Early Transition and Adjustment and Childrens Adjustment after Six Years of Schooling by Margetts - Article Example

A Critical Review of Margetts (2009), Early Transition and Adjustment and Children’s Adjustment after Six Years of Schooling, European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 309-324 Introduction Utilising a longitudinal study, Margetts (2009) conducted a study on relationship between Grade 1 and Grade 5 in adjustment and development in Melbourne, Australia. This research aimed to providing evidence of contributing factors that may be exhibited after six years of schooling and relevant adjustments. The study reveals that children in Grade 1 and Grade 5 in school adjustment do not show many differences apart from support from governments in their learning; those parents who are supported by the government showed some difference to those sponsored by their parents e.g. parents have better income. To the extent that this is an observation approach and includes teachers, means that a better understanding of development of these children can be deduced. However, both limitations and strengths of the study should be analysed to present means in better interpreting the study findings. Significance of the Article to Educational issue Evidence has shown that those children who start their lives with the right behavioural and psychological components succeed in adolescent/adult life (Deming, 2009). This means that it is important to understand developmental requirements and conducive requirements that define the approach and means in which young children can develop educationally (Shonkoff, 2010). The article been reviewed as addressed if there is a relationship between Grade 1 year school going children and after six years: Grade 5, which is an educational issue. Thus, the aim of the research study is to understand the contributing factors such as social and economic towards educational competencies of the children from different backgrounds. Study/research design Research design is the strategy that a researcher chooses to bring together different components of the study ensuring that they are arranged in logical and coherent way: resulting in addressing optimally the research problem (McBurney & White, 2009). This means that it brings together data collection strategy, measurement of data collected and data analysis. Margetts (2009, p. 309) utilised a longitudinal study with the aim of understanding the relationship between “children’s early school adjustment and their development after six years of primary schooling”. Longitudinal study allows a researcher to study a social aspect based on repeated observations over the same variables spanning long periods. Thus, it is commonly utilised in studying developmental trends and in the case of this research, it played an important role in understanding the developmental capacities of the primary schooling. Moreover, the study provides basis in which family demographics, outside school hours’ care, and children’s personal characteristics are monitored. Utilising this strategy ensures easy distinguishing short from long-term phenomena, reduces risks associated with time-invariant unobserved differences, and also presents a better understanding of the population. However, critics argue that it is expensive and time-consuming approach that may not contribute in detection of casual relationships compared to other strategies such as experiments. Research question Research questions provide means in which other important components of a research study can be brought together (Blessing & Chakrabarti, 2009). The right research question that is based on structure and choice of words contributes immensely to the success of the research. The question that Margetts (2009) aims to answer is whether there is a relationship between “children’s early school adjustment and their development after six years of primary schooling”. The research is further defined because the author states that the measuring standards are the same e.g. social, behavioural and academic measures. It may be stated that the research question is clearly formulated defining both the variables and limits of the study; moreover, the research question has clarified the region where the research took place. Research methods Understanding the strategy in which appropriate data for the study is gathered is important in ensuring that the research problem is answered correctly (Deming, 2009). Two major strategies, qualitative and quantitative, exist that can be utilised in collecting appropriate data. In this research, quantitative research was utilised. The participants in the study were Grade 5 primary school children of whom they were involved in another study six years earlier. Originally, 212 children (mean age 66.73) participated and at the current study, 131 children participated. Out of the 131, 82 were male while 49 were female and their age mean was 133.73 months. The measurement instrument utilised was a Social Rating System that aim at answering three domains of questions, which are problem behaviour, social skills and academic competence. In both studies, the teachers were involved in filling part of the forms to present their views on developmental capabilities of the children. Findings/Data analysis Data analysis is a strategy that is utilised in transforming, inspecting, data modelling and cleaning with the main purpose of addressing study question with the aim of achieving appropriate conclusion and provides recommendation to sustain the research objective, and to develop literature on the given topic (Shonkoff, 2010; Blessing & Chakrabarti, 2009). To determine whether there was relationship between Grade 1 and Grade 5 children, the research utilised bivariate Spearman correlation in analysis the data. From data analysis, it is evident that there is a strong relationship of social skills, problem behaviour and academic competence between Grade 1 and Grade 5 children. However, the relationship is commonly affected by both the social and economic factors. For example, those families that are not able economically and receive financial support from the government differs in terms of social component compared to those families that have better incomes and do not receive financial support from the government. Ethical aspects Doing human research is usually a sensitive topic and it is associated with numerous ethical issues ranging from risks associated to confidentiality of the research. National Health and Medical Research Council (2007, updated in 2009) has set important values that should be considered in any research that includes beneficence, human beings, integrity and merit, and justice. The aim of these values is to ensure that mutual responsibility, ethical equality and trust is championed in human research. In addition, other important factors championed by the directive include respecting cultural diversity, altruism and whether the research contributes positively towards meeting community goals. Margetts (2009) understands the significance of ensuring that ethical aspects are championed and this has been achieved through involving respective families. Moreover, presence of teachers also contributed enormously in ensuring that ethical aspects are championed. Alternative approach to achieving goals Margetts (2009) utilised a quantitative approach in collecting appropriate data. However, some developmental and behavioural questions are better answered when qualitative approach is utilised. A richer picture and improvement in quality of data collected could have been supported by factoring direct contribution of children regarding their demographic factors. Utilising the children and qualitative approach, themes and contextual nature of views could be easily analysed and better and informed result could be formed (Shonkoff, 2010). Recommendations for practice and further research The aim of any research is to ensure that it builds on literature of that topic and also provide means in which other community factors can e cultivated that aims in ensuring behavioural and psychological development is achieved (Deming, 2009). It is important to utilise qualitative study in collecting data, and information and results received from such strategies will be compared to provide better results (Shonkoff, 2010). Thus, for future research it is important to increase the number of participants, diversity in terms of their backgrounds and environments, utilisation of qualitative method, and relating results from quantitative to qualitative with the aim obtaining better informed results (Wells, Evans, Beavis, Ong, 2010). Conclusion In summary, it is admitted that this study lacks enough information that may be termed as conclusive. Thus, further studies should be undertaken, utilising a larger sample, better measures in ensuring that improvement on the study is achieved concerning the specific relationship between child development in Grade 1 and after six years; Grade 5. Even though some deficiencies exist in the methodological section, the study has provided some important information to understand how development of children is affected by social and economic factors towards improving their educational outcome. References Blessing, L., & Chakrabarti, A. 2009. DRM, a Design Research Methodology. London: Springer Deming, D. 2009. Early Childhood Intervention and Life-Cycle Skill Development: Evidence from Head Start. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 111-134 Margetts, K. 2009. Early transition and adjustment and children's adjustment after six years of schooling. European Early Childhood Education Research, vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 309-324 McBurney, D., & White, T. 2009. Research Methods, 8th Ed. London: Cengage Learning National Health and Medical Research Council. 2007. National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research 2007 - Updated 2009. Retrieved from http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/guidelines/publications/e72 Shonkoff, J. 2010. Building a New Biodevelopmental Framework to Guide the Future of Early Childhood Policy. Child Development, vol. 81, no. 1, pp. 357-367 Wells, N., Evans, G., Beavis, A., Ong, A. 2010. Early Childhood Poverty, Cumulative Risk Exposure, and Body Mass Index Trajectories through Young Adulthood. American Journal of Public Health, vol. 100, no. 12, pp. 2507-2512 Read More