Athletics and Student Performance

Proposal on Athletics and student performance

Purpose of the study

Statement of purpose

The study aims to create understanding of the relationship of athletics to student performance. Through the study the related literature of athletics and student performance can be used to prove that the study is necessary. The study through the use of different methods and techniques in gathering necessary data aims to gain information that can assist in showing the relationship between athletics and student performance. The data collected can be used to prove/disprove the hypothesis and formulate necessary conclusion and attainable recommendations.

 

The study building on previous research

Previous research will be used for the betterment of the study. Through the use of previous research the need for the study can be strengthened more. The previous research tends to strengthen the importance of the study. The previous research tends to help in analyzing the benefits and disadvantages of conducting the study.  The previous research can help in analyzing what studies have been done, and what further studies can be accomplished.  

 

The study's contribution on the knowledge about education

Since the main focus of the study covers the area of education it can't be denied that the study can contribute more to this area. The study can determine the current trends in education. The study can also determine the characteristics and study habits of students nowadays. The study can also help in ascertaining the effects of athletics to students' performance. Through this information problems on the education sector can be given appropriate action. The information regarding the education sector, student's qualities, and other information can be used to innovate ways to improve the education sector. The study can also help in determining what changes to the education system can be accomplished, these changes can be useful for the benefit of future generations.

 

Research questions, hypothesis, or objectives

Objectives

The study is focused on athletics and student performance. The study as mentioned aims to try to determine the relationship between athletics and student performance.  The study also has other objectives it intends to reach that include:

1.      Determine the impact of athletics to performance of a student.

2.      Identify the benefits and disadvantages of athletics to the health of human beings

3.      Determine what causes a child to perform well in school, at the same time know the factors that enable a child to perform badly at school.

4.      Know the difference of the benefits a student-athlete has from a non- athlete student.

5.      Find out the disadvantages of being a student-athlete and the advantages of being a non-athlete student.

6.      Acquire other related information that can assist in making a valid conclusion and appropriate recommendation.

 

Research Questions

The study will try to give answers to the following questions

1. How do athletics impact a student's performance?
2. What is the correlation between student athletes and non-athletes graduation rates?
3. What benefits do student athletes receive?
4. Do student athletes receive different treatment from students that are non athlete? If such is the case what are the reasons for this.
5. Do the privileges student athletes receive help them and the non athlete students improve their performance in school?
6. Has athletics helped improving the student's performance?
7. What can be done so that the drop in graduation rates be stopped?
8. What are the factors that contribute for a student to perform well?

Hypothesis

Hypothesis is a preliminary assumption or tentative explanation that accounts for a set of facts, taken to be true for the purpose of investigation and testing (Burton & Steane, 2004).In the study the hypothesis include.

1. The student athletes have more privileges than the non-athlete students.
2. The non-athlete students perform well in school than athlete students.
3. Athletics has both positive and negative effect to a student's performance.
4. Student's school performance is affected by athletics.
5. The changes in the way student-athlete and non-athlete students are handled can be a big start in improving the education sector.

 

Literature Search

Education system and quality education

Management of education systems changes in ways that reflect new insights into education and management but also in ways that reflect ideology. Some highly centralized systems, like those in the Australian states, have devolved authority to regional structures on the basis of claims that regional culture and context should be given expression in education. More recently, some of these systems have gone further in devolving responsibility to schools. In some cases, the justification advanced involves local community ownership and responsibility, and the local structure involves school councils with a strong community voice. In other cases, the justification involves local professional leadership, particularly by the principal, and is based on the view that decentralized management with local discretion yields more professional engagement and greater efficiency. Within schools, the most complete delegation grants local control over resource allocation. There are some important countervailing trends which are evident in attempts to develop national, or at least state or provincial, goals for education. This is evident in long-standing devolved systems, like those of the USA and England and Wales, and in systems which are at the same time devolving responsibility in other respects, like some of the Australian states (Townsend, 1997).

 

One of the most severe challenges facing education systems in most countries today is how to meet demands for higher quality public education within increasingly severe national economic and fiscal constraints. Faced with severe economic pressures, many countries must find new fiscal resources, accept quality deterioration and continued inequity in access, or increase the efficiency with which educational resources are applied to the problems of instructional quality and equity of access (Carrier & Chapman, 1990).

 

Many interventions intended to improve education quality have focused on improving a particular dimension of the educational experience for example, teacher training, facilities construction, instructional supervision, or the provision of instructional materials. These interventions often fail because they do not recognize or address the interacting nature of these components (Carrier & Chapman, 1990). Particular attention is given to the issues confronting educational quality improvement in the developing world. This focus is of particular importance since, first there is substantial evidence of serious declines in educational quality in many developing countries even at a time when massive donor assistance has been directed toward educational improvement; second developing countries are the focus of many of the large-scale instructional improvement activities. These large-scale projects often try to implement strategies for quality improvement that have not been fully tested on a large scale in more industrialized countries; third the volatility of social, economic, and political environments that characterize developing countries makes education quality improvement efforts a particularly complex challenge; fourth lessons from developing countries' experiences often have direct relevance for more developed countries. However, inadequate attention has been given to documenting those lessons as they have occurred in developing country contexts; and fifth the transfer of instructional systems design technology from developed to developing countries has fallen short of expectations because insufficient attention has been paid to contextual differences (Carrier & Chapman, 1990).

 

Student Athletes

In an article by Siegel (2004), the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) approved a major reform package designed to change the emphasis schools and athletes particularly in the big money-making sports, football and basketball put on academics and hold accountable schools with low graduation rates.  The reforms will bring change to college sports. For the first time ever, the NCAA will have the ability to hold institutions and teams accountable for the academic progress of the student athletes. The reforms set standards for academic achievement that athletes and programs must meet and provide penalties if those standards are not met. The penalties include loss of scholarships, probation, and postseason bans. A program could be ranked No. 1 but denied a chance to play for the national title because of a substandard graduation rate. The question is whether reform that metes out such punishment can succeed against the lucrative tide of NCAA athletics. The games played by college athletes mean big business for schools, advertisers, and television networks, attracting many millions of dollars in sponsorship and broadcast-rights deals each year (Siegel 2004). Chronically low graduation rates at high-profile programs prompted a move for change (Simons & Van Rheenen, 2000).

 

The system chosen had to alter the current culture and encourage improved academic progress. Under eligibility rules that will be phased in between 2005 to 2008, recruits will be required to earn a minimum 2.0 grade-point average in 16 up from 14 core high school classes in English, history, science and math. Those grades will be the only factor in determining a player's NCAA eligibility. Standardized tests such as the Scholastic Aptitude Test and American College Testing will not be considered (Reeves, 1998). Once on campus, an athlete would be required to graduate within five years and complete 20 percent of his degree work each year. Each athlete would be required to maintain at least a 1.8 grade-point average as a freshman and a 2.0 every year thereafter to remain eligible. The NCAA will calculate an Academic Progress Rate (APR) for each scholarship athlete and compute a cumulative APR for each program. Each team will be required to maintain a minimum APR over a four-year period in order to avoid penalties. Players who fail to meet requirements will be ineligible to play, lowering the team APR. Those who leave school also will lower the team APR, though not severely if they leave in good academic standing. Programs that don't meet the goal will receive warnings. Harsher penalties for chronic offenders, including probation and postseason bans from lucrative events such as the basketball tournament and football bowls, would be levied when the rules fully take effect in 2008 (Reeves, 1998).

 

Inevitably, any talk of graduation rates eventually turns to race. Blacks account for 24 percent of Division I scholarship athletes, including 60 percent of men's basketball players and 54 percent of football players. A recent study showed that 47 percent of black athletes graduated compared to 64 percent of whites. Black men's basketball players graduated at a 36 percent rate, their white counterparts at a 53 percent rate. In football, white players graduated at a 59 percent rate and blacks at a 44 percent rate. Some coaches fear that the reforms will reduce the number of black athletes, that the measures will be difficult to implement in a fair way, that marginal students no longer will be recruited, and that the reforms don't address practical problems coaches and athletes face. The move is considered to be racially and geographically biased, penalizing students from school systems in inner cities and rural areas. The reforms will force coaches to get more players from white suburban America and private schools in order to stay academically eligible (Bivens & Leonard II, 1994).

 

The new reforms are an experiment on a grand scale designed to revolutionize academics in college sports. The reform package fulfills the NCAA's mission of making the education of student athletes paramount in collegiate sports. With these proposals, institutions, teams and coaches will know exactly what they need to accomplish to ensure their student athletes are progressing in a timely fashion towards completing a degree. If they do not meet the requirements, they will suffer consequence (Just, 2002).

 

Research Design     

This research requires an organized data gathering to answer the objectives. In this lieu, the research will use the descriptive approach employing a qualitative research method. A descriptive research is a type of study that tries to explore the cause of a particular phenomenon, present facts concerning the nature and status of a situation, as it exists at the time of the study, and portray an accurate profile of persons, events or situations (Creswell, 1994; Robson, 2002). The approach undertaken for such type of study was chosen for a number of reasons. Because the descriptive approach is quick and flexible, three advantages arise: first, when new issues and questions arise during the duration of the study, this approach allows a further investigation; second, when there are unproductive areas from the original plan of the study, the researcher can drop them; and third, the approach is more practical in terms of time and money (Creswell, 1994).

 

 In addition, since the basic focus of the study is on Athletics and student performance the descriptive approach will help provide a clear picture of the dilemma it creates and why such dilemma occurs (Saunders et al, 2003). Finally, this type of study may serve as an extension or a forerunner to a piece of exploratory research, a valuable research approach employed to: discover what is happening; seek new insights; ask questions; and/or evaluate a phenomenon in a new light (Robson, 2002). On the other hand, the qualitative research method is multi-method in focus and involves an interpretative, naturalistic approach to its subject matter (LeCompte & Preissle, 1993). In this lieu, qualitative researchers study things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of, or interpret phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them (LeCompte & Preissle, 1993). In order to accomplish this, a wide range of interconnected methods are employed in the hope that a better fix on the subject matter will be achieved (LeCompte & Preissle 1993).

 

Sampling

The respondents of the study will from student athletes and non athlete students. These students can be divided to those performing well and not performing well in school. The students understanding of issues surrounding them can be of big help to the study. Due to time constraint and also, for the convenience of the researcher, only fifty (50) respondents were considered for the study. The convenience sampling technique was imposed in the study to pick up the fifty respondents, mainly because the availability of the student athletes and non athletes student was put into consideration. This part of the study is important because the most important data needed to fulfill the objectives of this study will only be supplied by the student athletes and non athlete students.

 

Methods of data collection

A large number of methods of data collection and sources of data can be and are used. This includes self-administered questionnaires, structured interviews, participant observation, unstructured interviewing, structured observation, simulation, and archival information (Bryman, 1995).The study shall use survey using questionnaires and interviews to gather pertinent data. Moreover, the study shall also use previous studies and compare it to its existing data in order to provide conclusions and competent recommendations. Survey can be done either by personal survey, telephone survey, self administered questionnaire, mailed questionnaire, and email questionnaire.

 

Primary Data

The primary source of data will come from a survey using questionnaire and interviews conducted by the researcher. The primary data frequently gives the detailed definitions of terms and statistical units used in the survey. These are usually broken down into finer classifications.

 

Secondary Data

The secondary source of data will come from research through the internet; books, journals, related studies and other sources of information. Acquiring secondary data are more convenient to use because they are already condensed and organized. Moreover, analysis and interpretation are done more easily.

 

Data Analysis procedures

When all the data are gathered, the researcher will employ the following qualitative methods in the data analysis: typology, a classification system, taken from patterns, themes or other kinds of groups of data (Patton 1990); constant comparison/grounded theory, a widely used data analysis method that looks at document, such as field notes, looks for indicators of categories in events and behavior, and compares codes to find consistencies and differences (Strauss 1987); logical analysis/matrix analysis, an outline of generalized causation, logical reasoning process, etc., and uses flow charts, diagrams, and the like, to pictorially represent these causation, reasoning process, etc., as well as written descriptions (Ratcliff 2002); and, event analysis/microanalysis method, where the emphasis is on finding precise beginnings and endings of events by finding specific boundaries and things that mark boundaries or events (Ratcliff 2002).

 

Ethics and human relations

Possible threats to participants and steps to minimize the threats

To the participants of the study this can lead to rift between the student athletes and non athlete students. The study can also discourage students to be athletes. The study can also lower the morale of athletes and can minimize school spirit. To minimize the threat the things that can be done includes explaining to the students that the study does not intend to discourage them to be athletes. The students will also be informed that the study aims not to degrade but help them to perform better and bring more pride and honor to the school.

 

Procedures to gain cooperation of participants

To gain the cooperation of participants initially the intention, aims, and benefit of the study will be explained to them. The second procedure is to give them the outmost assurance that their identities and answers will be treated in strict confidentiality. The third procedure is giving them a background of why the study was initiated and what will happen if they participated in the study.

 

Timeline

The succeeding table will show the major steps of the study and the date by which each step will be completed.

Steps	Date Completed
Formulation of first chapter (introduction and background of the study)	First week of March
Search for related literature and formulation of second chapter (review of related literature)	Second week of March
Formulation of third chapter (methodology)	Third week of March
Data and information gathering	Fourth week of March
Formulation of fourth chapter (presentation of data, analysis of data, and synthesis of the data colleted)	First week of April
Formulation of last chapter (conclusion and recommendation)	Second week of April

As shown in the table the study will last for more than a month. This is done to ensure that everything will be done accordingly. Although not stated it is implied that the first and foremost step is to have this proposal approved. Every step in the study is given at least a week to be finished so that time will not be wasted at the same time the  accomplishment of  the steps will not be hurried to much.

References

Bivens, S., & Leonard II, W.M. (1994).  Race, centrality,

     and educational attainment: an NFL perspective.

     Journal of Sport Behavior, 17 (1), 24.

 

Bryman, A.L.  (1995). Research methods and organization

     studies.  London: Routledge.

 

Burton, S., & Steane, P. (Eds.). (2004). Surviving your

     thesis. New York: Routledge.

 

Carrier, C.A., & Chapman, D.W. (Eds.). (1990). Improving

educational quality: a global perspective. New York:

Greenwood Press.

 

Creswell, J.W. (1994). Research design. Qualitative and

     quantitative approaches. Thousand Oaks, California:

     Sage.

 

Just, R. (2002, March 11). Outside shot: Can the next NCAA

     President reform college sports. The American

     Prospect, 13(5), 15.

LeCompte, M.D. & Preissle, J. (1993). Ethnography and     qualitative design in educational research (2^nd               ed.). San Diego, California: Academic Press.

Patton, M.Q. (1990). Qualitative evaluation and research  methods (2^nd ed.). Newbury Park, California: Sage    Publications.

Ratcliff, D. (2002). Qualitative research: data analysis.     Retrieved February 14, 2006, from      http://don.ratcliff.net

Reeves, K. (1998, November). Athletic eligibility: right or

     privilege?. School Administrator, 55(10), 6.

 

Robson, C. (2002). Real world research (2^nd ed.). Oxford:

     Blackwell.          

Saunders, M., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A. (2003). Research     methods for business students (3^rd ed.). London:   Prentice Hall Financial Times.

Siegel, J. (2004, November). Athletics versus academics:

NCAA aims to raise graduation rates among athletes. World and I, 19(11).

 

Simons, H.D., & Van Rheenen, D. (2000). Noncognitive

     predictors of student athletes' academic performance.

     Journal of College Reading and Learning, 30 (2), 167.

Strauss, A.L. (1987). Qualitative analysis for social     scientists. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Townsend, T. (Ed.). (1997). Restructuring and quality:

issues for tomorrow's schools. London: Routledge.