HOMELESSNESS AND THE EFFECTS ON STUDENT’S BEHAVIOR AND ATTITUDES IN THE SCHOOL SETTING An Action Research Project By Tiffany Green EDUC , Fall 2010

Table of Contents  Research Design  Threats to Internal Validity  Threats to External Validity  Pre-survey and Post-survey  Proposed data of pre-survey and post- survey  Correlation  Proposed Data Analysis  References

Research Design  Single Subject Designs/Single Case Experimental: One Group Pretest-Posttest Design.  Single Group: Single group is pretested (O), exposed to a treatment (X), and posttested (O).  Symbolic Design: OXO

Threats to Internal Validity  History- Poor student attendance, constant lateness, illness or poor health, poor behavior, student outburst and disruption, child neglect in the home, drugs or alcohol abuse in home, unemployed parent(s).  Maturation- Lack of interest and engagement due to age and behavioral/emotional issues. Possible repetition of the fourth grade.  Testing- Familiarity with survey question content on both the pre-surveys and post-surveys could alter results.  Instrumentation- Both pre and post student and parent surveys will be distributed by the assigned forth grade classroom teacher of each student in the experiment.  Selection- Non random group selection.  Selection -Maturation Interaction- Students have different ages and gender

Threats to External Validity  Generalizable Conditions- Providing a safe and stable environment for this population of children in school will allow them to adjust to the teachers’ teaching style and implementation of character education on a daily basis.  Pretest-Treatment- The exposure of the presurvey to all of the participants (students, teachers and parents) will possibly yield inflated results after administering the post survey.  Selection-Treatment Interaction- The students were not randomly selected. They were chosen because of their homeless living situations.  Experimental Effects- Active elements: The researcher may have known prior history of homelessness from the teachers who noted students who were homeless more than once or for a longer period of time than their peers.

Pre-survey and Post-survey  Pre-survey: Twenty forth grade homeless students will be selected and given a presurvey about their attitudes and behaviors towards learning.  Post-survey: Character Education Treatment Implementation by teacher  Pre student survey administered prior to treatment  Post student survey administered after treatment

Proposed Data of Presurvey Q1Q2Q3Q4Q5Q6Q7Q8Q9Q10Q11 MO DE Stud ent Stud ent Stud ent Stud ent Stud ent MO DE STUDENT PRE-SURVEY RESPONSES (1) Strongly Agree (2) Agree (3) Disagree (4) Strongly Disagree

Proposed Data of Post Survey Q1Q2Q3Q4Q5Q6Q7Q8Q9 Q1 0 Q1 1 Q1 2 Q1 3 Q1 4 MO DE Stu de nt Stu de nt Stu de nt Stu de nt Stu de nt MO DE Student Questions Student Responses

Correlation Correlation between the students who misbehave when mad and behavior modification responses. Survey Question 9: When I get mad I misbehave even though I know it is wrong. Negative correlation of rxy= A negative correlation was found between children who misbehave and behavior modification.  Relationship between question 9 and behavior modification Number of Students Student Responses

Proposed Data Analysis  The bar graph shows the results from both the pre and post surveys. The responses from the presurvey show a negative attitude towards learning. The post survey after modification depicts the same results.  Conclusion: The implementation of character education had no effect on the behavior and attitudes of homeless students.  There was no behavior modification made.

Resources O’Connor – Petruso, S.,(2008) Stat.scales.analyses.threats.design.ppt