Today was a rush of information to all of us. We not only learned more about the syllabus for the course but also about the expectations of our research and subsequent publication of our results.
The purpose of our CI5390 course is to learn the procedures and the resources needed to improve education trhough review, analysis, and synthesis of scholarly research literature. Our major project is to prepare a research paper that responds to a research question. In other words, each of us is to create a relevant research project involving measurement techniques used by the social sciences and present this in an APA format for publication.
Today's class was a foundation to Educational Research which included the different types of research; qualitative vs. quantitative research, and various models for gathering and presenting information. It was mind-blowing to the uninitiated! I am thankful for the classes I took in Psychology in my undergrad program where I learned a bit about statistical analysis and research methodology not normally looked at outside of the social sciences. The phrases and key words brought up in the class really brought back those studies in the undergrad program I was in.
After a short break, we were introduced to the syllabus for our CI5372 class that involves studying the philosophical foundations of education. In this course, we will not only learn about historical educational philosophers; we will also map out contemporary issues in education and present our own philosophies for classroom education. This seems like it will be more discussion based but will tie in great with the research we will be doing in the other course (and vice-versa).
During our working lunch, we presented to Dr. Summers some ideas that each of us would like to begin studying for our research proposal. If you are in the class and are working on some proposals, list them here so we can read them and discuss. Maybe we can all help each other out.
My topics are quite general but they include: staff development in the areas of time spent out of the school day vs. integrated into the school day; hands-on learning vs. presented information, teacher feelings towards technology integration, self-assessment, and teacher attitudes toward professionalism with students. These are all very general topics that I can't go into details yet; but these are the areas I am considering. I am interested in several of these during the course of this program; but others I may look into researching further once I graduate.
The last thing I want to say about this may invite some more discussion from others. Several of us were talking in the breaks about the research we are conducting and its usefulness to the district. One discussion point was figuring out that if each of us produces a valid research product within the district, we are providing valuable information for our district to use. Also, since our last courses involve grant writing, it seems we are doing more work for our district as well.
With this discussion, someone brought up that a reason many of the original 38 who applied for this program dropped (we are now down to 10) is because other graduate programs paid 50-80% of the tuition and did not require action research plans. This brings up many questions from our group members about what we are doing and having to pay.
If you have something to contribute about these discussions or want to discuss your research plans; please comment here.
1 comment:
I discussed three different possible topic choices with Dr. Summers today. My current topics are 1. Interactive Whiteboard videos, 2. Administration leaders with practical application and experience with technology integration for the future and 3. Evaluation of TAKS teaching methods with student needinig to pass the ExCET test.
Post a Comment