I think that my original plan for a research topic was good but not very realistic with our time constraints. I still want to do research about Biology End of Course (EOC) scores because that is something that I am extremely interested in. I always analyzed my scores to see how students scored and my goal summary sheet to see my weak areas. I am especially interested in what methods are effective with the regular or college prep students. I don’t know what labels were used at everyone’s high school but these students include the “middle of the road” students as well as the lowering achieving/exceptional children. These are the students I teach. I want to be able to effectively reach each one and help them perform on the EOC.
This will not be as much of a quantitative study as I originally envisioned. However, I do think that a survey is the way to go. I could try to find someway to identify the teachers of my student interest group with high EOC scores (tips anyone?) and survey them about their methods. I also think that it would be interesting to survey their former Biology students to see what they think their teachers did that best prepared them.
4 comments:
Leslie, I think you will find this study easier to carry out if you forget EOCs for a while. It would not be reasonable that you could identify teachers with high scores or students with high scores. Neither could you get records of student score. That is all highly confidential.
You could survey biology teachers in general to ask questions about teaching methods and student achievement. Or you could focus on some teaching method and study how teachers implement it and whether they feel it is successful in maximizing student achievement.
Or you could survey or interview teachers and ask generally how they prepare for the EOC. Your question might be how the EOC influences classroom practices.
I think you need to brainstorm some more.....
I agree with Dr. Mac about continuing to brainstorm. If i understand your postings, so far you have identified your interests as EOCs, general (as opposed to gifted or AP) biology students, and teaching methods.
As a suggestion... You might consider choosing a school with a demographic (which is public information) that suits your study. You could interview and observe the biology teachers and tell their story about how and why EOC may or may not influence their classroom practice.
Your previous posting has me asking the following questions: Do teachers view passing the EOC as a sign of success? Why? How is success defined by science teachers? Do teachers view students who pass the EOC as scientifically literate? How do these teachers define scientific literacy?
By continuing to narrow down your interests, you'll be able to design a doable research study. -John
Hey Leslie,
First of all, I think it's so great that you are interested in studying something that you know is an issue as a teacher and that you will likely take with you back into the classroom. I would guess this will prove very rewarding. I like Mr. Pecore's idea about finding science teachers and simply asking them what they think about scientific success. And along with Dr. McCoy, do these teachers see the EOC as the end all be all? Do they shape their classroom activities after this exam? I would be interested to see what their focus is and how they define success.
Leslie,
I think it's very interesting and should be noted that out of all of us posting blogs, those with teaching experience are all interested in EOC scores. And I agree with Dr. Pecore that studying how teachers consider success in their classrooms could be a very useful study. This has become evident through me after tutoring this week. One of the girls I tutored said that although she had the highest grade in her class, she didn't pass the EOC. Analyzing her teacher's opinion of how that situation came to be could shed some light on the classroom environment.
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