Prezi

Still working on the shaping of the elements in my research. The search process in this research is a lot bigger (and more complex) than I had anticipated. Though it seems my progress isn't going that well, I experience that the subject of my research becomes more and more clear.

The problem is that I can't just move on to develop the interview questions. When this 'research question part' isn't clear enough, the questions won't be either. So, still working on that part :)

I will line up my research area, to give a better idea of the situation I'm in. I made a PREZI from it, to let you understand. See it here!

Please let me know what you think!

Aha!

I think that underperformance is a result of underutilization.

Because when students aren't challenged enough (underutilized) they become bored. When study results are sufficient without having to learn how to learn, this will give problems when students have to do actually something for their school career later on. The motivation for learning drops, because learning to learn that isn't activated in the students brain yet, but teachers are expecting students to administer that already.

Students think they're not good enough to internalize the study material, which leads (after the demotivation to do anything for their school career) to underperformance.

Research questions - revised

I put some effort in improving the research questions. The problem is that I have still a long way to go. There is more time needed to get concrete questions that are usable.

the structure of the research is different now. You can see that in the following picture

In here there are several elements (placement policy on the one side, grade retention and switching levels as a consequence of the ''wrong'' way students are placed on the other side, and underachieving: sometimes as a consequence of the previous elements).

The student' school career isn't a part anymore. The elements of students I will look at are: if, and when, students switch levels, or repeat a year (or both). Students aren't looked at on the individual level in this research. The goal is to overtake the (maybe) general background reason for switching levels and grade retention.

Answers of the types students that are grade retentioners or who switch levels, I will hopefully receive from interviews with department leaders, who have insight in the statistics of student' school careers. I'm really interested in what they have to say about the subject!

Something different I like to share is about the foundation I voluntary work for: the City Learning Center Enschede (only Dutch). This foundation has come forth from a like-minded view about problems in the education sector, focused on the use of technical devices. The problem is that different suppliers develop tools for the education sector, that teachers can't use at all (by getting poor information, or just because it isn't what teachers need). We organize seminars about subjects related to technical devices such as social media and the use of tablets in education. I mentioned my research about this topic in the board meeting today. They think this research is very interesting for the CLC Enschede, because it gives insight in what way education can be improved.

Feedback

Last week I received feedback on my research proposal. It seems that the main question does not relate to the other sub questions. the main problem was that the main themes I would like to look at (grade retention, switching levels and underachieving) aren't that clear explained  Also, the grade retention and switching levels theme is not introduced into the main research question. Now it comes out of nowhere in the rest of the research proposal. There have to made some changes then. Last week, and also this week I will be busy with making elements and questions concrete in my research proposal.

Next week I'll update the reviewed research questions for my proposal.

Research questions

the next step (besides waiting for the feedback on the research proposal) is to define interview questions. How to formulate questions that will lead me to the information I need?

First, let me present the research question:  ''How does the placement policy on secondary education in the Netherlands look like, and what is the influence on underachieving students looked at switching levels and grade retention?''

On the one side there are the obvious questions about the main elements I want to look at. These are described in the sub questions partly:
1.        Which factors can explain the subject of underachievement?
2.    What does the placement policy on middle school looks like?
3.      In what way are students guided in their school careers?

      I'm not really sure about the following questions, because they have an aspect in them of a quantitative research question. It is possible for a research to maintain both qualitative and quantitative elements in them, but I'm not sure if those elements could be obtained via interviews only. 

      On the other hand, there are certain elements mainly quantitative, like the numbers on grade retention. So, with that thought in mind I put in the following questions anyway: 

.       - Is there a relation between a certain placement policy and pass rates?

.       - Is there a relation between student guidance and changing of level and/ or grade retention?

.       - Is there a relation between a certain placement policy and changing of level and/ or grade retention?

.       - Is there a relation between student guidance and pass rates?

.       - Is there a relation between changing of level and/ or grade placement policy and pass rates?

    -Is there a relation between a certain placement policy and changing of level and/ or grade? 

     What do you think about these questions? Are they specific enough to build on?

     This week I'll make a start with interview preparations, as what questions to ask and in what way. The research method is still not completely clear on that point. 

Doing research

Things have become far more structured these weeks, after speaking to a lot of people. One of the things that change is the subject. I finally have a structured subject to work with. A glimpse of that you can find here in Dutch.

In the research world, researchers are looking at the relation of a certain (undependable) X and a (dependable) Y. from that, there pop up some results and an article can be written. Also, it is important to write about relations that aren't there, in contrast to those views nowadays, that every research should find something.. Sometimes there's just nothing to be found! That's interesting also.

What I'm looking for is the x and y, to fill in for my research question. I like to research a certain relation between them. X is about the placement policy. When students leave primary education in the Netherlands, teachers/schools/parent have an opinion about the level of the student. Teachers have different guidelines for their decision for student school levels. Like test results, grades, work attitude and so on. Parents may agree or disagree with the teachers choice and can talk it over with the teacher. At the secondary education, the school has a placement policy to ensure the student is on the most right level immediately  There are 3 levels of education. The VMBO which prepares a student in 4 years for the vocational, the Havo which will prepare a student in 5 years to follow higher vocational, the Atheneum, which educates in 6 years to prepare for a university study. Also 6 years is the Gymnasium, that only differs from the Atheneum in the fact it has 2 extra languages with it (Greek and Latin) but also educates to follow a university study.

Well, the intention is to place a student as soon as possible on the best track, educational and emotional. But, why is there a problem? This is my relation between X (the placement policy) and Y (underachieving). This system of early classifying is not so optimal as it may seem. The Netherlands has the highest amount of grade retention (4th class of Havo: 18%) and when the class of 5 VWO (this is the combination of Atheneum and Gymnasium called) is asked how many are grade retentioners the answer is 22%. The OESO average lies on 14,3%, thus the Netherlands is far above that. The Inspectie van Onderwijs (2011) (The Dutch Inspectorate of Education) has done research specified on the amount of grade retentioners per level and year. The 7th chapter of this research is dedicated to this subject. Also, here the Inspectie van Onderwijs is just ascertain it, and not going into the processes that lies beneath. Click HERE for the Dutch new article about the subject, and here for the Onderwijsraad (Education council) about underachieving (Chapter 2 and 3, in Dutch) & Onderwijsverslag 2010-2011 (start with chapter 7, in Dutch). 

That's a problem. Why do students fall out? Why do they get grade retention, and what is the reason they switch levels? With the subject of my thesis I will hopefully be able to give insight information about students who underachieve.

Next week another update!

By the way, if you're interested in the education system of the Netherlands, take a look at this (In English):  The State of Education in the Netherlands. Highlights of the 2010/2011 Education Report.

Underachievement

Last week I spoke mister Piet Groenewegen about the possibilities of doing my graduation research within the begaafdheidsprofielscholen (gifted schools) in the Netherlands. What I had in mind was to compare regular secondary education on the one hand, with begaafdheidsprofielscholen on the other. The problem seemed to be that mister Alexander Minnaert was already performing a research on this exact subject. Aside from this, the participating schools would not be looking forward to another question list.. What to do then?

I told him that my subject of interest is underachievement in schools. Achievement is usually measured with the use of an IQ test. A common problem with IQ tests is that they cannot cover all aspects of giftedness. I said to him that more knowledge is needed on the subject of underachievement. This problem is present in the begaafdheidsprofielscholen. He agreed with me that this subject is an interesting one, and that too little is known about it (or even acknowledged) in the participating (and all other) schools.

As the weeks go by my research question is getting more solid, and now the methodology comes into the picture. In what way will I collect the information about underachievement from the schools?

I've been playing with the thoughts of conducting interviews at the schools, which Mr. Groenewegen thought was a good idea, also because the participating schools have developed an aversion against the question lists. An interview would be a nice change of methods here.

This Friday I'm meeting with Mr. Groenewegen and a colleague.  Until then I've got time to specify the research question a bit more: what do I want to achieve? What results do I look for specifically? If you have any ideas, please share them with me!