A Comparison of Two Educational Researches - Literature review Example

A COMPARISON OF TWO EDUCATIONAL RESEARCHES Name Lecturer Institution Date Table of Contents Introduction 3 Research 1 3 Ontology 3 Epistemology 4 Theoretical Perspective 4 Methodology 5 Methods 5 Issues 5 Research 2 6 Ontology 6 Epistemology 7 Theoretical perspective 7 Methodology 8 Methods 8 Issues 9 References 10 Introduction The read examines two researches by making comparisons and providing explanations on ontology, epistemology, theoretical perspectives, methodologies, methods, issues and finally draws conclusions whether the researches are good educational researches, with supporting arguments. Research 1 This section examines Deslandes & Bertrand (2005) research as outlined by the subsections herein: Ontology Deslandes & Bertrand (2005) generally handles the aspect of cultivation of motivation among learners in their research. Motivation is thus treated as belonging to the ontological perspective. Motivation is an innate human trait, where beings express a desire to achieve a certain goal or status. The research reveals that indeed motivation sides with the ontological as it conforms to the defining nature of the ontological. The beings involved in the issue of motivation include the parents, and their young ones, identified as students. The research further discusses the contribution of parents in the quest to build the strong will of students to improve in their performance at school. Further, the parents exhibit human abilities through practices that are intended to help the students develop a positive attitude towards education. The parents have varied ways of achieving their intended objective. Holding discussions and helping their children in completion of exercises are some ways in which the parents motivate the students. Unlike other creatures, only humans can teach and attitudes such as motivation. The research can be inferred to as being interpersonal. Data was collected by means of questionnaires. This method of data collection can only involve three interfaces, though it is giving information that represents the relation of the student and the parent. This method is therefore termed interpersonal. The research can as well be termed social as other entities are involved in it. The entire school fraternity is involved in the research process in determining the contribution of the parent in learner motivation. The individual gathering the data can is isolated from the respondents. His lack of one-to-one involvement with the respondents in the collection of data this denies him the opportunity to get more detailed first hand data. Epistemology Truth about knowledge is considered as being relative. Truth about the knowledge and motivation of the learners is relative as it is only an estimation which is arrived at by comparison. Motivation of learners is assumed to be proportional to the performance of the students. The degree of motivation is as well measured by the level of parent involvement. Such assumptions as the more the parent involvement, the higher the motivation of the students are drawn. Knowledge is presented as predictable. This is implied by the constructs that predict parent involvement in schools or homes in order to enhance the motivation of learners, which consequently enhance their knowledge. However, since these indicators of knowledge are not absolute, and there are explanations offered to support existence of motivation among learners. Knowledge is represented in the research through data collection. The data is measured and interpreted through statistical means. The statistical approach analyzes the different constructs against the grades of learners. Theoretical Perspective From a theoretical point of view, the research applies two aspects of the human beings; psychological being and the social being. The students’ ability to be motivated is a trait that is learnt, taking into account the ability of human brain to adapt to given situations requiring a change in behavoiur. More to the psychological placement of individuals in relation to motivation, four constructs have been developed, and they greatly borrow on perception. The constructs involved include; the parent’s role construction, in which parents feel that it's their responsibility to motivate their children. The parent’s self-efficacy supposes that parents wish to help their children because of the perceptpion that they have the necessary skills. The student invitation perception makes parents responsive to involvement on perception that their involvement is called for by the students while the perception of teacher invitation generally suggests that the involvement of the parent is dependent on the school environment in addition to demands from the teacher. These constructs help the parent work toward achieving motivation of their young one. The social part takes into account the combination of the involvement of the school through its teachers and the welcoming climate and the involvement of the parent. Therefore the physiological and social aspects give the psychosocial theory in analyzing the research. Methodology The general analysis of the research shows the place of prediction and explanation. The research displays the use of the four constructs of psychology to investigate the involvement of parents within the home and school. Positivism was evident in with parents found to be involved at home and in school. Reduced positivism was evident as parents felt that they had to make follow-ups on the activities and progress of their adolescent children, as far as the seventh grade students were concerned. The eighth grade student analysis revealed parent efficacy and student invitation in the academic and social platforms are indicators of positivism. These indicators pave way to post-positivism as the students show greater parent involvement in their social and academic life. Methods The method of data collection that was used in this research basically was the use of questionnaires. The process is popular with the inductive form of reasoning, where suppositions are made by drawing conclusions from specific details which give generalizations at the end of the analysis. This is the case in use of questionnaires as specific data provided by individual respondents is analyzed to make general statements. The approach gathers quantitative data, as specific numbers as data are used to come up with measurable results of the research. Issues Considering the issues of coherence, the limits of the research, the morals that align themselves with the research and benefits of the research from a social and educational viewpoint, determination of the relevance of the research show a general weakness of the research. The self-efficacy construct does not have any impact on the motivation of learners with regard to the home model. The research in a way is limited to specific grades of learners, while motivation can occur in all grades of learners. The method of data collection has got merits and drawbacks. Its merits include provision of accurate figures that do give a true representation of facts alongside well explained findings of the research, while the disadvantages include a poor structural design of the research and usage of quantitative data in measuring an abstract psychological aspect such as motivation may result in wrong generalizations. The questionnaire also might present wrong information as step parents might provide unreliable data. Research 2 This section examines Shelden et. al. (2010) research as outlined by the subsections herein: Ontology Researched The nature of the school principals as revealed in this research tends more towards interpersonal and highly social beings as opposed to the intrapersonal being. The relationship between guardians to disabled learners and school principals can represent the level of trust that parents hold in view of the principals, and through their attitudes, the nature of the principals is determined. The productive interaction of principals and parents, a two-entity relationship, proves these individuals as interpersonal beings. On the other hand, their nature is said to be highly social as the principal does interact with other members of the school community in addition to the parents, such as the teachers in the school. The teachers and parents are enthusiastic about the personal attributes and ease of communication. The parents feel that the school principal is highly responsive to their needs, as he opens his communication channels to them. Research context The context of the research based on the method of data collection shows that the research is interpersonal and social. The authors who carried out the research used the interview mode. Interviewing is interpersonal as it encompasses two people at a point, the author and the respondent. The method is social as well as since information is obtained from varied respondents, including fellow teacher and parents. Researcher The researcher, in this context referred to as the author and with reference to the method used, he can be described as a knowledge discovery being as opposed to being an isolated data gatherer and dispassionate in nature, as interviews make the authors fully involved in the process of collecting information. This makes them better analysts as they seek clarification of ideas from the parents of children with disabilities. This attribute makes defines them as highly interpretive and exploratory. Epistemology Knowledge assumes the nature of being objective as opposed to the subjective nature which supposes chances of regarding truth as being relative. Clearly, there are no predictors or explanations which would imply positivism of any kind. On the contrary, knowledge is discovered as guaranteed by the method of data collection. Interviews allow for the discovery of truth. Although thrush is discovered, knowledge is not completely objective. The knowledge being objective rather than subjective, realism is achieved. The research shows the possibility of nurturing good relationships that can lead to building of trust between the parents of children with disabilities and the school principals. Theoretical perspective The mode of data collection used to allows for extensive personal contact. Therefore the nature of this method proposes a sociological theoretical theory. The theory greatly depends on the activities of the school principal with the students, their families and his actions within the school environment. The need to cultivate trust can be interpreted within the definitions of sociology, and the research seeks to give insight into the need for an approved social behavior. The research adopts a general social approach to promote and maintain trust among the stakeholders, and this further realizes social benefits to both the school principals and the parents with disabled children. For instance, the research presents a context of conflict between the parents and the principal. It further expounds that trust relations hinder fair settling of such conflicts, but provides a means of minimizing the disagreement and paving way for resolutions. These resolutions are of great significance to the disabled learners, who are highly dependent on positive interaction with their education guides, who can only dedicate themselves to help these learners if only the social relationships with their parents are not affected. Symbolic interactionism specifically is the theory employed in the research. The degree of interaction in the school environment is a clear indication of the state of and level of trust operating among the learners’ parents and the principal of the school. Methodology The general design of the research is geared towards understanding of the importance of the relationship between the school principals and parents of children with disabilities. In order to have a better view of trust in the context of the research, interviewing provides better understanding of the topic. Trust is treated as the basic physical human process that calls for understanding and systematic analysis. This is so because qualitative methods of research are best suited for seeking comprehension of emotions and processing of concepts. Trust is such a phenomenon which is challenging to comprehend through quantitative methods. Survey approach is applied in identifying the kind of respondents to be interviewed, as the choice of respondents has a great effect on the information that is collected. Methods The authors dealt with qualitative information, as the data related to trust can present a true representation of the phenomenon if it is qualitative. The techniques employed included interviews and observation of participants. Semi-structured interviews were used, as they are regarded the best of ways of understanding humanity. The interviews were carried out in the homes and other selected places. The main focus of the interviews was trust. The questions sought to find out the relationships between parents and the principal and situations which enhance or diminish trust. To allow for more information, the structure of the questions was designed in such a way that they were open ended and general. This therefore allowed for further investigation and clarification on the desired area. 'Observation of participants' technique was employed to help sample data from parents. The female parents of children with disabilities were recruited as mothers have more interaction time with these children in comparison to their fathers. Issues This research paper presents its argument and propositions in a logical manner, thus it is coherent. The research has got certain limitations as the information gathered might not be entirely reliable. The interview on mothers was not planned for. The main research was on their trust in educational professionals, not school principals to be specific. The open tenderness of interview questions did undermine the need for the research as some respondents did not give their views on their trust in the principals. The research however maximizes on the ethics and social as well as educational significance for the research proposes means of enhancing good relationships in the society and school, and finding ways of helping disabled children achieve academically. Based on these strong positive impacts of the research in addition to its structure and organization, this is a good educational research. References Deslandes, R., & Bertrand, R. (January 01, 2005). Motivation of Parent Involvement in Secondary-Level Schooling. Journal of Educational Research Washington-, 98, 3, 164-175. Shelden, D. L., Angell, M. E., Stoner, J. B., & Roseland, B. D. (January 01, 2010). School Principals' Influence on Trust: Perspectives of Mothers of Children with Disabilities. Journal of Educational Research, 103, 3, 159-170. . Read More