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Comparing Attentiveness Between First Grade Girls and Boys
Felisa Zen
IB Psychology HL Y1
28 September 2009
1437 words
Abstract
The aim of our observational study is to observe the difference of attentiveness between first grade boys and girls. Our non-directional hypothesis is that there will be a significant difference between the amounts of times first grade boys and first grade girls show off-task behaviors throughout the 30 minutes of our observing sessions; our directional hypothesis is that first grade boys get off-task more often than first grade girls. Our observation project design is done in research method, naturalistic observation, disclosed, direct observation, and with a non-participant observer.
The observer sits in the back of the first grader’s classroom keeping a tally on the designated coding system table whenever a student – a boy or a girl, demonstrates off task behaviors.
After observing two different first grade classes during two different times of the day – in the morning and in the afternoon, all four data tables suggest that boys get off task more often than girls by showing a significantly higher number of tallies in boys than girls. The data tables collected support the researched article which indicates that boys demonstrate more impulsive and disruptive behaviors than girls.
Different times of the day has an effect on how often the students get off-task, but does not change the conclusion result that boys get off-task more often than girls do.
Introduction
The aim of this naturalistic observational study is to observe whether first grade girls or first grade boys get off-task more often. The ways in which parents use to educate and raise their children strongly reflect on the way their children behave through impulsivity and inattentiveness later on in the future. Although there were no participants with ADHD, behaviors of this disorder was present throughout their classes. The article Early developmental precursors of impulsive and inattentive behavior: from infancy to middle childhood indicates that school-boys are recognized to demonstrate more impulsive and disruptive behaviors than girls. Therefore, our hypothesis is a directional one – first grade boys get off-task more often than first grade girls. The type of observational study that our project conducts is naturalistic. The observer sits at the back of the classroom and keeps a tally of whenever a girl or a boy gets off-task.
Method
Design: Research method, naturalistic observation, disclosed (overt), direct observation, and with a non-participant observer. The reasons why we chose this design for our study is because we wanted to minimize the intrusive nature of our observations as much as possible. We did this by making sure that the observer has no contact with the participants at all. The naturalistic setting of our design is also a contribution to minimizing the intrusive nature of our observations. Although a covert design would have been more accurate for our study, it was impossible to insert a two-way mirror in the classroom. The sampling procedure that was used for this observational project was event sampling. The reason why we chose this sampling procedure was because it was the one that most well suited the aim of our project. The observation took place in the classrooms of the selected grade. In our project’s case, my partner and I selected one first grade class each to observe twice during school hours for 30 minutes each. We observed them once during the first period in the morning, and another time during the last period of the day. A tally was kept for each time a student in the classroom gets off-task in two separate lists; one for girls and one for boys. There are no apparent ethical issues with the designated observational design at hand as it does not involve physical contact with the participants or harming them in any way.
Participants: The Elementary department that we chose to observe was the first grade. Most of the students in this grade level are about 6 years old. Both of the classes we observed had an even number of 6 boys and 6 girls in each class. This makes our observation more accurate by eliminating the factor of gender and age bias.
Materials: In order to do the observational study, we had to get permission from the Elementary School principal. We did this by writing a permission letter requesting her approval to our study. We then did the same for both first grade teachers that taught the classes we were going to observe. To keep track of how many times the girls and boys got off-task, we kept a coding system in which we can tally. The format of our coding system is by two columns - one for girls and another for boys. We had four tables in total. Two for each class during different times of the day – first period in the morning and last period in the afternoon. Samples of the permission letter and coding system are in the Appendixes.
Procedures: The observation took place in the classrooms of the selected graders. In our project’s case, my partner and I selected one first grade class each to observe twice during school hours for 30 minutes each. We observed them once during the first period in the morning, and another time during the last period of the day. A tally was kept for each time a student in the classroom performs off-task behaviors in two separate columns on a coding system; one for girls and one for boys.
Results
Descriptive statistics is a form of recording data through a table, chart, calculating for its percentile or average. For our naturalistic observation project, we recorded our data in a table through a coding system.
Coding system
Figure 1: Data of frequency of students getting off-task in the morning (Mrs. Voge)
Girls / BoysIIIII / IIIII
IIIII / IIIII
IIIII / IIIII
I / IIIII
IIIII
IIIII
II
Total: 16 / Total: 32
Figure 2: Data of frequency of students getting off-task in the afternoon (Mrs. Voge)
Girls / BoysIIIII / IIIII
IIIII / IIIII
IIIII / IIIII
IIIII / IIIII
III / IIIII
IIIII
IIIII
IIIII
IIII
Total: 23 / Total: 44
Figure 3: Data of frequency of students getting off-task in the morning (Mrs. Harder)
Girls / BoysIIIII / IIIII
IIIII / IIIII
IIIII / IIIII
IIIII / IIIII
IIIII
IIIII
Total: 20 / Total: 30
Figure 4: Data of frequency of students getting off-task in the afternoon (Mrs. Harder)
Girls / BoysIIIII / IIIII
IIIII / IIIII
IIIII / IIIII
IIIII / IIIII
IIIII / IIIII
IIIII / IIIII
IIIII
II
Total: 30 / Total: 37
Discussion
Through these data tables, it is evident that boys get off-task more than girls do. These tables support the researched article which indicates that boys demonstrate more impulsive and disruptive behaviors than girls. Different times of the day has an effect on how often the students get off-task, but does not change the conclusion result that boys get off-task more often than girls do.
By observing two classes at two different times of the day, our observation will be more accurate. The more examples you have the more accurate results you will get. The factor of age bias and gender bias were eliminated from our observational study by choosing students of the same age group (first grade) and by having the same amount of girls and boys in both classrooms. The behavior that we were observing for was the attentiveness of the first graders during different times of the day – morning and afternoon. We noted down through event sampling each time a student gets off-task. When the first graders get off-task, they would start having random conversations with each other, share their opinions about certain things randomly, fidget while looking or walking around the classroom aimlessly, or even face the back of their heads to the teacher.
The strengths of our experiment include the fact that we did repeated measurements. By doing this, we can keep the variability low by concentrating on the same group of participants for both times of the day. The reason why we chose to observe the first graders at two different times of the day is to eliminate the factor of the students acting differently at different times of the day.
The disadvantages of the design we have chosen includes observatory bias, where the observer is expecting a certain outcome and end up concentrating on a particular gender’s off-task behaviors more than the other in order to get the result that they expect to see. This could be avoided by getting a different person who does not know the hypothesis of the observational study to observe the class and record raw observations rather than the people who came up with the hypothesis. The presence of the observer in the back of the classroom could distract some of the students causing them to act differently than they normally would. Although this could be distracting for the students and a flaw to the results, it was impossible for us to install a two-way mirror for the observational study and to take it out the next day. Humans are only capable of keeping track of a maximum of 6 students at a time. The fact that my partner and I decided to observe the whole class at the same time could have been a flaw to our results. Our experiment could have been improved by selecting a specific number of girls and boys in each class using random sampling and recording observations for these specific participants only. Other disadvantages that could have affected the results of our observations have to do with what is happening in the first graders’ personal lives and teacher bias. Even though the teachers were left untold about the true aim of our observational project, they might have attempted a guess at it. This could be a factor of disadvantage to our experiment because the teachers might unconsciously try to get as many students on task for most of the class as possible in order to portray a better image of the class to the observer. This factor of bias is inevitable as we have no control over the teachers or have the right to intrude and find out the backgrounds and personal lives of each and every participant.
The relevance that our chosen article had with our observational study is an advantage on our part because we were further informed about our study by reading through this article before confidently concluding our results. The article indicates that boys are more impulsive and inattentive than girls. This made us more confident that our hypothesis – boys show more off-task behaviors than girls – was right as it matched up with the results we got through observing two first grade classes.
Although our data show that boys show more inattentive behaviors during both times of the day, our research could have been more insightful if it had information on whether or not different times of day affected the impulsivity and inattentiveness of girls and boys.
References
Olson, S L., Bates, J E., Sandy, J M., & Schilling, E M. (2003). Early developmental precursors of impulsive and inattentive behavior: from infancy to middle childhood.
Appendix A: Coding system format
Figure #: Data of frequency of students getting off-task in the (morning/afternoon)(class)
Girls / BoysTally on how often girls get off task / Tally on how often boys get off task
Total: 16 / Total: 32
Appendix B: Permission Request Letters
Dear Mrs. McVean,
Our Psychology class is studying observational techniques at the moment. We would like to make this practical and come and observe the behavior of elementary students. For our project, we are comparing the behavior of first grade students in the beginning and end of the day. We would like to request your permission to ask Mrs. Harder and Mrs. Voge whether we may attend their classes for a 30 minute session at the beginning and end of Wednesday, September 16. We do not wish to interact with the class in any way. We just wish to sit and observe their behaviors.
We hope this meets with your approval and we look forward to hearing from you.
Thank you for your time,
Felisa Zen and Aileen Carpenter
Dear Mrs. Voge,
Our Psychology class is studying observational techniques at the moment. We would like to make this practical by observing the behavior of elementary students. For our project, we are comparing the behavior of first grade students in the beginning and end of the day. We would like to request your permission to attend the first grade class for a 30 minute session at the beginning and end of Wednesday, September 16. We do not wish to be introduced to the students or interact with the classin any way. We just wish to sit and observe their behaviors. Please tell the students that we are there because we are interested in the subject and want to see how it istaughtin the first grade.
We hope this meets with your approval and we look forward to hearing from you.
Thank you,
Felisa Zen
Dear Mrs. Harder,
I am a first year IB Psychology student, and for my assignment I am asked to observe the behavior of elementary school students. For my observation,
I want to observe the non attentive behavior exhibited by first grade boys and girls at the beginning of the school day and at the end of the school day. I would like to be granted permission to conduct this observation on Friday, September 19th. Please let me know before then, if I am able to carry out my observation.
Sincerely,
Aileen Carpenter
Appendix C: Letter of Approval
September 15, 2009
Dear Fay,
We are only too pleased to work in collaboration with you and to support the learning of your students. The administration confirms approval of your project. Please have your students request permission directly from classroom teachers for classroom and student observations.