EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY (PXGZ 6111)

ASSIGNMENT 1: INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT

Tittle of the article: The school absenteeism among high school students:

contributing factors

Author: Murat Balkis, Gokmen Arslan, Erdinc Duru

Introduction

The aim of this study is the school absenteeism among high school students and

contributing factors. Examine the direct and indirect relationship between students’

absenteeism, personal factors such as academic self- perception, attitudes towards

teacher and school, goal valuation and motivation/ self- regulation was the objective of

this study. In the other hand, family factors such as parents’ educational level and

income, also is a factor contribute absenteeism. However, academic achievement also

is one of the factor that contribute students involve themselves in absenteeism. The

were four hundred and twenty three high school students participated in the study. They

are two research questions in this study. First is what are the personal factor impact

previous absenteeism, current absenteeism and previous academic achievement and the

other research question: what are the family factor impact previous absenteeism, current

absenteeism and previous academic achievement? The quantitative research

methodology was used to guide the study. Instrument that use by author to gather data

is paper- pencil survey. There are sample that the researcher uses is 423 high school

students who were volunteer to participate in the study with the age ranged from 15 to

18 years. All participants completed the survey approximately 25 minutes.

My critic regarding this article:

Content

Based on my reading， the author didn’t mention the survey sheets that he or she gets

back is it can use. So of the sample may not answer the question properly, they may

simple change the survey answer that author provide or add in their own comment. The

author also didn’t mention how he or she distributes the survey form. The survey form

may distribute by his or her themselves, friends, teachers or relative but the author

didn’t clear state out.

Beside that, the author say that a paper- pencil survey will be use to collect date

but the author didn’t clearly mention how many question that he or she set for the survey

sheet. Besides that, the author also didn’t mention the location that he or she uses to

conduct the survey. The author also didn’t mention how many populations on the study.

The author should state about how many survey sheets that he or she has been give out

and how many survey sheet he or she can be get back from the sample.

In addition, the author should say he or she has taken how many days to conduct

the survey since the total of sample is a lot about 423 high school students. The author

should mention when he or she conduct the survey such as during the recess time, after

school or during students’ free time to avoid disturb students’ learning time. Lastly, the

author should mention the limitation of this study and the procedure to conduct the

survey. All this suggestion can be useful because this may lead the reader to more

clearly on how the author conducts the survey and what is the problem that author

facing during conducting the survey,

 The researchers using SPSS 15 program to analysis the data. SPSS is a Windows

based program that not only can be used to perform data entry and analysis this program

also can be use to create tables and graphs. Calculate the large amounts and perform all

of the analyses covered in the text and much more can be done in SPSS. Normally,

SPPS is to use in the business world and Social Sciences.

There are four statistical methods usable in the software:

Descriptive statistics — Frequencies, cross tabulation, descriptive ratio statistics

Bivariate statistics — Analysis of variance (ANOVA), means, correlation,

nonparametric tests

Numeral outcome prediction — Linear regression

Prediction for identifying groups — Cluster analysis (K-means, two-step,

hierarchical), factor analysis

I also agree the author uses the Person correlation coefficient to find out the relationship

or correlation between two sets of variable. A correlation can be either positive or

negative and has direction.

 An individual who score high (or low) on one variable tend to score similarly

on the other variable is a positive correlation.

 However, the individual who score high on one variable tend to score low on

the other is a negative correlation.

“ r ” is to represented the Pearson product- moment correlation coefficient is used to

show the degree or strength of relationship between two variables. r = +1.00 to – 1.00

is the range of the coefficient.

  r = + 1.00 is a perfect positive correlation which shows an increase in variable

y is also followed by an increase in variable x.

 r = - 1.00 is a perfect negative correlation which shows an increase in variable

y is also followed by a decrease in variable x.

 r = 0.00 is a zero correlation which means there is no relationship between

variable y and variable x.

 r = + 0.65 is a positive correlation which means an increase in variable y is also

followed by an increase in variable x but not happened in perfectly.

I agree the author use one- way ANOVA to examine whether the dependent variable

differentiated with respect to independent variable. The t- test method is conceptually

similar to the ANOVA although the method is different, in the analysis of variance. The

ONEWAY Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) is use to compare more than two means.