what is the class?

Principals and Application of Educational Research.

Guidelines are that question must be: based in theory, worded specifically, answerable with data, andcan be investigated ethically.

I struggle with this because "data" can sometimes very loosely defined in education.

oops...should have been, "can sometimes be very..."

that is a tough one..

When you say "Educational Research" do you mean WAYS to research in education.. or research done in the educational field

I think it means research done in educational field, but at this point who knows. Class just started.

IMPACT...IMPACT...IMPACT...or K-Nect...K-Nect...K-Nect...

I've been racking my brain along the lines of IMPACT, but still drawing a blank on a researchable question.

You may want to give Jeni C a call--she is a researching geek--I can share her digits if you're interested...

Thanks....If I haven't got it figured out by the end of the night, I'll take you up on the offer.

IMPACT of SAT prep classes on scores?

IMPACT of full day kindergarten on 1st grade reading skills?

IMPACT of after school homework programs on state standardized scores?

is this what you are looking for?

I love those. My only concern is that after I've come up with question....I'll have to do research project... I don't know how I would...

gather needed data.

well, lets get a topic first.. OR you can see what is available for several and then pick one

do you have to actually do research yourself?

if yes... go to your district and find out what kind of data they have...

Districts are always tracking data

I'm toying with homework suggestion. I could conduct experiment in my own class for this one.

Middle School preferable, but even elementary or high ideas might inspire another idea.

not sure if research on chosen question will be required. Hope not.

Depends on when the research has to be done.. might not have time to use your current class as subjects

Online courses are like minefields navigating assignments and due dates. No two profs post data in the same way.

PantherFan45: With new reading test last year, data is skewed. I could narrow it down to math achievement.

oooooh nice one Panther

My son, who hates to read reads comics.. and Captian Underpants... which is a comic in book form

graphic novels is the new PC term for comic books. I have seen them make a big difference for some students in our school.

who that might be?

you can solicit a list of struggling readers from other teachers...

she just does graphic novels. A few Anime sets and the Bone series that I know of off top of head.

Give kids a timed reading test...

provide them with comic books of their choice for a set period of time...

test them again..

also pretty sure she has Captain Underpants.

Yes... AR a great motivator... but in our district they STOP it in Middle school

Mistake... I think

oooooooh...the AR angle--hmm, that's interesting!

couldn't pit anything against AR in our school. AR program too strong.

don't know if I would pit one program against another... just see IMPACT of one OR the other

gcwebster has one of the most acclaimed AR programs around. She even presents it a SLAMA (sp).

I think I like yoyosciteach's idea about impact of HW on standardized tests? Should we even have HW?

I can even use district quarter tests in math to gather results.

are you able to start a structured program so you can insure that they are doing it?

I have 2 math classes at the same level. I could pre-test and then use quarter test to measure impact.

That sounds good...

Well, my class procedures are already pretty structured. I can even monitor which students habitually do and odn't do HW.

Yes... but by structured I mean supervised... maybe after school to see if that kind of help hummm helps

I could even monitor the quality of work on HW and factor that into investigation.

Even those who habitually do their homework don't always do it in the best of circumstances... or even on their own

True... complete and following directions vs not...

I would say most teachers would tell you that those who do complete homework get better grades

That gets tricky because when its supervised aren't we now talking about tutoring?

but it would be nice to have data to back that up

you're right. I wouldn't be able to monitor time spent on HW.

Perhaps adding a segment to the HW where student indicates how long it took. Normalize the results to get idea of time spent.

yes, get parents to sign off on time...

write them a letter explaining WHY you want to know

I like it....Thank you all for your help and suggestions.

your welcome... you get lots of Karma too!

That's a great perk in plurk, but the help with the idea was the most important thing. Thank you very much.

sooo grateful.

please keep us updated so we know how it goes

Will do.

excellent! and a recent article said there is no point to plurk. I have seen this happen time and again! Great tool, this plurk is!

That article is SOOOO wrong

article probably written by owner of Twitter.

(-: No, I believe it was PC World? Someone posted it earlier--the biggest Web 2.0 waste of time...

CurtisWebs:

any tool is only as good craftsman using it.

only as good as the craftsman using it.

typing like he has on boxing gloves tonight.

yeah, imagine doing that on twitter, Curtis. And nice pat on the back too! (-;

Wow, I missed out last night ..... zonked out early and missed all of this fun!