Qualitative vs Quantitative Study's of Why are School Uniforms Beneficial?
The topic of whether or not school uniforms are beneficial is timely, since nowadays more and more public schools are opting for such uniforms, in lieu of allowing students to select school wardrobes. Administrators, teachers, parents, and even other students often believe that students in schools that do not require uniforms spend excessive time and energy focusing on their own, and each others', wardrobes, and not focusing enough on becoming educated. The topic is interesting because it calls into question students' freedom of choice, and the freedom of expression wardrobe selection arguably gives them, versus students' responsibility to take school seriously and to learn as much as possible while there. The topic is significant to the field of instruction because it bears on the possibility that students' not wearing school uniforms interferes with teaching and learning; and with classroom attitudes and atmospheres. It also bears on such matters as peer pressure, materialism, and social class, all of which may arguably influence students' learning readiness, attitudes about themselves, vis-a-vis their peers, and attitudes about school and learning in general. The topic does not bear on either instructional design or in
Since evidence that uniforms matter (or do not) is (as far as I know) purely anecdotal, a qualitative approach to researching this topic might work best. For example, if a particular school district, group of districts, or even an individual school wished to gather information on whether or not the wearing of uniforms helped students focus better in class, a good approach might be (over a two-semester or perhaps two-year period) to interview teachers about their perceptions of their students' ability to focus in class when they do not where uniforms, and then repeat the identical interview questions after the time period when they have worn uniforms. Another way, used either alone or in combination with the teacher interviews, would be to interview the students themselves, in order to ascertain, after they had tried both school clothing alternatives (only one set of student interviews would be necessary here, as opposed to two sets of teacher interviews) which they now preferred. However, if one is trying to prove an empirical point about school uniforms, a quantitative study might carry more weight. Such as study of this subject might consist of having teachers track students' course grades during a semester or year that they did not wear uniforms, and again during the semester that they did. A good way to do this, if possible (though these preferred circumstances are not easily arranged, especially by a graduate student) would be to have a sample population of teachers, within a school or across school or districts, track student grades first in the fall semester (not wearing uniforms) and then again in the spring semester (wearing uniforms). In that same vein, administrators at the school could simultaneously track incidents of school violence or other disruption, and compare those numbers form one semester to the next. structional technology, however, in any ways I can think of, except possibly in the sense of implicit pressure on teachers to make learning materials "newer", flashier, more technologically innovative, or in other ways more exciting, in order to hope to compete with students' fascination with appearances, fashion, and material possessions. The sample of teachers willing to compare and contrast student grades over two semesters, without and with uniforms, might be harder to acquire, since teachers are already so overworked, but a go
Some common words found in the essay are:
, Child Left, warm ups, daily warm ups, daily warm, doing warm ups, wearing uniforms, doing warm, tools instructors students, useful tools instructors, ups useful tools, school districts, tools instructors, school uniforms, sample population, topic significant, teachers school,
Approximate Word count = 1605
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
