Monday, February 9, 2015

Update on Research...



I am to the point now that I feel comfortable stopping my research because I have a plethora of sources that I have utilized in my Outline/Draft of Chapter 2. I have accumulated, over the last 6 months or so, over 30 pieces of reference which I am been able to utilize in support of my personal research topic, all of which are included within my submitted Chapter 2 Outline/Draft. I feel that I have collected a wide variety of pieces of data from both national and international sources, and I finally feel ready to conclude and wrap up the majority of this particular aspect in my thesis’/master’s program’s journey.  

“Culture, Motivation, and Reading Achievement: High School Students in 41 Countries” (Chiu & Chow)


Article Title:
“Culture, Motivation, and Reading Achievement: High School Students in 41 Countries”

Authors:
Ming Ming Chiu & Bonnie Wing Yin Chow

Permalink:
https://ezproxy.western.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=psyh&AN=2010-08882-001&site=eds-live

APA Citation:
Chiu, M. M., & Chow, B. Y. (2010). Culture, motivation, and reading achievement: High school students in 41 countries. Learning And Individual Differences, 20(6), 579-592. doi:10.1016/j.lindif.2010.03.007

Summary:
This was an interesting article about a massive study concerning how both the cultural values and family cultural capital is linked to student/adolescent motivation and reading achievement. It is spot on concerning the topic of my own personal research study, but included far more in-depth analysis and details than I particularly needed for the purposes of my master’s thesis. It does a great job of analyzing almost 200,000 fifteen-year-old students from all around the world, examining various factors exhibiting an effect on overall reading achievement. This article included breakdown between males and females, as well as family support.  All in all, this study supports the ideas that both culture and family are highly linked to student achievement and performance in reading, all around the world. Additionally, it concludes that there is a major clash between genders, highlighting the increasing achievement gap between the two groups. This study went more in-depth than I needed when looking at family support/influence as extrinsic motivators towards achievement and performance in reading.