The Important Stuff

            In the K-12 educational setting, there are many ethical standards relative to researching students that must be heavily considered. First and foremost, there must be parental consent for the students to participate in any type of study. Also, the participants, as well as the participant’s guardians, must be informed of every part of the research. Last but not least, all information regarding participants should stay confidential. All of these ethical matters seem extremely important when working with school aged children.

           

When it comes to obtaining consent for a research study, in the educational system it is likely that your hopeful participants are under age. This means that it is important to include the parents or guardians in the research process and gain consent from them as well as the child. This touches on another ethical issue of not coercing any students into participating, but allowing them to volunteer. Even with parental consent, the students should not be forced to participate if they do not seem willing.

           

Included in the consent form for the parents or guardians, there should be an explanation of what the research will entail. The explanation must be detailed and include everything that their children will be asked to do and why the research is being done. Also, a detailed summary should be given to the participant as well. If the participant is in elementary school the researcher should take care to give a summary that can be as understood as possible to that age group. It is important for the children to know what they are getting themselves into.

           

Lastly, everything should stay confidential. This is something that you will have to explain to the students and parents as well. This means that any information received about a student is not disclosed, not even to the parents. The student should feel safe to tell the truth in any situation being researched, and that truth is more likely to come out if they are not worried about anyone finding out. This is most important to students when it comes to their parents and peers finding out. Students are very concerned with what their peers think, and they would put on a face if they had any thought that others would know what they said. Therefore, confidentiality is helpful to the student as well as the validity of the research.

           

These are just a few of the many things that a researcher must keep in mind when working with school aged students in the educational system. It is the researcher’s responsibility to study the ethical standards and work within their parameters for every research study they perform.

Sampling Procedures

(Part 2 of Blog Prompt 3)

Sampling Procedures for Quantitative Studies

Procedure:	Definition:	Pros:	Cons:
Simple Random Sampling	Each member of the population has the same probability of being selected.	Decreases any chance of sampling bias.	It is difficult to find a list of all the members of the population being studied. Also, it generalizes.
Systematic Sampling	Every nth element is elected from a list of all elements in the sampling frame, beginning with a randomly selected element.	Also decreases sampling bias.	Same as for Simple Random Sampling.
Stratified Sampling	Modification of simple random or systematic sampling in which the population is divided into homogeneous subgroups, and then subjects are selected from each subgroup.	This is better because it is more representative of the population that is being studied because each subgroup is represented.	Just like with the previous sampling styles, it is really difficult to get information on these students due to confidentiality issues.
Proportional Stratified Sample	When the number of subjects selected from each subgroup represents the percentage of subjects in the population have the characteristics of the subgroup.	If there was a list of the population being researched, then this would be great because we could use a proportional sample compared to the total.	However, there is not a list, and just as above, this would be very difficult to do. Also, the difference between subgroups may not make much difference in outcome.
Disproportional Stratified Sample	The number of subjects from each subgroup does not represent the percentage compared to the population.	Easier to figure out than the proportional.	Does not accurately represent the population.
Cluster Sampling	Subjects are selected from naturally occurring groups (clusters) like universities, school districts, etc.	Easier to find participants.	Excludes those that are not within the cluster.
Convenience Sample	Subjects are selected based on availability and ease.	It's super easy.	Most likely will not give you accurate representative information.
Quota Sampling	Subjects are selected nonrandomly to represent composite profiles of major groups in the population.	Easier to do because the sample is smaller.	Generalizes to the population. Could have sample bias.

Sampling Procedures for Qualitative Studies

Procedure:	Definition:	Pros:	Cons:
Purposive Sampling	Subjects are selected because they will be particularly informative about the topic.	You only have participants that are useful to you. I could use this method for my question within my school.	It is typically a very small sample and may not represent the theoretical population.
Criterion Sampling	Participants are selected based on identified characteristics that provide needed information.	This is the type of Purposive Sampling that I could use by checking through school records for students that fit the homeless/transient criteria.	Same as above, this does not tell you anything about the theoretical population.
Typical Case Sampling	Subjects are selected because they are “typical” or “representative” of many.	Would give you an idea of  "typical" homeless students.	Very generalized, and has room for sampling bias and error.
Extreme Case Sampling	The opposite of typical case, subjects are selected because they are unique participants.	This is helpful for showing just how much of an effect being homeless/transient can have on behavior, to the extreme.	The extreme may not be relevant to the majority. Also, the extreme may not be available for studying.
Maximum Variation Sampling	Subjects are selected to represent both extremes of characteristics of interest.	The sample would give you comparative information.	This is twice as much work and the comparative info may be irrelevant.
Snowball Sampling	Subjects are selected and then asked to nominate or recommend others who are qualified.	I could reach students that I may not have known were qualified.	There is no system to who is chosen and the subjects may not be who you want to study.
Critical Case Sampling	Subjects are selected based on how they illustrate the phenomenon of interest.	I would be able to select students that I know are homeless/transient.	I would not reach students that do not have it recorded that they were homeless/transient.

This was difficult when trying to think of pro's and con's in relation to my question, considering most of them would not work or be possible because of the limited access to student records.

As far as I can tell, I would say that Criterion Sampling would be the best bet for my research question. As the school counselor, I would have access to the school records which I could use to search for students that fit the criteria of homeless/transient.

Finding Kenny

(Part 1 of Blog Prompt 3)

My new research question:

Is homelessness associated with higher rates of introverted behavioral issues in grade school students?

 The subjects of this study would have to be homeless students, but how do you find a homeless student? Will it always be in their record that they are homeless or could they be using a fake address to continue going to the school? Should the term "homelessness" be used or should it be "transient" to include the students that move from place to place living with friends and relatives? 

 Here is what I can figure for possibly reaching as many homeless/transient students as possible: Students in homeless shelters, students who have moved 3 or more times within one year, and/or students awaiting foster care placement. These three criteria are ones that would have been recorded, therefore it can be researched. The students who may be living in motels, in cars, or other similar places most likely have not had this recorded in any way.

 Next there is the issue of confidentiality. Those three criteria listed above have most likely been recorded, but where? Of course shelters would have records of students as well as foster placement centers, but only the qualified people in those places have access to that information. However, as a (hopefully) future school counselor, I would assume that this information could also be found within the school records and I would have access to that for the school that  I would be working for.

 The variable that I am not sure quite how to test yet is the introverted behavioral issues one. This one will be difficult, but I feel that I can figure something out soon.

Conducting and Reviewing Research

 There are many steps to take for conducting research, and for the topic that I have chosen, this is how I would begin:

1.  Review secondary sources. For my current hypothesis pertaining to homeless students, I first looked in the Handbook of School Counseling which I found in the school library. Secondary sources, like this handbook, are overviews of the research done on the topic you are researching. Once you have found the overview of your topic, you can pull from the resources that the authors of the secondary source used. This will lead you to the next step.
2. Review primary sources. The resources found within the handbook are considered the primary sources. Using the online library catalog is a great way to hopefully find copies of these sources. My homeless youth topic sadly did not have any overview in the handbook, which leads me to believe that it was not a big enough topic at the time of the handbook being compiled.
   Since I could not find any primary sources in the handbook, I take to the online library catalog and start research the topic by itself. I used searches like homeless students, homeless children, McKinney-Vento, unaccompanied youth, and others.
3.  When using a search engine to find sources, you must make sure that the source articles you find are from peer-reviewed journals. Typically there is a way to narrow the search to show only peer-reviewed, but once you open the article up you must make sure it is not from a private journal that publish articles that may be bias in their favor.
4.  Hopefully there will be a lot of articles for your topic. Once you find the ones that apply to your topic, the next step is to summarize the information found. This summary will become your literature review.

Writing a Literature Review:

• One very important thing to remember about literature reviews is that it will be sectioned into topics and not by the articles you found. This means you will have to summarize and combine all the information from multiple articles about each part of the topic you are researching. For example, I will not write a paragraph about everything that I found in the book "Homeless Students" (Tower & White, 1989) and then write another paragraph about what I found in the article "Services to Homeless Students and Families." (Jozefowicz-Simbeni & Israel, 2006)I will instead take any information found about the McKinney-Vento act and put it into one section and then another section about the affects on the student's education.
• In the review, you should identify all the variables, subjects, and instruments found in the primary resources. These can be your different sections. Also, describe the procedures used to get the information that was found in the articles.
• You must also be sure to write about any weaknesses that you found in the articles, why it is important to the readers and to the world today, as well as any important quotes.

For my literature review on my homeless students topic I have found information (so far) mostly on the McKinney-Vento Act and how it affects the education system as well as how being homeless affects students. These two topics (and hopefully others that I find with further research) would be great subheadings within my review.


Resources

Jozefowicz-Simbeni, D., & Israel, N. (2006). Services to homeless students and families: the mckinney-vento act and its implications for school social work practice. Children & Schools, 28(1), 37-44. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=65eeda72-3062-445f-bdbb-a833a778a428@sessionmgr11&vid=2&hid=19
 
Tower, C., & White, D. (1989). Homeless students. Washington, D.C.: National Education Association

Changing My Topic

My topic for this research has been about vocational assessments, however I have found that I am not really interested in it enough to continue with it to the extent that I would need to. Therefore, I am changing my topic to something that I find a lot more intriguing: Homeless Students/Unaccompanied Youth.

A hypothesis that I could use now would be...
If a student is considered homeless under the McKinney-Vento Act, then the homeless students will have a harder time in school.

This is a very vague hypothesis, because the dependent variable is too broad. What is considered having a harder time in school? Having lower grades? Transportation issues due to not having a permanent location? Further research will help me find out what topics have been reviewed.

"Significant" XKCD

Research class made me think of this.

Ninja Vs. Pirate

Vocational Assessments

My initial idea for this project has been to create a hypothesis based on vocational assessments and how the results affect the participants, if at all. Creating hypotheses for this topic is proving more difficult than I had imagined, however I will throw some out and work through them with hopes that they will lead to one grand hypothesis.

The following research problems are based on the hypothesis: If a high school student completes a vocational assessment, then he or she will seek a career based on his or her top three results.

This is an example of one of my not-so-great hypothesis', but it is a good start. I am really interested in knowing whether or not the results of certain vocational assessments encourage and/or discourage participants from pursuing careers that they have high interests in. I also need to research all of the vocational assessments that are frequently used and work specifically with one. Hopefully I can find the best hypothesis for this eventually.

Quantitative Research Problem

In the interest of finding out whether or not a vocational assessment changed a participant's career decision, research will be done using a non-experimental survey. The participants will consist of college students that have previously taken a vocational assessment. The survey will include questions pertaining to the results of the assessment and whether or not they correlate with the participant's interests and the participant's current career goal.

Possible questions for the survey:
1. When considering college, what were your top three possible career interests?
2. What were the top three results on the vocational assessment?
3. What are your top three current possible career interests?
4. Do you believe the assessment played a role in your career interest decision?

Questions 1,2, and 3 in the survey all have three parts. In order to assess the results of the survey, I would use a program like SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) to calculate correlations between the answers. If the answers to question 1 are the same as question 3, yet the answers to question 2 are different, then it can be assumed that the vocational assessment did not have any affect on the student. If the answers to questions 1 and 3 are different, yet the answers to questions 2 and 3 match up to an extent, then it can be assumed that the vocational assessment did have an affect. I would have to figure out how to put these calculations into the program and they may not even work correctly, but I would adjust it accordingly.

The fourth question on the survey is for additional information. There is always a chance that another variable caused the change in career interests, therefore having a percentage of whether the participants believe the assessments had an affect or not.

Qualitative Research Problem

The research problem in this section is very similar to the one in the Quantitative, however the interest is to find out if the vocational assessments affected the college students and in what way. To research this, it would be useful to use a longitudinal study starting with the participant's being in high school before completing the vocational assessment and then continued after the assessment has been completed. The last section of the study would be after the students have started college and have chosen a major and created career goals.

For the first section of the study, I would interview high school students and inquire about their career interests and goals. After the student's have taken the vocational assessment, I would have another interview to discuss the results of the assessment. This interview would also include more questions about what the student is considering making their career goal. Last, but not least, a third interview would be completed about a year or so later after the participants have become established at a college or university. This interview would be to inquire about how the student's interests have changed, if at all, and to ask about how much they believe was affected by the assessment results.

Doing a longitudinal study like this would allow the interviewer to get the participant's interests at different times in their lives instead of all at once and asking them to try and remember their past interests. After all the interviews have been completed, the information received for each participant would be analyzed to find whether or not as well as how the assessment may have affected the participant's career goal decision.

The Differences

Both the quantitative and the qualitative were focused around a similar research problem, however there are many distinct differences that can be found. 

The quantitative is very calculated and closed. Each participant received exactly the same questions with a specific amount of responses expected. Then the answers can be placed into a statistical analysis that will throw out a calculated description of the variables. 

The qualitative is more open, with personal interviews being completed. The questions would be similar for all the participants but the answers could vary and the information of interest is pulled together. Also, the longitudinal aspect of the study allows the interviewer to get information that is reflective of the different times, which is important to this specific research problem. 

Completing interviews with the qualitative section does have the disadvantage of not being able to reach as many participants due to the time issues. The qualitative survey can easily be dispersed to many participants.

Overall, a difference can be found in how personal the qualitative study can be while the qualitative survey may seem very impersonal and that may have an affect on how willing the participants are to give their answers and put thought into their answers.