Trying to pick a research topic for me seemed a little daunting at first. As Dr. McCoy has said in class, most people want to pick a research topic that will make a huge difference in education. I guess I am one of those people. I want to pick something that will be meaningful to the education community. In my reading and our class discussions, I think that I am going to try working on a research topic from my personal experience. Having taught four years, I have seen a lot of issues that I would like to change. For example, testing (regardless of how we feel about it) is a huge factor in being a teacher today. For me it is the Biology EOC. Every year, I have tried to look at my classes test scores and overall summary performance on each of the NC SCOS Biology goals. I try to find new ways to address my student’s weak areas and modify areas to improve student learning. I also offer LOTS of tutoring and one on one help. Maybe I could do research on the variables that would help Biology students be successful on the EOC. In particular, I am interested in how inquiry based lab activities could affect the EOC score or concept retention. This probably needs to be severely modified to actually work. Also, there are many other factors such as exceptional children, outside tutoring, and student motivation to consider. With students in NC now required to be proficient on the Biology EOC to graduate, any tool I can find the make them more successful the better. Don’t get me wrong – I do not “teach to the test” and am not advocating that. I just want my students to be successful and scientifically literate.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
A Science Teacher's Point of View
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2 comments:
Leslie, There are many doable studies If EOC testing is your interest. You could collect data on one or a few teachers' views of EOC testing and write a narrative inquiry. Another possibility is to collect and analyze public EOC Biology data (if sufficient information is public) for patterns. You could use this data to choose a few "representative" schools and perhaps interview, observe, and/or survey teachers for how science is taught in these schools. With educational research you can not control all variables so don't let this concern you. You'll learn how this is dealt with if you choose this type of research. Additionally, we can use techniques like triangulation and member checking to control for your subjectivity.
Leslie, I agree with JP. There is a lot of opportunity in thinking about EOC scores. You could identify a few schools with high scores and interview the department chair or biology teachers there and ask them what they do to achieve those high scores. That sounds very simple, but also very powerful. You could also use a survey or observation.
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