Critical Review of an Article on Teachers Behavior to Students Essay

Critical Review of an Article on Teachers Behavior to Students - Essay Example An educational researcher has to start with collection of data in an attempt to understand the individuals understanding of the reality using either unstructured or interviews. After data collection, an educational researcher will construct social scientific theories about human relations. A major challenge that confronts educational researchers is access to data. Educational institutions are structured in a way that those in authority have the power to manipulate those in lower ranks who may be part of your respondents. In addition, for them to consent to a research, researchers need to give as much information as possible. Where the research involves children, researcher needs to seek permission from the parents (Scott & Morrison, 2007, p. 2-4). This paper looks into an educational article in quest to evaluate the scope, strategy, validity and reliability, reflectivity, and quality of the analysis. Aims and scope of the research Teachers are kind to those who have good marksâ€℠¢: a study of Japanese young people’s views of fairness and equity in school is an article by Emma Smith and Stephen Gorard, which investigates equity and fairness in schools. The research incorporates a substantial scope of the research and has an objective of adding on to the existing knowledge. It endeavors to educate the audience on the role of fairness in education. Apparently, equity, social justice, and fairness mean things to different people and the research delves into this understanding. Smith and Gorard suggest different meanings to the word fairness according to different people. It can mean treating everyone equally, or treating them differently so that the outcomes are similar. While it is unfair to treat students in the same class differently, Smith and Gorard provoke our thoughts to appreciate situations that may necessitate the teachers to treat students in the same class differently. For example, teachers with child with literacy difficulties in their class will offer special attention to them (Smith & Gorard, 2012, p.28) Additionally, the research embraces different paradigm necessary in educational research. They include a set of interrelated assumptions about the social world that guides the researcher in terms of tools, participants, methods, and results rendering. A good research has three paradigms including ontology, methodology, and epistemology (Mustafa, 2011, p. 24). The research follows the rule of ontology in that it has a good starting point that describes existing claims and assumptions on equality and fairness. In addition, it goes ahead to explain something beyond what is known or assumed. For instance, Smith and Gorard appreciate that not all students can be treated in the same way. Different students have differing learning needs and thus the teacher has to note them and offer quality teaching to each student. According to Riley as quoted in this journal treating students with different needs equally is unfair and en courage rebellious a behavior (Smith, Gorard, 2012, p.29). However, in their scope, Smith and Gorard suggest that students with problems in their class receive much attention than the bright students. This contradicts the purpose of the research, which is to determine if teachers are kind to those with good marks. The overall research strategy This research is qualitative in nature. The research adopted this methodology because English research they wanted to make a comparison with adopted the same. In qualitative research, researchers collect data through close observation and documentation of a particular phenomenon. By using case study, researchers were