Research Timeline
In order to investigate the dependence of student academic performance on the presence or absence of siblings in their families, the authors will survey 100 students attending Palmetto Elementary School in West Palm Beach to identify the differences between the learning outcomes of individuals with and without siblings. A timeline of the study is described below, where the planned steps are presented in a sequence depending on their role in the study process.
Week 1
- Prepare a study proposal outlining the purpose, data sources, analysis plan, and expected implications of the project.
- Contact the school administration to obtain an agreement for students’ participation in the study.
- Conduct a student personal record documentation analysis to identify applicable study participants.
- Create a sample of two groups (one with students who have siblings and another one with students who have no siblings) with 50 students in each group.
- Prepare survey questions.
Week 2
- Distribute the survey among participants.
- Collect data.
- Analyze the collected data obtained via the survey.
- A comparison of the findings from the two groups will be conducted.
- Interpretation of the results in the context of current academic literature.
- Prepare a study report.
Methodology
Week 1
The proposed procedures are planned to be conducted within two weeks. At the onset of the project implementation, preparing a proposal for this study is indicated as a planned procedure in which the purpose, data, and methods are to be addressed. This stage is essential since it allows for identifying the overall context of the research project, its potential benefits for the academic and educational communities, and its relevance to the school setting. The proposal might be used as an information guide when completing the second stage of the planned procedures, which is contacting and communicating with the school administration. As it has been established, Palmetto Elementary School will be a study setting, which is why it is essential to obtain the school administration’s approval of the project.
Once the approval is obtained, the document analysis should be conducted to inspect students’ personal information pertaining to their family composition. This stage is essential due to its contribution to the next stage of the procedures plan, which is the study sampling. In particular, purposive non-randomized sampling will be used to generate a sample of two equal groups of students, where one group consists of children who have siblings, and another group represents children who do not have any siblings. The number of participants in each group is intended to be 50. The last procedure to be conducted this week is the preparation of the questions for the survey, which should be based on the student’s perception of their sibling or no-sibling status and their academic performance.
Week 2
During week 2, the compiled survey is planned to be distributed among the recruited and sampled participants. Next, the answers will be collected from the participants with the following analysis of the produced data. The findings obtained for the two groups will then be compared to detect any statistically significant differences and dependencies of academic performance on the presence of siblings in a family. Next, the study results should be interpreted against the context of scholarly literature on the topic to identify their validity and implications for practice. Finally, the last procedure to be conducted is the preparation of a report explaining the study process and its results.