III ¿Cómo se elabora una Constitución?
5. Otros órganos del Estado
It is necessary to review studies that are similar to the proposed study, in order to benefit from the used methodologies, as they will help in identifying the research methodology.
Hall (1997) studied children’s reading choices in a wide-ranging sample where a questionnaire was constructed based on Whitehead’s survey after modification to meet that period’s requirement; the questionnaire which is designed to probe deeply into children's voluntary reading habits and its forms, investigated the choices that children make in their reading. Over 9,000 questionnaires were distributed to a wide range of schools in England. The return rate was 89% of a total 7,976 of which 2,975 were 10-year-olds, 2,455 were 12-year-olds, and 2,546 were 14-year-olds, followed by 1% of the total sample, which comprised 87 children, being interviewed. Findings showed that there is an increase in book reading for both genders of 10-year-old children, girls read more than boys, while there is a decline in reading by lower socioeconomic groups, Roald Dahl’s books are most popular, classic books are the widest-read, there is a strong influence of the media on reading choices, adventure stories are the most preferable for both genders, 90% of children own books, 70% borrow books from public libraries, those who read more watch less television, and there seemed to be no direct relation or significance with the time spent on computer and the time spent reading.
Druin et al. (2001) carried out research to develop a digital library interface suitable for children aged 5–10 years old. The prototype system, called ‘Search Kids’, provides a graphical interface for querying, browsing, and reviewing search results. The design was based on graphical user interfaces, interaction styles, screen design, and user- centered design. The digital library method was based on the collaboration of children as design partners. Seven children ages 7–11 years of age collaborated as design partners, and 100 children aged 7–9
years old as informants. Outcomes shows that the design partner children had a critical role in the initial brainstorming experiences that would set directions for the digital libraries research, while the informant children helped in understanding whether the design was generalised among a diverse population of children. In addition, children did not restrict themselves just to searching for data, but they insisted on using it, and they considered the digital library as an area to search for different aspects of information and not a library with books.
Wilson (2003) carried out a study on e-book readers in higher education based on the EBONI (Electronic Books ON-screen Interface) project (Wilson and Landoni, 2001). This method was used for the e-book evaluation fields in order to attain comparable results of different experiments. Four general phases were involved in the methodology, such as: selection of material, actors, tasks, and evaluation techniques. The experiment was designed to be carried out with 18 participants, primarily lecturers and researchers aged 21–50 years old, all males except for three females, from the Digital Library Research Centre, and Computer and Information Sciences Department in Strathclyde University, to test five e-book readers: four on Soft Book, four on Rocket e-Book, three on Jornada 548, three on e-Book Man 900, and four on Palm Vex. The length of the experiment was 3 months. Results showed that most participants prefer to read from large screens with suitable bulk and weight. They wish to read from screens as easily as from printed books so they can make notes and mark on pages, and browse naturally through the pages.
Naidu (2005) examined the usability of educational websites for children by evaluating the three websites ‘factmonster.com’, ‘enchantedlearning.com’, and ‘infoplease.com’. A sample of 30 children aged 7–11 years old, 17 females and 13 males, participated in the study, and were selected from local communities such as churches, scout troops, and after-school programmes, with experience of at least one year in using computers and the Internet. The participants completed
seven informational search tasks on one of the three websites. Findings revealed that participants using ‘factmonster.com’ were the fastest, and that they were more successful with ‘factmonster.com’ and ‘enchantedlearning.com’ than the ‘infoplease.com’ homework centre. In addition, all the sites proved not to be at a high level of efficiency or satisfaction. It was also found that tasks performance were influenced by terminology, number and organisation of links, location of information above the fold, and length of individual pages. The performance of older children aged 11 years on all sites was better than younger children aged 7–8 years.
Shaheen (2007) carried out a study to investigate the reading habits and preferences of children, motivations behind reading, and their attitudes towards reading. A questionnaire-based survey method was designed to confirm that students should not confuse reading related to study and optional reading. The three questionnaire parts comprise: demographic information concerning participants, reading habits and attitudes regarding leisure reading information, and reading material preferences, subject interests, and reading encouragement factors. The questionnaire was pre-tested on five upper primary students, and a total of 440 students from 12 upper primary classes of three schools aged between 9 and 12 years participated in the study. The outcome of the study showed that the majority of students were motivated to read for academic purposes to improve their language and gain better marks in exams; reading preference was the third after hobbies and playing on computers or the Internet; and generally girls showed more interest in reading than boys. A study was conducted by Smith (2009) concerning middle-grade students’ reading interests, habits, and achievement using a survey based on a quantitative method in nature including the gender of the participants, their race or ethnicity, the educational levels of their parents, academic success (grades), and citizenship. The dependent variables of this study are students’ reading interests, leisure reading habits, and reading and academic success. Questions related to the student’s
parents were added to the survey in order to create adaptations. A pilot test at a middle school with similar demographics was used to test the reliability and validity of the survey method. The survey was distributed to 479 students; only 102 students completed and returned the survey. The study findings prove that gender, race or ethnicity, educational level of parents, academic success, and citizenship affect middle school children’s leisure reading interests, leisure reading habits, and academic and reading success.
Couse and Chen (2010) study explored tablet computer viability for early childhood education using a mixed methods approach, and gathered qualitative and quantitative data from a total of 41 children aged from 3 to 6 years old. The survey included 16 objects focusing on types of technologies which are available at home, children’s patterns of usage, and adults facilitating computer usage. The child’s interaction with computers both during and after instruction was examined. Differences by age in the ways children worked with the computer across classroom groups were determined. The collection of data required introductory warm-up sessions focusing on teaching children how to use the tablet, a drawing session of a final self-portrait, and interviews, one with each child for delayed memory recall, and one with each classroom group of teachers in a focused group interview session; all children were videotaped during the use of tablets. Findings show significant difference in level of tablet use between sessions, and the involvement with tablets increased with age. Teachers found that children’s interest in drawings was above their expectation as was the ease of using the stylus for drawing. Children were interested and kept on using the tablet without frustration in spite of facing some technical issues in learning this new technology, where they were influenced with ways chosen by teachers to implement this technology.
Consequently, it was decided to:
- Conduct interviews with Jordanian writers, publishers, child specialists, and childrens’ cultural centre managers
- Design surveys for children to evaluate their acceptance of different websites
- Design a new virtual website with certain specifications that meets the needs of Jordanian culture, and related surveys for targeted groups to evaluate the new website’s acceptance.