Derryn Beasley EDU 671: Fundamentals of Education Research Instructor: Frederick Ansoff May 22 nd, 2014

 The purpose of my study is to show the importance of changing standardized testing from just being written exams to verbal exams and performance based tasks. “ The amount of instruction time utilized to cover test materials, and the level of emphasis placed on these test the question of students' performance as well as academic success is a rising question.” (Weaver, 2011)

 One of the problems with standardized testing is how it is used in our education system. Students who receive good grades throughout the school year have trouble understanding the mandated standardized tests required to move onto the next grade. This results in some students not passing the grade and having to repeat it. There needs to be an option for students to take a verbal version or performance based tasks instead due to their learning style.

 One of the variables of my study which can change is the learning style of the teacher when delivering the information to the students in each control group. “A variable is a characteristic of my study that is subject to change.”(Mills, 2014)  The second variable of my study is how well the students retain the information and test during examination and gathering my test data.

 “Research questions are important because they may be translated into development of research hypothesis and objectives for the study.”(Malhotra, 2013) My first research question for my study will be “Is there a significant difference in the outcomes for students who take traditional standardized testing as compared to an alternative form of testing. I think standardized testing should not be the only type of test administered in our education system and there should be other options.

 My second research question will be “What factors on a standardized test contributes to a student not performing well on the test?” Some reasons I am hypothesizing is the student not understanding the vocabulary or having a hard time remembering specific material from the lesson.

 The locus of control for me as the researcher is the test material and how it is written and articulated for the students to understand.  A second area of control is the classroom an ensuring it is proper set up for the students during their block of instruction.

 What I am hoping to accomplish with this study is to prove how unfair and ineffective standardized testing is. I want my results to convince school officials to initiate new testing procedures which will allow teachers to administer verbal testing and performance based tasks.

 In my experiment there will be two groups. Each group will consist of twenty five students who will be taught an introductory class which will be an hour long.  The students role will be to pay attention in the class and take either a verbal or written exam to the best of their ability afterwards.

 One of the potential obstacles which needs to be negotiated is the consent of the students and parents for conducting the experiment.  The second obstacle which will need to be negotiated is finding a teacher who will be give consent to teach for the study and to be videotaped while teaching.

 A big ethical concern in my study is the fact I will be dealing with minors. One thing I plan on doing is ensuring I sit down with the parents and get consent from them and the students on the study after I explain to them the whole process and overall goal of what I hope the study will bring.

 The student survey and computer knowledge will help me with my study because it will help me with seeing how much the student already knows about U.S. History. If I know the material the students already know then I can change the exams to questions they learned for the first time in the actual classroom  The data will be collected one month before the experiment. The reason why I chose to do the knowledge tests and interviews early is because it allows enough time to find other students in case in they already have too much prior knowledge of the subjects. The computer knowledge tests and study surveys will be administered by using the student’s computer lab.

 Finding out the general IQ of each student will help me determine how I will select the students for the study. If I observe a student has a below average IQ rating I will not have them participate in the experiment because it will not give me an accurate result of my findings.  The data collection for this type of question will be conducted three months before the study will take place. This data will be the first I will collect. The student survey will be taken by a computer in a computer lab. The IQ test will be taken by the student on the computer as well. If a student’s IQ is not up to par with the study then I will deem them not fit to participate

 Finding out the learning style of each student will help me determine how I will assign each of the students in the two classrooms for the study. I want to ensure I have an equal number of auditory, visual and kinetic learners in the two classrooms.  This part of the research will be the last piece of data I will be collecting. I will collect this data two weeks before the students go through the actual experiment of being taught the U.S. History lesson. The learning style test will be a written version and given to the students in a classroom. I will also get written consent from the students before I pursue their prior progress reports.

 For my study I need a classroom with desks which can seat twenty five students at one time. I will also need a whiteboard for teacher to write the information on. “Not having learning resources prevent learners from achieving a basic level of education so that they can be productive in society and improve their quality of life.”(Ally & Samaka, 2013)  The teacher will also need a United States history book to develop his lesson plan on. A computer lab with twenty five computers will also be needed to collect my initial data.

 One of first tools I will use for data collection is student surveys. I will use these to find out the student’s pre-existing knowledge on U.S. history and their general IQ.  Another useful tool I will use is student interviews to find out the learning style of each student. “It can be important to know students' learning features to increase efficiency of learning process in social studies lesson that aims educating efficient citizens.”(Kafadar & Tay, 2014) The last tool will be viewing previous progress reports to help enforce the learning style as well.

 Ally, M., & Samaka, M. (2013). Open Education Resources and Mobile Technology to Narrow the Learning Divide. International Review Of Research In Open And Distance Learning, 14 (2),  Kafadar, T., & Tay, B. (2014). LEARNING STRATEGIES AND LEARNING STYLES USED BY STUDENTS IN SOCIAL STUDIES. International Journal Of Academic Research, 6 (2), doi: / /6- 2/B.39  Malhotra, S. (2013). Framing a research question and generating a research hypothesis. Indian Journal Of Medical Specialities, 4 (2), doi: /ijms  Mills, G. E. (2014). Action research: A guide for the teacher researcher (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc  Weaver, K. (2011). Standardized Testing: Measurement of Academic Achievement. Online Submission,