Introduction. Sample. Variables. Tools. Selection of Procedure. Type of Items. Item Pool. Preliminary List. Analysis. Construction of The Tool

Transcription

1 CHAPTER 3 DESIGN & PROCEDURE OF THE STUD\ (i) (ii) (iii) (iv) (v) (vi) (vii) Introduction Sample Variables Tools Style Of Learning And Thinking (SOLAT) Samoohik Mansik yogyata Pariksha Self-Concept Questionnaire (SCQ) Description of Tool (Concept- Attainment) Selection of Procedure Type of Items Item Pool Preliminary List Analysis Construction of The Tool Reliability of The Tool Test-Retest Reliability Internal Consistency Reliability (viii) Validity of Tool Face Validity Content Validity Procedure of Data Collection Statistical Techniques Used

2 CHAPTER 3 Design & Procedure of the Study 3.0 INTRODUCTION Planning is the most important step for any work to be done systematically. Without detailed planning for research work, no specific findings would be generated. The planning helps researcher to make the work in right direction. The research plan helps the investigator to organize his ideas in a form, whereby it will be possible for him to look for in adequacies. A research design is the plan, structure and strategy of investigation conceived so as to obtain answers to research questions. The plan includes an outline of everything the investigator will do from writing the hypothesis and their operational implications to final analysis of the data. The structure of the research is more specific. It is the outline, the scheme, the paradigm of the operation of the variables. Having reviewed the available literature related to the problem in hand, the researcher designs the study. For the purpose, the researcher has selected an appropriate research method and sample, selected or constructed the appropriate tools for measuring the variables under study, and decided the plan for collecting and analyzing the data. The methodology followed in carrying out the present study has been described in the present chapter in respect to 55

3 sample, design, tools, procedure of data collection, and statistical techniques used for analyzing the data. Research designs enable the researcher to answer research questions in terms of validity, objectivity, systematically and accuracy as far as possible. In brief, the research design does not tell us precisely what to do but rather 'suggests' the directions of the observation making and analysis. 3.1 SAMPLE The population of the present study comprised of XI class students. The sample was selected by following random sampling technique. A sample is a small proportion of the population selected for observation and analysis. For the purpose of this study 27 schools were selected randomly (through lottery method), out of which 16 were private schools (both from rural and urban areas) and 11 were government schools (both from rural and urban areas). Table 3.1 indicates that the sample comprised 683 students (329 boys and 354 girls), of these 435 students [204 boys and 231 girls) belongs to private schools while 248 students [125 boys and 123 girls) belong to government schools. 56

4 Sr. No. Private The sample profile is given in the table 3.1 as below: TABLE 3.1 Sample Profile Name of the School / Aiya Sr. Sec. School, Mohana Sir Choutu Ram School, Ratangarh Bal Kalyan Sr. Sec. School, Rajugarhi Happy Sr. Sec. School, Palri Kanya Gurukul Sr. Sec. School, Khanpur Kalan Satyanand Sr. Sec. School, Gohana S.K. Sr. Sec. School, Kharkhoda P.S.M Sr. Sec. School, Kharkhoda C.R.Z. Sr. Sec. School, Sonepat Indian Modern Sr. Sec. School, Sonepat Sharda Sr. Sec. School, Sonepat Malivya Sr. Sec. School, Sonepat Rishikul Sr. Sec. School, Sonepat Geeta Vidya Mandir Sr. Sec. School, Gohana Shiva Shiksha Sr. Sec. School, Sonepat Arya Girls Sr. Sec. School, Sonepat TOTAL Govt. Boys Sr. Sec. School, Farmana No. of Students Boys Girls Total

5 Govt. Boys Sr. Sec. School, Mandora Govt. Boys Sr. Sec. School, Matindu Govt. Girls Sr. Sec. School, Bidhal Govt. Girls Sr. Sec. School, Murthal Govt. Girls Sr. Sec. School, Matindu Govt. Girls Sr. Sec. School, Sisana Govt. Girls Sr. Sec. School, Murthal Road, Sonepat Govt. Boys Sr. Sec. School, Model Town Govt. Boys Sr. Sec. School, Gannaur Govt. Boys Sr. Sec. School, Gohana TOTAL GRAND TOTAL The sample distribution selected for the purpose of study is depicted in the following flow chart: STUDENTS (683) H.B.S.E. (475) C.B.S.E. (208) (Private) f Male (226) "] ( Female(249)^ Male (103) f Female (105)) N. (Sovt. (101) Sovt. (123) /RuroTX /TJrban^ \^(60)y V(63)^ N. (Sovt. (126) RuraP (49) '^Urbon^ (54)^ r '' (51) 'U^bon^ (67) 58

6 The medium of instruction was Hindi and English. The sample was selected from Sonipat district, Haryana only. 3.2 VARIABLES The variables to be measured in the present study are learning styles (includes: thinking styles), concept-attainment, self-concept, and intelligence. 3.3 TOOLS In order to collect the data regarding the variables of the study, the investigator needs to select or construct a tool; J.C. Aggarwal explains the importance of tool as under: "The progress of mankind depends upon well conducted research programmes. Well conducted research programmes postulate sufficient, reliable and valid facts. Such facts are obtained through a systematic procedure, which involves various devices." In order to measure attainment in Economics, attainment test was prepared by the investigator on the topic liberalization, privatization and globalization of XI class. The other variables were measured by using the standardized appropriate tools. The tools used in the present study were: 59

7 Sr. No TABLE 3.2 List of Tools Name of Tool Style of Learning And Thinking (SOLAT) Samoohik Mansik Yogyata Pariksha (1/61) Self Concept Questionnaire Name of Constructor D. Venkatraman R. K. Tandon R. K. Saraswat 4. Concept Attainment Test (LPG) in Economics Investigator The description of the measurement tools with respect to each of them is given belov^r: STYLE OF LEARNING AND THINKING (SOLAT) In order to measure learning styles and thinking style of students, SOLAT constructed by Dr. D. Venkataraman was used. It measures learning and thinking style in terms of hemisphericity functions of information of the mind. The SOLAT tool was constructed and validated with the help of standardized SOLAT tool constructed by Torrance. For validity, both SOLAT tools were administered to 300 students (150 boys and 150 girls). The correlation between the two tests scores was.842 for the right hemisphere part;.621 for the left hemisphere part and.678 for the integrated part. SOLAT tool was constructed for the students from Eighth standard to college. It consist 100 items in the form of 50 pairs, based upon the specialized 60

8 functions of the right and left cerebral hemispheres. Each pair provided the respondent with three choices- one representing a specialized function of the right cerebral hemisphere, the second representing a parallel specialized function of the left cerebral hemisphere functions and the third is checking of both the items representing the integration of right and left hemisphere functions. The number of the 50 pairs that the each dimension measures in two styles, of learning and thinking are shown in table 3.3, as follows: Sr. No. / // TABLE 3.3 Dimensions of SOLAT Tool Dimensions Items Learning Styles: 1. Verbal 1 to 5 items 2. Content preference 6 to 10 items 3. Class preference 11 to 15 items 4. Learning preferences 16 to 20 items 5. Interest 21 to 25 items Thinking Styles: 6. Logical/Fractional 26 to 30 items 7. Divergent/Convergent 31 to 35 items 8. Creativity 36 to 40 items 9. Problem solving 41 to 45 items 10. Imagination 46 to 50 items 1 to 25 items measure learning styles and 26 to 50 items measures thinking styles. A copy of the test is given in Appendix-1. 61

9 3.3.2 SAMOOHIK MANSIK YOGYATA PARIKSHA In order to measure intelligence of students, Samoohik Mansik Yogyata Pariksha constructed by Dr. R. K. Tandon (1973) was used. It is a verbal group test in Hindi. It measures intelligence in terms of general mental abilities to learn from experience and to deal with new situations. It was standardized on the students of classes XI to college students on more than 1500 students. This test is meant for literates of Hindi Area above 16 years. The reliability of present test has been calculated with the help of two methods namely, split-half miethod and Kuder Richardson formula No. 20. With the first method, the reliability coefficients range from.59 to.99 on different groups, giving an overage of.91. The other method yields a coefficient of.85. The test proper is given for 20 minutes only. It contains 100 questions, four to five alternatives to the questions have been provided to make the scoring objective and fool-proof. The hundred items have been distributed over nine subtests, namely, Number series, Mathematical Instructions, Following Instructions, Vocabulary Similar, Vocabulary Similar, Vocabulary Opposites, Classifications, Best Answers, Analogies and Reasoning. All the items have been arranged in increasing order of difficulty in the test. In the beginning of the test, additional items are given for practice and they are explained along with the instructions before starting the test. For scoring, each correct answer is given one score and an incorrect answering a zero. Thus the raw scores range from zero to 100. The I.Q. of an individual can be obtained from his raw score with the help of the norms established for the purpose. A copy of the test along with its answer sheet is given in Appendix-II. 62

10 3.3.3 SELF-CONCEPT QUESTIONNAIRE (SCQ) In order to measure self-concept of students, SCQ constructed by Dr. Raj Kumar Saraswat was used. This questionnaire measures six dimensions of self-concept, viz. Physical, Social, Intellectual, Moral, Educational and Temperamental Self-concept, mentioned below: (a) Physical Individual's view of their body, health, physical, appearance and strength. (b) Social Individual's sense of worth in social interactions. (c) Temperamental Individual's view of their prevailing emotional state or predominance of a particular kind of emotional reaction. (d) Educational Individual's view of themselves in relation to school, teachers and extracurricular activities. (e) moral Individual's estimation of their moral worth; right and wrong activities. (f) Intellectual Individual's awareness of their intelligence and capacity of problem solving and judgment. 63

11 The inventory/questionnaire contains 48 items. Each dimension contains eight items. Item numbers included in different self-concept dimensions indicates in table 3.4: TABLE 3.4 Self-Concept Dimensions along with their Item Numbers SELF-CONCEPT DIMENSION ITEM NUMBERS Physical 2, 3, 9, 20, 22, 27, 29, 31. Social 1, 8, 21, 37,40, 43,46,48. Temperamental 4, 10, 14, 16, 19, 23, 24, 28. Educational 5, 13, 15, 17, 25, 26, 30, 32. moral 6, 34, 35, 41, 42, 44, 45, 47. Intellectual 7, 11, 12, 18, 33, 36,38, 39. Reliability of the inventory was found by test-retest method, and it was found to be.91 for the total self-concept measure. Reliability coefficients of its various dimensions vary from.67 to.88. The following table 3.5 shows the test-retest reliability for each dimension: TABLE 3.5 Test-Retest Reliability of the Self-Concept Inventory Self-Concept Dimension Physical Social Temperamental Educational moral Intellectual Total Self-Concept No. of Items Reliability Coefficients

12 The self-concept questionnaire was standardized on 1,000 students of 20 higher secondary schools of delhi pertaining to delhi administration and central schools. The students were from IX and X classes ranging from 14 to 18 years of both the sexes. The content and construct validity were established with the views of 25 psychologists DESCRIPTION OF TOOL (CONCEPT ATTAINMENT) The tool named Concept Attainment on the subject economics was developed by the investigator for the present study. The test has been constructed by the investigator, which is meant for measuring the concept attainment in the subject of economics on the topic liberalization, privatization and globalization for class XI. The list has 36 questions comprises of 23 multiple choices, 4 true/false, and 9 fill in the blanks (i) SELECTION OF PROCEDURE Wortruba and Wright (1975) explain a research methodology for developing the instrument. The methodology includes the following steps: 1) Development of an item pool, 2) Screening of the pool, 65

13 3) Survey assessment of the screened items for importance and for the students ability to solve for response analysis, 4) Development of the evaluation instrument options. The investigator adopted this methodology for the construction of the concept attainment tool. Now the question arises, which type of items should be included in concept attainment tool? (ii) TYPE OF ITEMS A logical consequence of determining the purpose of concept attainment tool is to decide the type of item, it should contain. The type of items can be classified in terms of their content, level of inferences and the type of response called for. Questions constructed for the tool address its organization, structure, objectives, difficulty, pace, relevance, content, usefulness and so on. The students' initial judgment of the work of a questionnaire results from the format.of the items and their responses. How serious and honest the students will be in responding the items, how accurately the students responses; reflect true feeling and attitudes all depend upon and appropriateness of items and response format. It is difficult to use open-ended questions because of its less objectivity. The use of close-ended items can provide accurate counts on the type of responses to each item. So the investigators used the questions as multiple choices, true/false and fill in the blanks. 66

14 3.3.4 (iii) ITEM POOL The questions related to the topic LPG were pooled and the sources being eminent teachers of economics in different schools, professors and related students (iv) PRLIMINARY LIST With the help of teachers teaching economics, scholars and the students, a list of 112 questions were prepared. The subject-experts were requested to read each of items carefully and to rate them into five-point scale, as follows: 1) of very high importance, 2) of high importance, 3) of moderate importance, 4) of low importance, 5) of very low importance. A sample of 25 teachers judged the preliminary list into fivepoint rating scale of importance. The tool was also being judged by the language experts. The students from two schools were also requested to read each of the items carefully and to give response. 67

15 3.3.4 (v) ANALYSIS For each item the discriminating value and the difficulty value were calculated, only those items whose discriminative value is above 0.2 were selected as the test items. Further views of experts, language experts were also taken for selection. On the basis of responses given by the language experts, professors, eminent callers and students, 36 items (consists of 23 multiple choice, 4 true/false and 9 fill in the blanks) were selected in the final list (vi) CONSTRUCTION OF THE TOOL Each of the selected 35 items were worded so as to fulfill the following conditions (Berk, 1979) 1) Language is clear, directed specific, 2) It is as concise as possible, 3) It is in the form of simple language, 4) Avoids double negative, 5) Clearly desirable characteristics. 68

16 3.3.4 (vii) RELIABILITY OF THE TOOL Reliability refers to the extent to which a test an internally consistent, that is, consistency of results obtained throughout the test when administered once. In other words, how accurately is the test measuring at a particular time? A high degree of reliability is a sign of a sound instrument. In general the mean rating of a large sample will be more reliable than the mean rating of a small sample. Reliable tests are stable in what ever they measure and yield comparable scores upon repeated administration. The reliability of a test is usually expressed as a correlation coefficient. TEST-RETEST RELIABILITY Concept Attainment test was administered twice on 253 students at an interval of 4 or 5 weeks. Co-efficient of correlation was computed and it was found to be.68 as shown in the table 3.6: TABLE 3.6 Reliability value of concept-attainment test (Test-retest) No. of students Reliability value (Test-retest) Guilford (1973) says that a tool may be selected if the reliability coefficient is of the order of.50 or more. The co-efficient of correlation was appropriate for the purpose, being much higher than

17 INTERNAL CONSISTENCY RELIABILITY It indicates the homogeneity of the test. If all the items of the test measure the sam.e function or trait, the test is said to be a homogeneous one and internal consistency reliability would be pretty high. The most common method of estimating internal consistency reliability is the split-half method, in which the test is divided into nearly equal halves. The value of co-efficient correlation was found.78, which indicates that the concept attainment test has high internal consistency reliability (viii) VALIDITY OF TOOL Validity means what the test measures and how well it does so. A test is considered to be valid of it measures effectively the properly, which it is meant to measure. It is one of the major characteristics required of a measuring instrument. Anastasi (1953) said, "The validity of a test concerns what the test measures and how well it does so." Lindquest (1951) has defined validity of a test as the accuracy with which it measures that, which is intended to measure or as the degree to which it approaches infallibility in measuring what it purports to measure." The validity of the tool has been determined in the following ways. FACE VALIDITY According to Anastasi (1961) face validity means what the test appears to measure not necessarily what the test measure. The concept attainment test seems to have good face validity because it 70

18 appears to be relevant to its objectives. This was the opinion expressed by twenty five experts in the field whose suggestions were sought by the investigator for this test. CONTENT VALIDITY Content validity is also designated in order terms such as intrinsic validity, relevance circular validity and respresentativeness. Arun Singh (1986) has said that when a test is constructed so that it's content of term measures what the whole test claims to measure, the test is said to have content or curricular validity. Thus content validity is concerned with the relevance of the contents or the items, individually and as a whole. Anastasi (1961) has said that contentvalidity, "involves essentially the systematic examinations of the test content to determine whether it covers a representative sample of the behaviour domain tube measures." It was examined by the experts' judgment. 3.4 PROCEDURE OF DATA COLLECTION The researcher visited the schools with the request letter, and described the aim of the visit. After getting the permission from head/principal of the school, researcher collected the data by administering the tools described in table

19 3.5 STATISTICAL TECHNIQUES USED The obtained data were analyzed by using the following statistical techniques: 1. Point Bi-serial correlation was computed to find correlation among cerebral hemispherical preference and Concept attainment, cerebral hemispherical preference and Intelligence, and cerebral hemispherical preference and Selfconcept. 2. Chi-square was computed to find the relation between sex and cerebral hemispherical preference. Locality and cerebral hemispherical preference. School types and cerebral hemispherical preference, Intelligence and cerebral hemispherical preference. Self-concept and cerebral hemispherical preference, Concept-attainment and cerebral hemispherical preference. 3. One way ANOVA was computed to find the interaction of cerebral hemispherical preference with intelligence and selfconcept. 4. Pearson correlation was computed to find the intercorrelation among cerebral hemispherical preference, concept-attainment, self-concept, and intelligence. 5. Two way ANOVA was computed to find the interaction of: 72

20 i. Intelligence and self-concept on cerebral hemispherical preference, ii. Intelligence and self-concept on concept attainment, iii. C.B.S.E. and H.B.S.E. affiliated schools, locality, sex, on cerebral hemispherical preference. iv. C.B.S.E. and H.B.S.E. affiliated schools, locality, sex, on concept attainment. 73