Wednesday, 27th August 2008 - Holidays, Summer (W8)

The following information was retrieved from the brainstorm file recently completed, demonstrating the reasons for the choice of experiment, and what changes will be made to it:

Choice of experiment:

Following to a conclusion both looking at the relevance percentage and the personal interest arising in myself, I have finally decided to focus on the already briefly planned experiment:

Sociological aspects: (difference between results, due to lifestyle, obtained in Japan and Portugal).

What changes do you believe are relevant to extend the reliability and validity of the method?

- I am also of the opinion that, in order to obtain relevant results for reliable conclusions, some slight alterations must be made to the defined method. Essentially, I believe that a questionnaire should be sent to the two schools tested, asking about the daily life of each student. This questionnaire would ask what the students normally do after school, such as sports, study sessions, tutoring, etc. This would, thus, provide solid evidence towards the fact that the lifestyles of the Japanese and the Portuguese are obviously different.
- I believe that, although decreasing the sample range of the experiment, and therefore diminishing its reliability, the experiment should focus on only two schools (one being St. Dominic’s International School, and the other and a hitherto unidentified Japanese international school). In this fashion, I would establish a more professional and close relationship with the Japanese school.

What was your choice of experiment based on?

I opted to conduct this experiment, due to the fact that the main results in which it is based on are an equal factor for the students of both schools. Nonetheless also incorporating the utilization of a questionnaire, the most important data has already been defined. The questionnaire will also help me to comprehend whether the Japanese students, in fact, study and work on school related activities more than the Portuguese students, and whether this is reflected on their IB results.