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Research Proposal

ETEC 500 | ARTIFACT THREE

Another memorable experience in this course was the opportunity to work on UBC related work on campus. I was in between jobs with a curriculum gap, so my family and I decided to travel in North America. Vancouver was our first stop, where we stayed a while with family. I do recall many of long days spent in the education library finishing up the final research proposal below. When it was finished, it meant that we could begin our road trip!

 

 

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This research proposal assignment taught me a lot about all the little subtleties that the task of conducting research involves. Even framing the right research questions to explore takes much consideration and critical thought. Here were my initial wonderings on which avenues to potentially explore for my research proposal:

Finishing components of this artifact on UBC's beautiful campus was a memorable highlight.

  1. What classroom management techniques can a new teacher to  fifth and sixth grade students employ to create an engaging and rich learning atmosphere? I'll be teaching at this level next year and the research would be of great value to me since I've never taught full-curriculum at this age before.
     

  2. Does the use of social media sites (like G+ communities, Edmodo, etc.) contribute to improved learning efficacy in an elementary classroom? I currently feel like I'm engaging a larger amount of students, am able to better help them with their problems/offer feedback with the increased contact hours, and offer more media rich ways to add to their learning.
     

  3. Can a "flipped" classroom be as effective in an elementary classroom setting as well as it has been proven in high-school settings? There is a lot of research that has been done at the high school math and science level, but have yet to see anything related to elementary, specifically with language arts. Variables to include in this would be engagement and assessment outcomes.
     

  4. Which has more efficacy for elementary classrooms and their stakeholders (parents, teachers, administration, and students) - BYOD or school bought devices such as Chromebooks, iPads, etc.? Sitting on the tech committee at my current school, I can see this being a big question to ponder in the short future. BYOD has the potential for huge cost savings, but it may require more tech savvy teachers and perhaps a loss of security controls. Perhaps reducing the focus to just what classroom teachers think, or any of the other stakeholders mentioned would be more manageable.

I ultimately decided on option two, narrowing the focus of my proposal on Google Plus' efficacy on math learning in the elementary classroom.

 

This task was rooted in student inquiry. It serves as an example how questioning must be facilitated and refined when avenues in inquiry turn up dry, road-blocked, or simply not worth pursuing. For example, my grade threes are currently inquiring into ancient civilizations of their choosing. They were asked to focus their research through three areas that civilizations could contribute to society (e.g. education, technology, government). Sometimes, due to lack of age-appropriate resources or difficulty, it may make more sense to facilitate lines of inquiry to ancient China's contribution to technology, over government, for example.

 

The topic of my proposal also helped me realize what a powerful tool online learning media can be, in regards to consolidation of concepts learned within the classroom and learning beyond the physical and time boundaries of the classroom. It is something I always try and promote on my classroom blog to this day.

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Finally, this assignment elucidated the revelation that conducting research was not a passion area that I'd like to pursue. However, it made me respect the process more.

(Ouellette, J., 2014b)

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