Research Study Analysis

Research Study Analysis

1. Study Citation:

Pressley, M., Mohan, L., Raphael, L. M., Fingeret, L. (2007). How Does Bennett Woods Elementary School Produce Such High Reading and Writing Achievement? Journal of             Educational Psychology, 99(2), 221-240.

1. The Content of the Study

The authors came up with grounded theory to help explain how the school produces higher writing as well as reading achievement at the Bennet Woods Elementary. The school appears to be extraordinary since it contributes high reading as well as writing abilities to a higher percentage than its peers with a similar population size. Within the school, the students are exposed to a lot of many books that nurture their reading as well as writing abilities. These books have various outlines on how an individual can expand their writing and reading skills. The authors also found that the facilities within the school offer a conducive environment that motivates the students to try and do the best in the coursework. From the content analysis of this article, the authors exercised a higher level of expertise in the arrangement of various steps in carrying out the research and documenting their findings. However, the body of the article is not conclusive concerning the standards of preparing essays and reports. Their material has not provided specific kinds of literature regarding the high reading and writing abilities in the school and why the school performs better than other schools in reading as well as writing.

The rationale behind the study is that there exist some schools which are more equipped with learning facilities than others. These facilities might have made such schools more advantaged in terms of achieving reading and writing goals. Even though there are other schools with the same population size as that of Bennet Woods Elementary, their performance has not been so outstanding compared to Bennet School. Besides, the rationale of the study on the location of the school and how it influences the pupils’ performance. The research question is based on determining; what is happening in the locality that is densely populated but with relatively advantaged students? Also, how does Bennet Woods Elementary School produce high reading and writing achievements in its students? The participants selected for the research were based on a convenient sample since the school had the most significant number of students while at the same time, having the highest number of combined languages. The researchers developed a theoretical framework regarding the study topic and from the issue identified the school and participants of interest who were then selected to take part in the study. The data for the research was collected through primary sources. The primary sources of data collection uses were through observation as well as through the interview process. Observation methods were conducted through the interview as well as an analysis of various documents to gain insight into the research questions.

Some of the data collected included the issues and challenges affecting performance at the school. The data also included the aspect of teaching and learning within the classrooms, the structure of the lesson, discourse patterns, student’s responses to their teachers’ questions, student’s engagements, teachings methods and the kinds of activities given to the students and how they would impact on their performance. The data were grouped into various elements, including people, setting, the literacy-focused curriculum, as well as a positive social environment. Besides, the data collected also included the kind of students’ behaviors at school and how likely they can influence their reading and writing performance at the school. These kinds of data are the ingredient of a student’s accomplishments. They, in one way or the other, determined the levels of student performances. For example, student behavior might attract the student to prefer reading and writing than to participate in extra-curriculum activities. When such behavior changes, the student might experiences a reduced score in reading and writing abilities. The data were analyzed using the rating scales to rank the potential elements contributing to language arts achievement at the elementary school. The research findings indicate that there was a lot of input by the teachers to ensure that the student got the best skills in word recognition, reading, spelling, building of vocabularies as well as writing such words. Such success stories are majorly initiated by the teachers who continuously check on the students’ progress on every activity.

III. Reflection

A fundamental construct in the research highlighted by the author and which is related to the topic or question is motivation. Motivation is used by the teachers to encourage the students to always do their best in word recognition, mastery of vocabularies, reading as well as writing. As a matter of observing the ethical considerations, the researchers grouped themselves, approached the head of school that is the principal, to seek permission regarding the aim of conducting the research and requesting for their inputs to participate in the study. The ethical research practice intends to harmonize the research process and to ensure that all procedures were observed. Besides, keeping the data confidential gave much confidence to the teachers to voluntarily participate in the research work. Based on the research findings, it would be appropriate to carry out further research on the reasons why private schools perform better than public institutions. Qualitative research may be well suited in providing relevant information in answering the research topic by giving a platform to interact with the stakeholders and analyze their responses concerning the study subject.