Assignment Requirements
Week 1 Lecture: Reviewing the Research Project, Chapters 1 and 2
It may be useful as you begin this concluding research course to take a step back and review the applied research process—a process that hopefully you will employ repeatedly in your career as an educator. It begins with the identification of an actual problem in a real school, classroom, or similar workplace. While there is surely a place for theoretical research and experimental research, the typical educator may be better served by focusing on an immediate problem that needs to be solved. When such a problem is solved or at least improved upon, students benefit right away.
The process comprises several steps:
- Identify the problem
- Collect quantifiable evidence of the problem that describes its nature and extent
- Research the literature to understand the causes of and possible solutions for such a problem
- Implement solutions
- Measure improvement
- Offer recommendations to others who might wish to benefit from or replicate your work
While applied research may not involve the more elaborate methods of experimental research, it should nevertheless be systematic and rigorous. There are no control groups, independent or dependent variables, or formal hypotheses. Still, it should be well planned and follow, free of preconceived notions, where the evidence takes the researcher.
You should review Chapter 1, which you generated in NGTE 700. Look again at the three sections: “Description of the Community,” “Writer’s Work Setting,” and “Writer’s Role.”
Are there now aspects of the community not perceived before that are connected to your problem? Did factors at play in your work place impact what you did? Did you provide your reader with a sufficiently clear understanding of your role in your work place?
Now that you have completed implementation of selected solutions in your effort to improve a problem, you may have new insights into your community, work setting, and role. Evaluate your original work. If necessary, revise what you wrote, adding any new information that you believe is relevant. This chapter should help the reader understand all factors connected to the problem and the results of your research project.
Continue Chapter 1 with a section entitled, “Problem Statement.” Write the problem statement exactly as it was approved in NGTE 700. In a section under it, include your “Problem Description.” Is your original description complete and clear?
The next section is “Problem Documentation.” Include your original bulleted list that stated the inadequate or objectionable behaviors in quantifiable terms of your participants. If you had more than 100 participants, use percentages. If you had fewer than 100, use actual numbers. Is your explanation of how you measured those behaviors well crafted?
Remember to include in appendixes any instruments that you created to obtain data, and cite those appendixes in text. Note that no copyrighted documents may be included without written permission from the copyright holder.
Review your “Anticipated Outcomes.” Does the wording align with the documented behaviors and projected outcomes?
In your original Chapter 2, you created two sections, “Research” and “Solutions.” In the “Research” section you presented the literature review. Because your program of study has emphasized research, you have no doubt gained much expertise in reviewing the scholarly literature. Do a final search now for any studies or articles that you may have missed originally or that may have been published recently. Did you include important studies? While general articles of interest are important, make sure that you have presented significant research findings. A good source is the publications of the American Education Research Association. Meta-analyses are especially useful because of their breadth.
In your “Solutions” section include the original bulleted list of solutions that you developed in NGTE 700. If you added solutions after the conclusion of NGTE 700 that were implemented, be sure to add them here and then discuss them in a final paragraph.
Be certain that you adhere to the format of the Exemplar regarding content, as well as layout, headings, and subheadings.
Another task this week and throughout this course is to reflect on your program of study. You have been exposed to a wide variety of knowledge and provided the opportunity to develop many skills. It may be that you will seek to apply this knowledge and these skills in a new job or a different work setting. Be thinking about where your Education Specialist degree might take you.
Week 2 Lecture: Discussing Methods, Chapter 3
Review the Plan of Action that you developed in NGTE 700, and reflect on how your implementation went. In this chapter explain in detail what you accomplished and how you did it. At this point state only what happened; do not speculate why. Discuss all human and material resources that you used. Proceed sequentially from the beginning of your implementation period to the end, and include all events of interest. Be sure to address any changes that you made from your original plan, explaining your reasons for these changes. If you developed any materials for use with your implementation, remember to include them in appendixes and cite their location in text.
When you submit Assignment 1, be sure to include Chapters 1-3.
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