Posted: January 31st, 2022

The Basics of Social Research

The Basics of Social Research

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The Basics of Social Research
In the article, “Elementary students’ self-efficacy beliefs in science: Role of grade level, gender and socioeconomic status’ Karaarslan and Sungur aim at illustrating how self-efficacy can determine elementary students’ performance in science and technology courses. Students who believe in self-efficacy tend to perform better in science activities, while those who don’t have self-efficacy in science courses perform poorly. Lack of motivation in science and technology courses is a significant factor in students’ poor performance. Hence, to counter this problem, the study seeks to establish the influence grade level, gender, and socioeconomic status have on students’ level of interest in science-related activities. The problem statement is complete and precise and is introduced in the introduction part.
The literature review encompasses different authors’ study perceptions of grade level, gender, and socioeconomic status on students’ performance capabilities in sciences. However, the literature review flow is unclear as very little is examined on elementary students as the focus is on middle school-related studies. While the purpose of the study is to show self-efficacy influence on elementary students’ science beliefs, the focuses are more on middle school students primarily based on gender differentiation. On the other hand, the articles cited and referenced in the literature review are relevant and independent. The article incorporates the use of other previous scholarly studies relevant to the study’s purpose. Similarly, all references are included in the in text-citation, making the article to be technically accurate.
The article integrates the use of hypotheses since there is an expected outcome for the research study. These hypotheses contain more than two potentially measurable variables; grade level, gender, socioeconomic status, and self-efficacy on science courses influencing each other. The hypotheses are; grade level and gender difference influence elementary students’ science and technology self-efficacy and the impact of socioeconomic status on students’ self-efficacy performance on sciences. According to the study, tested hypotheses showed no primary relationship on grade level and gender, but there was an influence between socioeconomic and self-efficacy. Even so, these hypotheses are crowded with inductive reasoning, which is a potential possibility to weak conclusions.
In examining grade level and gender differences in self-efficacy, confidence in carrying out science and technology-related tasks was used as the dependent variable, and grade level and gender as the dependent variable. While there was no conclusive relationship among the independent and dependent variables, the assumption was that students with high levels of prior achievement had higher levels of self-efficacy in science courses. On the other hand, the study examined how socioeconomic status affects students’ self-efficacy on science and technology courses; socioeconomic status was the independent variable, and self-efficacy the dependent variable. The parents’ socioeconomic status was a determining factor on students’ self-efficacy due to the availability of relevant academic resources, which incite motivation. Additionally, authors’ speculation on the negative self-efficacy of students who had computers with the internet is biased and limits their capability to establish other causes of the outcome.
To sum up, the authors’ findings suggest that the parents’ socioeconomic status influences students’ self-efficacy in science and technology courses. The study recommends adequate academic materials and motivation through parents’ awareness programs to ensure elementary students gain interest and have self-efficacy. Inquiry-based science activities are proposed as solutions to enabling prior achievement, leading to high levels leading to science-related tasks. Self-efficacy is an essential aspect of students’ subject-related performance. As the study suggests, a lot has to be done to ensure the socioeconomic status of students’ doesn’t limit their self-efficacy in science courses.

References
Karaarslan, G., & Sungur, S. (2011). Elementary students’ self-efficacy beliefs in science: Role of grade level, gender, and socioeconomic status. Science Education International, 22(1), 72-79.

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