PSYCO 105 P1 Developmental Help


Reading Reports of Empirical Studies

The purpose of the Introduction is to describe the problem, develop the theoretical and empirical background for the research questions, and elaborate a rationale for all parts of the study. In order to understand why the research was conducted, you need to ask yourself the following questions:

These questions set up the context and rationale for the study. Read the Introduction section of the published article and see if you can answer these questions. Then work through the summary of the introduction below. Help in addressing the questions can be found in the left column.






What are the research questions? Quiz

Where did these research questions come from? Quiz

Is this research important? Discussion Group

Time Use and Mathematics Achievement among American, Chinese, and Japanese High School Students

Andrew J. Fuligni and Harold W. Stevenson

What do adolescents do all day? Do they study? Watch t.v.? Work? Just hang out? Does what adolescents do make any difference?

Stevenson, Chen and Lee (1993) found that Chinese and Japanese students performed much better than American students on mathematics and science achievement tests. Could this be related to what adolescents in the different countries do all day? Rohlen (1983) described how school activities prepare Chinese and Japanese adolescents for adulthood. Csikszentmihalyi and Larson (1984) found that American adolescents spend a large amount of their time with peers. The American media seems to have picked up on this, describing East Asian students as hard working and studious and American students as more involved in extra curricular activities, jobs, and dating.

In this study, Fuligni and Stevenson examined grade 11 students' reports of activities they engaged in during the day and related their time use with mathematics achievement.

They selected students from Minneapolis (United States), Taipei (Taiwan - representing China), and Sendai (Japan).
Reading Research Questions to Consider
Report Summary: Abstract Introduction Method Results Discussion References