Article Critique

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— Heather Ingram (@Hingram3) June 18, 2013

1. Provide the complete article title and author.

The title of the article is Laptops and Fourth-Grade Literacy: Assisting the Jump over the Fourth-Grade Slump. The authors are Kurt A. Suhr, David A. Hernandez, Douglas Grimes, and Mark Warschauer.

2. State the intended audience. (What is empirical research and how does it help the classroom?)

 

The intended audience for this article is any professional working within a school system that wants to advance student learning within the classroom. According to Cal State Library, “an empirical article is a research article that reports the results of a study that uses data derived from actual observation or experimentation.” This particular research helps in the classroom because it “suggests that laptop use over multiple years may have a small positive effect on literacy test score outcomes” (Suhr, Hernandenz, Grimes, & Warschauer, 2010).

 3. What is/are the research question/questions or hypothesis/hypotheses? The questions were as follows:

1.       Were there significant differences in the total ELA score changes in the California Standards Test (CST) over the two-year period from third grade to fifth grade between the one-to-one laptop group and the non-laptop group, after controlling for other factors?

 

2.       Were there significant differences in the six subtests used to compute those total ELA scores for the same two groups?

 

3.       Can participation in a one-to-one laptop program be used to predict changes in ELA total and subtest scores over the two year period from third grade to fifth grade?

 

4. Describe the subject (participants) and the procedures (methods) used by the researcher(s)?

The treatment group was made up of 54 fourth-grade students. These students were part of the one-to-one laptop program. The control group was also made up of 54 fourth-grade students. These students did not use laptops.  The same group of students participated in the program during their fifth-grade year as well. The control group of students did have a limited amount of computer access, but they did not receive laptops on a daily basis.

 5. What were the conclusions of the researchers? Do you agree or disagree with the conclusions? Support your position.  

The study was not able to come to a definite conclusion because of the small effect sizes.  The study did find that laptop use over a few years could a positive effect on test scores.  However,a study by Russell and Plati (2002) found that students who were accustomed to writing with computers in the classroom performed lower when they took writing tests by handwriting instead of computer (Suhr et.al., 2010). I agree that students will most likely score higher on standardized tests. Technology is very motivating tool to most students. I would love to have a laptop for every student in my classroom. Students that learn with technology have higher engagement and also get a sense of pride in their achievements (Roblyer & Doering, 2013).

 6. What suggestions for further research do the authors suggest? What other suggestions for future research would you suggest?

The authors suggest that with further research, larger sample sizes should be used, a more diverse group of students, and a broader body of outcome measures should be used. I suggest that a study be conducted on a school that has a low socioeconomic status. I work at school that has 94% free or reduced lunch, and I would be very interested in the results from the study. I also suggest that a study be conducted on more English language learners to see if it would help bridge the speaking gap a little bit more. In this study, there was only 1 English language learner.

Check out this article on 1:1 computing:
http://www.natickps.org/CASTLEBrief01_LaptopPrograms.pdf