possible research topics

Okay, now I think I have some ideas:
- Teaching Grammar in a Spanish classroom & student achievement on English grammar assessments (correlational)
- Differences among traditional & block scheduled lesson planning & pacing (maybe compare using data from Analysis I - achievement scores on English I EOC &/or Writing Test for some quantitative data and then do teacher surveys and view thier plans for qualitative data?)
- Which affects students more negatively, SEC or race??? What is the predictor for success, what impedes success more?

Are these feasible? Anyone have any thoughts in favor/against any of these???

#2

So this week we've been working on appropriate research methods. Gathering data for my possible topic (the effectiveness of classroom routines) will definitely include interviews. I love sitting down with both current teachers and students to find out how methods are put into place and if students actually respond to them. I plan on interviewing both students and teachers then to see if, as Sarah suggested, students prefer a more relaxed or rigid learning atmosphere. In order to make my conclusions more generalizable, I'd also like to possibly survey more than just the four master teachers we'll be watching. I'd love any suggestions for effective questioning techniques here and how to make the survey most respond-able.

I’d like to incorporate more quantitative data as well. Maybe I could make the survey have a numerical scale? Beyond that, I’m not sure how I will but I think it would go a long to making my study seem truer. Numbers tend to be more impressive and convincing than a lot of words.

Minor Details...Numero Dos

I am experiencing a semi-internal conflict in determining my research topic. The conflict that I am momentarily wrestling with is rooted in the very conflict the authors discussed in the article we read for Part I of the quiz. My interests in education have been based on much of the research that the authors warned us against. my last weeks proposal was very much similar to the topics the authors claimed did not qualify as Research IN Education but rather research that is closely linked to it. The article, Dr. Milner, as well as the "bigness" of my previous topic all are forcing me to reconsider the topics I wish to study. Perhaps it would not be as effective, right now, to try and answer or solve huge sociological questions as they pertain to education. Instead of figuring out what environmental factors prevent certain kids from learning, I am going to step out of my comfort zone and go out on a little limb. The article we read for the quiz suggested that researchers need to study and analyze the direct relationship between teacher, student, and environment. I took this to mean that if we, researchers, spend more time assessing and targeting effective teaching methods that this new research has the potential, perhaps, to overlook the many differences that are stifling student's academic success.
So, the new topic shall be a quantitative causal comparative study where I assess the effect of English teachers use of canonical literature on student motivation. I will first examine research which states what is the typical canon for high-school English students. I will then send out a survey to High-School English teachers asking them which of these canonical texts they use and if there are any texts not listed that they teach to please list them. Even though this is a quantitative study, it will also incorporate qualitative aspects because I will assess student motivation both through survey and through observation. The student survey may ask them to list two favorite books they read and why they were most interesting to them. The survey could possible contain a list of the books they read in the class and have a Likert Scale that corresponds to each book. My observation will look at factors such as class participation and non-verbal ques (heads on desk, talking to friends, passing notes, etc) to see how involved students are in the dialogue surrounding the book.
This topic is of extreme importance because as a teacher, I want to know how best to reach my students. I know my life changed, no exaggeration, when I got to undergrad and began to take courses and study materials that catered to my passions and interests. I don't feel like the high-school curriculum does a good job of this and would like to see if more contemporary, multi-ethnic, or even books related to the kids lives will effect their eagerness to learn.

#2 ¿Cómo?: Narrowing the focus

Last week I wrote that I plan to study methods for improving oral proficiency with a focus on a near native accent. In my lit review I will research techniques created by linguists to develop a Hispanic accent and in my field research I will interview and observe teachers to discover which methods are feasible and effective.

To narrow this topic even further, I would like to concentrate on secondary education specifically in high schools. My reasoning for this is that while there are some programs that start foreign language in elementary or middle schools, the bulk of students start learning a second language in high school. Also, I plan on teaching only in high schools so to study high schools would be the most applicable for me.

I will focus on proficiency-oriented instruction and strategies that support oral proficiency development. Such strategies could include basic linguistic instruction of phonetics (as Robbie mentioned he might research) and the amount of native speaker speech the students are hearing. One technique I would like to implement in my own classroom is to occasionally bring in native Spanish speakers to give short talks on issues surrounding the local Hispanic community in order to give the students exposure to a native accent and gain a cultural awareness at the same time. In my research I would be interested to see the creative ways that teachers integrate native accents into their classrooms.

Blog #2: Method before Madness…

I keep rolling this research project over and over in my mind. A coworker of mine suggested determining what the characteristics of Schools of Excellence are. For example: Are the teachers highly motivated? Are there demographic differences? Some of this information may be found on the NC Report Card website, but other factors would require a survey of staff, administration, and student body. While I realize that it might not be possible to survey the entire school, I think that I would begin by contacting several teachers that might be interested in assisting me with gathering student data. After I have collected the data, I will have to analyze it, and this is what scares me about this particular choice. Not only would there be a massive amount of data, but it may even require regression equations. That scares me on many levels.

In reality, I keep coming back to the idea of studying some aspect of the EOC. This test is such a major facet of the lives of high school teachers, it difficult to not want to study it further. The many different ideas I have all hinges on the cooperation of teachers I meet with. Not only would I want to do a “simple” survey, but I would also like to interview teachers about the EOC. Ultimately I would like to use actual EOC scores in my study somehow, but I’m not sure how that would work since they would have to be old scores. I wouldn’t be able to study if certain methods or ideas have an effect on the class’s EOC score. With the growing importance of the EOC in our students’ lives, I feel I must do everything in my power to ensure my student’s success on those tests.

Lesson Plans

My blog last week was pretty vague. So I’m going to attempt to narrow it down to something that can actually be measured. I still am very interested in how social studies teachers can know their entire content. I guess it’s just years and years of teaching basically the same thing. So, while this is still intriguing, I think I’ll leave that up to my own discussion with teachers outside of the actual research project.

From Dr. Friedman’s suggestion, I think I am going to focus on how teachers take this broad content and develop a lesson plan around it. How do they decide which topics are important and need more attention? How do they cover the entire Civil War in a few days? How do they make sure they pick out the important details, when there are so many details with each event? I know it could open up a whole different can of worms, but do the US History or Civics EOCs have a huge effect on these lesson plans?

To do this kind of research, I will most likely be conducting interviews with a small sample of teachers. That way, I can really understand their thoughts and suggestions towards lesson planning. I could even interview some students to get their perspective on lessons. I’m not sure exactly what I would ask them, but I know they see it all in a completely different way. Or lastly, it might even be great to do a large survey with many different teachers as a complement to my small interviewing sample. I wonder how much of this I could feasibly do, and what would actually be beneficial. Thoughts?!

Blog 2 – Trying to Narrow Down

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.

two be or not two be

Hello blog. I am not sure that I've made much progress. I am still thinking about "belongingness" as Dr. McCoy called it... being known and being challenged in the classroom. This will, in my experience, result in motivation to learn. I want to nail it down with something concrete. When we had pizza yesterday, some of the grad students talked about their topics. One stuck out to me.. "what's in a name?" She tracked the number of times a teacher addressed students by name. Simple, yet profound. This made me realize that I need to hone in on something specific. I am still not entirely sold on this topic, but let's just say I run with it. I think the data must come from students themselves. The individual can truly assess how hard he or she works. If we're going the survey route, it's tough to think of questions.
"Think back to a class in which you worked hard.
1. My teacher took an active interest in my achievement.
Strongly agree.....agree.....etc.
2. I felt comfortable to ask questions
Strongly agree... blah blah blah
3. I would describe my teacher as
a friend.....warm....caring....serious.....mean.... frigid
Is it doable to correlate the relationship between the teacher-student relationship and student motivation?
It's more comfortable to imagine an interview situation... for example,
"Has there been a time in high school when you've enjoyed learning and been motivated to work hard? Can you describe that experience? How about a time when you slacked off? Describe the relationship with your teacher."

I am still passionate about this, but I'm unsure. I think there are so many factors. A lot of me just thinks it depends on the student's personality. I am certainly no expert, but aren't females wired to be more relational? Does this matter?

Still chewing on things!

Survey? Correlation? Maybe both? (2)

OK, so I have just about decided that I would like to research something to do with multicultural literature. I say “just about” because it is still very early in the process, and because I have a hard time making decisions about anything. That said, I think that it would be very interesting to research the effects that multicultural literature, and teachers’ attitudes towards multicultural literature, have on the attitudes of students, especially students of different ethnicities, races, and what I like to think of as cultural backgrounds, towards their English classes.

With this, there are a lot of variables to be defined and investigated, but for now, I am considering a survey approach. Ideally, I would like to survey both teachers and students to determine attitudes. The survey for teachers would also ask them about how often they teach literature that is written by and representative of different cultures; the student survey would have to include their attitudes to reading literature by and about cultures that are different from their own. I think it would add depth to my study if I could also observe students in the classrooms to see their attitudes towards English classrooms, and perhaps to interview a few students and/or teachers as well.

Once I have collected the survey data, I will have to analyze it. I think that it may be interesting to not only report percentages, but to perhaps conduct some sort of a correlation test as well, as I think that the data may lend itself well into a correlational study.

With all of my high aspirations, I see this as getting way out of hand really quickly, but I am not concerned for now, because I still have plenty of time to tame this savage beast before I begin writing surveys and collecting data. It might be necessary to leave the teachers out of the study and focus solely on the students, but I genuinely believe that teachers’ attitudes towards multicultural literature will have an influence on students’ attitudes.

Smile like you mean it :)

Thanks to Doctors Milner and McCoy and all of you classmates of mine, I’m feeling much better about this project now. At the risk of sounding like I’m accepting an Oscar, I would like to thank you all for your support and encouragement and for letting me know that I'm not the only one who hasn’t definitively selected a topic yet. ;)

So, I know that in my last post I was discussing the possibility of a study that had to do with questions—the kinds of questions teachers ask or which students they tend to call on, etc. In Dr. Sloane’s class this week, however, I had one of those “Aha!” moments. I think I’d really like to study teachers’ smiles. While it may sound kind of cheesy, I think it could be very useful and reassuring to prove that something as simple as a simple as a smile could have a positive effect on student response or performance. I’m not exactly sure yet what direction would be most feasible to take with a question like this, but I have a few ideas so far: 1) surveying students to see what they think or how they feel about a teacher’s positivity (or lack thereof), 2) measuring (I’m exactly sure how yet) students’ immediate response to smiling through observation, or 3) interviewing teachers to find out whether they think smiling has an effect on student response.

While I realize this study would end up being more subjective and qualitative that my original idea, this is something I could definitely stay interested in for the entire semester!

#2 - A quantitative approach

To study phonetics instruction quantitatively, a survey approach would probably be most effective. I would need to design specific questions, using a Likert scale, about how often teachers do certain things: teach phonetics explicitly, give oral proficiency evaluations, correct students' pronunciation in class, engage the class in dialogues and skits, and make distinctions between similar sounds ("vu"[past participle of the verb "to see"] and "vous" [you, formally]) just as a few examples. To acquire more information about specific strategies teachers use, I would need to conduct several interviews at various age levels (elementary, middle, and high school) and class observations.

This study might also lend itself to a correlational approach. The amount and types of phonetic instruction could serve as one variable, while scores on an oral proficiency exam would be another variable. If a relationship were established, I could use the amount and quality of phonetics instruction to predict scores on the oral proficiency exam. I would either need to design my own evaluation or get ideas from an existing one, such as the OPI (a telephone interview with a native speaker that is judged on many criteria, including pronunciation). To create a more valid study, I would first need to establish reliability by having several judges score the exams.

Of course, this topic is still somewhat broad, and I need to narrow down exactly how I will define phonetics instruction. Clearly, greater phonetics instruction will predict greater phonetic achievement, so I need to look specifically at how and why certain approaches might work better than others. To accomplish this, interviews and observations seem most appropriate though quantitative methods can certainly be valuable throughout the research process. Thus, it is really a balance between two approaches, in which they should complement each other.

Maybe a complete turnaround expected... #2

The more I think about my ideas, the more I talk myself out of all of them. However, I have been thinking about the practical aspects of surveying ninth grade world history students and their teachers about the meaning of studying history. My two concerns deal with the actual survey itself and then the subjective nature of the questions I am interested in asking.

Honestly, surveys are not my favorite. I had to participate in some psychology studies in undergrad and was always sent links to online surveys for various other groups. The online surveys always annoyed me a little, but I always tried to do them knowing that I would feel guilty for not giving my feedback and helping out the researchers if I decided otherwise. With that said, I can understand why I might not get the response I desire from students and teachers if I decide to use a survey. I also relate to why researchers often revert to surveys to obtain information because of its practicality.

My other concern would be the truthfulness of students' responses. Would they be honest if they really do not believe that world history has any application to their lives and think it is pointless? Giving a survey to students in a classroom environment, even if the teacher is not in the room, might lead them to think their teachers are going to read the responses.

I still am interested in knowing the percentage of students who believe that history is pointless, somewhat applicable to the real world, and those who, like all history lovers, think history pervades every aspect of our lives. I have also had trouble finding related research literature. It could be that my search terms need to be expanded. I may have a completely new topic next week.

SMART Board and Science Classrooms (2)

So after some great suggestions from this blog and from some candid talk with Dr. Cunningham (the technology education professor) I think I am finally refining my initial thoughts. Here is my new refined idea. Take 2-4 honors or regular level biology classes. Each will be provide with a pre-quiz that assess their knowledge of a particular biology concept. Half of the classes will then be given lessons with SMART Board technology, incorporating movie maker and PowerPoint. I envision the lesson being problem based and students getting more and more information as the lessons go along. The other group will be taught by white board or a more traditional method (with the same info being covered) . After a set number of lessons the groups will be given a post quiz. The quiz will access the student knowledge comprehension and retention. This topic will require some extra work because I will need to put together the SMART board activity. However, it will be part of my educational technology independent study.

I think that this study will be especially helpful to teachers. I think that there is a lot of apprehension among older teachers about technology. Since I was taught to teach through technology it was easy for me to make the transition. If teachers can see solid results that SMART board increases retention and comprehension they will be more likely to give it a try. So I guess my next concern is what happens if it doesn’t work like I think it should? I think there is a lot of research out there that points to technology as a key to connecting students to content. So, I guess I’m just a little concerned about what my results will be.

2nd Blog

After some input from instructors and students, I am planning on continuing to work with the concept of relevance in the biology classroom as the basis for my project. Although it may be difficult to implement this to the extent that I would like, the topic interests me and I hope to use relevant material in my classroom someday, so this research could prove to be a valuable tool for me.

I feel right now that the most realistic methodology for looking into my research question is to survey teachers regarding the extent to which they use relevant topics in their teaching, and their opinions about how that impacts student understanding. Depending on time restraints and the advice I receive from my advisers, I also think there would be value in surveying students regarding similar issues. Quantitatively, I feel as though I could relate the data from my survey to EOC scores. At this point, I am not sure how simply that could be done, but I think it would be interesting to see how the EOC scores of students with teachers who integrate relevant topics and use project-based learning compare to students in a more traditional lecture/memorization-based environment.

After visiting Atkins today, I found myself more excited about my research and about teaching, since integrating relevant issues into the biology classroom was being discussed there in a very positive way. I was also pleased to see from our blogs that several other students in our program want to integrate current events and real-life situations to their various content areas!

Blog #2 - Narrowing it down

Considering my research topic, I’ve thought about narrowing the broad idea of something to do with Spanish oral language down to investigating the specific strategies that high school Spanish teachers use to foment oral proficiency. I recall from my experience in Spanish classes (in high school and college), that my instructors had us do diverse things from answering questions aloud, reading passages aloud, holding informal conversations to doing imaginary skits. By investigating this, I can find out the frequency in which teachers employ these strategies, how affective they believe they are, and their attitudes towards employing them.

Now continuing this process of thinking out loud (in sense), I must consider the methodologies I could use to pursue this topic. Thinking in the quantitative realm, since that’s what we’ve been reading about recently in our text, I believe a survey would be the best way at getting at the data I want. I could have various groups of questions for the areas I previously described relating to teaching oral foreign language skills. Next, taking that data, I could aggregate the results of similar questions to gain insight into the major areas that interest me. Given that Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools does such a good job of making instructor email addresses available, administering my survey through email (whether I build it in a Word document or use a website such as SurveyMonkey) would probably make the most sense. Using a website may be even more convenient, because then the respondent wouldn’t have to worry about replying to me; they would just have to click the submit button on the final page of survey from the website. Of course, the survey would have to include some open-ended questions for participants to not only give general thoughts, but perhaps comment on an aspect I might have missed.

Still, for exploring the breadth of teaching strategies, doing in-depth interviews in combination with a survey (or in lieu of one) may yield more complete information in all the areas related to teaching oral foreign language skills, especially since my research question, as is, remains open-ended.

Blog #2

After reflecting on the comments and suggestions I have received, I feel that I have made some progress in narrowing my topic into something more manageable and practical to me as a teacher. That's not to say that the broad topics of single-sex classrooms and the differences between public and private schools no longer interest me! Reflecting further on my own experiences as a student, I realize that there are some types of tests I tend to do better on than others. I also know that I generally prefer to write a paper than take a test. That said, I have begun to think about researching student assessments in the social studies classroom. What kind of tests to social studies teachers typically give? Multiple-choice tests, essay based test, or some combination of the two? What variety of tests do students prefer? I would imagine there are similar characteristics among students who prefer multiple-choice test to writing based test. Also, what kind of tests prove the most effective in preparing students for college or E.O.C. standardized test?

By surveying teachers and students alike, I could produce some quantitative data that could prove insightful into understanding the effectiveness of testing. I am aware of several studies on this topic as well and am in the process or reading through them. If I do go forward with this research idea, I realize that importance of constructing surveys that would produce the quantifiable data that I want. However, I might choose to blend the qualitative approach of interviewing teachers and/or students in order to obtain more specific information that could prove useful. There's still plenty to think about for sure, but at least I feel like this topic would prove more useful to me as a teacher.

I'm afraid I am one of those "flip-flop" type of people who is going to switch research topics on a weekly basis until I am inevitably required to choose one for good. This week the Analysis I assignment got me thinking about the differences between the high schools in Forsyth County concerning the percentage of students that pass the Algebra EOC. As we have all seen, there is a big discrepancy between the schools, with certain schools significantly out-performing others. Immediately I was drawn to the schools with the lower scores with a desire to teach in such a school and help raise the percentage. Less than a year from now most of us will have decided where we are going to be teaching. I just don't want to go into the decision blindly. This led me to consider researching the relationship between percentage of students passing the Algebra (or other Math) EOC and the morale of the teachers at the various high schools. When I say this, I mean how stressed/happy are the math teachers at a given school? Do they enjoy their jobs? And is their a relationship between the performance of their students on the EOCs and their overall satisfaction with their job? This study would be correlational, and I would like to use surveys of some sort to measure the stress/happiness/job satisfaction (among other things - I'd love suggestions) of the teachers at each school. I would also like to incorporate some qualitative data by interviewing several teachers from different schools and really hearing what they have to say about their job and the amount or lack of stress that it puts on them. I would also like to observe classrooms and consider the teacher-students interactions and the way the teacher responds to the students as an indication of their stress levels or composure or joy to be in the classroom. So to wrap it up - that's what's going on in my head this week!

Response to comments on my first blog entry.- post 2

While I think a survey might be something that I would be more comfortable with, I don’t know how useful it would be. It would tell me in general how primary sources are used but it wouldn’t tell me much about how effective those various ways of using them are and how students respond. I think the best way to do a project, assuming the time frame allows and I will talk to Dr. Friedman about that, would be to combine both types of research. The reason for this is that I think the survey component of the project would do a good job of telling me what methods teachers choose to use and the interview/observation component of the project would be useful in determining how students respond to various methods.

That last part might be tough to do though in a limited number of interviews. How students respond isn’t solely controlled by what types of sources are used and what the basic strategy behind the lesson is. I don’t think the interview method would control well for the quality of teachers for instance. A better teacher might have more success with a less effective method than a poorer teacher would with a better method. For that reason i’m not sure if i’d be able to offer a very prescriptive and conclusive answer as to what approaches might be the most effective. I think though that observing the strategies of various teachers when it comes to using primary sources could prove very useful for my own teaching. It will have a lot of bearing because I plan on using primary documents extensively because I think it is important for students to learn not only from textbooks but from the actual words of those they study. Given how easy it is to get access to documents with today’s technology I think it a vital teaching tool and want to incorporate it in my classes.

Blog #2 - Another Idea

The article that we read for Part I of our quiz this week was extremely interesting. If I understand the main point of the article, it seemed that Ball and Forzani were not necessarily disappointed in the research performed by professors and graduate students within schools and departments of education, but intended to encourage these researchers to take a different path in their research. While looking at the sociology and psychology within education is very important (thus, the two courses we’re taking this summer) looking at the instructional dynamic is key for the two authors and what makes “education” actually education. I don’t necessarily feel the need to appease Ball and Forzani but I have thought about their critiques and have tried to think about how I could study something in the Foreign Language (Spanish) classroom that could possibly align with their definition of educational research. In doing this, my older topic of looking at culture and seeing how a teacher can integrate grammar and oral proficiency into a culture lesson isn’t necessarily going out the window. The teacher would, in fact, be interacting with the content and would then have to figure out creative ways to convey culture to his/her students so that they are learning things from across the FL curriculum.

Limiting myself to only the instructional dynamic, another topic comes to mind. Even though FL is now considered a core subject, it does not get equal treatment in the schools. College prep students only have to take two courses. Students on other tracks may not have to take a foreign language at all. With this systemic attitude toward foreign languages, it seems that a lot of students come into the Spanish, French, Latin, or German class without much enthusiasm and with a poor attitude towards what they are about to learn in the course. One could argue that some students walk into any and every classroom with this attitude. But my experience in high school showed me that most students thought FL classes were a joke, that they were not necessary, and just a filler. As an advocate for the learning of foreign languages, I know that these perceptions are not true. How do teachers deal with the perceptions of their students? What kind of student-teacher interaction is necessary to make the Spanish classroom a legitimate learning environment? Are teachers effective in “convincing” their students that learning Spanish/Portuguese/Arabic is a good a necessary thing? These questions are broad. I’m just trying to flesh out some ideas on how to research the interactions that Ball and Forzani see to be all too important.

Quantitatively, a survey would be the best research method. A large sample of Spanish teachers would be desirable. But to delve down into more detailed descriptions of teacher-student interaction, I think interviews and observations (both qualitative) would be a necessary next step.

Could I really research this?

Combination Of The Two

Well, clearly I need to narrow down my focus or else I’ll be in a world of trouble when I got into the classroom for research. For now, to address Dr. Friedman’s comments, I view discussion, or at least the discussion I am thinking about, as full class interaction, not just the one on one interaction (not that this is not valuable in itself). For research methods, I think that there are several applicable ones. Interviews, which alone would fall into the qualitative category, would be very useful. It might be difficult to collect a sufficient number of interviews and observations to really complete a good study, though. A survey might be the best approach, at least initially. A Likert Scale would work very well in this situation. After compiling the data to learn how often teachers incorporate discussion into their lesson plans, I think it would be useful to try to learn why teachers do, or do not, use discussion as a tool in the classroom. This is where I could incorporate interviews. It would be interesting to talk to a few teachers on both ends of the spectrum (those who use it quite often versus those who seldom if ever use it) to see why. This way I could learn not only how frequently discussion is used, but often why teachers make these decisions. I know this is not refined enough, but I hope that this is closer to a good narrow topic…

Number 2...

So after some thought this week, I have been wrestling with some different ideas for my study. My initial idea was to study how teacher expectations influenced student achievement, but I was very unsure how I was going to be able to study that. Dr. McCoy made it seem much more plausible though by suggesting that I look at it from the students’ perspective instead and study how their perception of their teacher’s expectations of them is related to their performance. I feel like this would be a causal comparative study – with student perception of teacher’s expectations being the independent variable and performance being the dependent variable. (Or would it just be correlational?) I could measure student perceptions with some sort of survey or attitude assessment, possible using the Likert Scale, and measure performance by their grade in the class, or perhaps by giving them some sort of standardized achievement test. While I am not 100% sure that this is exactly what I want to study, getting ideas out on the table and actually starting to formulate a plan makes me feel much better about the whole situation!

I also just want to briefly mention the other idea that I have considered this week in case anyone has any thoughts. I am thinking about possibly studying the relationship between a student’s perception of the real world value of math and their math achievement. In other words, does a student who sees how math can actually apply to their life have higher math achievement? This is just something I came up with in the past couple days, so I haven’t given a ton of thought to it, but hopefully by next week I will have some more ideas!

Blog 2- A question of a comparative study?

This week I have continued to think about my own research interests and am appreciative of the comments given by Dr. McCoy and Dr. Friedman. Unfortunately, I am still feeling slightly confused as to my research path. I do feel confident in my exploration of first/second year teaching experiences within social studies. I know this is very general but I feel it is a foundation from which I could build. I am still intrigued by the idea of teacher attrition and am searching for how to combine my interests.
One idea has come to mind that I would like to run by everyone. In my experience, I have been fortunate to teach the exact same curriculum (U.S. History) in both North Carolina and Virginia. This was interesting because the Virginia curriculum has an end of grade test and North Carolina does not. I think a comparative study between social studies classrooms (one with an end of grade test and one without) could benefit from research. Some possible research questions for consideration are:

1. Do end of grade test scores impact a teacher’s decision to stay or go?
2. One of the main philosophies behind teaching social studies has been the idea of citizenship. Does a teacher’s citizenship definition change based off of whether he/she has an end of grade test?
3. How do teachers define or measure their effectiveness in a classroom with a standardized test vs. those who do not have one?

If one of these topics were to be used then I would use qualitative research methods to collect data. I could prepare questionnaires and conduct semi-structured interviews to be used in both states. My concern would be to find schools that are comparable in both size and student statistics.
The question I have for my professors and classmates is my interest in a comparative study between two states. Is this too large of a project to undertake?

I was born without creativity.........Blog #2

My broad, general research topic is the incorporation of real-life applications into the math classroom. One potential way to conduct this study is through surveys where I would seek to find out how often and in what ways teachers incorporate real life applications. This study would rest on the assumption that incorporating applications into the classroom is a valuable teaching tool. I could pass out surveys to both teachers and students and ask how often or in what ways they use math applications. I would like to survey both the teachers and students as I am sure there is a discrepancy in what the teacher perceives and the student perceives. The teacher may overstate the incorporation of real life applications to look better as a teacher where hopefully, the student would be more truthful because they have nothing to gain or lose.

Another potential way is to conduct a correlation study in which I would determine whether a relationship exists between mathematical understanding and teacher incorporation of real-life problems. If a relationship does exist, I would determine the direction and strength of the relationship. To conduct this research study, I would need to observe classrooms where teachers incorporate real world applications and then examine the math scores of the students in that classroom or administer a test of my own to assess their understanding. As Dr. Mac says, there are an infinite number of ways to conduct a single study!

Blog 2

I really liked the research idea I posted last week, but since I wrote it, I have had some doubts about using it. I could be wrong, but I remember mixed ability-level groups as being more of a middle-school trend, so I fear that I wouldn't have any good opportunities to study them when I shadow in the fall. Oh, well. I'm trying to roll with the punches.

So I was brainstorming about phenomena that
a.) interested me, and
b.) were sure to take place within just about any English class,
when Dr. McCoy mentioned a previous student's study on homework. I don't want to copycat another student's study, but this interests me. It seems to me that most high school English classes rely heavily on students' reading outside of class. If students don't read, then there's really not a whole lot you can do with the texts.

But I have been in classes where teachers assigned so much reading, that trying to keep up the assignments seemed hopeless. I remember thinking in one A.P. class, "We only end up discussing one short story per class, so why do I have to spend 3 hours reading three per night?" And in college, (I am embarrassed to admit), I sometimes just gave up on trying to read all the material for a class in which my completing the reading seemed hopeless.

So here goes--research idea #2 with a potential quantitative framework:
I would like to take down the page numbers (or approximate word count) of all the overnight reading assignments given by the teachers I shadow (that's 4 classes).

Then, I would like to administer surveys to the students to ascertain the effect of page number on morale and likelihood of comprehension/success.

Blog 2

So I think I'll do my research project on rewards incentive vs. internal push, when considering students' motivations.  This is not something that I am deeply passionate about, but I am interested in it.   This topic came from a list that my advisor gave me, which is great because the topics that I had previously chosen all seemed to be too in depth and involved being able to have kids view materials that I picked and then get some reactions from them, which I learned was not really feasible. I was also worried that the answers to complex questions I had previously chosen might not manifest themselves during our observations, but my advisor said the ones on the list definitely would. 

From speaking with last year's MTFs, I learned that their questions were answered almost solely with qualitative data, mostly observation; they also informed me that they had little to no contact with the students and teachers they were studying (concerning their topic), which boggled my mind.  I thought, "really, you didn't do any surveys or interviews?"  This struck me as really odd.  I would definitely like to do some observing, interviewing, and surveying in my project. I am not afraid to say this, but I have been getting some mixed messages from professors and previous students about the types of research that I am expected to do, but I think I've got more of a handle on it now.  I'm wondering if anyone else has felt this way.  

Concerning the material we cover in class, it is not particularly interesting to me, but I see the value in knowing and being able to identify the different types of research data we may come across in reports as well as choose to use in the future.  I liked doing the analysis assignment, it gave me some insight into Winston-Salem high schools,  but the main thing I learned from the assignment is that Robbie is really good at Excel and I am not.

Post Script:  Saturday, June 14th is the awesome holiday of Flag Day, and it is also the awesome holiday of my birth.  There may be some rollerskating involved....details to follow.

Two for the show

After yet another week of thought, and another chance to talk with and listen to Dr. Milner, I am again feeling more at ease with this assignment. I also have another new idea to what I might want to approach for my research. Whereas previously I was interested in encouragement, I'm leaning somewhat more toward methodology now, and how teachers keep (or in particular gain) student interest. I thought looking at how teachers began their classes might provide some insight into this.

Some of the questions I've been considering are as follows: How do teachers get the attention of students at the onset of class? Do they have preplanned activities that they begin with, or perhaps a routine assignment to help kids feel at ease with the beginning of a period? Also, how do students seem to react to the start of class? Are the more structured teachers' approaches more conducive to grabbing attention and holding it? Do the kids seem more interested or willing to listen to a teacher if the class period starts with more structure?

Obviously I've got a lot to look at just from those questions. I will also likely need to narrow it down some, but so it goes. I'm thinking a mixture of observation and surveys will help me to examine the starting of classes. Surveys would likely be of the teachers, so that should be easier to handle. Now I just need to find some research on the subject.

Blog #2

After reflecting on, and reading the responses to my first blog, I have come to the realization I might have to conduct some sort of qualitative research. Quite frankly, that idea scares me. I am a very logical and practical person, and the thought of having to interpret personal, and non-numerical data, makes me nervous.

So, I was more than pleased to hear Dr. McCoy ask us to write blog #2 on a quantitative aspect of our topic. I still haven’t completely nailed down the specific topic, but I have decided to study Hispanics and Math.

I think using a Survey would be a very effective measurement tool, but since I do not yet know the direction of my study, I cannot come up with a clear example of how I would use a survey. On the other hand, I can think of how I could use a Causal-Comparative method. On a very basic level, I would like to see how Hispanics perform on the Math EOG test compared to everyone else in the grade level or class. I think this would give me a good basis for my research, and from there, I could interview/survey a select number of Hispanics about whatever my topic may be.

As I sit and I write this, I am wondering if the ethical line is being crossed, regarding Hispanics vs. non-Hispanics test scores. Any thoughts??

Struggling, but better! Entry #2

I think if I had to state my very general research question at this point, it would be something along the lines of, "What elements of classroom instruction are most effective in motivating students to understand chemistry?"Although I couldn't manage to locate any of the full text articles written by Posner and Strike (sorry, Dr. Pecore!), I did read an interesting article about conceptual change learning, and it definitely seems in line with what I am trying to get at with my research. In the articles I've read so far, it appears that students use different methods of learning science information, based on their motivations for being in the classroom. For example, students who are interested in chemistry would integrate real-world applications into their learning to make sense of the subject, whereas students who are in class to fulfill a requirement tend to simply memorize the concepts and theories. I would love to take a deeper look into student motivations for learning, as well as their attitudes towards various teaching methods.

My ideas for the methodology behind this type of study all seem to be pretty complex and far from feasible! The simplest idea I could come up with would be to use a student survey such as the "Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire" that I read about in other articles, to assess student motivations in learning chemistry. I could then survey the teachers of those classes to determine what educational philosophies and teaching methods they use to convey information to those students. I'm not quite sure if it is realistic to expect a return on surveys from both teachers and their students, or exactly what type of analysis I would need to perform. But, hey, it's a start, right?!

Ted's Blog 2

I have a running list of possible topics that I jot notes onto when the ideas show up and upon review I see a common theme in reading, student's attitudes towards it and mechanisms/techniques for teaching literature. Although they still cover pretty diverse areas I am starting to think in terms of the "instructional dynamic" from Ball/Forzani article inthe quiz and our Content/Learner/Pedagogy triangle. A worthwhile topic will be one that investigates/sheds light on how the learning takes place. I'll need to think about how to do so efficiently but I plan to consolidate those ideas for my topic (somehow).

As I flail about to choose this topic, considerations of methodology may actually be helping me narrow in somewhat. A mixed method seems inevitable. While I will collect a fair amount of data through observation (student response to teacher techniques and content being covered) I think I could bring light to that qualitative data through surveys of students and teachers (covering attitudes towards reading in school/out of school and teachers' perceived efficacy using various techniques). Finally, focused interviews from a stratified sample (the strata representing achievement) after I have been able to digest the data collected in observation and survey. Hopefully I will be able to construct more informed questions for this sample based on the data I collect through observation and sample.

I still have a ways to go towards topic selection (refinement) but I'm certainly closer to it than I was last week!

Blog - Take 2

For now, I have decided to keep pursuing the use of current events in social studies classrooms as my research topic. Per Dr. Friedman's suggestions I will most likely implement my study by surveying and observing teachers. My sample will likely be a convenience sample - or grab group, made up of social studies teachers that our program works with in the Forsyth County school district. I may focus my study to just look at US History teachers since that is what I am most interested in teaching. Then again, I could probably benefit from more exposure to civics and world history classrooms. Including a survey for students on their opinion of instruction related to current events is something I want to consider as well. My literature review will of course be helpful in deciding exactly how to implement the study. For now here are a few questions I want my study to answer:
1. How often do teachers incorporate current events?
2. How do teachers incorporate current events (homework assignments, discussion, warm-up activities?)
3. What news/media outlets do teachers find are most accessible for high school students?
4. Do teaching materials (textbooks) help teachers integrate current events into the class curriculum?

I guess that's just a start. Does anyone have suggestions of other ways to investigate current events in the social studies classroom?

Blog 2

After reading the responses from Dr. McCoy and Dr. Friedman, I feel much better about this whole research thing. I think I will stick to my original idea of looking into note-taking. I’m not sure if I will focus more on how teachers expect students to take notes, or more on how students in fact take notes (if they do!). Would a combination of the two be too broad of a topic? Now that I know I can use the collegiate realm as well as high schools, I have found a lot more articles on ERIC, which at first glance seem as if they will be helpful for the literature review portion. Taking Dr. Friedman’s suggestion, one way I have thought about doing research is to interview teachers before their lectures, on what type of note-taking they expect their students to participate in. Then, I would observe those lectures and possibly interview students, if necessary, to see what types of note-taking actually took place. Perhaps, to get a basis, I could survey a number of students to see which type of note-taking they prefer, such as outlines, the Cornell style, or just attempting to write down everything their teacher says. I am assuming since my content area is social studies, it would be most beneficial for me to narrow my observations and research to the type of note-taking taking place in high school social studies classes. I think this would be a valuable narrowing of my topic due mainly to the fact that students are forced to learn and recall information differently in all subjects, thus notes in a math class would be very different from notes in a social studies class.

Blog #2 More Searching

After reading the Quiz article What Makes Educational Research “Educational”?, I’ve been thinking a lot about research that probes into the instructional dynamic, the ‘arrows’ of the instructional triangle. As Ball and Forzani, the authors of the article, stated, it is important to know about the teacher, the learner, and the content, but it is also necessary to understand the interactions between the three. Looking back at my research ideas that I generated in my first blog, I keep coming back to the topic of incorporating reading and writing with the math curriculum. I have been curious to learn more about this ever since I took an undergraduate course in Literacy. The class was for all secondary education majors. I thought it was silly that I, a math major, had to take a class on reading and writing for my subject area. In my own experience, I had done very little reading and writing in my mathematics courses, so I found myself questioning why I needed to know how to teach reading and writing. At the end of the semester, my understanding of using reading and writing in my content area was still very surface level, but it was enough to spark my interest in this topic. If I were to choose this topic, I can not decide if I should pursue it under experimental research: if a teacher uses writing in his/her math classroom, will the students’ understandings of the material increase? Is there any effect at all? These research questions seem to be aligned with Ball and Forzani’s idea of research in education, since it investigates the interaction between the learner, the teacher, and the content. This seems like a very challenging study though, since I would have to find a teacher that would be willing to adapt his/her teaching methods. It would also be very time intensive. As a related topic, perhaps I could approach it as a correlational study: is there a relationship between students’ skills in reading and writing and their performance in math (i.e. word problems)? And still another option is to use a survey. As Dr. McCoy mentioned in class, a lot of us may choose to conduct research via survey. It might be more practical to use this method, but I’m not sure what I would want to pose as the question. Those are just the ideas for a quantitative study! In approaching this topic as a qualitative study, perhaps I could interview students to understand their thought processes as they read word problems. I guess in writing all of this, I’ve realized I still have a long way to go in finding a topic! But hopefully I’m on the right track!

English research . . . just too broad an area!

I'm trying to think of something to do in English, maybe related to
- grammar instruction & Writing Test scores (may be unavailable for study now)
- feedback on writing & its effect on students' revision
- gender differences (teachers to students) . . . which might be trite
- classroom procedures for starting &/or ending class (effectiveness?)
- effect of teachers' use of modern music (audio, written lyrics, videos) to teach literature
- something related to students' opinion of English as a subject and the correlation with teacher attitude/posture

Anyone have suggestions??? I'm so lost! I would like to do something that I can learn from myself and carry into practice fall after next. I don't want to do something just for the sake of research, because as Dr. McCoy said, if I just "tolerate" a topic now, I'll HATE it by December!

BLOG #2 ... explorations of calculators

So after hearing feedback from Dr. Mac's comment about technology use and steering me away from my general secondary topic of seating arrangement, I think I've begun to focus specifically on calculator use. I have recently begun further investigations on ERIC on the general subjects of Mathematics and Calculator use. There have been a variety of results coming back to me in articles about student use to teacher expectations, attitudes, classroom use, and much more. This is a topic with many previous issues analyzed, which is very exciting to learn from previous experience. It is still a broad idea and may need to be focused on a specific type of mathematical subject like geometry or algebra where calculator use may already be more prevalent. It is also still interest to pursue students and teachers varying response and how that might relate to student achievement. I would assume a graphing calculator is a standard form used by students like my high school experience beyond a scientific calculator, but that might need to be specified or based on convenience of my sample.

As discussed before focusing on calculator use might follow a survey of teachers to see how they use and encourage the use of a calculator in their classes, and also a survey on student attitudes toward using the calculator in the classroom and knowledge of calculator use. Follow up information might come from in class observations of select classrooms and possible interviews if necessary of either students and teachers, but currently not thinking of needing the interviews. Finally, the use of EOC scores to relate achievement or at least how I want to define it as a standardized form across the multiple schools I'm sure to be using in my sample.

Bloggity Blog 2

After further consideration and input from my advisor and Dr. Mac, I decided to edit my original thoughts, as we're all doing. I succeeded in jumbling several ideas together and attempting to make sense of them all on one page. Though I've worked with gifted students, I've decided not to specifically focus my study of reading on gifted students, but on how teachers use reading assignments as precursors to proficiency for ALL students in a secondary Spanish classroom. The study will not be an "experiment" because of time constraints, but rather a qualitative study in which I will observe and interview teachers who incorporate reading assignments into their daily instruction. I'm interested in whether or not high school Spanish teachers in WS/FCS incorporate reading into their classes, regardless of level, in some fashion every day. I am thinking of constructing some sort of survey (or interview?) instrument that would ask what kinds of reading strategies are taught, what kinds of reading materials are used, and for what proficiency goal (s) does (do) the assignment(s) reinforce? I'd also like to study the link between successful reading incorporation into daily lesson planning and the resulting increase in overall proficiency. I'll need to further narrow the topic as I read more.
Foreign language students share a unique experience in that they must all work to acquire proficiency by reading, writing, and speaking to some extent on a daily basis...or at least they should! My experience is that many teachers with whom I've been able to work tend to focus on writing and grammar constructs by drilling grammar. Others use reading assignments for which the students' sole responsibility is to provide a Spanish-English translation using a dictionary with no focus on reading strategies or depth of understanding. "Understanding" is a construct I'll need to work on defining as I intend to use it in my research. My sample will likely consist of clusters, and I will likely observe whether or not the teachers in the sample use some sort of performance assessment in which their students must demonstrate clear progress after the reading assignments are completed. I would hope that the teachers I'll study won't rely on simple memory recall techniques on their assessments but ask students to apply what they've read to a "broader picture" of what they're studying in the classroom.