WEEK 9 PRESENTATION

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Research Paper Proposal
Chinenye Ohazurike
Stratford University
ENG111
Lisa Ratcliff
2/23/2022

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The field of education has witnessed many changes with the advent of technology and
digitalization. The research topic for this research aims to identify the effectiveness of blended
learning methods and their impact on students from low socioeconomic backgrounds. The
research aims to test the performance of students from low-income areas and its correlation to
digital methods of learning blended with traditional methods of learning. Some of the research
questions include; Does digital learning affect the performance of students from low
socioeconomic backgrounds? The research aims to directly test the research topic. Students from
low-income backgrounds lack access to digital tools, which affects their ability to perform well
under blended methods of learning.
Low-income areas face various disparities which affect students. For instance, students
from low socioeconomic backgrounds face various challenges such as health disparities, poverty
or unequal distribution of resources, high crime rates, and racial segregation. These disparities
may affect the cognition of such students, affecting their reception of blended learning methods
(Jesson et al., 2018). In addition, digital learning methods need technological investment to
access the tools necessary to facilitate digital learning. Students from these low-income
backgrounds may lack the resources to pay for school fees or purchase gadgets necessary to aid
them in learning. Therefore, these students may enroll in schools that use traditional methods of
learning or underperform in schools that use blended methods of learning.
Blended methods of learning are effective since they use both traditional and digital forms
of learning. With the increased digitalization, it is inevitable that most schools incorporate digital
methods of learning which are more interactive and more effective (Hrastinski, 2019). Digital
forms of learning have been found to be more impactful on student performance since they

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actively engage the students in the learning process. Therefore, most governments and
educational institutions have stressed the need for digitization of the classroom environment.
Students from low-income areas may be forced to find possible solutions to incorporate
themselves into the digital curriculum despite their backgrounds.
In conclusion, this research aims to identify the relationship between blended learning
methods and their impact on class performance for students of low socioeconomic status. The
research is important because it can provide possible solutions to help students from such
backgrounds equally access better and advanced education. Educators and policymakers can
become more informed and ultimately change students' performance from such low-income
areas through the research.

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References
Hrastinski, S. (2019). What do we mean by blended learning?. TechTrends, 63(5), 564-569.
Jesson, R., McNaughton, S., Rosedale, N., Zhu, T., & Cockle, V. (2018). A mixed-methods
study to identify effective practices in the teaching of writing in a digital learning
environment in low income schools. Computers & Education, 119, 14-30.