Wednesday 29 August 2012

Research justification

RESEARCH JUSTIFICATION
YEAR ONE INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH STUDIES

Research Topic: Psychological Behaviour in Humans

Chosen Area of Focus: A study into why SST students miss homework deadlines

Framing our research topic
Our chosen area of focus is “A study into why SST students miss homework deadlines”. We have chosen this topic as missing homework deadlines have become a big issue in SST. Our teachers find that it has become a habit for us to not hand in our homework on time. They also find that it affects our grades during examinations. Handing in homework past their deadlines or not even handing them in at all, can affect our learning because we will always be lacking behind others. Furthermore, if we do not hand in our homework on time, more work will accumulate and we will have less time for other activities.

Reasons for choice of topic

We have chosen this topic, as we want to find out and improve the situation of late homework submission.
This allows us to quicken the learning in SST and lighten the burden of the teachers as well as students.
This topic benefits both students and teachers as it helps us to manage our time between work and play. This may also benefit parents of students because they sometimes have to be disturbed by calls made by teachers when their child did not hand in homework on time.

Feasibility of the research

There is a need for our research, as many students do not know how to manage their time properly. They need to know the limit of their playtime and when it is time do their work. They also need to know how to prioritise their activities.
It is possible to carry out and complete the project, as this is a common problem in SST. Therefore the range of students and teachers to interview is quite wide.
The proposed course of action is logical and realistic as it can be completed with the help of students from different classes who would be willing to do a survey and with our hard work and group effort.
The research provides sufficient opportunity for generation of ways to solve this problem, as we are constantly thinking about what we intend to do to help the SST community. As for analysis and evaluation of ideas, we will certainly have many opportunities to analyse our results from the survey and evaluate ideas on how to go about deciding what to do next.

Manageability of the research

Overall, the project will be done as quickly and carefully as we can, trying our best not to go out of point and staying as close to the topic as possible. We intend to gain results through the most systematic way as possible, to prevent confusion.
This research provides sufficient opportunity for group work as we will need to split the work up. For example, we will have to divide the number of classes we choose to interview, so that each person can conduct the survey for the different classes simultaneously. After which, we can collate the results sooner.
We do face some challenges along the way, such as reluctant students who choose not to do the survey. We intend to cope with these challenges by seeking help from the form teachers of the classes as well as the chairperson(s) of the class. They would be able to help us inform the class and cooperate with the class to complete the survey.

Accessibility of the information required
Information/knowledge that will be relevant to our research would be the number of students who miss their homework deadlines in each class.
We will be obtaining this information through surveys and interviewing of teachers.
Some alternatives that we have thought of would be to ask others for information or where can we find the information that we need.
Some problems we anticipate while gathering our materials would be that some of the students may not give truthful answers as they do not know how to answer the question or they may not want to answer it.

Thursday 26 July 2012

20 questions

Research topic: Psychological Behaviour in Humans

Essential Questions:

  1. What are the most common patterns in human behaviour that we observe in our daily lives?
  2. What causes behaviour changes?
  3. Why do people have different personalities?
  4. How does our behaviour affect the people around us?
  5. Why do people act differently to you when the people they mix with are different?
  6. What are the behaviour tell-tale signs someone is lying?
  7. Why do people have mood swings?
  8. Why do some of these behaviours cause suicidal cases?
  9. Why are some people heartless?
  10. Do places affect their behaviours?
  11. How do people express their behaviours?
  12. Why are some people masochists?
  13. What is the cause of these behaviour problems?
  14. How can we prevent them from getting out of control?
  15. Is consciousness related to behaviour in any way?
  16. Why do people find it difficult to move on?
  17. Why are some people sadists?
  18. Is it possible to use physical action as therapy?
  19. What are the things fear limit us to?
  20. How do addictions come about?