PROBLEMATIZATION PROJECT 11
Running Head: PROBLEMATIZATION PROJECT 1
Problematization Project
Student’s name
Institutional affiliation
Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to present the meaning of well being in school. The definition of well-being may differ according to a particular person. School well being is an essential factor all together as it allows people to have a conducive environment within the school’s setting. The general well being of a student will affect both their cognitive and academic skills. Therefore, it is essential that all the stakeholders in the school setting should consider the well being of students as a vital aspect.
There are various previous researches that have presented their views on student’s well-being. According to Kasser et al. (2002), well-being is the condition of proper satisfaction, health, being happy or comfortable resulting from an individual getting the best out of his expectation from a service or product, that is; from a business perspective. Well-being and satisfaction go in hand as the wellbeing of a person, i.e., in this case, students’ wellbeing in an institution or a school set up depends with various aspects making up their entire school life (Lee & Loke, 2005). Stubb et al. (2011) explain that the prosperity of a school setup relies on the students’ who are the main stakeholders of the facilities and services provided. To ensure this, proper provision of relevant services like quality and interesting teaching techniques, active sporting engagements and talent nurturing.
According to Schmidt (2012), studying student’s well-being as discussed above enables an individual or management to determine what the students prefer and what they need to get a conducive learning environment that is comfortable and of their preference. It is important just like in any other business, to satisfy the consumer of the service produced thus knowing the students’ well-being will guide towards the provision of better services lie quality education.
The research as included above, however, does not include the activities and practices that should be included in the context of achieving student’s wellbeing. It does not give an overview of some of the activities that should be followed to ensure overall school wellbeing. This makes it hard to define well being as it is essential to first understand, the essential aspects that makeup wellbeing.
The solution for filling this gap is approaching the students themselves and requesting them to air their views on what well-being means to them. As a result, I incorporated the use of a kind of research which includes more opinions from the students themselves. There are various ways in which students define wellbeing, including; leisure time and sports.
Methods
The qualitative method that was used for this paper was the method of inquiry, which is motivated by the phenomenological hermeneutic method and interpretative phenomenological analysis. The aim of this paper is to comprehend the participant’s experiences of school wellbeing and the elaboration of those experiences as per the research question. Several specifically crafted interviews were presented to the students and all other stakeholders who are related to the school wellbeing setting. A majority of the participants were presented with questions which aimed at discussing and reflecting on their experiences in the school setting. The methods included building rapport and conducting recorded interviews to ensure quality in the research findings. Coding was incorporated to record the data to avoid the nuance of the qualitative data analysis. Coding was an essential way of recording data because it made the messy transcripts identifiable. It also enabled the organization of scripts to make sure that a person can access a particular interview script. Following the suggestions of Guarana (2015) and Suzana (2016) researchers should consider their pre-understandings and the probable influence of those pre-conceptions on their comprehension of the data. The respondents in the research were put in a category, and the range of questions depended on the personality aspects of the respondent.
Participants
The participants in this research included students from various schools particularly those located in Kristindada. Participation was voluntary, and students were invited to participate in the interviews through emails. They were of different gender, age and had a different nationality. They also lived in different parts during the schooling period. The living situations included Dormitories, school apartments and renting of outside apartments. According to Suzana 1999, interviewing respondents from different backgrounds with different backgrounds is essential to ensure the retrieving of qualitative data. Each participant was given a set of questions within a stipulated time, which ranged from 10- 30 minutes. It is important to have a well-structured interview where all questions were common to all the included respondents. The students were presented with an outline of the study, and they received a detailed explanation of what the interview would entail. The study entailed developing experiences and what they thought about their well -being. Personal interviews were done to eliminate the ambiguity of focus groups because of the probable group pressures and differences in the communication styles of the participants. The study also included the use of focus groups to get general data. Focus groups included 4-6 participants.
Data Collection
Use of focus group is an appropriate way to first collect the data of research. In this case, personal context structured interviews were implementers three weeks after the focus group to allow the respondents to elaborate on their answers and to reflect on what they had presented in the focus group. They will then come out clear in the next interview and provide more detailed and sincere answers. Sessions of the focus group took place in the Conference room of Kristandad University there were two researchers both female who moderated the discussion of the focus group. Most of the focus group discussion took approximately two hours. Those of the interview lasted from 10-30 minutes depending on the person being interviewed. The Interviews and focus group discussions were voice recorded. They were later transcribed into verbatim scripts to enhance the quality of the data. The focus group interactions were used to explore the contributor’s experiences of their school wellbeing interactively. According to Carrey & Sith, 2015. The group effect creates a rapport between the researchers and respondents, therefore, ensuring that more information is retrieved. Also, by relating to each other’s experience, therefore, they will produce a more comprehensive and richer presentation of their involvements. A topic guide was prepared in advance and presented to the respondents. It entailed asking the interviews on their aspects such as what well- being means to them, how they keep themselves happy, the time they deserve to play exercise and sports. Psychological aspects and social aspects were also included in the interviews.
Results and Analysis
Analysis
The analysis for this paper was divided into two sections which included the individual interview and the transcription of group focus. The individual interview consisted of an individual aspect. A general summary of the information from the interviews was presented under these subtopics.
The first step involved the study of all individual interviews, to find out how wellbeing is understood by different people and how it affects their cognitive and academic live. The research confirmed the hypothesis that wellbeing was a state of happiness and feeling comfortable. This affected how they related to others and also on their performance.
Individual Aspects
Cognitive
In the question of the definition of wellbeing, the majority of the interviewees conquered that wellbeing is referred to as being comfortable and happy, feeling safe where you are. Others added that it entailed staying positive, emotionally upright, social, biological and physical satisfaction. However, a small percentage of about 10% were not very sure of the meaning of wellbeing and could not a precise answer. About 60% of the interviewees concluded that keeping healthy entailed maintaining physical, emotional and psychological fitness. The majority said that they achieve this through exercising, eating well, taking occasional rests and others said taking occasional drinks and hanging out with friends.
Majority of the interviewees were satisfied with what they were doing to maintain their health, and therefore many responded that there is nothing they could change. Some said that they could improve their exercise discipline and others said they could consider regulating their current diet to a healthier diet.
A percentage of 67% of the interviewees had sleeping problems and often found it hard to sleep. The reasons varied from stress, natural inability to sleep and others had health problems which interfered with their sleeping patterns. Ten of the interviewees said that their sleeping patterns depended on what they did. For example, one said that they would have a deep sleep after a long day of tiresome work. Another one would have troubles sleeping if he had been in a late-night party. The other person took an occasional day nap and therefore sleeping at night was a challenge.
From the interview, the key motivator that makes the students enjoy their student life is the social life around the colleges. The opportunity to make new friends and have fun with them. Others, however, said that they enjoy learning new things and others were just in school because they have to.
Academic
Majority of the students were satisfied with their performance in that, even though they were not performing to their expectations, they were contented that they are putting in their best and at least are learning something new. Five of the students complained that they were not very happy with their performance and were putting in their best to ensure they improve them in the next exams.
Transcript of Focus Groups
The second part consisted of transcribed group focus interviews. This section focused on the view of group members on student’s wellbeing, factors that made them feel unwell, the environment and the contribution of their family, parents, teachers, and colleagues in their academic life. This section aimed at finding out what students preferred and what they needed to get a conducive environment they are comfortable with. The research indicated that the surrounding serene environment is what students wanted. They also said that family members, friends, and colleagues were a better motivation than lecturers.
The two processes were done repeatedly for five times to ensure credibility in the summaries and prevent any biases.
Wellbeing
For the first group, the members were not very sure about what wellbeing is, but their concluded answer was that wellbeing was the state of one’s emotion and these emotions are influenced by the surrounding factors such as the people around you.
For the second group, some members said that wellbeing had to do with their academic performance. Those who met their goals were well off and those who did not were not that well. Other members of the group argued that it dealt with how one related to others and was influenced by their backgrounds.
The third group agreed that wellbeing was a state of balance between the studies and their leisure time. The situations that made them feel good included spending time with family and friends, the ability to achieve one’s goal and when playing. Most of the members were finalists and what motivated their study was the fact that they were going to finish school in a few months.
Situations that made the members feel unwell
Meeting deadline for assignments and also towards exams.
Inner stress and the bad thing about being a student.
Uncertainties about the future
Bad weather
Some had problems since they were international students and the activities arranged for them may not be very welcoming since they did not consider their backgrounds to be different with different cultures and believes.
Environmental factors
Of the interviewees interviewed, almost all of them were happy with the environment around the learning institution. The place was serene, quiet and green. Most of the building was up to standards, and the students were generally friendly. The teachers and other staff were cooperative and therefore made learning easier. Most had study rooms and also libraries with updated secondary data to boost their learning. Complaints were, however, on school assignments and the kind of punishments such as three-hour detention which to majority didn’t seem very good.
The contribution of family, teachers, friends, and colleagues
Most comments were against the teachers in that they did very little in teaching then and left the bulk to the students, giving an excuse that they are on a master level. The majority felt that their studies should focus on grades and studies. They seriously criticized the fact that most teachers and family members eliminated social life thinking that one should not have fun and rather focus on studies.
One of the members said that he would prefer an interactive lecture than the one where the lecturer reads power points only. Another student argued that the time of study at home depended on how attentive one was in school. For the majority of them, their colleagues were cooperative and active in class and therefore played a big role in their class work.
Almost all members of all the interviewed group focus complained about the assignments and the grading system in that they were not material and transparent. Some complained they didn’t see the importance of those class work since they were theoretical and would have rather preferred going to work to gain experience than waste time in class.
Discussion
From the research, the wellbeing of most students in school varies according to the various need of the students. However, from the findings, many students would prefer to stay in an environment where they feel comfortable, and there is no unnecessary stress (Tomyn & Cummins, 2011). From the findings, the majority of them have expressed that their wellbeing is defined by their happiness and comfort in what they do.
There are several factors and groups of people that play a role to ensure the wellbeing of the students. From the findings, it is clear that teachers, in whom most complains are in have a major role in making the schools habitable. Teaching and learning for the interviewees is a process that should yield benefit and not just pumping some theories to the head (Xiao & Wilkins, 2015). Education, as one said should be viewed more as a learning process empowered by practical examples.
The idea that exams and grading is one of the determining factors for academic performance to them is no credential. Some even felt they could drop and o look for jobs. Their learning sessions should be more interactive, and the issues of power point presentation or a mere reading of some notes should be minimized (Serra & DeMarre, 2016). The sessions as many suggested needed to be more interactive between the teachers and the students. This way, the students believe that they can understand more about what they are learning than when presentations are read to them.
The physical environment surrounding the learning premises also influences the wellbeing of students. The availability of good learning facilities such as libraries and study rooms in the hostels in a point of consideration. Fellow students also a good instrument in the daily school life and fact, the social life around the colleges and schools is a motivating factor to some of the students (Yusuf & Arifin, 2015). Families and friends play a minor role by providing the needed support, and the rest is left to the student.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the student’s wellbeing is a key factor that should be highly considered in learning institutions. This is the tool that brings together the students, teachers, parents, and staff together. The level of students’ wellbeing based on their satisfaction also determines their academic performance (McConville, McAleer & Hahne, 2017). Teachers should, therefore, put the interest of the students into considerations and avoid the assumptions. Some of the aspects require cooperation to bring about a cumulative benefit to both the students and the institution. It is, therefore, important that students’ wellbeing is put into consideration.
The students also have a role to play in their wellbeing. The response of many appears to be out of wanting to be free and having less work to do. Everyone should understand that they are students and therefore serious studies and assignments are part of the integration parts that they require in their daily learning (Vaisanen et al., 2017). Time management seems to be the problem, and I would recommend that the institution can put aside time for teaching the students of their time management.
The other thing is about their emotional management. This also is an individual responsibility. How they receive and reciprocate treatment from other people will affect their emotions and wellbeing (Poulou, 2017). They should, therefore, ensure they relate well with everyone and manage what each takes in to avoid emotional stress. The psychology department of the school should also play a part in this to ensure a balance and that every student is comfortable in school.
It would be recommended that every stakeholder in the students learning process play their part well putting into consideration the effect on the other person. They should also consider check on the importance of what they engage in or on what they do if it is beneficial or could have futuristic positive implications to avoid waste of resources and time.
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