RESEARCH QUESTION PLAN

Brief Background

A fifth-grade child is likely to be ten to eleven years of age in the United States. According to Stapp & Karr (2018), besides differences in the physical realm, fifth graders are different from fourth graders from both a cognitive and social emotional perspective. Fifth grade children are likely to apply math concepts to the real world. At the moment, fifth grade math curriculum consists of numbers and operations, factors and multiples, fractions and operations, multiplication and division of fractions, decimals and their addition and subtraction, percentages and geometry (Grnmo, Lindquist, Arora, & Mullis, 2015).

There have been concerns on multiple fronts because fifth grade students have not been doing well in math. Math is a subject that entails solving problems and proper strategies may need to be put in place to ensure that students understand content. The failure of the fifth-grade students may, however, have been triggered by poor foundation in fourth grade and third grade. This is however an assumption that requires clarity and evidence. Children in fifth grade are said to have showcased various attitudes in the past two years. Fifth grade students have been noted to be unable to interpret charts and graphs. The said students cannot master long division. The students are also having trouble recalling basic multiplication facts. Many math teachers who teach fifth grade have realized that a significant percentage of learners are unable to make notes and listen at the same time. Teachers have argued that students do not complete math assignments given to them. I am of the opinion that this calls for intervention because fifth grade students are expected to comprehend the relevant information presented to them in drawings, charts and also in non-text formats.

Research Question

The concerns of fifth grade students have to come to my attention as a math review committee member and I must say that it is alarming that ten-year-old learners are not active in a mathematics class as should be the norm. We will therefore go further to propose a research on the reason for the increased failure among fifth graders in math subject. As a math review committee member, I have many assumptions in my mind and the biggest assumption could be that the students never had a good foundation in math in the previous grades. The other assumption is that the fifth-grade math curriculum is way above their current skills, expertise and cognition. Furthermore, I would think that a fifth-grade math teachers may not been doing a good job. It would also be prudent to note that the problem could be that the syllabus is a bit complex for the students. Maybe the syllabus entails a lot of units which the students cannot understand at the same time.

Hypothesis

The null hypothesis is that increased student failure in math in their fifth grade is as a result of poor foundation in the previous grades in math. The null hypothesis will only be one. There will, however, be several alternative hypotheses.

Ho: Increased failure in math subject in fifth grade is caused by poor foundation in previous grades

The alternative hypothesis for the research will...…a regression test. Regression test are instrumental in efforts to establish any causal relationships among the variables. The regression will assist in conducting the simple linear regression of the study (Bhme, Oliveira & Roychoudhury, 2013). The second test that will be used is the comparison test. The comparison test is used to establish the differences among mean groups. Under comparison tests, T tests come in handy and will help compare average marks of students in math class in the previous grades.

A study by Casado & Cutillas (2011) shows that surveys help in providing accurate results in study. In our research, surveys will be conducted to both students and teachers. The surveys will be discrete and may also be recorded. A neutral person may be involved to ensure that information is non-biased. The survey will assist to collect qualitative data. Secondary quantitative data, on the other hand, will be useful because it is accurate and not biased (Alshenqeeti, 2014). One of the advantages of quantitative data is that it ensures accuracy in research and reduces possibilities of bias.

Reporting of Findings

To report the findings, a paragraph will be set aside to discuss the findings of the study. The hypothesis will be presented in the paragraph and may either be rejected or accepted depending on the p-values found. One of the ethical dilemmas that we are likely to experience in the research is the issue of voluntary participation. Despite having a problem with our fifth-grade students and their performance in math, it may be difficult to force them to participate in the study (Colnerud, 2014). The…