Abstract
Research has shown that taking breakfast for students is likely to increase their energy levels throughout the day (Underwood, 2007). On the other hand, this is likely to positively impact their attention in class. Attentive students tend to perform better than those who are not attentive and less focused. The main purpose of this research will be to find out whether taking breakfast has any impact on the academic performance of students. An experiment will be carried and data collected. An analysis of data and interpretation of the same will be done so as to accept or reject the hypothesis.
Introduction
Performance in schools is something that many stakeholders have been applying different strategies to ensure that goals set have been achieved (Bachrach, 2005). According to many experts, eating breakfast in the morning is likely to have a major impact on how students perform in schools and this is the reason why parents have been encouraged to ensure that their children get to eat breakfast before they go to school. Earlier researches have shown that learners who ate healthy breakfast had higher energy and remained active in class (Hock, 2009). On the other hand, students who were attentive in class scored higher grades in their exams compared to those who were not attentive. The question is whether students who eat breakfast perform better in school than those who don’t.
Methodology
It has been observed that students who are given breakfast in the morning are likely to remain active throughout the day and this is because of the manner in which different processes take place in the body (Craig, 2010). The method that will be used to collect data in this research will be an experimental one and which will focus on analyzing evidence to establish whether the claim is true or not. This research is important because of the manner in which it’s going to determine strategies that can be used to improve the performance of students (Kantowitz & Roediger, 2008). This will open a whole new debate on what teachers and parents are supposed to do as far as keeping learners active in class is concerned.
The impact that taking breakfast has on academic performance is what will be tested in this experimental design and its results are used to form a basis for the discussion on how parents and guardians can be brought in to help learners achieve their goals (Edwards, 2008). Participants in this experiment will be students from different social backgrounds but required to be in the same school and also subjected to the same learning conditions. This is meant to ensure that all other factors remain constant and only two factors are under experimentation. There are several research questions that will have to be answered by this experiment and they include:
- Do students who eat breakfast perform better in school compared to those who don’t eat?
- Do students who don’t eat breakfast find it difficult to remain focused and attentive in class?
- Does breakfast at school have any difference from breakfast at home as far as performance is concerned?
Hypothesis
The guess of what is expected at the end of this research can be unpredictable and as a result of that, three different hypotheses will be tested. This will make sure that that there are those that can be accepted and those that will be rejected in this whole entire process.
- Ho: Students who eat breakfast will perform better in school than those who don’t.
- H2: Students who don’t take breakfast are less attentive in class and also less focused to tasks.
- H3: Breakfast offered at home has a major impact on performance than one offered at school.
Operational definition of variables
- Breakfast (Independent Variable): This will refer to any meal that is taken by students in the morning either when they are in school or when they are leaving home for school.
- Performance (Dependent variable): This refers to the academic performance of students in school such as their grades at the end of the semester.
- Attention: Refers to the keenness of students when they are in class during the learning process.
Data
Data in this research will be collected through observation and means of a questionnaire. The first thing that will happen is for students to be put into two different categories depending on whether they take breakfast every morning before they come to school or not. This is a study that will take some time because for the hypothesis to be accepted, it must be backed with strong evidence from data collected. The other data to be collected here is the performance of these students and this will be done by looking at the results at the end of the study. Data to be collected from observation of how attentive students are in class will be used for purposes of discussing whether breakfast has any impact on attention span and focus among students.
Findings & Results
Data collected in this research will be interpreted through the use of different techniques such as calculations and descriptions of findings. Percentages of responses obtained and the manner in which the same supports or leads to the rejection of the research hypothesis will have to be reported in this particular study. Interpreting results from this experiment will be made easier through the use of different techniques such as graphs indicating performance against those who are taking breakfast and those who don’t take breakfast in the morning. Words such as less attentive in class, less focused, more focused will be used to describe how attentive or not students are in class and the manner in which the same is affected by whether the student has taken breakfast or not.
References
Bachrach, A. J. (2005). Psychological research; an introduction ([2d ed.). New York: Random House.
Craig, M. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Edwards, A. L. (2008). Experimental design in psychological research (3d ed.). New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Hock, R. R. (2009). Forty studies that changed psychology: explorations into the history of psychological research (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson/Prentice Hall.
Kantowitz, B. H., & Roediger, H. L. (2008). Experimental psychology: understanding psychological research. Chicago: Rand McNally College Pub. Co..
Underwood, B. J. (2007). Psychological research. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.