EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY (PXGZ 6111)
ASSIGNMENT 1: INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT
Tittle of the article: The school absenteeism among high school students:
contributing factors
Author: Murat Balkis, Gokmen Arslan, Erdinc Duru
Introduction
The aim of this study is the school absenteeism among high school students and
contributing factors. Examine the direct and indirect relationship between students’
absenteeism, personal factors such as academic self- perception, attitudes towards
teacher and school, goal valuation and motivation/ self- regulation was the objective of
this study. In the other hand, family factors such as parents’ educational level and
income, also is a factor contribute absenteeism. However, academic achievement also
is one of the factor that contribute students involve themselves in absenteeism. The
were four hundred and twenty three high school students participated in the study. They
are two research questions in this study. First is what are the personal factor impact
previous absenteeism, current absenteeism and previous academic achievement and the
other research question: what are the family factor impact previous absenteeism, current
absenteeism and previous academic achievement? The quantitative research
methodology was used to guide the study. Instrument that use by author to gather data
is paper- pencil survey. There are sample that the researcher uses is 423 high school
students who were volunteer to participate in the study with the age ranged from 15 to
18 years. All participants completed the survey approximately 25 minutes.
My critic regarding this article:
Content
Based on my reading， the author didn’t mention the survey sheets that he or she gets
back is it can use. So of the sample may not answer the question properly, they may
simple change the survey answer that author provide or add in their own comment. The
author also didn’t mention how he or she distributes the survey form. The survey form
may distribute by his or her themselves, friends, teachers or relative but the author
didn’t clear state out.
Beside that, the author say that a paper- pencil survey will be use to collect date
but the author didn’t clearly mention how many question that he or she set for the survey
sheet. Besides that, the author also didn’t mention the location that he or she uses to
conduct the survey. The author also didn’t mention how many populations on the study.
The author should state about how many survey sheets that he or she has been give out
and how many survey sheet he or she can be get back from the sample.
In addition, the author should say he or she has taken how many days to conduct
the survey since the total of sample is a lot about 423 high school students. The author
should mention when he or she conduct the survey such as during the recess time, after
school or during students’ free time to avoid disturb students’ learning time. Lastly, the
author should mention the limitation of this study and the procedure to conduct the
survey. All this suggestion can be useful because this may lead the reader to more
clearly on how the author conducts the survey and what is the problem that author
facing during conducting the survey,
The researchers using SPSS 15 program to analysis the data. SPSS is a Windows
based program that not only can be used to perform data entry and analysis this program
also can be use to create tables and graphs. Calculate the large amounts and perform all
of the analyses covered in the text and much more can be done in SPSS. Normally,
SPPS is to use in the business world and Social Sciences.
There are four statistical methods usable in the software:
Descriptive statistics — Frequencies, cross tabulation, descriptive ratio statistics
Bivariate statistics — Analysis of variance (ANOVA), means, correlation,
nonparametric tests
Numeral outcome prediction — Linear regression
Prediction for identifying groups — Cluster analysis (K-means, two-step,
hierarchical), factor analysis
I also agree the author uses the Person correlation coefficient to find out the relationship
or correlation between two sets of variable. A correlation can be either positive or
negative and has direction.
An individual who score high (or low) on one variable tend to score similarly
on the other variable is a positive correlation.
However, the individual who score high on one variable tend to score low on
the other is a negative correlation.
“ r ” is to represented the Pearson product- moment correlation coefficient is used to
show the degree or strength of relationship between two variables. r = +1.00 to – 1.00
is the range of the coefficient.
r = + 1.00 is a perfect positive correlation which shows an increase in variable
y is also followed by an increase in variable x.
r = - 1.00 is a perfect negative correlation which shows an increase in variable
y is also followed by a decrease in variable x.
r = 0.00 is a zero correlation which means there is no relationship between
variable y and variable x.
r = + 0.65 is a positive correlation which means an increase in variable y is also
followed by an increase in variable x but not happened in perfectly.
I agree the author use one- way ANOVA to examine whether the dependent variable
differentiated with respect to independent variable. The t- test method is conceptually
similar to the ANOVA although the method is different, in the analysis of variance. The
ONEWAY Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) is use to compare more than two means.
