HOMELESSNESS AND THE EFFECTS ON STUDENT’S BEHAVIOR AND ATTITUDES IN THE SCHOOL SETTING

An Action Research Project By Tiffany Green

EDUC 702.22, 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

  Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7 Q8 Q9 Q10 Q11MODE

Student 1 3 3 3 2 2 3 4 4 2 3 3 3

Student 2 3 3 4 3 2 4 3 2 1 4 4 3

Student 3 1 3 3 3 3 3 3 1 1 3 4 3

Student 4 4 1 2 3 4 3 2 4 3 3 2 3

Student 5 2 3 4 3 1 3 4 3 4 3 4 3

MODE 3 3 3 3 2 3 4 4 1 3 4 

STUDENT PRE-SURVEY RESPONSES(1) Strongly Agree (2) Agree (3) Disagree (4) Strongly Disagree

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7 Q8 Q9Q10 Q11

MODE0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

Student 1Student 2Student 3Student 4Student 5MODE

Survey Questions

Lik

ert

Sca

le

Student Pre-Survey Re-sponses

Proposed Data of Post Survey

  Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7 Q8 Q9Q10

Q11

Q12

Q13

Q14

MODE

Student 1 2 4 1 1 2 2 3 4 3 3 3 2 4 1 2

Student 2 3 4 3 3 3 4 2 2 2 4 2 3 3 1 3

Student 3 2 3 1 2 4 3 1 3 2 3 3 3 1 2 3

Student 4 4 3 4 1 2 3 1 2 1 4 2 4 2 4 4

Student 5 3 2 3 3 3 3 2 2 1 2 1 3 4 3 3

MODE 2 4 1 1 2 3 2 2 2 3 3 3 4 1 

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7 Q8 Q9Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

Student 1Student 2Student 3Student 4Student 5

Student Questions

Stu

dent

Res

pons

es

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= -0.19174

A negative correlation was found between children who misbehave and behavior modification.

Relationship between question 9 and behavior modification

0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.50

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

Series1

Number of Students

Stu

dent

Res

pons

es

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