Research+Methodology

Methodology

What software application can support the effectiveness in teaching reading to K-12 students?

Research Design

To start my research I plan to develop a questionnaire. Johnson and Christensen (2008) inform that an effective questionnaire helps you to get to know your participants better. Since my kindergarten students come to me with many different types of technological experiences, I plan to design a questionnaire that helps me to determine what skills my students already possess. I would like to also send a questionnaire to parents to determine how many students have access to computers in their homes and how often they use those computers in their homes. Qualitative data with open-ended questions are the type of questions that I plan to use. I believe by using open ended questions, I would allow parents to explain their answers. Many times parents like to explain their answers, so I would like to provide them with this opportunity.

Types of Data

Moving on into my research, I plan to used a mixed research approach. Based on my problem statement, I feel I will need a lot of literature and research to provide direction for my research. I am searching for a lot of studies and literature to provide me suitable applications for my kindergarten students. Data collection strategy and/or instrument After reviewing many articles and studies, I could design a pre-test for kindergarten students at my school to test their reading abilities. We actually administer a test called the Lexia. (Lexia Learning Systems, 2003)”Lexia Reading provides ongoing, dynamic assessment of reading skills and progress, enabling educators to foster students’ reading success by informing and differentiating reading instruction.”.This program could provide me with me with the pre-test data that I need. I can then conduct a field experiment of a particular Web 2.0 application. My sample size would be around 80 kindergarten students of similar economic and ethnic backgrounds. Two teachers would implement the Web 2.0 application and two teachers would conduct their classes as normal. After an eight week period of time, all teachers would administer the Lexia test and I would compare the data of the classes that received treatment to the classes that did not receive the treatment to determine if there was a significant differences.

Data analysis To start off my research I plan to use qualitative data. Based on open-ended questions about my subjects experience on the computer that I will send home to my parents, I will choose a program that I think will benefit my students. I will proceed to use the most current Lexia scores as my pre-test. I plan to use the one-way ANOVA to compare the pretest and posttest scores to determine if there was an improvement in scores. I will use the SPSS program to determine if there is significance in my data. I will base the significance of .05 as Johnson and Christensen used in many examples. My null hypothesis would be Web 2.0 applications cannot support the effectiveness in teaching reading to K-12 students. The alternative hypothesis is Web 2.0 applications can support the effectiveness in teaching reading to K-12 students. I would like to divide my students into high achievers, average achievers, and low achievers and determine if there is significance in this data also. Determining if there is significance and who the program benefits is the most important factor in my research.

Johnson, B., & Christensen, L. (2007). Educational research: Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed approaches (3rd ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Lexia Learning Systems. (2003). Early reading. Lincoln, MA: Lexia Learning Systems,Inc.