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Monday, 7 December 2015

Equilibrating Objectives with Hypotheses


In the previous post, the attempt was to discuss on stating the objectives of a research, especially of experimental research.
As research is a scientific enquiry, the objectives should be stated critically so as to represent the nature of research, the methodology, data collection and analysis of data.

Such a scientific outlook is also needed in stating the hypotheses. The balancing between objectives and hypotheses is also to be considered.
As an example, shall we take the same topic showed in the previous blog, titled;

USE OF AUDIO VISUAL AIDS TO IMPROVE LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS IN ENGLISH AT ELEMENTARY LEVEL.

  • ·       To prepare and find out suitable Audio Aids for the students of class V.
  • ·       To prepare and find out suitable Visual Aids for the students of class V.
  • ·       To prepare and find out suitable Audio Visual Aids for the students of class V.
  • ·       To try out different Audio, Visual and Audio Visual Aids on the students of class V for improving their Listening and Speaking skills.
  • ·       To find out the effectiveness of Audio Visual Aids in terms of students’ achievement in improvement of listening skill.
  • ·       To find out the effectiveness of Audio Visual Aids in terms of students’ achievement in improvement of speaking skill.
  • ·       To find out the effectiveness of Audio Visual Aids in terms of urban students’ achievement in improvement of Listening skill.
  • ·       To find out the effectiveness of Audio Visual Aids in terms of urban students’ achievement in improvement of speaking skill.
  • ·       To find out the effectiveness of Audio Visual Aids in terms of rural students’ achievement in improvement of Listening skill.
  • ·       To find out the effectiveness of Audio Visual Aids in terms of rural students’ achievement in improvement of speaking skill.
  • ·       To compare the effectiveness of urban and rural students achievement of both the tests.
  • ·       To compare the effectiveness of students achievement of both the tests.
  • ·       To study the effect of treatment, and their various interventions of students’ achievement.

Look, there are 13 objectives for the research. Means, the researcher has 13 targets to be achieved or to be established through the investigation. Now look at the list of hypotheses of the same research;

  • ·        There will be no significant difference between students’ mean achievement pre-test and post- test score of the group.
  • ·        There will be no significant difference between students’ mean achievement pre-test and post-test score in Listening skill after Try-out of Audio- visual aids.
  • ·        There will be no significant difference between students’ mean achievement pre-test and post-test score in speaking skill after try out of Audio- visual aids.
  • ·        There will be no significant difference between students’ mean achievement pre-test and post-test score in Listening skill of rural students after Try-out of Audio- visual aids.
  • ·        There will be no significant difference between students’ mean achievement pre-test and post-test score in speaking skill of rural students after Try-out of Audio- visual aids.
  • ·        There will be no significant difference between students’ mean achievement pre-test and post-test score in Listening skill of urban students after Try-out of Audio- visual aids.
  • ·        There will be no significant difference between students’ mean achievement pre-test and post-test score in speaking skill of urban students after Try-out of Audio- visual aids.
  • ·        There will be no significant difference between students’ mean achievement pre-test and post-test score in speaking skill of urban students after Try-out of Audio- visual aids.
  • ·        There will be no significant difference between students’ mean achievement pre-test and post-test score after Try-out of Audio- visual aids.


Though there are 13 objectives, there are only nine hypotheses. Don’t you feel imbalance of objectives and hypotheses in their number and content? If the researcher has 13 objectives, there must be 13 tentative insights (hypotheses). If we examine closely, we can understand that the tentative insight of the researcher begins only with the fifth objective in the list.
The first four objectives are not in observable and measurable terms. The statements ‘to prepare ... to try out …’ are least observable and measurable.
So that, these four objectives are excess. Moreover, these objectives are otherwise realised through the remaining ones.   
Yet another imbalance found with the objectives is that, the researcher does not say anything about what he/she is going to establish through the hypotheses. Find the mismatch with the statements in the following table;

Objectives
Equivalent hypotheses
  • 11. To compare the effectiveness of urban and rural students achievement of both the tests.
  • 12. To compare the effectiveness of students achievement of both the tests.
  • 13. To study the effect of treatment, and their various interventions of students’ achievement.

  • 7. There will be no significant difference between students’ mean achievement pre-test and post-test score in speaking skill of urban students after Try-out of Audio- visual aids.
  • 8. There will be no significant difference between students’ mean achievement pre-test and post-test score in speaking skill of urban students after Try-out of Audio- visual aids.
  • 9. There will be no significant difference between students’ mean achievement pre-test and post-test score after Try-out of Audio- visual aids. 


There is no mention about pre-test and post-test score with the objectives. It would be better if the researcher had stated, for the first one in the table, as; To compare the mean score of the pre-test with the post-test in speaking skill of urban students for whom audio-visual aids were used.   Similar changes are also necessary with other objectives also.

Read the following set of objectives and hypotheses where they are balanced in number and content, for the research titled;
THE EFFECTIVENESS OF INTEGRATING PERSONAL ANECDOTES WITH CLASSROOM PROCESSES FOR THE CREATION OF STORIES.

Objectives
Hypotheses
a)    To compare the quantity of stories written by the children of class VII, where personal anecdotes are integrated, with those of their counterparts where anecdotes are not integrated.
b)    To compare the quality in terms of imagery, of the stories of the children in class VII, where personal anecdotes are integrated, with those of their counterparts where personal anecdotes are not integrated.
c)     The quantity of story of the children in class VII, where personal anecdotes are integrated, will not be higher than the quantity of their counterparts where personal anecdotes are not integrated.
d)    The quality of story in terms of imagery, of the children in class VII, where personal anecdotes are integrated, will not be higher than the quality of story of their counterparts where personal anecdotes are not integrated.

See, there is balance between the objectives and hypotheses in number and content. The researcher has 2 targets to be realised which are stated as objectives. With regard to each one the researcher has tentative answer, which are stated as hypotheses.

Hope the readers may comment on the view of equilibration of objectives and hypotheses discussed above.

Thank you.

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