Introduction
The word "research" is likely to conjure up visions of stodgy old academicians, cloistered in their ivory towers, compiling data and scratching out reports that make sense to no one but themselves. While it's true that some research studies can be tedious or difficult to understand, most provide accessible information that has real bearing on what we do in the classroom.
Research offers us the chance to see theories put to the test—to find out how real students in real classrooms respond to a variety of teaching methods; to test long-held beliefs about educational practices so that we can judge if they might be flawed or incomplete. Research helps us to become better informed, more competent professionals.
Because we have chosen to teach, we have a responsibility to continually revise our understanding of effective teaching practice, to deepen our awareness of how children learn, of what motivates them, of what can help them or of what might harm them. We have a sacred trust and it is up to us to prepare ourselves thoroughly so that we can make responsible, informed decisions in the classroom.
Ideally, we should all spend some time in the library browsing the professional journals. Eventually, you will probably want to subscribe to one or two educational psychology journals that will help keep you abreast of current research in the field. But in the next few minutes, you will discover how simple it is to stay informed without spending a penny—or a great deal of time.
Task
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Task 1 |
Browse the links provided and become familiar with some of the online journals available to you. |
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Task 2 |
Choose a research study that interests you and read it thoroughly. |
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Task 3 |
Decide if the study you read is descriptive, experimental or correlational. |
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Task 4 |
Write a brief summary of your research study and offer a few insights of your own regarding the usefulness of the study. |
Process
Task One: Browse some of the following links to become familiar with the variety of professional journals available online.
Spend about an hour browsing through some of the educational journal sites listed below. You might want to bookmark a few of the sites that interest you so that you can periodically catch up on the latest issues and ideas in education. Most of these sites offer free access to journal articles or a sampling of downloadable articles; others offer only abstracts and require you to subscribe to read entire articles. If you read an abstract of a study that interests you, you might want to search for that article in the library.
https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/edu - Go to Read Sample Articles
https://thejournal.com/Home.aspx
You may also browse the selection at Paul Meek Library and search topics of interest to you.
Task Two: Find a research study that interests you and read for valuable information.
Choose a journal article you find online or in the library (make sure the article is about a research study). Some articles are long and laborious, so feel free to scan for the most relevant information. Read the article well enough to get a basic understanding of the researchers' methods and conclusions.
If you would like, you can choose a study that will help you in one of your other classes this semester. For example, if you need to write a paper about literacy, find a study that will help you prepare for that assignment.
Task Three: Classify your study as Experimental, Correlational or Descriptive.
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Experimental Study In an experimental study, the researcher somehow manipulates soemthing in the natural environment to test a theory, then measures the effect of that change. For example, the researcher might measure the effects of a new type of math instruction on a group of fifth-grade students. An experimental study typically includes an experimental group (the group that receives the treatment) and a control group (a similar group that does not receive the treatment). In a good study, the subjects are assigned to one group or the other at random. |
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Correlational Study In a correclational study, the researcher studies two variables (GPAs and SAT scores, for example) to see how they are related. They can be positively correlated (the higher the GPA, the higher the SAT score), negatively correlated (the higher the GPA, the lower the SAT ) or uncorrelated (there appears to be little relationship between the two sets of scores). |
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Descriptive Study A descriptive study does just that—it describes a situation. The researcher uses surveys, interviews or observation to learn something about a social group such a specific first-grade class, gifted and talented students at several school, etc., then reports that information. An ethnography is a descriptive study in which the researcher makes observations over a specified period of time. |
Task Four: Write a short summary of your article. Include the following componants:
| Your Name & Class Section | Include at the top of the page. |
| Bibliographic Information | Include the author, title and source of your article. |
| Classification | Note whether the study is experimental, correlational or descriptive. |
| Summary | Write a paragraph or that explains the findings of the study |
| Conclusion | Write your own brief assessment of the study. Were the results interesting to you? Does the study inform classroom practice? Do the researcher's conclusions seem valid to you? |
Conclusion
See how easy research can be? As you become a classroom teacher, browse these links every once in a while to stay in touch with the latest research. Subscribe to a journal that seems particularly helpful or interesting to you. Use research to keep your mind and your heart open to new ideas and innovative teaching practices. As you become more familiar with the research process, consider conducting your own study and publishing your findings. Research is a valuable way for all of us to help each other become more effective and enlightened educators.
Credits
Modified from https://innovativelearning.com/educational_psychology/webquest - broken links were removed.