Hi Everyone,
Please list your topics and discuss them in the blog below.
Go and have some fun!
Here is the link to What Works Clearinghouse that will help you begin to dig in to your topic.
Here is and article by Lynn and Doug Fuchs that describes all the required components of a research article: How_To_Write_Up_a_Research_Report_-_Fuchs
I currently have two topics of interest. I know I will have to choose one soon, but hoping to get more clarity as I do more research! Please see below 🙂
-Parental involvement in low income environments: I grew up in a low income environment and did not have involved parents throughout my educational journey. Growing up, I also noticed a good amount of students in my class with similar experiences. When applying for this program, I looked into writing about this topic. As I dug into the topic, I wondered whether or not parental involvement affected one’s success in school. I discovered that there was some correlation between parental involvement and student success, but want to flesh out more on the whys, hows, as well as figure out if there are solutions or methods that are being implemented to overall help improve parental involvement, thus improving student success.
-Supporting English Language Learners: This topic is of interest to myself as I was considered an English Language Learner when I entered elementary. I barely recall the different ways my teacher and her support staff did in order to help me learn English, and that sparked a curiosity in me: I believe there are still a good amount of students who are currently entering school as English Language Learners, so what current methods/programs does our educational system have in order to support them? I also want to find out whether or not these methods are effective, as well as why or why not.
Lastly, both these topics are of interest me because as educators, we will meet students of different backgrounds and unique circumstances, as our world is diverse. We cannot ignore that, and as we play a role in our students’ educational journey, I feel being aware and finding ways to create an environment of learning despite the differences are essential in our personal growth as well as theirs.
Hi Anessa,
The parental involvement in low income environment seems interesting because I also came from a low income household. My mom wasn’t able to go to my field trips or be more involved due to working so much. At first I was upset because other parents were always with their children. However as I grew older I understood more about why my mom wasn’t able to attend school events or fieldtrips, her priority was to keep food on the table for my brother and I. I think seeing her struggles made my brother and I work hard in school. It may differ for other students. I’d also like to know the whys and hows and find ways to help students succeed in school when there’s a lack of parent involvement.
Thanks for bringing up this research interest!
Hi Anessa,
I’m replying to your “Supporting English Language Learners”.
I think you’ll find a lot of research on this topic. I’m very curious about how ELL works in the US. I’d like to know how ELL are initially evaluated and then the process for developing an educational plan. Is there coordination between the ESL teacher and the other subject teachers? I assume most of ELL’s primary language is Spanish, but not all. I could see this making the ESL teacher’s job even more difficult. On a side note, I looked up how many ELL’s there are in the US. 2016: 9.6% of students of K-12 are ELL (9.8%OR). 76.6% of ELL Primary language is Spanish. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cgf.asp
Interesting topic,
Ross
Both topics are equally important, but I love your first one! We have so many low income families at our school and like some of you I came from a low income household. I would love to see what the correlation is.
I am interested in researching the relationship between mental health and early childhood and how it can affect a student’s ability to succeed in the classroom. I currently work at Head Start of Lane County, a non-profit organization that helps children and their families, specifically for low income. Many of the children and families that we serve have been through trauma, which affects their physical and mental well-being. When children have problems at home, they sometimes have behaviors in school that affects their ability to move on to a new curriculum. It’s important to detect early stages of mental health problems to help reduce the impact that these problems may have on school readiness.
Hi Jeannelle!
I think your topic of interest is a really cool and important one. I work with kids impacted by incarceration who have experienced trauma to various degrees, and have seen the effects trauma has on them. I agree that trauma does affect one’s physical and mental wellbeing, gets translated into the classroom setting, and overall impacts student success. I am curious to see what you will find on what the current research is doing to detect patterns between trauma and student performance, and whether or not they are finding effective ways to better assist students and help them succeed/navigate life. Excited for you!
I would like to research more about bilingual education. During my undergrad at UO, my placements were all in areas with a high ELL population within the school, which helped peaked my interest in bilingual education. I wrote a “round-table paper” during my last term where I researched articles about bilingual education and eventually wrote an essay promoting bilingual education in elementary. This time, I would love to delve deeper, if I can, to learn even more about it. I’m not sure exactly what route I want to take with bilingual education as a topic, but my current plan is to start collecting and reading articles on it this first week or two to see if there is anything in particular that jumps out at me. It might be nice to take a critical view at our current system in Springfield or Eugene, or maybe to compare the effects of mono-lingual education versus bi-lingual education on ELL students, but we shall see!
Hey Danyelle!
Researching about bilingual education sounds like a great topic. I also think that we should promote bilingual education in elementary. I’m glad there are some immersion schools, but I think it should be a requirement to learn another language in all elementary school settings. Learning another language is beneficial especially since more and more people are coming to the U.S from all over the world. I remember when I went to the Western part of Europe, most people there knew at least 2 to 3 different languages, including English. I just felt embarrassed because I knew that our education in America is behind when it comes to promoting bilingual programs in our education system.
I think that this research topic is really important and interesting. Bilingual education, especially here in Oregon where many people speak both Spanish and English, is incredibly beneficial to students and their academic success. I wonder how the funding would have to change or increase in order for all schools to have a second language program that starts in elementary schools.
I am interested in doing my research on Academic and Social Skills interventions for children who are identified as “Emotionally Disturbed” or have other similarly marked conditions. I work with many kids who have this condition and I am interested to see if what I am doing is effective and what I could be doing more effectively. I am interested in diving deeper and seeing what has been successful with children who have these conditions. I believe early interventions are important for students like this to be able to access their education. Though I am wondering if I should stick with just “Emotionally Disturbed” or if I should broaden my research to include more conditions.
Hey there!
I also worked in a classroom for two years with elementary-age students that had learning disabilities and emotional disturbance. I was thrown into the position not knowing exactly what it would entail nor encountering any formal training. I learned through monkey-see monkey-do tactics. I also realized how fortunate I was to have the ability to emphasize and read body language. It was really helpful for me in building rapport with the children which led to trust which led to my ability to deescalate many situations. I am also intrigued on intervention techniques and think it should be encompassed in the curriculum for everyone that wants to become a teacher. It is such a prevalent issue these days and something that needs to be addressed not only for the teachers to have a tool belt that is easily accessed, but to allow the students to achieve their highest successes. I am curious to see what you unveil in your research.
Good luck!!
Coleen O’Neill
My research topic is: How can teachers improve classroom behavior and engagement for elementary school level boys?
There are some observations and assumptions that I will need to verify with some research. As compared to the girls, boys generally lean towards a more aggressive competitive type of nature and are more likely to lose focus during the instructional, or the auditory part of the class. Being bored, and restless, they horseplay and side talk, which results in being disciplined. I’m worried that continually being punished at a young age is negatively affecting the student’s attitude towards educational engagement.
I want to explore research articles that cover the relationship between student engagement and discipline. Also, I’d like to evaluate if student engagement and classroom behavior improves for boys if taught with kinesthetic and visual learning approaches. As an example, the subject is history. Each individual shares their unique part of the story to the group. The group’s task is to complete the story and then develop a skit of the story. This activity is similar to an ESL GAP, or a jigsaw activity. I may also cover the topics of “managing disruptive students” or “interactive computer-based learning” and see if I can tie them into my research paper.
Hey there!
Your topic is intriguing to me as I worked in an elementary school classroom for a couple of years with students who had learning disabilities and experienced emotional disturbance. Our classroom held all of the children who could not function in the classroom their others peers belonged to and were at risk of hurting themselves or others in a rapid period of time. Although I did see a majority of the physical instances involving boys there were also a notable amount involving girls. I do believe that it is destructive to the confidence and demeanor we hope to build within children to be constantly disciplining them without giving them the tools to make better choices. I don’t believe children enjoy getting in trouble and through praise and positivity we can shine a new light on their experiences. It is a fascinating topic and I hope to hear more about your findings. Behavior is a prevalent issue that needs to be researched and addressed.
Best of luck! 🙂
Coleen O’Neill
As of right now, I would like to research the effects an overcrowded school has on students, staff and administration. I currently work at a Title 1 middle school in a low-income community that is currently undergoing renovations. Thankfully, the Salem-Keizer School District has made it possible for all the schools in our district to be expanded upon to accommodate to the ever growing student population. But, as many know, construction means having to make arrangements to avoid interrupting the work that is going into the remodeling/building process. So, more classes are being shared among teachers, the cafeteria is not able to be used at this time, and to make things even more sufficient- the already overpopulated school became even more so crowded with an additional 150+ students this school year. Currently, there are approximately 1,200 students, and a little over 100 staff…… This ratio to me seems absurd. So, I want to gain an understanding of how this all effects those who are working and learning in this type of environment.
I find this super interesting and such a hot topic in education right now! Are you thinking about researching certain areas or communities? Or just in general? I am excited to hear more about what you find out!
I’m also really interested in this topic! I think it would be great to also take a closer look at the student to teacher ratios specifically within the classroom, as most teachers have (on average) 25-30 students in their classroom and only one of them. Especially at an elementary age, this seems impossible for the teacher to effectively maintain classroom order and structure, while also meeting the needs of all of their students.
My topic that I am interested in is teacher education around trauma informed teaching in classrooms. For a lot kiddos out there they come into school in survival mode which makes interacting and learning extremely hard. I want to understand more what it means as a teacher to teach your students through that lens. I think that school needs to feel like a safe place them and teachers also need to understand what they have experiences they have been through.
Hey Friends,
Here are the two ideas that I am trying to flesh out. I feel good about them enough to share at this time.
1) What are the benefits to TAB, choice based art and discipline based art education? And what fits the best in our rapidly changing world? What fits best into a STEAM Curriculum? I didn’t know it was called TAB, but I benefitted in classes when there a lot of a choice. In one art class the teacher told me to just keep doing what I was doing. I think that was a determining factor in how I got to this point. In another art class we all had to do Georgia O’keeffe flowers and it was all girls in my class. I dropped the class and went into computers for the remainder of the semester, nothing against Georgia O’keeffe. I also had a class that was science based where we wrote our own course early in the semester. I understand TAB isn’t just doing your own thing, but the idea of choice is appealing.
or
2) What is the Willamette Valley’s landscape for creative professionals? How many graphic designers, art directors, content creators, photographers, videographers, game developers, etc. are there and what skills/backgrounds do they posses? I want to map our career paths and layout the skills needed, starting with the basics up. The upside to this is it’s something that I want to bring to job interviews. It would help local businesses. The downside is that much of the research will be done by calling around. I don’t know a single source or book that I could use and it would be continually to evolving… but maybe you know better about something like this. Maybe this is something I do later on.
Could you compare the different schools that have these programs across the states v. Willamette Valley and their job outcomes? Not sure if that would help or not.
Compare a hiring authority’s need for education versus self taught. (My husband designs games but has no formal education in this. I was a photographer in the Army and used to shoot weddings as a side business, but again, no formal credentials aside from my military education).
Bureau of Labor have any data you could poach?
Other sources: career centers, job hiring sites, human resources or small businesses, TV stations.
Sounds interesting!
I would like to do my research project on student motivational levels in middle school. I teach 7th grade and I tell all of my students we are the middle children of middle school! I know it’s hard. They are reaching physical, mental and emotional milestones that they don’t know how to handle. I see the doey eyed 6th graders and they still want to please the adults in their lives for at least half the year. I get them in 7th grade and have to wonder “WHAT HAPPENED!?” To those sweet innocent little cherubs I met at the beginning of last year.
Across the team we see a lack of motivation to complete work, and we see it as they progress into 8th grade. By 8th grade we’re calling them big fish in a little pond. They have social motivation, but academically they don’t care. (Of course I am generalizing here). But I have had some of the smartest students in my room ask me why they have to complete assignments because middle school grades don’t actually matter.
It’s frustrating to see a blatant disregard for their education (by them). It’s probably the most frustrating because I care so much about what happens to my kids. We are a Title 1 school and poverty is something I see every day. I want so bad to save them all. These kids have so much potential but I see them throw it to the wayside. I would like to understand why motivation drops so dramatically in the middle school years. I feel this is a crucial time in students’ lives where they choose the high road or the low road. Often it’s too difficult to climb back up to the high road and the cycle of poverty continues.
A topic of interest for me is whether physical activity can reduce behavioral outbursts with students. I have started trying to find articles related to this and seem to be coming up short. Maybe I need a little guidance on proper formatting on my search title or maybe there really is little to no information revolving around this topic. I have spent the last two years assisting in a small learning center for children with learning disabilities and emotional/behavioral disturbance and I wonder if physical activity constituted a larger portion of their day if it would have an effect of the number of outbursts witnessed?
I am also considering physical activity and its affects on self esteem or if physical activity is implemented at a young age does it have a higher success rate of transferring into adulthood. I might be way off on my thinking here. Todd, I may need your guidance! See you Monday 🙂
My topic seems to be a lot more surface level than the others listed thus far, which makes me a little nervous. However, I’m going to confidently explain what it is in case anyone else is in the same boat:
I want to explore how classroom environment affects student learning.
I’ve been in classes with walls covered completely in posters or nothing at all, sat at desks placed in rows, clusters, or a circle, learned beneath inadequate or overly intense lighting, and am wondering if any of those environmental circumstances have an effect on how students learn. When imaging my future classroom, I think of a discussion-based seating arrangement with fun yet helpful decoration on the walls, but what I want may not be best for the students. I hope to explore the relationship that exists and how I can accommodate an engaging, safe, and practical place to learn.
I am thinking to look into the role of self-confidence when learning a new language. Possibly also the effects learning a new language has on self esteem, and how to instill more confidence in language learners.
I grew-up speaking two languages and acquired another through studies, so I have a lot of personal experience and my own thoughts about this matter. However, I have never done any formal research, which means I can only ever speak from my own experiences. As a child, I had close to no self-confidence, except for the fact that I was bilingual. I am not sure if that confidence aided me at all in acquiring a third language, but it may have considering that was the class in which I felt most comfortable.
I am not sure which language learning aspect to focus on, but am leaning towards verbal communication. I noticed when tutoring international students at the U of O that different cultural backgrounds and what was perceived as confidence had a large impact on verbal communication. Even at a lower lever, students that seemed to posses more confidence had higher verbal communication fluency.
My topic of interest is also about bilingual education. I am interested in researching cognitive and divergent thinking skills developed by leaning a foreign language at an early age. Beyond the obvious benefits of being able to communicate with speakers of another language, studies have shown additional benefits of learning a foreign language: it increases cognitive skills which enables students to achieve higher academic performance in other areas.
With the development of AI technology in translating/interpreting languages, on the surface there may be a less value to studying a foreign language as a mere tool of communication. From my personal experience of teaching both Japanese and English over the past 15 years, I believe learning a foreign language is beneficial to an individual even if one doesn’t become fluent in that language. As an educator who is going to pursue a career of teaching a foreign language, I would like to discover other ways in which learning a foreign language can be beneficial to a leaner, both from a cognitive perspective and socially.
I have a few topics of interest. One is the effectiveness of “Conscious Discipline” in the classroom. Conscious Discipline is a social and emotional intelligence classroom management program. It is my personal belief that emotional intelligence makes us better, more empathetic people. I believe it should be a part of education and am hoping to explore this in more depth. Not only am I curious if it makes us better people, but if it also makes us better learners. If so, Conscious Discipline would be an effective classroom strategy.
In addition to emotional intelligence, I am curious if extrinsic reward systems are effective in schools and if they teach our children to value the right things. Obviously these are two different questions so I will have to choose one once I delve into the research more.
Hi Everyone!
I grew up in a small town, and while we had elementary and middle schools within city limits, we also had a lot of surrounding rural area. For the students who lived in a rural area, there were out-lying schools that were all k-8 with very small school populations. I did not attend an out-lying school but I have always been curious about the benefits of a k-8 school. I have looked at a few research studies that suggest there is a positive relationship between grade span configuration and academic achievement. Along with studies that suggest that the transition from elementary to middle school causes drops in academic success. I would like to research this topic further to possibly determine if consolidating grades within a school actually is beneficial to students’ success.
Hello All,
I am interested in researching the link between the disproportionately high rate of African American children being referred to special education. Of particular note is the exponential rise of the nuerological conditions that include autism, add, ADHD, and allergies in children over the last 20 years. Biomedical researchers have linked the rise of these neurological conditions to a combination of skewed immunity and carbohydrate intolerance. The belief is that there is an epigenetic susceptibility to environmental assaults. African American children tend to be more vulnerable to these assaults and thereby are more likely to develop nuerological conditions. The result is that these children ultimately end up being referred to special education at higher rates than other ethnic groups.
I’m not sure if I’m approaching my topic the most efficient way…good questions, and from different perspectives on Technology use.
Due to the nature of having to actually HAVE technology available, is something such as this even possible?