Understanding The Perception Of Parents And Teachers On Novelty Playing Cards For Children Aged 8-14 Years

Research Aim

Question:

Mr Mann is the owner of a company which produces novelty playing cards for children. The cards  which contain facts about science and nature have become a global phenomenon and until recently were Ireland’s best-selling toy card amongst the 8 to 14 years-olds. But the craze for collecting and trading the cards has obscured the fact that the toy is also a game that can be played with positive benefits. Children learn the important skill of negotiation, and of course it encourages reading, it is potentially valuable in so many other ways.

The success of this game has also led to some socially unacceptable behaviour amongst children. Children have been known to spend disproportionate amounts of time playing with these cards when they should be studying. Other problems cited include stealing cards from each other, hiding opponents’ cards and fighting over them. The problem appears to be mainly confined to the city schools – no incidence of this type of anti-social behaviour has been reported by rural schools. Worried about the growing problems associated with these cards and the possible negative parental and teacher reaction to the toy, Mr. Mann thinks he ought to conduct some research into the perception & use of these cards in Ireland. He would like to find out how these cards are viewed by parents and teachers. He would also like to find out the motivation the children have for buying this product.

Your business research agency has been chosen to design a business research project for the company.

Develop a comprehensive research project for the client. This should include a detailed discussion on the research aim, the nature of the specific problem being addressed, your research philosophy, preferred research methodology, research strategy, time horizon and delimitations of scope. Outline what type of data should be collected. Support your approach with a detailed discussion on the recommendations which you have made.

The playing cards are those cards that are meant for the children in order to engage themselves in a productive work where they can learn negotiations, team work as well as enhances their reading capability (O’Reilly et al. 2012). The novelty playing cards that are being produced by Mr. Mann  contain the facts regarding nature and science that became Ireland’s one of the most popular card game among the children aged between 8-14 years of age.

The research aim of a research study clarifies the purpose of the study as well as help to understand the aims of the study. In this study, Mr. Mann who is the owner of novelty playing cards produces the cards for the children aged between 8-14 years. The children are crazy about these cards that have lead to certain misbehavior in their attitude and manners. Certain bad habits such as stealing, quarrelling and hiding of these cards among the friends have started that caught the attention of both the teachers and parents. As a result the cards are getting a negative vibe from the parents as well as from the teachers. A research team was therefore appointed by Mr. Mann to see the perception of both the teachers and parents regarding the acceptance of these playing cards. So, the research aim of this study is to see the possible negative attitude of the parents as well as teachers regarding the toy. In addition to this, the research is also conducted to see the perception and usage of the toy cards within Ireland.

Background

Mr. Mann an owner of novelty card producing company produced playing cards for the children.  The novelty playing cards that are produced for the children aged in between 8-14 years old in Ireland are in great demand among the children. This is because; these cards are part of education along with entertainment. Through these cards, the children know about the facts of nature and science and the essential skills of cooperation. At the peak point of this huge success, recently there are some problems that had arisen regarding the behavior of the children. It is seen that the children are spending a huge amount of time playing with these cards even at the time of their studies. This is not only hampering their studies but also hampering their behavior. The children started misbehaving with their friends and along with they were indulging themselves in fighting and quarrel. In addition to this, the children were also hiding each other’s cards and learnt the habit of stealing others cards. This is also seen that this problem is persisting among the city schools and no such incidence is reported till date in the rural schools.

As a result, these kinds of incidents made the novelty playing cards negative in the eyes of both the parents and the teachers.  This made Mr. Mann the owner of the card producing company hire research agency for understanding and collecting report regarding the use and perception of these cards among the parents and children.

Research philosophy is based on assumption of certain important assumptions that are influenced by the realistic considerations. Generally there are three types of research philosophy namely- positivism, post positivism, and realism. For this research, the research team has chosen post positivism. The post positivism emphasizes on the relationship between beliefs, practices and habits (Jain et al. 2014). In this context the children are not studying well as well as they had indulged themselves into unethical behaviors like quarreling, fighting, stealing and hiding the cards of their friends. This behavior of the children has offended their parents and teachers that resulted in increase of anger on these playing cards. To understand this relationship between the unpleasant behavior of the children and the cards as well as to understand the perception and acceptance level of these cards among teachers and parents of the children, this research is conducted.

The research approach is essential in order to collect the data and analyze it later for better understanding of the problem. For this research, quantitative research approach is associated with it. Here, this will help in understanding the possible relationships between the misbehavior of the children and cards. In addition to this, the level of anger and level of perception regarding these cards among the parents and teachers are also need to be considered.

The problem regarding the cards has been seen in the city schools rather than in rural schools. This has lead to the misbehavior among the children and the rate of stealing and hiding of these cards has been increased and the quarrels regarding the cards also increased in a considerable rate. So, the research strategy will be organizing entertainment campaigns in schools where there will be an involvement of children, teachers as well as parents. In this open forum, quantitative questionnaires will be given to the teachers and children regarding their perception towards the novelty playing cards (O’Reilly et al. 2012). This strategy will be directly involving the teachers and parents and hence suggestions can be obtained regarding the improvement in the children’s behavior. This responsiveness and attitude of the playing card company will surely change the perspective of the parents and teachers towards the company.

Ti me Taken	Options	Work Done
1-3 weeks	Organizing the entertainment programs in schools and collection of data	In this section, initially the data are collected from the teachers and parents of the children in city schools regarding their perception on the playing cards.
3-5 weeks	Analyzing the collected data	The data collected therefore need to be analyzed to see the parents and teachers perception towards these cards.
5-6 weeks	Finding out solutions	The solutions regarding these problems need to be found out. Solutions such as selling these cards to those children who are consistent in their behavior and studies.  Reviews will be taken from the parents and teachers before selling these playing cards to the children. This will compel the children go behave properly and concentrate on their studies.
6-9 weeks	Conveying the solution and getting feedbacks	The solution need to be conveyed to the parents and teachers. Feedbacks are collected regarding the idea and therefore their change in perception towards the company and the playing cards are also noted.
9-11 weeks	Reevaluation of feedbacks and making considerable changes.	The feedbacks are reevaluated and hence respective changes are made if any issue is seen raised in this strategy.

The delimitations of a research study arise from the limitations in the scope of the research study.  This is the explanation of the scope of the study. The delimitations rise from the precise choices by the researcher (Jain et al. 2014). This includes the choice of objectives, questions, the theoretical perspectives of the researcher.

The data is collected from the teachers and parents of the respective children studying in city schools. This is because; the problem is seen among the children of the city schools. The quantitative data are so collected that help in understanding the perspective of the teachers and parents regarding the playing cards. A survey was conducted among 250 teachers and parents and among them 100 of them responded correctly. A sample of quantitative questionnaire is given below-

1) How long the children play with the cards in schools in average?

1. a) 3-4 hours
2. b) 2-3 hours
3. c) 1-2 hours
4. d) Less than 1 hr
5. e) Doesn’t play at all

Options	Total No. of respondents	No. of respondents	(%)
3-4 hours	100	45	45 %
2-3 hours	100	20	20%
1-2 hours	100	15	15%
%Less than 1 hr	100	12	12%
Doesn’t play at all	100	8	8%

Table 1: Children playing with the cards in schools in average

2) How long the children play these cards in average at home?

1. a) 5-6 hours
2. b) 2-3 hours
3. c) Less than an hour
4. d) Never play

Options	Total No. of respondents	No. of respondents	(%)
5-6 hours	100	50	50%
2-3 hours	100	30	30%
Less than an hour	100	15	15%
Never play	100	5	5%

Table 2: Children playing these cards in average at home

3) How often the children fight over the cards

1. a) Very Often
2. b) Sometimes
3. c) Never

Options	Total No. of respondents	No. of respondents	(%)
Very Often	100	60	60%
Sometimes	100	30	30%
Never	100	10	10%

Table 3: Children fight over the cards

4) How many times the children are caught fighting and hiding and quarreling with friends over cards?

1. a) Very often
2. b) Sometimes
3. c) Never

Options	Total No. of respondents	No. of respondents	(%)
Very often	100	65	65%
Sometimes	100	30	30%
Never	100	5	5%

Table 4: Children caught fighting and hiding and quarreling with friends over cards

In order to reduce this, the parents and teachers need to increase their strictness towards the children. The children need to be punished due to their misconduct and quarrelsome behavior. At times, the playing cards need to be snatched away due to their misbehavior and return back on good behavior and concentration on studies.

Conclusion

This assignment deals with the problem that has risen due to the rise of demand of the playing cards among the children. This leads to the displeasure of the parents and teachers due to the misbehavior and lack of concentration in the studies of the children. So, research has been conducted to see the perspective of the parents and teachers regarding the playing cards. Recommendations are also discussed to minimize the ill effects of the playing cards.

Reference list

Jain, R., Jain, P., and Jain, C. (2014) Book Review: Research Methods for the Behavioral Sciences. Vision: The Journal of Business Perspective, 18(1), pp. 69-69

O’Reilly, K., Paper, D., and Marx, S. (2012) Demystifying Grounded Theory for Business Research, Organizational Research Methods, 15(2), pp. 247-262