Professional Documents
Culture Documents
ED723
Research Reflection
If at first you dont succeed, try, try again W.E. Hickman. This is the quote I
think about now when I think of research in education. Research is a means to take a
found problem and convert it to a successful solution. You cannot reach this success
point unless you are ready to dig deep into your resources and be ready to change
direction.
classroom teachers are using the help their gifted and talented students to be successful.
What I found is that research would be skewed. Nichole Gurwell, Instructional Coach at
Tonganoxie Elementary, told me that every teacher will say that they are doing the best
they can to help their gifted and talented students when, in fact, they are often not doing
anything at all. Classroom teachers are often overworked and doing their best to prepare
lesson plans that are geared towards their adaptive and on-level students thinking that
their gifted and talented students are doing fine. Unfortunately, these students are
becoming bored with their studies and can fall behind on their studies.
the wide focus of what differentiations are teachers using to which gifted and talented
program do parents believe are working best. This direction will allow me an insight into
what the parents think is working for their child. The parents see their childs yearly
progress making them the experts in what works. This information will allow me insight
into the learning styles of students. With this knowledge, I will be able to make lesson
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plans directed for each of my students; adaptive to gifted and talented. (NBPTS 1,2 and
USM1)
As I delved into the assignments of the course I found that I really enjoyed
research. I loved to read about it and discover the best way to do it. I thought that action
research would be the most fun because the investigator is in the classroom seeing the
data as it occurs.
knowledge that surrounds the educational community. Now I know that when I find a
problem in my classroom, I can go to the library and find articles that will give me
possible answers. Growth is possible in my teaching career by finding what others have
discovered through their studies. In addition, I will be able to use the research found to
mixture, I know I can use what I know to improve my classroom. (NBPTS 3, 4, 5 and
USM3,8)
Looking forward to the results of my research so that I can determine what can be
put into place in my classroom. Using the online library at the University of St. Mary,
the amount of articles and studies available there gave me so much to use for my
project. I thought of the bunny trail that we often speak of and had to stop myself from
following other ideas to focus on what I could learn for my topic. (GPO 1,8 and CLO 6)
I am concerned about those who read an article or two about a subject but not dig
deep into the subject. Without a more complete research study, the information might
be skewed by whichever side of the argument is found first. When it comes to doing a
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that in an action research study, the classroom teacher can research the topic in
question then put the study into action. Being able to watch the results in real time
allows the teacher to re-evaluate then re-research to find a different course of action.
These immediate evaluations make a study fluid which means knowledge of research is
I chose to do a quantitative study and wrote a survey that parents of gifted and
talented students can fill out online. I decided to give my study this way because it was
the least invasive method. My time to do the study is at the end of the school year as well
as at the beginning of the next school year. Both of these times are busy for parents and
I wanted them to have something less complicated. I might have to expand my study to
also be qualitative. That depends on the comments I receive on the survey. No matter
what, I am interested in finding out what these parents think. I should not have a theory
regarding what my findings will be, but as I look through all the articles and think about
what Ive read, I have come to the conclusion that there is no one right method. The
correct method depends on the students learning ability and personality. (CLO 3, 4)
I look forward to seeing the results of my study. Gifted and talented students are
an at risk group. It is unfortunate that many inclusion teachers are unable to give the
time to create lesson plans that will engage these students. Some of these teachers are
unable to do this because of lack of time. Others have a lack of ability. The reason does
not matter. What matters is that the gifted and talented students need engagement to
allow the love of learning to grow rather than wither. I hope to make my class geared
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Bibliography