Examples of the Reporting on Research Results (Education)

Examples of the reporting on research results (Education)

Example 1

4.1 Results 4.1.1 The questionnaire results Students’ attitudes towards learning English compositions The first index, attitudes towards learning English compositions, comprises four positively worded and three negatively worded items measuring the respondents’ attitudes towards learning the language in EFL classes. It means learners’ attitude was measured by means of seven items in total. The Paired Samples T-Test was also conducted to find out the statistic difference between the mean scores. There was statistically significant difference in the learners’ attitudes towards learning English compositions before and after the intervention. In other words, the result revealed that the students showed positive attitudes after the intervention (t = 8.520, df = 54, p = .000) as seen in table 4.1

Table 4.1 Mean scores of learners’ attitude in the pre- and post-intervention. Mean Std. Deviation t df. Sig. (2-tailed)

Post 1-Pre 1 .4468 .3889 8.520 54 .000

Thanks to an overall examination of the frequency distribution and mean scores of the responses, it was found that the outcome of this measurement was very significant and hopeful with p = .000. Table 4.2 presents the descriptive statistics of the learners’ responses in the pre- and post-intervention surveys.

Table 4.2 Descriptive statistics of learners’ attitude in the pre- and post-intervention surveys. Surveys Min Max Mean SD

Pre 1 1.86 4.57 3.2857 .6529 Post 1 2.00 4.86 3.7325 .6353

The fascinating statistics in Table 4.2 confirm that the mean in the learners’ attitude after the experiment (M = 3.7325, SD = .6353) was higher than that before the intervention (M = 3.2857, SD = .6529). The higher scores indicated a more positive attitude that the students had towards learning English compositions after the implementation of PBL. It means that students were more motivated in learning English after studying course Writing 3. Figure 4.1 shows the increase in the attitude towards learning English of the participants.

3.800 3.700

3.600 3.500 3.400 3.300 3.200

3.000 Pre Post

Figure 4.1 The improvement of learners’ attitude towards learning English after the intervention In general, it is said that the most effective way to get insights into the learning process is to examine students’ attitudes towards learning the target language. Learners’ attitudes relate to learning situation and the environment as a whole, and positive attitudes might facilitate the learning process. Therefore, it is considered as one of the variables affecting students’ behavior. Overall, as hypothesized, the findings in the post-intervention survey indicated that students showed more positive attitudes towards learning English compositions. Therefore, it can be said that PBL had a considerably positive influence on learner motivation. Motivational Intensity The second index with eight multiple-choice statements refers to motivational intensity, constructed to elicit the information about the level of interest and the amount of commitment shown to the study of English compositions. In order to measure this element, a variety of factors were examined such as work done for classroom assignment, future plans to make use of and study the language, learners’ behavior towards teachers’ homework feedback and students’ participant in class and so on. High scores represented learners’ high degree of effort spent on learning the language. Compared the variables before and after the intervention, it was found that there was a statistical significant difference (t = 8.009, df = 54, p = .000) as shown in table 4.3.

Table 4.3. Mean scores of learners’ motivational intensity in the pre- and post- intervention. Mean Std. Deviation t df Sig. (2-tailed)

Post 2- Pre 2 .3591 .3325 8.009 54 .000

In table 4.4, the mean in the learners’ motivational intensity in the post- intervention survey (M = 2.4886, SD = .3911) was higher than that in the pre- intervention survey (M = 2.1295, SD = .3945). Table 4.4 Descriptive statistics of learners’ motivational intensity in the pre- and post-intervention.

Survey Min Max Mean SD

Pre 2 1.25 2.88 2.1295 .3945 Post 2 1.75 3.00 2.4886 .3911

This claimed that more students attempted to learn the target language after the intervention. Therefore, it can be said with confidence that the implementation of PBL really worked in terms of learner motivational intensity. Figure 4.2 indicates the gain in the participants’ motivational intensity clearly.

1.900 Pre 2 Post 2

Figure 4.2. The increase in the participants’ motivational intensity after the intervention.

Desire to Learn English The last index, desire to learn English compositions, consists of five multiple- choice statements. Table 4.5 shows the results obtained from the application of the Paired Samples T-Test. The comparison of the respondents’ desire to learn English before and after the intervention revealed that the scores of this variable differed significantly with (t = 7.365, df = 54, p = .000)

Table 4.5. Mean scores of learners’ desire to learn English in the pre- and post- intervention. Mean Std. Deviation t df Sig. (2-tailed)

Post 3- Pre 3 .3055 .3076 7.365 54 .000 Additionally, it was also found that the total mean in the pre-intervention survey (M = 2.1127, SD = .3806) was lower than that in the post-intervention survey (M = 2.4182, SD = .3737) as seen in table 4.6.

Table 4.6 Descriptive statistics of learners’ desire to learn English in the pre- and post- intervention surveys.

Survey Min Max Mean SD

Pre 3 1.20 3.00 2.1127 .3806 Post 3 1.20 3.00 2.4182 .3737

The statistics gained from the informants’ responses in the pre- and post- intervention surveys indicated that the participants had a stronger desire toward the study of English after the experiment. Figure 4.3 illustrates the dramatic increase of students’ desire to learning English writing.

2.450 2.400 2.350 2.300 2.250 2.200 2.150 2.100 2.050 2.000 1.950 Pre 3 Post 3 Figure 4.3 The increase of desire to learn English after the intervention. 4.1.2 The Interview Results The focus of the interviews was first to reach the research aims and second to have a better understanding of the informants’ responses in the questionnaires. First of all, on asked what the students thought of the projects, 18 out of 20 interviewees (90 %) said that they liked studying English with PBL. According to these students, the projects were “interesting, enjoyable, fun and exciting” and they were really fond of doing these projects (“It is enjoyable to do the projects.” (S5, 6, 8); “It was the first time I did such interesting projects. I hope I will have more chances to have other projects.” (S15, 19) (Appendix 8). Another purpose of the interviews was to find out motivating factors in PBL. With reference to factors that made students liked most about the PBL projects, interviewees mentioned a variety of practical reasons as shown in figure 4.4.

Motivating factors

learner autonomy 15%

cooperative learning authenticity 25% 60%

Figure 4.4 Motivating factors resulted from PBL First, as expected, the majority of the respondents (60 %) mentioned the vital role of the real world emphasis of the projects as a motivating factor. Five of the students said that projects were useful to them as they provided them with chances to know more about various types of holidays in Vietnam and Vietnamese culture (“My group was interested in this lesson. We found it useful for us because we had a chance to know a lot of things about traditional holidays, political holidays or religious holidays in our country.” (S 3); “…I think it’s useful to get such information about our culture, especially, some information about Vietnamese traditional holidays. There are many things I haven’t really known before!” (S 8). Especially, these students found the projects interesting because they were related to real life (“I like this course as it’s useful for me. For example, we can apply the traditional treatments in our real life.” (S 5); “I like the idea to be able to write something real in the target language. I was really eager to write the paragraph about my teenage years. It reminded me of past years in my life. It is interesting indeed! I had too many ideas to write about.” (S12). In addition, four of the respondents mentioned quite an important factor that was the practical aims (“At the end of the project, all my class designed a book. This is what I like best in this course. I will have good memories about my class. Thanks to this book, we will always miss our teachers and classmates when we leave school.” (S 7). The second factor that many respondents (25 %) mentioned was cooperation. This means the results from the interviews supported much to the hypotheses. The interviewed students found that learning became more interesting, safe and relaxing when they worked with their friends. They said that it was boring to learn writing on sitting in rows, listening to the teacher’s instruction and then practicing writing (“Gathering in group was fun!” (S 4);“I felt more relaxed and comfortable when working in group.” (S 7). Furthermore, the informants realized the importance of working in cooperation. They said that they had more opportunities to learn from their friends and help each other (“I like this course because we could exchange our ideas and help each other to complete the task.” (S 3); “I think it was rather difficult for me to do the task because I did not know much about it. However, on working in group, I had got more ideas from my peers.” (S12) Another reason that resulted in students’ excitement was learner-centered learning. 15 % of the respondents liked doing the project assignments because of many reasons. First, according to the students, these tasks helped them become more active when they themselves tried to get the information in different sources such as books, friends, and the Internet (“I liked doing the assignments because they helped me to become more active when I tried to get the information in different ways by myself” (S 18). Particularly, these students also valued self- determination in choosing the topic, evaluation and so on. In addition, they found that it is valuable to “discover” something by themselves (“During this course, all of us worked very hard in class and out of class: choosing the topic, finding information, typing, planning our work, etc. . . Sometimes, we were tired, but we felt interested in what we did. According to me, it is valuable to “discover” something by myself. ” (S 6) In order to have a deep understanding of the effect of the intervention, the researcher also investigated factors that might result in demotivation on students. On asked about difficulties that they faced when performing the writing projects, the students first mentioned the time factor. It is the fact that they had to spend much time in class and even out of class in order to perform a project. However, at this college one class meeting lasted in six periods. Moreover, they might have some extra classes or extra-curriculum activities in the opposite day time, and they had exams at the weekend as well. As the result of this, the respondents did not have enough time for their projects; therefore, they felt quite tired (“I didn’t have much time to search information on the internet.” (S 15); “Sometimes I felt tired because we had to study six periods in the morning, and then we had some extra curriculum activities in the afternoon. There was not much time to relax!” (S 19) The students also had troubles with information technology (IT) skills. In fact, many of them did not know much about using computers. The majority of these students come from remote areas in Soc Trang, and they did not have chances to work with computers at high schools. Therefore, they said that it took them a lot of time to complete the tasks (“It took me a lot of time to complete the task because I could not use the computer well” (S 3); “I was not familiar with surfing web; therefore, during the course I spent a lot of time on looking for information. However, sometimes, it didn’t work well” (S 15). Even some students were worried as they had to work on the computer for searching the information or typing as they were not good at using computers (“I was a bit worried as I had to work on the computer for searching the information or typing to complete the tasks. I am not good at computer at all indeed.” (S 5) In addition, the students also faced certain challenges of working in groups although they also experienced some benefits from cooperative learning as mentioned before. First of all, some of them were sometimes confused when working in group because there was a lot of work to handle, and it was definitely difficult for them to divide up the labor fairly for all group members (“I was sometimes confused when working in group. There was a lot of work to fulfill, and it was not easy at all to share the work equally for every member in the group” (S 7). According to one student, it was unfair because not all of them worked or tried their best to get a perfect project (“It was unfair because some of us had to work a lot while others didn’t.” (S 14). In addition, in their opinion, it was a hard job to make joint decisions about content and layout (“I found it difficult to decide something as we usually had different ideas” (S 2). Generally, although the project approach provided the students in the writing classes with many benefits, this teaching method also caused some troubles to them simultaneously. Table 4.7 indicates some motivating and demotivating factors resulted from the interviews. Table 4.7 Motivating and demotivating factors in performing PBL

Motivating factors Demotivating factors

1. authenticity 1. time consuming problem 2. cooperative learning 2. low skills of IT 3. learner autonomy 3. difficulty in group work

Surprisingly, in spite of the above obstacles, the majority of students (95%) wanted to offer opportunities to perform more projects in the future. They first longed for learning by discussing more meaningful, real topics, which could help them discover the real world rather than learning “traditional” theoretical lessons. Second, they still insisted on the kind of “semi-structured” projects in which the teacher suggests the topic, provides sources and material and so on instead of the “free” ones where they have a full choice to decide the topics, organize the timeline and control the outcome. To conclude, the students’ responses on both the questionnaires and the interviews are adequate enough to answer the research questions and support the hypotheses. In order to have a deep insight of the issue, the results will be discussed and analyzed in the following section.