Educational Research Courses

Educational research courses accomplishments are directed towards arming learners with analytical skills regarding research done in graduate-level studies. These courses award learners a chance to practice research and be exposed to varying research methodologies. It has been stated that learners usually regard educational research courses to be obstacles they have to conquer in order to acquire certification.

The main research question was what aspects are related to success or failure in educational research classes.

Specific research questions were

1. Does anxiety contribute to the failure in educational research studies?
2. Does age contribute to the success or failure in research related studies?
3.  Does heavy workload in other subjects affect the performance in research related studies?
4.  Does self-prophecy contribute to failure of research related studies?

Methodology

The participants involved a sample of n=121 Southeastern University graduate learners who were taking a particular educational research courses. These courses included early childhood education, secondary education, elementary education, language psychology and pathology. Participation was voluntary. Additionally all surveys were coded with learners identification numbers to optimize confidentiality.  The participants ages ranged from ages were between 21 to 51. The majority were females amounting to 96.6%.

Results

The study found that graduate learners who have the ability to analyze research articles possess a positive attitude towards authority figures. The study  also highlighted fresh learners taking a research course at the graduate level tend indicate heightened levels of anxiety. The article also found that there exists a direct relationship linking low performance with the workload that learners have. Additionally, self-fulfilling attitude and prophecy was found to determine a learner’s success in everything that they endeavor to achieve irrespective of the hardships associated with it. the study also indicated that there exist a direct relationship between success and age.

Article Critique

Firstly, the fact that the authors used a majority of the samples being female makes the research biased since female students are known to dislike research based courses and statistics. Research students experience more anxiety towards research courses more than males. The authors have indicated that graduate learners who have the ability to analyze research articles possess a positive attitude towards authority figures. This is a point that I disagree with the authors since individuals who are able to analyze articles or documents tend to always examine and evaluate the performances of authority figures thereby possessing a slightly negative attitude towards them. The authors have highlighted a point that I strongly agree with, this is the fact that fresh learners taking a research course at the graduate level tend indicate heightened levels of anxiety. This anxiety is coupled with fear, which translates to failure in application of the scientific methods when conducting research (Slate et al., 2000).

Statistics goes hand in hand with research courses due to the analyzing and interpretation of research data acquired. The authors have made a strong point that states that older learners tend to perform less as compared to younger learners in statistics. This is because older learners are slower and they are unable to operate in timed statistical evaluations therefore scoring lower. However I disagree with the authors that older learners are less receptive to research courses. I find older learners being more receptive for the reason that they tend to know place the learning in real life applications more easily as compared to young and naïve students who possess to field experience (Slate et al., 2000).

Another factor leading to their reduced performances is that the less receptive to many research methodologies as compared to young learners who are highly receptive and are able to utilize technology to solve any barriers arising in course of their research.   

The article states that there exists a direct relationship linking low performance with the workload that learners have. This a point that I concur with the authors since research demands time to prepare, collect data, sort it, analyze, present the analysis and so on. Therefore the students tend to allocate more time on other courses as compared the research courses causing poor performance results.  Thus, for research courses to be awarded the seriousness they require the learners should be allocated less workload (Slate et al., 2000).

Self-fulfilling attitude and prophecy determines ones success in everything that they endeavor to achieve irrespective of the hardships associated with it. The authors have linked self-prophecy by learners with their success.   This is absolutely true since research courses require the right attitude and mind-set to achieve the expected results, any negative thoughts by learners is enough sign of what will be of their results. This is a challenge to the learners to adopt the right and positive mind-set if they have any chance of performing in research courses.

 I consider the association between performance of other courses and research courses performance as being weak. This is because that some learners who perform badly in other courses tend to like and perform highly in research-oriented courses. There exist learners who prefer research based courses to non-research based courses and perform highly in the former thereby the overall grade becomes lower (Slate et al., 2000).

This article has provided a pathway to other researchers to conduct studies in the field of research base studies and learners’ perception and performance towards them. These studies should be encouraged since they lead to a more creative and innovative expertise in the globe by identifying challenges that learners undergo. Learners require to be sensitized on issues that might lead to their failures in research courses and this enlightening will lead to better performances.

References

Slate, J., Onwuegbuzie, A., Paterson, F., Watson, M., & Shwartz, R. (2000). factors associated with achievements in educatiuonal reserach courses. Mid-South Educational Research Association, 7.