1. Potential correlation research question (with 2 variables)
Is the secondary school student academic performance (Variable 1) correlated to their medium of instruction in school (Variable 2)?
Correlated Variable 1: Secondary school student academic performance
Correlated Variable 2: Medium of instruction in school
Testing Hypothesis
H0:
Null hypothesis means that secondary school student academic results are not related to their medium of instruction in school.
2. How could data for the correlated variables be collected?
First of all, assume the score of public examination can measure students’ academic performance in Chinese/English as a Medium of Instruction (CMI/EMI) school, by keeping all the other factors constantly.
Then, collect the samples from CMI and EMI school for pilot test, a graph can be plotted with score of students’ public examination, against the medium of instruction.
After the data collection, correlation coefficient “r” will be computed for that two correlated variables, if r = 0, it means there is no relationship between student academic result and their medium of instruction in school.
Likewise, if r ≠ 0, it means there is a direct relationship between student academic result and their medium of instruction in school.
Further analysis
If correlation coefficient is r ≠ 0, an alternative hypothesis will be set.
HA:
Students have a better academic performance if they study in a EMI school.
Further analysis will be conducted if necessary, such as rank the student academic performance in CMI and EMI school.
3. Provide argument how answer to that question can contribute to improvements in some aspect of education/ teaching and learning?
If the correlation coefficient is >0.5, it is a positive correlation. Then, the school can consider to enhance the students’ academic results / performance by using English as a medium of instruction in school.
2 comments:
When comparing results it would be interesting to not only look at students' overall results, but to also look at results in the same subject eg mathematics. This is of course assuming that the CMI and EMI exams in each (non-language) subject are equal in terms of difficulty.
I also wonder if there should be some narrowing of the data sample to include only those students whose teachers have the same "degree of efficiency" in language - i.e. it could be assumed that CMI teachers are native-speakers of the language, could the same be assumed for EMI teachers? If not how can this effect be minimised in the population being researched?
Alternative Hypothesis:
That a student's efficiency in their language of instruction is positively reflected to their academic performance
Independent Variable:
Language of Instruction - this could be assessed through a students examination results in this language i.e. CMI student Chinese language papaer. EMI student English language
Dependent Variable:
A students academic performance in other exams
Population:
Final year students in HK schools.
Sample:
randomly selected students from a range of all HK schools. Need to ensure an even number of students M/F and different bands of schools.
Need to calculate correlation co-efficent for both CMI and EMI based students and compare these to determine if there is any noticeable difference between languages used for medium of instruction.
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