Purpose:

Students will be asked to submit critiques of a journal article that focuses on a problem families face. This activity has three functions:

It allows students to choose what to focus on and take control of their own learning experience.
It brings outside resources into the course.
It provides participants with an extensive list of summaries of related resources, which they can choose to read or archive for later use.
Directions:

Summarize and critique a journal article about a problem families face. This should be an article other than one assigned for this course.

Locate an article about a problem faced by families today. You may search the web, the West Virginia Depot, or your institution’s library.
Locate a journal published in the last five years.
Locate an article about a family problem or issue (RETIREMENT)

Prepare your critique. Your critique should include:
The article title and author.
The problem statement or hypothesis, i.e., The purpose of this study was to determine if there is a difference between the grades of children in families who are classified as low or middle class.
The sample used in the study, i.e., The sample consisted of thirty families in the Metro D.C. area. Fifteen families were classified as low income and fifteen families were classified as middle income.
Data collection methods, i.e., observation, survey, pre-post test, etc. Families completed a demographic survey developed by the researchers. In addition, student end-of-year grades and Westtest scores were compared for each group.
Results, i.e., The students in lower income families scored significantly lower on the Westtest then did their middle class counterpart. However, there was not significant difference in their grade differences.
Conclusions, i.e. The researches concluded that while this study didn’t find a difference in the class grades of the two groups they indicated that this could be a result of the individual grading of teachers and suggest that additional research needs to be done in which they compare students who have the same teachers.
Your analysis – Identify the strengths and weaknesses of the study, the most important thing you learned from the study, things you agree and disagree with and why, questions you have for the author and your opinion of the articles importance to the field of family management and specifically problems in families.