Factors contributing to poor performance in mathematics among Ontario students and strategies to imp

Purpose

The purpose of this research is to help find specific solutions to particular problems that  influence poor performance  in maths among learners. It links teachers with sources of information and network of expert support. The research clarifies all purposes and priorities when introducing new changes for instance, to curriculum and assessment. 

What theory(ies) and/or concept(s) support (frame) your study and who are the original author(s)? Provide an in-text citation with your response, and the complete APA reference entry with summary in the Supporting Literature section. Please note that a conceptual framework aligns with a qualitative study, a theoretical framework aligns with a quantitative study, and for a mixed method study it may be either depending on the design so please confer with the methodologist on your committee.  

This study draws upon different theories, specifically Connectivity learning methods. Downes, (2018) stipulated that the experience and action of teachers and students can be formed by group knowledge.  This implies that students with different levels of ability and intelligence learn in different ways.  

How do these theory(ies) and/or concept(s) inform your research problem, purpose, and methodological decisions? 

The logical connections between the framework presented and my study suggest that the use of different strategies by teachers helps the students to understand more on mathematics. Further, the theory states clearly that being a good teacher, one needs to maximize variations in teachings and be skillful in teaching. This will help students on how to learn math concepts with ease.  

List the question(s) that you plan to use to address your applied education problem. Your question(s) must be able to address the problem, align with your purpose statement, and be appropriate for the study approach. For a quantitative study, also note the corresponding hypotheses (null and alternative). 
 
The research question intends to establish the factors contributing to Ontario students’ poor performance in math and strategies to improve it.  The questions are as follows: 

?What is the correlation between teachers’ background skills in math and the student’s performance in math?  

?What are the requirements for accepting teachers in teacher colleges in Ontario? 

?Is there an improvement in math scores by a trained teacher as compared to an untrained one?  

According to (Creswell, 2019), the hypothesis of a research study are the predictions on the probable relationship among the study variables. The alternative hypothesis makes a prediction about the expected outcomes (Creswell, 2019). Alternately, the following are null hypotheses:

1. (NH1) Grade 3 students being taught by teachers with good backgrounds in math will achieve the same or lower academic results in math score, including students taught by a teacher with poor skill background in math.

2. (NH2) Grade 3 students being taught by well-trained math’s teachers will show the same or lower math scores in assessments and then students taught math by untrained teachers.

Framework (Conceptual or Theoretical)

What systematic approach (qualitative, quantitative, or mixed method) and research design (basic qualitative, case study, quasi-experimental, correlational, etc.…) do you plan to use to address your research question(s)? Please note a mixed method study requires competency in both qualitative and quantitative methodology as well as how to combine these into a mixed method design. Please discuss with your committee if a mixed method approach is the best option. In the space below, justify your choice of approach and design, with citations from the literature, and discuss how your methodology aligns to your problem, purpose, and research questions. 

This study will utilize quantitative research methods. Using a basic quantitative methodology (Merriam & Tisdell, 2019), in application to teachers who teach Grade 3 and Grade using survey methods in form administration of questionnaires. The design of this study will include a qualitative data analysis in determining whether a teacher's good background in math has an impact in improving a student's math score. I will yield a higher math score and increase standardized test scores when I’m trained by a teacher with good background skills. In addition, the research design will also determine whether the training of teachers will generate positive scores among math students. The qualitative part of the research will include surveys with students’ results in EQAO to determine, according to the research hypothesis, whether there is a correlation between a teacher with background skills in math and student improve performance in math scores, by first performing teacher’s interviews to determine the current background skills. In other words, how many teachers, if any, have a major background in math? In addition, the qualitative part study will be used to determine whether training of teachers will help revamp and improve math skills of their respective students. Furthermore, a fair survey will be conducted to determine if the teachers colleges in Ontario have or have not specified sufficient requirements to accept teachers at teacher colleges before they grant the teacher license to teach the elementary students. 

For your planned research design, discuss the type of data you intend to collect and how you plan to collect the data (i.e. secondary databases such IPEDs, self-designed interview protocol, online survey initially published by Pearson, interviews of teachers, etc.…).

The population for this study would include approximately 20 homeroom teachers for grade 3 from the 6 different school district boards. In this study I will use systematic sampling.  Systematic sampling can be done when a controlled list of all members of the population is available. The sampling procedure, with regards to the quantitative part, will be based on the pre-survey for the teacher’s academic background and post-surveys for the same teacher’s students’ math score. According to Clark (2015), using a simple random method of sampling will provide reasonable results because the sampling provides an equal opportunity for the given population.