Honours Project Ethics Proposal Quantitative Project

Honours Project Ethics Proposal – Quantitative Project
Student Name & University e-mail address: Damilola Shasanya
[e-mail]
Supervisor(s) Name(s): Lynne Wood
Working Title of Project: The Advantages And Disadvantages Of
Positive Reinforcement In Education
Part One – Learner Development Strategy
This learning agreement forms the plan for completing your honours project unit. It is the
basis of the negotiations between yourself and your supervisor and is a flexible working
document.
1.1 Dissertation Learning Objectives
Please complete your strategies for Learning Outcomes 1 and 2 below. Remember, you will
have to comment on your progress with these objectives in your e-portfolio, so be realistic.
Strategies for satisfying unit learning outcomes
Learning Outcome 1 Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the underpinnings
of conducting psychological research to accredited professional
standards and the ability to reflect on performance.
Strategy Following the BPS code of conduct and standard as well as
ethical considerations with adequate understanding.
Learning Outcome 2 Initiate, design, conduct and report an empirically-based research
project under supervision in any area of psychology, and
critically reflect on your university career and CV.
Strategy Research on the various psychological areas that are related
to my university career.
Communicate with my supervisor often in order to ensure I
am corrected where I go wrong.
1.2 Key Skills
Pick two skills (see Appendix 1 below) and comment on how you aim to develop them by
completing your research project. Again, remember that you will have to comment on these
key skills in your e-portfolio, so be realistic.
Strategies for developing key skills
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Key Skill 1 1. Developing and maintaining transparent
communication among colleagues and supervisors.
2. Participate in meetings and workshops to plan
psychological experiments and assess results.
3. Interact with participants, facilitators and supporting
supervisors.
4. Preparing presentations on the study and reporting to
supervisors.
Strategy Maintaining open and effective communication with my
supervisors and colleagues. I will also ensure I take notes
during workshops and ask questions when in doubt. In
addition, I will ensure I make presentations on time and
accept correction from my supervisor.
Key Skill 2 1. Taking time in planning, developing and executing
tests.
2. Working with peers in the monitoring, assessing,
analysing and compiling test results.
3. Test and studies on sample groups with their
consented active participation.
Strategy Reading similar research on positive and negative
reinforcement in studies.
Constantly asking my supervisor for support when needed
Part Two – Undergraduate Research Proposal
Research Proposal: Please provide a brief summary of background theory / research
(including critique / rationale for current study) and project aims, hypothesis/research
questions - Word Count: up to 1000 words.
Theoretical framework and background of the study:
Positive reinforcement is one form of consequence or response that is applied to
behavioural psychology. To fortify or ensure the same behaviour when preceded by
particular antecedent stimulus. As the name suggests, reinforcement is two types, i.e.
positive and negative, while positive reinforcement denotes a form of rewarding
stimuli that may incite future inclination or desire to repeat them behaviour in future.
The concept of positive reinforcement evolved from the operant conditioning is a
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theory that pertains to learning. As contrasted to classical conditioning, skinner
maintained that human behaviour could be explained more effectively if they are
looked into as the association is termed as operant conditioning (Pavlov, 2018). Hence,
skinner suggests, operant conditioning facilitates an individual to make an association
between a particular behaviour and its consequence.
Skinners experiment was based on the Thorndike’s law effect, a pioneer theory in
behavioural psychology, which maintains that responses that have a positive influence
and outcome tend to reoccur and those that have a negative outcome and influence do
not reoccur (Gray, 2011, p. 108-109). Skinner, furthering the observation, introduced
the term ‘reinforcement’ into the theory of Law of Effect, which asserts that
behaviours that are reinforced are likely to be repeated by the participant, whereas
acts that are reinforced tend to weaken. With the experiment involving the famous
skinner box, he carried out his hypothesis on a rat and established it. The theory is
significant to this study and the existing literature since it provides a clear
understanding of reinforcement and behaviour in the education field.
Furthermore, through his experiment, skinner affirms the claim that positive
reinforcement strengthens a certain behaviour as they provide a desired, or more
specifically, a rewarding consequence to the agents, thus encouraging them to repeat
the behaviour. For instance if a child is praised or given material rewards like sweets
or toys for being obedient or working nicely with their peers, they are likely to
maintain that behaviour in future as well (Black et al., 2019).
Based on existing literature as well as seen on the example, it can be claimed that as a
technique of boosting desire behaviour, positive reinforcement can be used as a
teaching method in education as well (Black et al., 2019). Moreover, there are already
a large array of literature on the inclusion of positive reinforcement as teaching
method, although there is no agreement among scholars on the merit of effectiveness
of the method said (Groom & Nelson, 2016). In this context, the study attempts to
assess the advantages and disadvantages of positive reinforcement in education to
determine whether it should be included in learning.
Aim of research:
The present study deals with the assessment of the perceived advantages and
disadvantages of positive reinforcement in education. To this end, the study is
directed at measuring and assessing the behavioural changes in students subsequent
to the structured psychological tests specifically designed for the study. The aim of the
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present research is to carry out viable, tangible as well as comprehensive assessment
of the advantages and disadvantages of positive reinforcement in education. In this
sense, the study attempts to encompass a wide span of educational system as practiced
in the UK within the University of Bedfordshire.
Research Objectives:
1. What are some of the advantages of positive reinforcement in education?
2. What are some of the disadvantages of positive reinforcement in education?
3. Do the advantages of positive reinforcement outweigh the disadvantages in
education?
Method & Procedure: This must make clear how you will collect data. Later in this
template you are asked to address ethical issues, but consider these even before you write
your proposed method.
Design This study will follow a primary quantitative design
where data will be collected directly from the sample
groups and analysed. Scores will be compared by finding
the mean. In addition, the participants will be divided
into two groups (experimental and control groups) and
will be exposed to two sets of intervention, one using
positive reinforcement, another without the same.
Participants The study will be conducted on University students
categorized in two sets i.e. first year students and final
years. Therefore there will be 2 groups of student
participants, conveyed and supervised by me as the
researcher.
Materials & Apparatus Vygotskian assessment, Child Behaviour Scale (CBS)
Procedure The experiment group will have positive reinforcement
then undertake a task while the control group will not
have any of the above. I will record their feedback via
CBS, while the students will be assessed as per
Vygotskian model and Behaviour rating scale.
Data Analysis: Please outline the statistical tests that you will use to test your hypotheses /
research questions.
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