The Meta

The Meta Introduction There are a number of research methodologies that can be used for carrying out an investigation. The type of methodology chosen for use depends on the nature of the topic or question to be covered in the research. These methodologies may either be quantitative or qualitative in nature. Meta-analysis is a method which involves the statistical arrangement of all existing and related studies on a given subject matter of interest.Advertising We will write a custom coursework sample on The Meta-Analysis Method specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This is usually with an aim of determining the collective findings of the particular investigations. The approach seeks to provide a comprehensive solution to major issues/concerns. The essay summarizes Chapter 3 of the book titled, School Leadership that Works from Research to Results. Research Methodology The chapter covers the primary research methodology that was used by the authors. Meta-analysis was the type used in this particular study. It is a technique that uses quantitative approaches during the synthesis of a study in a given domain. Well structured questionnaires were used where teachers were expected to give their perceptions of the principals leadership behaviors. The authors sought to investigate a very sensitive domain of leadership. They were interested in studying school leadership as practiced by principles. The study involved an analysis of very crucial data which had been collected and analyzed by other researchers. The authors considered any and available study findings from 1970 to those which have been done lately. The authors Marzano, Waters, and McNulty did a meta-analysis of about 69 leadership studies. All the studies were concerned with the relationship that exists between a given school’s principal leader and that of the achievement of the student. These studies included those done since 1978 to 2001. Selected Samples It is impo rtant to note that a number of studies met these outlined criteria. However, not all of them could be included in the analysis process. This is because, according to the authors, the studies dealt with leadership â€Å"styles†. These styles are general categories of leadership character and behavior that are based on some predetermined theory. The chapter provides an example of a study conducted by Evans and Teddlie (1995) who examined the relationship that exists between the initiator, manager, and responder styles of leadership and overall student achievement in schools.Advertising Looking for coursework on education? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Another study conducted by High and Achilles (1986) sought to find out the relationship between the following styles and school achievement: referent, expert, enabler, coercer, legal authority, norm setter, and involver. These studies have been acknowledged as pr oviding very useful perspectives as far as leadership and school achievement is concerned. However, the authors did not use them during their meta-analysis due to their broad representation of behavior categories. In fact, they themselves were actually found to be summaries of more specific behaviors. Since the main purpose of the study was to identify specific types of leadership behaviors, the authors focused on researches that considered specific behaviors that had not been crumpled into very broad categories. It is evident from the chapter that there has been a small yet significantly growing collection of literature investigating the usefulness of the principal’s influence as far as gifted and talented programs are concerned. The authors of the book have included the findings as well as conclusions of all these studies/literature. Impact of the Study The authors analyzed each of the study and a correlation between general leadership and student achievement was computed o r drawn directly from the study. A total of 69 correlations were obtained which represented the relationship between general leadership behavior and student academic achievement. Findings in Light of Other Studies the authors observed that their average correlation of.25 between principals leadership and student achievement is much higher compared to that reported in a meta-analysis conducted by Witziers, Bosker, and Kruger (2003). Theirs was a correlation of.02 which indicated that there was no relationship between leadership and student achievement. Several factors contributing to the disparity in the findings are identified. A Deeper Look the authors stress the role of the results obtained from meta-analysis studies. That the results should never be an average; it should be a graph, as pointed out by the founder of modern meta-analysis. This is to facilitate a wider range of correlations from various studies of meta-analysis.Advertising We will write a custom coursework s ample on The Meta-Analysis Method specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Conclusion It is evident from the chapter that meta-analysis presents a great opportunity to collect a mass of related material that address a specific topic or issue under investigation. The authors of this book, through meta-analysis, were able to establish the relationship between the principal leadership in a school and the achievement of students. The meta Introduction The falling standards of education in American public schools have increased demands for accountability and performances in schools. Consequently, school administrators evaluate ways of improving academic performances, such as tutoring programmes. There are a number of tutoring programmes like peer, volunteer, one-on-one and cross-age tutoring.Advertising We will write a custom critical writing sample on The meta-analyses of volunteer tutoring programmes specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More There have been growing evidences with regard to volunteer tutoring. Consequently, this paper presents a systematic review of The Effectiveness of Volunteer Tutoring Programs for Elementary and Middle School Students: A Meta-Analysis by Ritter and other authors. The review of meta-analysis seeks to establish the effectiveness of volunteer teaching programmes that aim to enhance the academic skills of student in public schools of the United States. The review also aims at establishing who can benefit from tutoring, and factors that influence the effectiveness of tutoring. These constitute the main of objectives of the studies by Ritter and other authors. The authors used 21 studies consisting of 28 distinct cohorts in their studies in providing guidance for assessments of the effectiveness of volunteer tutoring programmes. Through these assessments, the authors concluded that volunteer tutoring had a positive effect on students’ performance. They discovered that students who had tutors got higher marks in specific sub-skills such as oral fluency, letters and words, and writing. However, students who had no tutors scored relatively low marks compared to their counterparts with tutors. The authors used several search strategies to gather evidences to support their studies. These sources included academic sources, primary sources, middle search sources, collections of professional studies, research in the field of psychology and behavioural science, literature in sociology, education information database such as ERIC, and proquest database. At the same time, these authors used selection criteria based on randomised field trials. The authors used these methods to enable them make comparisons with the control groups that did not participate in the studies from the year 1985 to 2005.Advertising Looking for critical writing on education? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Meanwhile, the authors were careful to include only studies that had academic effects, and ignored other vital factors such as emotion and behaviour. The study included programmes for students in grades of K-8 with the adult non-professional volunteers.1 Summary The authors based the results of the review on information from the 28 cohorts in the study using 21 articles and reports. The results of the analyses, mainly consisting of small samples, indicate that volu nteer tutoring and coaching have positive effects on reading and language in students. Examinations of the overall consequences of volunteer tutoring programmes on reading outcomes of student showed improvements. The authors used 25 studies to assess the reading outcomes and effects of volunteer tutoring programmes where they found an effect size of 0.23. However, when they eliminated an outlier study that disproportionately influenced the results, the effect rose to an average of 0.30. The study meta-analyses also looked at specific academic areas. The volunteer tutoring also made significant improvement on reading where the effect size was 0.26. Letters and words had an overall effect of 0.41 while oral fluency had a significant effect size of 0.30, and writing effect was 0.45. The study also found positive effects on reading comprehension and mathematics. However, the effects of these two were not significant. The meta-analyses also revealed that there were no significant differe nces with regard to grade level, programme of focus, or tutor type. Detailed volunteer tutoring programmes had vital and greater effects on reading outcomes than lowly structured programmes. However, these did not affect other academic domains. The authors also established that there were no statistical significance and differences in published reports and non-published studies. They also found out that the published texts had no biases. Critique There are some grey areas in this work. Therefore, the authors must update their works and conduct further researches, and possibly contact experts in volunteer tutoring. At the same time, they should also extend their studies to other geographical areas in order to establish consistency in their conclusions and recommendations.Advertising We will write a custom critical writing sample on The meta-analyses of volunteer tutoring programmes specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More These authors also u sed studies based on quasi-experimental designs. Quasi-experimental designs may lead to biases in publications. This is because such studies may test effects on an intervention without using appropriate assignment to create groups of the study. Ritter and others used small samples in their studies. There were total of 28 cohorts in meta-analysis. However, 19 out of the 28 cohorts had less than 25 students in the group. Only 3 study cohorts had a full sample of over 100 students for both treatment and control groups. This creates small chances of detecting significant programmes’ effects on students achievements. However, meta-analysis enhances this shortfall by using cumulative mean and standard deviations in enhancing statistical strength. The authors also did not show homogeneity in volunteer trainees and learner characteristics as these may affect the emotions or behaviour of the treatment groups. The meta-analyses of the study established that volunteer tutoring programme s have positive effects on students’ performances especially in literacy. These authors also showed the significant of using meta-analysis in conducting studies. Meta-analysis enabled the authors to perform multiple analyses and establish the statistical significance in 5 areas out of 7 areas studied. These results were not possible in standalone studies. Data collection and analyses reveal details of methodology and procedures such as design, outcomes of analysis, duration of study, and sample background variables such as age, gender, and race, among others. The authors coded all these aspects of studies for analysis of various volunteer tutoring programmes, and for study characteristics. According to Littell et al, â€Å"we should train coders and assess the reliability in coding. At the same time, we must pay special attention to the problem of study quality and assessment. In other words, we must be keen on how we identify variations in quality among the studies included in a systematic review and meta-analysis†.2 For instance, these authors must review all the outcomes that the studies aim to measure. They also selected a suitable effect size for meta-analysis. In order to avoid biases, they used Hedges’ unbiased measurement of g in the standard mean difference on effect size statistic. These represented differences between the control groups and the study groups mean on the outcome variable that they divided by cumulative standard deviations for every outcome of measurement.Advertising Looking for critical writing on education? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More In meta-analysis, we must ask questions relating to variations in effects. Ritter and others do not discuss deeply how publication bias, study design, sample characteristics, intervention characteristics, and assessment of outcomes influenced their studies. The authors did not establish whether the effects had been consistent over time or not. Publication bias arguably is the most potent source of bias in meta-analysis. However, the authors tried to counteract these biases, particularly where the mean and standard deviations were missing in estimating the effect sizes. They adopted the procedure of Wilson and Lipsey and computed a cumulative mean for effect size. The study achieved it systematic objective of gathering, integrating, and summarising the empirical work on the effects of volunteer tutoring on students. The authors put up a strong research base compared to other previous studies on educational interventions. This is due to the fact that the reviews covered 21 articles an d 28 cohorts dated back to the year 1985 and 2005 in randomised field trials. Ritter and other authors use a systematic approach to present their study meta-analysis and results. They gathered several articles that effectively used experimental designs to assess the effects of volunteer tutoring on students. The systematic analysis shows that all reading outcomes had positive and statistically significant effect size of 0.30 as standard deviations. Carole Torgerson notes that systematic review and methodology has the potential to manage potentially unmanageable amounts of information, and rationalise existing evidence efficiently by determining whether research findings are consistent and generalisable, and to explain why if they are not.3 The researchers can group similar studies together statistically in meta-analyses since they know that they can use meta-analyses to increase the power, and precision in the measurement of effect sizes. The application of scientific methods in sys tematic reviews also enabled them to reduce random and systematic errors of bias.4 The authors applied this method in grouping the specific outcomes in six specific domains of study. Meta-analysis enabled them to create broad domains through the use of standardised assessments in mathematics and reading. Conversely, they also created specific four domains focusing on sub-skills of language and reading. Through these groups, the authors established that volunteer tutoring programmes have potential influences on academic performances of students and can be used to improve performances. The authors also establish consistency with references to the effect sizes of 0.26 to 0.45 standard deviations. Further, the authors established whether particular interventions were also effective or not. They demonstrated that every intervention is unique with individual studies using small units. The use of small units was effective in controlling replicas of other works. This enabled the authors to establish the characteristics of most effective interventions. They were able to establish this through computing differential mean effects sizes using different elements of study variables, such as detailed interventions, type of tutors, and age of tutors. The authors concluded that the outcomes of their studies should act as vital statistics for educators to use volunteer tutoring in order to improve students’ achievements. They also advised that school administrators should consider the use of structured and reading-based volunteer programmes as suitable strategies in enhancing reading and language skills. The researchers have effectively demonstrated the power and effectiveness of meta-analysis. Through grouping of various studies, as opposed to standalone studies, they were able to establish statistical significance of relatively large data in their domains. The research also expands the knowledge we have on the use of systematic reviews and meta-analysis about using dat a in enhancing the use of interventions in promoting the learning outcomes. These researchers provide useful information that educators can use to implement effective volunteer tutoring programmes to improve students’ achievements. Conclusion This is a positive review of the works of Ritter and others. The authors use systematic review and meta-analysis to demonstrate that volunteer tutoring can positively transform achievements of learners, particularly in language and reading skills. They emphasise that their results should serve as an essential piece of information for educators who want to use volunteer tutoring to improve performances in learners. They further advise that educators should consider structured and reading-based volunteering systems to improve their yearly students’ performances. We must acknowledge the fact that systematic review and meta-analysis can go some way towards addressing the problem of underdeveloped trials. However, they will not give a true estimate of effectiveness if the trials within the study analyses have methodological flaws. At the same time, meta-analyses may give unduly optimistic results if there is substantial publication bias. In other words, if studies have null or negative effect remain unpublished, they may not form part of any review. Ritter and other authors address the issue of trials flaws through systematic review by using inclusion and exclusion criteria. They avoided publication bias by ensuring that all data were consistent and avoided unpublished studies that they could not identify. The authors treated their trials with a high degree of caution by defining all their trials, sources of data among other elements of both treatment and control groups. They did these to avoid chances of overestimating the effectiveness of the volunteer tutor programmes. However, these authors must update their studies regularly and include large samples in their studies in order to yield positive and moderate r esults. Therefore, researchers seeking statistical significance must use large sample sizes. The probability of an educationally significant difference being statistically significant is partly a function of sample size. Reference List Cooper HM, Synthesizing Research: A Guide for Literature Reviews Applied Social Research Methods Series, vol. 2, Sage Publications, Inc., London, 1998. Littell JH, J Corcoran V Pillai, Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis, Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, 2008. Ritter GW, JH Barnett, GS Denny and GR. Albin, ‘The Effectiveness of Volunteer Tutoring Programs for Elementary and Middle School Students: A Meta- Analysis’, Review of Educational Research, vol. 79, no. 1, 2009, pp. 3-38. Torgerson C, Systematic Reviews, Continuum International Publishing Group, London, 2003. Footnotes 1 GW Ritter, JH. Barnett, GS. Denny GR. Albin, ‘The Effectiveness of Volunteer Tutoring Programs for Elementary and Middle School Students: A Meta-A nalysis’, Review of Educational Research, vol. 79, no. 1, 2009, pp. 3-38. 2 JH Littell, J Corcoran V Pillai, Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis, Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, 2008. 3 C Torgerson, Systematic Reviews, Continuum International Publishing Group, London, 2003, p. 63 4 HM Cooper, Synthesizing Research : A Guide for Literature Reviews Applied Social Research Methods Series, vol. 2, Sage Publications, Inc., London, 1998 p. 104