Help Needed

STEM Program

This study conducted is based on students with disabilities who has entered the STEM program to enhance his and her learning. The disability is based on a learning disability in math. The article has presented how important tutoring younger children with the older grade has not only helped the tutors but the tutees self-esteem, it helps the teachers alleviate the stress of teaching. This article has shown how the younger student’s grades has improved due to the older grade children’s tutoring skills.

“At risk” and low-income students

This study was based on the performance of the middle school to high school students that are at risk for academic failure due to being low-income. The researcher includes how social communication and support can help to improve sociability. Data collected is based on low-income “at risk” students who had not much social support or communication. The study found that children’s best support is through the support of the parents. It was found that those labeled as “at risk” did better in school and became had more social support and communication with their parents, teachers, and peers when given the chance.

Tutoring for emotional and behavioral disorders in school age children

This case study is based on students that face problems of emotional and behavioral disorders. The researcher has found that these students are challenged academically due to his or her disorder. The goal of this study is to understand how an intervention by way of tutoring and self-graphing would affect the children. This was based on the issues of the children’s reading and mathematical skills. In this study, there was a change in two of the students for the better. There was an improvement in their students grades due to having a tutor whereas in the other two students, although there was a tutor, there was an increase in the disruptive behavior. More information needs to be gathered to produce better validity.

Difficulty in math

This study was based on the difficulties that students face with performance mathematics. This study was conducted between those that have no difficulties in math and those that has difficulties. The study investigated previous research for comparison to the current study. The finding was that the students that were faced with poor performance based on the different hypothesis were that many of the students improved through the intervention given. There was also a few of the hypothesis that shown non improvement in their math performances and needs more research to be done.

Purpose of the study

The overall purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of the program and how it has affected the sixth graders who enroll to receive tutoring. Have their study habits changed? Have grades improved? This study will help determine if the tutoring program should continue and if it is in fact beneficial to those younger students who are utilizing the services of their peers. It is also to see if the program should continue or not, all dependent upon how effective it is with the younger peers and their improvement in schoolwork.

Hypothesis

In this study, there are several questions that could be researched. The hypothesis could be as follows; can mentoring younger children from his or her peers improve the child’s grades?

By implementing help from the eighth graders, this maybe a way of improving his or her academic skills as well as their social skills. Using the peers of the younger students in need of academic help (math) gives the teacher less stress of teaching and becoming behind on the other children’s studies.

Definition of Terms

Methods: Data will be collected weekly and analyzed. In person surveys will also be done monthly to gauge the satisfactory of tutoring services the students are receiving.

Participants: Are students from Stoneybrook Middle School. Eight-grade students who are eligible to tutor will tutor sixth graders who are having difficulties in math. Tutor eligibility will be determined by the Eight-grader’s conduct history and they must have a B+ average or better.

Procedures: Once a tutor is deemed eligible to become a tutor, they are trained on how to build confidence, give positive and encouraging feedback, and will give ample time for those they are tutoring to work out the problems with the assignment, or test.

Outcomes: Since students who are being tutored already have a baseline being their current grades, one will be able see the positive and/or negative trends of grades/scores once the student gets back their grades from their quizzes and tests, and also did missing or late assignments reduce due to the tutoring program.

Evaluation: The tutoring program will be looked at to see if the tutoring program is effective in helping sixth graders improve their grades in mathematics, and to see if there is value in continuing the program.

Research methods and procedures:

The research method that is used here is a qualitative research approach. In this approach, the case study method is used. This method is an empirical inquiry as it investigates a contemporary phenomenon in its real-life context when the boundaries between the context and phenomenon are not clear. Hence, multiple sources of evidence are used to investigate how these competent teachers outperform. Furthermore, the descriptive research design is used under the case study research method. This method is considered appropriate as per the nature of the topic that is under investigation because this study aims to investigate how the mathematics teacher train students who are weak in this subject.

The procedure that is used in this study is a qualitative one. Hence, the data is gathered through conceptual knowledge exercise that is conducted from the side of teachers. The students that are involved in this study their marks in that study will be used to analyze how effectively the teacher teaches their student (McDonald, 2002). Furthermore, observation of lessons, teacher-written reports, video recordings of the class, and observations of experiences will be used for further analysis. Multiple data gathering procedures are used in this study to obtain data from multiple sources. Hence, triangulation of data helps obtain adequate knowledge for this research study so that accurate results can be deduced from this study.

The population

The population in question is the junior high age group. The sixth graders are going to be tested to see whether or not the program was successful; their success is what determines the success of the program to begin with, since they are the ones utilizing it to improve their grades and other areas such as social skills and study habits. The success of the program, which is in question, is determined based on the success of the students who are participating in it.

Procedure

In efforts to provide the most accurate findings to support and demonstrate program effectiveness, we have included natural observation in the procedural process of this study related to the program evaluation of Stoneybrook Middle School’s peer tutoring program. Both the eighth grade and sixth grade students were observed by teachers and researchers during each tutoring session for all three months. Detailed notes were taken in regard to the setting, the tutors’ and pupils’ interactions and attentiveness, study skills, note taking and notebook organization, preparing for tests and quizzes, and confidence with explaining and understanding math concepts. In addition to natural observation, this study’s procedure uses a pretest-posttest design. The pretest-posttest design allows us to evaluate and compare differences from the first day of the program until the three-month evaluation day, and to support the notion that this program has been effective in meeting its goals. Both the pretest and posttest include a math assessment of 75 sixth- grade level math problems that scored pupils on a traditional grading scale ( 90 to 100- A, 80-89- B, 70-79 C, 60-69 D, 50 and lower- F), given on the first day and the 90th day. The pretest and posttest also included a self- assessment that was given to the pupils. The assessment was written in language that is comprehendible for this group. The assessment uses an ordinal scale and asks the pupils to evaluate their math skills on a scale using one to five (5- I receive mostly As, 4- I receive mostly Bs, 3- I receive mostly Cs, 2- I receive mostly Ds, 1- I receive mostly F’s), note taking and notebook organization (5- I am very organized/ I take notes every day, 4- I am organized most of the time/ I take notes most of the time, 3- Sometimes I am organized/ Sometimes I take notes , 2- I am a little organized/ I rarely take notes, 1- I am not organized/ I never take notes ), study skills and frequency of studying, completing and submitting homework on time, and preparing for tests and quizzes. These factors were evaluated using “always (7 days a week), often (4-6 days a week), sometimes (3-4 days a week), rarely (1-2 days a week), never (0 days a week)”. Type of scale this is. Also given on evaluation day to determine if there were improvements in their ratings. Also given after three months to determine if there is a rise in scores individually and as a group. Comparing the pretest and posttest, we are able to evaluate rises in evaluation scores and improvements in study skills and organizational skills, as well as levels of confidence.

Specific Measurements Used to Test Each Hypothesis

Hypothesis #1 - By implementing help from the eighth graders, this may be a way of improving his or her academic skills as well as their social skills. To test this hypothesis, a one group pretest and posttest design would be used to gauge where the skills of the student are rated on a numeric scale at in the beginning of the program and then the posttest would be given at the end of the month to see if the actual tutoring program has helped increase these skills in any way.

Hypothesis #2 - Using the peers of the younger students in need of academic help (math) gives the teacher less stress of teaching and becoming behind on the other children’s studies. To test this hypothesis, a one group pretest and posttest design would be used to gauge where the teacher’s stress level is at in the beginning of the program and then the posttest would be given at the end of the month to see if the actual tutoring program has lessened the teachers stress level.

Hypothesis #3 - Implementing this tutoring program for students by students will help each set of students gain more comfort in social gathering, improve self-esteem, and improve children’s behavior. To test this hypothesis, a one group posttest design would be used to gauge where the student’s level of comfort are at in the categories of social comfort, self-esteem, and behavior or attitude, at the end of every month and progress can be analyzed month over month.

Data analysis:

As per the research methods, the statistical tools that are applied in this study are T-tests and P – test. The T-Test is a type of inferential statistic that is used to determine if there is any significant difference between the means of marks of students before the coaching class and after this coaching class. In this test, the data is collected as the outcome of a number of students that follows a normal distribution and have unknown variance. It is also used as a hypothesis testing tool that is used for testing of assumptions. These assumptions apply to a certain population that is used to study. This test is also used to test the degree of freedom that is the probability of the difference between two sets. From the application of these test, the marks of students are calculated before this mathematics coaching and after this mathematics coaching (Mahon, 2010). The mean values of after and before sets are compared to conclude the value of the study.

Furthermore, P- test is also applied to test the probabilities. This test is used to test the validity of the null hypothesis. That is used to test the commonly accepted claim about a certain population that is aimed to investigate in this study. P – Test is used to provide evidence that can be used to accept and reject the accepted claim of this study. The smaller the value of p-values, the stronger will be the evidence that provides support for the rejection of the alternate hypothesis that is more credible. P – Statistics. Hence P- test followed a normal distribution.

Conclusion

This program evaluation placed focus on the providing tutoring services to six grade students that were in need of assistance in the subject of math. Not only does this tutoring have the potential to improve on students’ level of academic success, this tutoring program may also provide the opportunity for students to improve their social skills and levels of confidence, as well as organization. The advantage of using a pretest-posttest design as an evaluation strategy as well as natural observation is that we are able to objectively evaluate each students progress from the beginning of the program until the three-month evaluation day of the program, which yields information that supports the notion that the six graders will improve on their math academic scores, improve their social skills, improve confidence and levels of self- esteem, as well as organization. One major limitation to this study is that the results may not be applicable to schools that do not have eighth grade students with high enough grades to become a tutor. Another limitation of this study is that the assessment does not place any focus on factors that led to students needing a tutor. Knowing those reasons and providing attention to them may also assist students in becoming more successful in their math studies and academic levels. This tutoring program is effective not only to the sixth graders in improving their academic scores and building confidence, but also in assisting the eighth-grade students with maintaining their academic scores and building confidence and providing teachers some relief by having assistance in ensuring academic success for students.

References

Footnotes

1Add footnotes, if any, on their own page following references. The body of a footnote, such as this example, uses the Normal text style. (Note: If you delete this sample footnote, don’t forget to delete its in-text reference as well. That’s at the end of the sample Heading 2 paragraph on the first page of body content in this template.)

Tables

Table 1

Table Title

Note: Place all tables for your paper in a tables section, following references (and, if applicable, footnotes). Start a new page for each table, include a table number and table title for each, as shown on this page. All explanatory text appears in a table note that follows the table, such as this one. Use the Table/Figure style, available on the Home tab, in the Styles gallery, to get the spacing between table and note. Tables in APA format can use single or 1.5-line spacing. Include a heading for every row and column, even if the content seems obvious. A table style has been setup for this template that fits APA guidelines. To insert a table, on the Insert tab, click Table.

Figures

Figure 1. Include all figures in their own section, following references (and footnotes and tables, if applicable). Include a numbered caption for each figure. Use the Table/Figure style for easy spacing between figure and caption.

For more information about all elements of APA formatting, please consult the APA Style Manual, 6th Edition.