Task 4 - Correlational Research

(text only version)

Research Question:
The relationship between students’ academic results and athletic participation

Definition and Purpose:
Correlational research involves collecting data to determine whether, and to what degree, a relationship exists between two or more quantifiable variables. The aim of this study is to determine if there is a significant relationship between athletic participation and academic results of students at secondary school level.

Educators, particularly principals and deans, must ascertain whether there is a correlation between athletic participation and academic attainment so that they may improve strategies and programmes which will encourage student development and learning.

Participants:
This study will target at F.2 and F.3 students from 10 secondary schools in Hong Kong.

Data Collection:
Sample size: 1000 students

Independent variable: athletic participation
in terms of no. of hours spent in a week (including individual practice, team practice (if applicable), competition etc), supplemented by types of sport activities, gender, banding of the School

Dependent variable: academic scores
average score of all subjects attained at each examination

Sampling method: Random - Stratified random sampling method will be used to select the schools. An even number of sample school will be chosen from Band 1, 2 and 3 (~3 schools for each banding). 100 students will be randomly selected from each school. Students' identities remained anonymous.

The research period will last for one year to monitor the academic scores of the students in the mid-term and final exam of the year. Data will be collected from questionnaires returned by the students. The design of the questions will collect the demographic information, which includes which type of sports activities, hours of practicing, gender etc. And the school will provide academic results of students from last year, in the mid-term and for the final exam during the research period.

Data Analysis:
Pearson R will be used when both the ‘independent’ and ‘dependent’ variables are ‘continuous’ data. In this case, the dependent variable is defined as no. of hours spent on participating in the sports activities outside classes and the independent variable is defined as the average academic score of the students in each exam.

Compare the results of students, grouped by the banding of the school, to find out the relationship of athletic participation and academic scores for each group. A positive correlation coefficient will mean that there is a positive relationship between athletic participation and academic results. And if correlation coefficient is negative, the relationship of these two variables does not exist. Further analysis can be conducted on gender, what kind of sports and hour of coaching etc.

Implications for Teaching and Learning:
With the public’s increased demands of teacher accountability, the feature topic is academic results. Schools in Hong Kong have striven to improve students’ academic achievement and success, especially at the secondary school level. Many schools eliminate athletic programmes to provide much needed resources to an area of greater importance.

Some people view athletics as a hindrance to academic achievement, but others view it as a motivating factor and feel that athletics can motivate those students and reinforce lessons of the classroom. Educators must understand the relationship between athletics and academics so that they may implement strategies and design programmes which will provide the best educational environment for their students.

Limitation of this study is that there are other variables affecting the correlation, e.g. gender, family background of the student, etc. As stated, these factors can be further analyzed to inform the educators.