My Personal Research Journey
The topic I chose to research is: What is the best technique to
teach my child how to place the correct shape or number into the matching slot
on the toy. I chose this topic because I personally feel that my son should be
learning and developing fine motor skills and this is one way I could help his
learn this skill. I have been in the
education field for many years and know the importance of developing skills
like this. I have never conducted an experiment like this, so I am very
interested in seeing the outcome and how the data collecting goes. The ways I
have planned to teach this skill are: modeling the activity while saying what I
am doing, hand over hand guiding him through the entire activity without saying
words, hand over hand guiding his hand throughout the entire activity while
saying words and telling him what we are doing.
I feel that the past two weeks have been very beneficial to me
personally and professionally. Before
entering this class, I was very nervous about doing well. I did not know much about research and
research has never been an interest of mine because I have never been good at
it. I feel that I am finally being taught the proper way to conduct research as
well as the proper way of finding credible articles and resources. The chart we
filled out helped me in building my vocabulary and knowledge of new terms as
well as learning about the research process. I particularly liked the section I
wrote about which was learning how to find literature on your topic. The
reflection was nice because I was able to identify a challenge I see myself
having with hopes that I can receive help in that area before the challenges
even appear. The discussion question
from this week gave me an opportunity to assure myself I am conducting my
research correctly and being able to identify a source that is credible and a
source not credible.
The challenge I saw myself having was designing the actual
research and assuring that the way I plan to conduct my research is correct and
will in the end give me results. I do
not want this research to be a waste of time like the example in the book
because of the girl changing the way she was conducting her research in the
middle of the observations. Because I am conducting my experiments based on
three different techniques I am nervous this is going to be what happens to me,
unless I conduct my experiment on a few children the exact same way instead of
just using my son. Does anyone have suggestions on how I can design my research
in a way that is accurate and not a waste of time?
