible without an analysis of teachers’ actions. When all data is already gathered, they should examine their performance and students’ reaction to them in a more objective way than focusing on students’ responses. The most benefit can be obtained due to the participation of a third person, a colleague, for instance. He/she should provide comprehensive feedback. However, self-assessment is also required and should not be neglected.

Action Plan

Considering the issue discussed and developed objectives, teachers should plan activities that are based on students’ interests but not simply taken from the book. In this way, if a song is supposed to be used during the class, a teacher should find out learners’ preferences. It is possible to watch a movie or to use other technical devices to make classes more attractive.

Students should improve their participation in class activities through the promotion of self-confidence. It can be achieved through the usage of congratulations for improvement. As a result, inhibition can be stopped, and students can realize that they are a group that can learn together with a teacher through questions and conversations. Teachers can say that they are good at something or that they should keep working on it. Comments can be made about the very activities and learners’ success related to them. As a result, they are expected to start feeling confident and to stop being afraid of active participation.

Findings

For this research, a school improvement team evaluated several classes and questioned teachers and students. As a result, an opportunity to have enough information for the identification of the main problem that affects student achievement was obtained. The researchers analyzed information and aligned the outlined issues with their interests. In this way, a lack of attention revealed by the school authorities towards students’ interests was chosen as a critical problem that requires further investigation. The researchers found out that some teachers have already started to maintain particular improvement efforts to deal with this issue.

However, their effectiveness was not properly assessed. In addition to that, attention was paid to the lack of self-esteem because learners were unwilling to participate in all activities regardless of the topics discussed in class. Such a tendency can also be considered as an anomaly because learners remained rather passive even when educators based their lessons on those topics students claimed to be interesting and attractive.

Even though the results of this research seem to be inconsistent, they align with different sources. Scientists agree that educators often base their classes on the available materials and do not pay much attention to the interests of learners because related alterations will require a lot of changes and will make a planning process more difficult (Baki, Rafik-Galea, & Nimehchisalem, 2016). What is more, literature sources support the findings that reveal a lack of students’ self-esteem, which affects their willingness to participate in class activities adversely (Honken & Ralston, 2013).

Unfortunately, these results were expected, because these issues are often observed in various educational establishments. Moreover, the researchers were highly interested in the discussed issues and results, as scientists have focused on them for a long time already and numerous improvement initiatives have been proposed. However, the problem remains on the front burner even today, which means that some changes are required.

Recommendations

The data obtained from the research reveals that students are not interested in the topics and activities used in class. Unfortunately, even if they discuss some attractive information, learners remain passive because they do not believe in their powers and are afraid to fail. Interestingly, a lot of authoritative literature with resolutions to these issues is available, but teachers are still not able to achieve success and increase student interest and participation. Thus, it seems to be advantageous to focus on educators, their attitudes towards work, and possible changes needed to align the learning process with learners’ interests that are constantly changing.

In this way, it seems to be beneficial to answer some additional questions to improve analysis. For instance:

• Are teachers satisfied with available coursebooks?
• What topics do they want to discuss apart of those included in coursebooks?
• How do teachers perceive new tendencies and changes?
• Are they willing to learn something new from their students?

Answers to these questions are likely to allow the researchers to develop those initiatives that will benefit both students and teachers in the framework of participation in-class activities.

Reflection

Due to this action research, the members of the school improvement team received an opportunity to reveal current issues that affect student achievement. They realized that even if some problems are already widely discussed, it does not mean that they are not on the front burner for particular classes. Moreover, the researchers understood that regardless of teachers’ willingness to improve students’ performance, they can also affect this process adversely because of unwillingness to implement critical changes. The team members also improved their understanding of teacher-student interaction, which is vital for them as for educators, as they can use this knowledge in practice.

Conducting action research, they found out that the implementation of improvement efforts has almost no effectiveness if it lacks a decent basis and monitoring. All changes maintained within the educational process should be aligned with proper evidence. Thus, it is critical to start with an investigation. Even though teachers observe a lack of participation in in-class activities, they should not try to enhance the situation based on their ideas. They need to approach their students to find out what makes them passive and how to engage them.

References

Baki, N., Rafik-Galea, S., & Nimehchisalem, V. (2016). Malaysian rural ESL students critical thinking literacy level: A case study. International Journal of Education & Literacy Studies, 4(4), 1-8. Web.

Honken, N., & Ralston, P. (2013). High-achieving high school students and not so high-achieving college students: A look at lack of self-control, academic ability, and performance in college. Journal of Advanced Academics, 24(2), 108-124. Web.

Sadykova, G. (2014). Mediating knowledge through peer-to-peer interaction in a multicultural online learning environment: A case of international students in the US. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 15(3), 1-7. Web.

Sharma, S., & Agarwala, S. (2014). Self-esteem and collective self-esteem as predictors of depression. Journal of Behavioural Sciences, 24(1), 21-28. Web.

Wang, S. (2015). An analysis of the causes and countermeasures of students’ English learning weariness in junior high school. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 5(8), 1747-1753. Web.

Description of the context for the study: qualitative research based on three different schools; one of public school, private and comment preschool. Using interview questions by analyzing the interview questions after the interview was done with the student.

Each area of study has its own body of knowledge and the study of STEM in the context of the research fits well with the qualitative research paradigm. The findings in this research are based on interpretations, personalistic, situational, and other interpretations of the knowledge and practice in the areas of investigation.

The qualitative paradigm was based on the systematic review of literature and the themes developed from the review of literature. The epistemological, theoretical, and disciplinary perspectives of qualitative research in the context of STEM activities and how the learners respond to the activities provides the rationale to use the qualitative paradigm to address the data collection and analysis. In public schools, the STEM activities are funded by the Office of Partnership Development because they recognise the need to get involved in supporting early STEM involvement among the children. On the other hand, the study of the implementation of STEM in private and comment preschool are supported by stakeholders who want to have the young child develop the skills necessary to be successful later on life in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).

The focus of the study is in the development and analysis of creative and critical thinking skills among the children aged 4 and 8 years and the teaching strategies to improve their abilities. In addition, the strategy was to analyse how the STEM activities could be implemented among the kids to achieve the learner centered skill. The critical thinking skills no only boarder on the use of math and science based subjects, but covers other areas of study that includes engineering activities. Typically, most learners do not embrace or do not like the activities associated with STEM because most of the tasks are boring and uninteresting besides the children and even the adults having the perception that STEM is complicated. The study will focus on identifying the strategies to use to implement the STEM activities among the earlier learners so that they are made to appreciate the benefits of engaging in the activities earlier in life. The earlier engagement in STEM activities can be discovered and established through interviews and the responses the children and other stakeholders provide to the interviewee on how the activities help the students to develop individual skill and how such activities can be implemented by the teachers.

Here, the core issues and tools to use are the people and the responses of the children on the attitude they have developed on the earlier exposure to STEM, ability to make observation on how the children interact in the learning environment by emphasizing on observations, intuition, and empirical evidence.

For instance the most appropriate method that was used ion the study was the use of interviews. Interview questions can be analysed using the qualitative paradigm and both the aggregative data and interpretive data formed the basis of the study. Interpretive data could arise on the study because the participants who were interviewed had an experience of poor implementation of the program and the aggregative data resulted from the participants who had experienced a good program. In both cases, it was imperative to try to determine the themes that were identified by the respondents as crucial in each case of the program.

The interviewing strategy was to collect unique information that was held by the respondents, collect numerical aggregation and data about the data, and establishing what could not be observed by the researcher. It was important mix the questions to reduce boredom.

It is critical to note the nature of responses that each teacher presents and the common themes in each response. For instance, the general response to the first question is that the STEM implementation enables the teachers to develop positive attitudes towards the program when implemented at different levels.

The teachers emphasise on science and technology, but the standard elements include the mathematics as one of the subjects identified in STEM. It is possible to note that the dynamics of developing STEM is evident in the statement “we explore more and increase our focus on Engineering in the classroom”.

The STEM implementation approach focuses on the individual, collaboration, and others propose that the activities run concurrently. In each case, the mix of activities provides the activities that are done in groups as asserted in the statement that “there are also small and whole group instruction times that would be teacher-guided in which the teacher would be there to not necessarily dictate the activity, but guide, encourage, and ask open-ended questions based on the students’ leading”.

On the other hand, it is evident that there are no individual differences among the STEM research implementation strategies when implemented in groups or at the individual level. Typically, it is possible to roll out the program either on the individual level or at the level of the groups.

Reviewers were asked to assess the responses to determine the benefits that the individuals could get when STEM was implemented. It was establish that most responses agreed that the instructional strategy improves the student’s thinking and analytical skills that underpin the establishment and implementation of STEM for the children. It is worth noting that one of the respondents agreed that “building thinking skills in the students and not just in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, but also in other areas. STEM has also challenged me to think more in depth about the activities I have out in my classroom” which is the main goals of the STEM program.

In terms of passing information to parents and other stakeholders on the importance of STEM, the instructors agreed that “STEM encourages the students to build their critical thinking skills and to engage in learning through exploration, collaboration and problem solving strategies”. It is viewed as a good thing to use STEM to develop the critical thinking skills of the children and investing in them is worthwhile.

In general, the conclusion is that STEM has boosted the development of the skills of many children in the field of math, engineering, and sciences as is evident in the way the children appreciate STEM and the lifelong benefits they get when the children continue into further studies. It is important, however to note that no formal assessment is available for STEM, but “it is evident that the students are building and growing their thinking skills and problem solving skills”.

Brief introduction focusing on relevant literature

The study was based an analytical exposition of the methods used to solve the problem related to the development and implementation of STEM, which is an acronym for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics among the young children in the range of 4 and 8 years. The objectives are to provide an excellent view to understand and rich open comprehension of the implementation and the success of the program based on an analysis of the background knowledge of the early learner in STEM. In addition, the strategy involved using the instructional methods and interactions between the student and the teacher with the elements that define STEM to get the young students exposed earlier an earlier to science, engineering, and math to increase the attention of students by using strategies that fit with science, such as hands-on.

Here, the analytical problem was to determine how successful an earlier exposure to STEM could increase the knowledge and skills of the students in science, engineering, and math, leading to the overall academic development of the young student. On the other hand, it is evident that 77% of the women do not as stakeholders provide the necessary support for the children to participate in STEM. In addition, an analytic solution to the problem is also evident in the lack of motivation to get involved in the study.

However, further analysis of the literature review shows that STEM promotes integrated learning and the results include the ability to develop the mind, knowledge, and skills of the student to increase interest in the STEM subjects. The literature develops a common understanding that the STEM enables the student to develop problem solving skills. Despite that, the minority of students are women and the approach to develop the skills in STEM of the minority group are adequately provides by the teachers.

Methodology – sampling/subjects, procedures for data collection, how data will be analyzed, overall timeline

The proposed methodology is based on a qualitative research paradigm that is embedded in the systematic review of literature and interview questions to provide the responses from professional teachers on implementing STEM. It is evident that when examining the knowledge paradigm of different researchers, there is a common consensus that the qualitative paradigm fits well into the study on STEM and its application among children aged between 4 and 8 years.

The subjects who were interviewed in the study included teachers to provide the data for analysis while observations were made to determine the effects STEM on the young students. However, the criteria for sampling underpin the importance and appropriateness of the findings and how well the findings are generalizable. The qualitative paradigms requires that the sampling strategy is able to provide a sample that enables the researcher to be able to see through the eyes of the respondent, provide a detailed description of the study, establish how the social change in the context of knowledge acquisition among the students who get involved in STEM, how to increase motivation among the students involved in STEM, and the effects the study has on the skills development of the student.

It is important to note that the qualitative paradigm enables the researcher to make accurate representation of facts because the subjects in the study were not predictable, but accurate. The randomization effects were not applicable on the type of study, and probability sampling was not used and the approach made increased the reliability of the results.

The sampling strategy was based on a non-probabilistic approach that was based on the quota system that allowed the researcher to determine the characteristics of the target population and the sample. Here, the quotas were created based on the quotas that include the age, gender, and class of the student. In addition, the representativeness of the sample was based on the quota system where each subjects was taken from the three target areas of the subjects. On the other hand, the sampling strategy involved theoretical sampling because general research questions were applied on the respondents such as asking them about age, class, and general attitude towards participating in STEM. In addition, the core elements included in the study that provide the guidelines includes the ability to understand the phenomenon, which involves implementing STEM among the young children, the acquisition of enough knowledge about STEM because numbers do not make much relevance in the qualitative study.

Here, the overall time-line is 2 years because of the data collection methods. The students will be able to participate with teachers and the students collaboratively to develop the right skills and knowledge for the students that have a long term effect on the future lives.

Data collection procedure

The strategy used observations and interviews to collect primary qualitative data by paying careful attention to detail and skill to make direct observations and to interview the stakeholders. In addition to asking questions, it was deemed necessary to carry do continuous monitoring the children to understand the performance gaps and improvements, and the motivation the children developed towards getting involved on the STEM project. The activities that were evaluated to collect primary data were based on the STEM activities where each family was registered to have a hand on experience on the program. In addition, incorporating the subjects earlier in the process made it easier for the children to have earlier involvement and exposure to the activities. In addition, the caregivers and parents were involved to motivate the children to appreciate and get encouraged to participate in the program.

Parents were advised to make observations of the activities done by their children and how the children interacted in the environment of study. Observations and deductions were made on how the children interacted and performed different activities using the various materials that were availed them. In addition, each parent who had a child participating in the STEM program could be asked to appreciate and monitor the performance of the child based on the extension of the classroom activities into the homework. On the other hand, the most appropriate time was two years because the change a child undergoes when exposed to STEM does not occur immediately, but takes time.

On the other hand, interview formed the backbone of the primary data collection method because interviews produce a lot of qualitative data within a very short time. The advantages with interviews are that the researcher was able to collect the right detailed volume of data to inform the study. Discovery of how individual behave when subjected to the STEM environment, identification of the most useful part of the data collection and analysis is feasible, it is possible to add impersonal data into the study, and it enables a deeper understanding of the data collected from the study.

Data analysis

The results were then organised into themes and each category of data was investigated and interpreted according to the interrelationship that appeared among the items. The results showed that the STEM activities were incorporated in each class to enable the teachers to explore the items that had the most important effect on the knowledge and skills development activities of the children. It was realized that the children who were taken through the STEM activities were able to use different tools to express the knowledge and skills learnt and the new vocabularies while making them look at life with renewed curiosity.

It was possible for students to use different tools to make measurements of different items such as when a child encountered a challenge to measure the size of a worm. In addition, the child was able to learn by developing interest in habitats and was able to share the new findings with other students. The observations encouraged the teacher to create new strategies on how to motivate the learner to develop more interest in making new investigations.

Discussion of perceived strengths and weaknesses of proposed study

The study had weaknesses and strengths in the quest to investigate the application of STEM on public school, private and comment preschools. Among the strengths were the ability to enable the researcher to interpret the findings based on the intuition and the generality of findings on different situations that define the context of the study for students from different backgrounds. The study emphasized on empirical evidence because it was oriented on the field of study and experiential, relying on observations and on the site participation of the researcher. The study focused on the use of objects that were unique to each situation of study and the findings were generalized across different learning environments.

Each child’s unique learning activities were factored into the study and the points of view of the students and the teachers were integrated into the study in the quest to discover the most appropriate STEM implementation strategy and the best approach to motivate the learners and increase the skills and knowledge acquired in class. Other observations that were made include an increase in STEM activities among the students because most students were able to use appropriate terminologies to communicate the knowledge and skills they had acquired.

On the other hand, implementing STEM will help the students, parents, and teachers and other stakeholders to improve their attitude towards STEM careers and fields by increasing the enrollment rates of the students, increasing the rate of participation in STEM, help the teachers and students develop self-confidence in the STEM activities. STEM will help improve the careers, knowledge and skills by enabling the students to increase test scores when compared with those students, who do not attend the STEM programs, increase the general knowledge and skills in science and engineering, and increase the graduation rate of STEM students.

Investigations reveal that involvement in STEM helps students to know their strengths and weaknesses and the possibility of pursuing STEM related studies in future instead of pursuing them only to discover that STEM difficult for them in future. IN addition, children get motivated to pursue STEM related studies in future because they are able to develop increased interest in STEM at an earlier age.

Brief description of actions/changes anticipated as result of study

In summary, it was noted that certain areas of study were to be focused on to make the STEM processes for implementing STEM reliable. It was established that the transition of the new system of the students into the new realm of knowledge and skills on STEM was necessary to ensure necessary success in implementing STEM. Once the research document has been introduced into the realm of knowledge acquisition in STEM, the teacher, parents, and children will be informed of the benefits that accrue for the child and the effects such knowledge acquisition will have on the long term development of the children’s skills in STEM and practical application. The most important changes anticipated include transition from the traditional instruction methods to emphasizing on STEM. In addition, it is projected that by integrating the STEM strategy into the normal or traditional instructions methods, many young students in the USA will benefit because they will develop the desired skills and knowledge to become competent in the engineering, math, and other sciences.

In addition, the study provides pointers to the need to factor STEM access among the minority groups to enable the children and parents participate in the programs. STEM must support the racial and ethnic equality by creating more opportunities for the minority groups. It is crucial to implement STEM after school to help bridge the opportunity for the existence of the underrepresented and under-served communities on interactive levels. The recommendation after collecting and analysing data was that most of students like science after practice STEM activities in preschool through K-5 and more analysis will help to build this part of the investigation. In conclusion, it is possible to increase the motivation of young learners to pursue STEM related studies earlier in life.

The author is trying to use action research to critically analyze the conditions for developing sustainable as well as scalable health information systems in third world countries alongside the scalability as well as sustainability of the action research process itself. The author acknowledges that providing health services to individuals in deprived situations particularly in developing countries is a complex task. In his thoughts supported by previous research studies, he asserts that improved health information systems can significantly lead to curbing the complex health delivery issues. Through the world health organization, the vision aimed at providing health for all by the beginning of the millennium through decentralization of management of health issues has not yet been achieved (Braa, 2004). The reason according to the researcher rests on unsuccessful efforts to utilize health information systems in developing countries. This brings two main problems that he sought to research; challenge in making HIS work (sustainability) as well as the challenge of making HIS to spread to other site (scalability).

Context

Establishing sustainability and how an initiative can spread successfully is of significance in health information system. Considering that third world countries have encountered a myriad of problems regarding healthcare provision, it would be rational to evaluate the challenges facing HIS and its sustainability and scalability. It has been shown that successful HIS has the potential of saving lives of those who are poor and are entangled in poverty by providing them with proper health care services.

It is in this context that the researcher has embarked on studying and exploring health information system programs that were ongoing by the time he was doing the research. The countries of interest were South Africa, Ethiopia, Mozambique, China, Nigeria, Tanzania, India, Cuba, Malawi and Mongolia. Additionally the researcher engaged in tracing the evolution of HISP since 1994-2004.

Action research approach used

It is worth noting that after reviewing the various possible research approaches, the author of the article decided to utilize action research approach developed by Baskerville & Wood-Harper, 1998. This approached included the following sections discussing primary goals, structure, and process and researcher involvement. According to the model developers, action research process is iterative, reflective and linear.

Literature review

It is in the literature review where the researcher engages in reviewing works of other scholars related to his study. The author managed to use subheadings in this section to make it easy for the readers to capture relevant sectors. The author cited majority of existing literatures that were not too old considering the year the study was done. It is worth noting that majority of the references he used were from 1996-2002. I have to admit that the author managed to use simple language and still conveyed the intended meaning; this made the work to be outstanding.

Participative process

The researcher identified 10 countries that had in place HISP that were ongoing and were willing to take part in the study. The 10 countries took part in the study and critically reviewed how the HISP was running; the gains as well as the challenges being faced were brought to light. The researcher used a network of students and other officials to realize the goals of the study. It is also worth to note that to accomplish this various interviews, workshops and observation were carried out.

Ethical issue

One of the major ethical issues in this study was the researcher and his assistance not to engage in political issues since health matters are sometimes meddled with politics. To avoid any possible ethical issues during the study, the researcher opted not to engage in politics related to HISP but rather strictly follows the laws, guidelines and procedures of each country when handling information related to health. He also sought to be neutral and not to show support on political issues relating to HISP (Braa, 2004).

Diagnosis

The problem was lack of Health Information Systems Programs to be sustainable and spread out to other regions such as provinces and districts. This made it a challenge when trying to provide better health care services to individuals particularly from developing countries. The goal was thus to “design implement and sustain HIS following a participatory approach to support local management of healthcare delivery and information flow in selected health facilities… and its further spread within and across countries” (Braa, 2004, p. 340)

Data gathering and analysis

Concerning data collection the researcher employed interviews, workshops as well as observation. Through selective data coding, there major areas were brought to light; gaining political support, HIS development and finally training and education. Data was analyzed by 3 researchers who drew their findings from analysis and understanding of a network of students (Braa, 2004).

Trustworthiness/validity of the data

To ensure data validity or trustworthiness the researcher collected information and data from different countries. This kind of triangulation helped to deal with issues relating to researcher’s bias. Additionally data was analyzed by three researchers, the earlier drafts were circulated and used by students for a period of 2 years and feedbacks which were varied helped validate the results.

Feedback

There are indeed various kinds or forms of feedback and may include regular updates on various activities, data as well as results. In this study, the author managed to have an avenue where he shared information with the participants through face to face meeting as well as through writings.

Action planning

The 10 countries actively engaged together with the researcher to create an environment in which the study could be successfully carried out. For instance, they were able to provide relevant information about the HISP and tried to incorporate the changes proposed by the researcher as the study was being carried out.

Action

All the 10 countries seek for political support as well as train and educate their staff on successful implementation of HISP.

Evaluation

The research used the codes and themes to evaluate the action. Through discussions with the relevant authorities, the researcher was able to identify challenges facing HISP and together with the respective participants engaged in taking corrective measures.

Lesson learnt

One thing I have learnt is with regards to the time it take for an action research to be carried out. It ideally calls for more time so that issues of concern can be adequately addressed. Similarly participation is key and there is need to always keep everyone at par so that the goals of the research can be realized (Braa, 2004).

References

1. Baskerville, R. & Wood-Harper, A. (1998). Diversity in action research methods. European Journal of Information Systems, 7(2): 90-107.
2. Braa, J. (2004). Network of action: Sustainable health information system across developing countries. MIS Quarterly, 28(3): 337-362.