Inquiry

Tier 1: Pose and purposefully investigate a provocative question for at least one topic or field of study.

In high school I participated in varsity cross-country and track and field. While girls and boys were scored separately we were considered one team. When it came down to leadership and power however, it was almost always given to the boys. Because we did not actually compete against each other, performance was not affected. However, having the top boys lap me in the two mile would often decrease my self-efficacy. In my educational psychology class, we had to work in groups of five to investigate a topic relating to educational psychology. Coming from sport backgrounds, my group decided to explore how self-esteem and self-efficacy is affected by sports and whether or not they affect performance. 

In order to test self-esteem and self-efficacy in sports we decided that we were going to gather participants and play two games of ultimate Frisbee. In the first game, boys would only be allowed to guard boys, and girl’s points would be worth two while boy’s points would only be worth one. In our control game (the second one) boys could guard whomever they wanted to and scores would be worth the same, one point, for everyone. Given the circumstances, we came up with the hypothesis that “girls will have a lower sense of self-efficacy and self-esteem because of the biased rules, however because girls points will be worth more than boys, they will try harder.”

To effectively test our hypothesis we had to decide what the terms self-efficacy and self-esteem meant in terms of our experiment. For self-efficacy we defined it as “belief about personal confidence in a certain situation.” We defined self-esteem as “the value each of us places on our own characteristics, behaviors, and abilities.” Because self-efficacy is specific for certain situations, a player could have very low self-efficacy about the game of ultimate Frisbee but have a generally high self-esteem.

Next we had to formulate a survey that would evaluate the different parts of our hypothesis so that we would be able to formulate a conclusion. This was one of the hardest parts of the experiment because we were unsure how to ask questions that would evaluate self-esteem and self-efficacy without telling our participants exactly what we were testing. We also had to address the issues of gender bias and stereotype threat in order to see if students were able to identify if it occurred in their game and if it influenced their playing or feelings about the game. Some of the questions we asked to address the issues we were testing were “do you view your self as a good ultimate player,” “do you feel you played to the best of your ability,” and “do you think the rules were fair.”

One of the other most difficult parts of our experiment was getting enough people to show up to play so that we would of a sufficient amount of data. The first game we ran, the one where girls points were worth more than boys, only six people showed up, so two of our researchers also played resulting in two girls and two boys to a team. For the second game, our control game, we were able to have seven players, 4 girls and three boys total. 

When we were explaining the rules for the experimental game, we got a very strong response from our participants. Players were shocked that boys would not be able to cover a girl. One female participant even asked us “where did you get these ***** rules?” Because of the outrage we heard from our participants we knew that the majority understood that the rules were gender biased. Gender bias is “having a different view on males and females usually favoring one over the other.” In our circumstances we were favoring the females because we felt that girls often conformed to the stereotype threat when playing with boys, and therefore may not normally play as hard. 

After analyzing the surveys from both the control and the experimental games we came up with a few conclusions. We were able to figure out that our first hypothesis, that girls would have a lower and self-esteem and self-efficacy because of the biased rules was incorrect. From the surveys it appeared that the girls self-efficacy was more affected by whether their team won or lost. One of the questions in the survey asked the participants to rank on a scale from one to nine their confidence in themselves as a player before and after the game. In both groups, if the girl’s team lost, the girl’s confidence deceased. Our second hypothesis that girls will try harder than boys was proven because in the experimental game ten out of the eleven points was scored by girls. 

Our experiment had many limitations. While we had specific and detailed rules that we explained to our participants and a well-designed survey, we were not able to ensure that we would have an equal number of boys and girls in each of our games. Likewise, while the games went well and people were willing to take our surveys and be interviewed, we had uneven boy girl ratios and we encountered weather difficulties. We also did not have enough participants to make strong conclusions regarding self-efficacy and self-esteem.
In conclusion, while we were not able to make strong conclusions about self-efficacy and self-esteem, we were able to make conclusions about gender bias. The participants were able to identify if gender bias occurred in a game because all players in the experimental group responded that the rules were unfair on the survey while all participants in the control group felt their rules were fair. The performance and outcome of the game was affected by the biased rules because girls in the experimental game scored all but one point. According to one player in the experimental group, “we threw the Frisbee to the girls in the end zone because their points were worth more.” Because our participants were able to identify gender bias in a game of ultimate Frisbee we hope that they would also be able to identify gender biases in other aspects of life and maybe even try to change them.

Tier 2: Learn and implement at least two methods of inquiry, and articulate the successes, challenges, and uncertainties you encountered while using each method.

Inquiry within the classroom is perhaps one of the most important aspects of an individual’s education. Part of being a student involves examining problems and asking questions. In my Management 291C class, my partner and I posed a significant question regarding students’ attitudes toward diversity. Specifically, we examined whether or not students valued racial and ethnic diversity within the student body. Moreover, we categorized the responses based on whether or not the student was in a social fraternity or sorority. Within this project, I learned many things about the successes, challenges, and uncertainties involved with inquiry. Although my partner and I only covered a small portion of a very important subject, this project has taught me many important things about inquiry. Specifically, I have learned about two different methods of inquiry. Those two methods included internet-based surveys as well as individual interviews with faculty members. These methods were used in an effort to adequately and efficiently judge the students’ attitudes toward diversity on campus.

Concerning the surveys that were released, there were many successes, challenges, and uncertainties. Creating a survey and distributing it online was very efficient for reaching a broad range of people. Moreover, it saved my partner and me a tremendous amount of time. It would have been a very tedious task if we would have hand to distribute the survey in person. Utilizing Checkbox through Miami Technology Services, my partner and I easily created a survey and distributed the link via Facebook and e-mail list serves. The survey also allowed us to ask direct questions about our topic. Therefore, the responses would yield very accurate information regarding our issue. We could also ask a number of questions, including questions that included a free response. Despite the apparent ease with which we created the survey, there were still significant difficulties and uncertainties. The most difficult part of the process was convincing people to take the survey. Although the survey takes less than two minutes to complete, many people ignored our request to take the survey. Without a sufficient number of responses, the results of the research would be skewed. Moreover, the survey had to be distributed to a fair representation of students across campus. In order for the results to be effective, students of all different races and ethnicities needed to take the survey. By distributing the survey to our friends or people similar to us, there would not be significant variation in the results. Lastly, there were many uncertainties when utilizing surveys to collect data. Mainly, we were unsure how people would respond. If people responded as a joke or wanted to complete the survey quickly, some of the answers might not have been honest. Moreover, there is always the risk of losing anonymity when completing a survey. If students somehow thought I could see the results of the survey tied to their name, this would change how they answered. Consequently, there were many successes when using a survey to collect data for this project. Even so, there were many uncertainties and challenges related to this method of inquiry.

Another method of inquiry utilized for this project was individual interviews with faculty members. Those interviewed were all teachers within the Farmer School of Business. This method of inquiry was extremely helpful for our research. Interviewing faculty members provided my partner and I with extremely interesting information that we had not previously considered regarding the issue of diversity at Miami University. Moreover, because professors are not directly affiliated with the Greek system, they could offer us valuable insight into the problem of stereotypes that occurs within fraternities and sororities and how this plays into the fact that Miami is not extremely racially or ethnically diverse. In addition, we used some of the interview questions to support some of the responses that we expected to observe from the survey data. While the personal interview was informative and successful, there were many challenges and uncertainties with this method of inquiry. Most importantly, it was slightly intimidating sitting with a professor and asking very pointed and controversial questions. Moreover, I had to be able to back up what I was asking and be knowledgeable enough to answer questions that they might have had. There was a great deal of uncertainty regarding how they would respond. Although they knew their names would not be associated with their responses, teachers will not saying anything that could potentially get them into trouble. Because I was conducting the survey, they automatically knew that one person could link a name with the responses. For this reason, acquiring honest and sufficient responses to the interview questions was a slight challenge. 

From the aforementioned responses, it is clear to see that inquiry is not easy. Specifically, there are many good things that come from inquiry, yet there are many challenges and uncertainties. I learned this firsthand with my research project on diversity within Management 291C. Attached is the completed research project, along with the survey and interview questions that we used.

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