Sample 9: Conducting Research - Impact of Karate Classes

The curriculum for Communication majors provides opportunities to conduct research at the under graduate level. The research required using both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The research on the impact of karate classes gave me an opportunity to return to the Karate school where I had received my black belt. It was fun getting to see my former instructors and talking to the current students and their parents.


HYPOTHESIS
Children who participate in Martial Arts Classes are directly influenced to improve their academic, psychosocial and physical abilities.



III. DESIGN
I chose the descriptive method of research to either prove or disprove the hypothesis. The first decision to be made about the survey was whether the martial arts student, the student’s parent or a teacher should complete the survey. Because I believe that the parent is the person best able to observe a wide variety of changes in the martial arts student, I created a parental survey. Next, a list of potential changes was created by surveying the background literature about the affects of martial arts classes on children. Both positive and negative affects were included. Lastly, in order to prevent biasing the people surveyed, the survey allowed for three different options for each potential affect. The survey asked the parent to decide if the factor in question either improved (increased), worsened, (decreased) or no change. A comment section was available for the parent to provide explaination or expansion upon the three options. Demographic information required for this survey was: who filled out the survey, the mother or father; the age and sex of the martial arts student; and the length of time the student had attended the karate school.
As the survey was being created I decided that I needed an additional method of data collection to actually make the conclusion that the hypothesis was proved or not proved. The parental survey all by itself could not be used to identify or quantify the direct influence that the martial arts teacher has on the student. Through observation, I hope to document examples to support Dr. Binder’s conclusion, “it is likely that inclusion of non-physical aspects of the martial arts during training or the instructor’s positive role model or both play a role in promoting long term changes.” During my observations of five different karate classes over two days, I was looking for examples of the two tools of persuasion and examples of strategies of persuasion.