The research by Carter-Francique, Hart and Steward may be improved upon by changing the research questions, purpose, sample, method of data collection, validity threats, data analysis and application (Carter-Francique, Hart & Steward, 2013). The research can also be improved by incorporating mixed methods of research (qualitative and quantitative) instead of using qualitative approaches only. The research questions should be concise and precise. For the improved study, the research questions will be: (1) To what extent do black college athletes use cognitive and non-cognitive definitions of academic success at PWIHE? (2) To what extent does guidance and counseling by coaches contribute to “academic success” at PWIHE? These research questions introduce a quantitative aspect to the study because they imply a quantitative response. The second research question changes “social support,” a vague descriptor used in Carter-Francique, Hart & Steward (2013), to “guidance and counseling by coaches,” a precise descriptor.
The purpose of the research also changes. The revised purpose of this study is to determine the extent to which black college athletes rely on cognitive and non-cognitive definitions of academic success and how coach-led guidance and counseling contribute to academic success at PWIHE.
The revised study will improve on the sampling. Carter-Francique, Hart & Steward (2013) used only 9 students in their research. I contend that 9 is not a representative sample. The revised study will be more robust, using between 80 and 100 male and female black college athletes from 10 colleges in the US. This data will be collected physically by visiting the 10 colleges and requesting the administration to allow access to students during athletic practice sessions. The process will involve collaborating with different coaches and asking them for a few minutes after practice sessions to interact with the students. The coach will be asked to request his team to cooperate with the researchers but only if they wish to do so (voluntarily). The researcher expects a minimum of 10 students to cooperate per college. A confidentiality clause will be included to foster cooperation of the participants and the different administrations. The survey will involve a questionnaire asking for demographic data as well as such as age, a sport played, hours of counseling spent with the coach, cognitive academic success indicators like GPA scores, test scores as well as non-cognitive ones like leadership, positive self-concept, etc. The participants will be required to fill in the cognitive values such as test scores and GPAs in columns (Note that all students will be required to indicate academic scores because they are considered the ultimate reflection of academic performance). The number of hours spent with the coaches will be expressed in numerical values. For this question, ranges of the “number of hours spent with the coach” will be indicated and the participant will tick as appropriate. The participants will be asked to register their performance regarding their defined non-cognitive values in percentages. For example, if a participant thinks that the ability to balance academics and athletics may be considered as academic success, they will be required to indicate their perceived score in percentage form. The survey will also have qualitative questions to gauge the students’ perceptions of the effect of coach-led guidance and counseling on academic success. Perception questions are qualitative and will be answered using a five-point Likert scale so that responses than be registered as 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 (Sullivan & Artino, 2013).
The improved study has several strengths over the previous one. It is more representative because it uses a sample that is a proper subset of the statistical population under study (black college athletes in America) (Barreiro & Albandoz, 2001). As such, the views expressed are likely to be more representative of the U.S. than the previous study. Second, the study is also better than the previous one because it provides a better expression of results by using qualitative and quantitative means. The use of a Likert-scale improves the quality of qualitative responses by assigning values as measures of the degree of agreement or disagreement. Also, this study provides a better approach to ensure cooperation with respondents.
The study, however, is not without weaknesses. It requires more time, work, and personnel resources to conduct the surveys in 10 colleges and for 100 students. The threats to validity are caused by the fact that students may not indicate their real test scores in the questionnaires.
The chosen research methods are more appropriate for research because they produce more representative results than alternatives that rely on one college and few students to collect data. Some colleges may have certain cultures that do not necessarily reflect the country as a whole.
The Data analysis will be conducted in two categories: for quantitative data and qualitative data. Correlation analysis will be conducted to explore the relationship between hours spent in coach-led guidance and counseling sessions and the test scores and GPA scores. The researcher will check the qualitative data from Likert scale for mode, and median values, and use it in the discussion. The data collected helps in answering the research questions because it shows the relationship between guidance and counseling with academic performance and also shows the relationship between guidance and counseling with the respondents’ perception of academic success.
References
Barreiro, P., & Albandoz, J. (2001). Population and sample. Sampling techniques.Management Mathematics For European Schools, 3(1), 1-17.
Carter-Francique, A., Hart, A., & Steward, A. (2013). Examining the Value of Social Capital and Social Support for Black Student-Athletes’ Academic Success. Journal Of African American Studies, 19(2), 157-177. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12111-015-9295-z
Sullivan, G., & Artino, A. (2013). Analyzing and Interpreting Data From Likert-Type Scales.Journal Of Graduate Medical Education, 5(4), 541-542. http://dx.doi.org/10.4300/jgme-5-4-18
