Research Development Plan - Initial Draft
First Research Interest Statement
Nick is a first year doctoral student in Michigan State University’s EPET program. His research interests lie in the field of 21st century pedagogy. He plans to study the change in 21st century American cultural and economic landscape and the implications of that change on educational practice and policy. He would also like to investigate the role of modern pedagogy and methods in facilitating the skills and knowledge necessary to function in this changing world. Additionally, Nick plans to research the role that increased educational technology might play in the facilitation of those skills.
Final Research Interest Statement
Nick is a first year doctoral student in Michigan State University’s EPET program. His research interests lie in personalizing student learning. He is interested in the effects of student investment in their own learning as well as awareness of their own intelligence fingerprints on learning outcomes, subjective well-being, pragmatic 21st century cognitive processes and particularly on self-efficacy. He also plans to investigate the role technology can play in personalizing the classroom and facilitating the growth of these cognitive processes.
His interests are founded upon bigger ideas such as Daniel Pink’s “A Whole New Mind” and Sir Ken Robinson’s “The Element” as well as the increasing discussion concerning technology in educational settings.
What Changed?
When I first entered into this program I did so with an idealistic agenda to change the system of education to be more relevant, personal and applicable to the new generation of students and to the changing globalized economy. In many ways, that is still my ultimate goal, or maybe dream, but as I read, review and critique more and more research it has become clearer that many of the issues involved with such ideas require a great deal of additional study. Further, I have learned how particular studies must be to truly get at the heart of the issue and uncover the various implications, variables and differentiations between correlation and causation.
As a result of this increased awareness, and some discussions with professors at Michigan State University, I began to focus more on the phenomena that hold the greatest interest for me and that seem to be at the root of these bigger ideas and goals. The phenomena is the extent to which making the classroom more personal and relevant effects various aspects of the student’s being such as cognition, self-efficacy and subjective-well being, all of which I believe to be critical to a student’s happiness and success.
Experts
Given this change and focus on personalized learning, self-efficacy, subjective well being and 21st century cognitive processes, my list of experts has begun to address some of these areas.
Expert 1: Ed Diener
Diener is and has been one of the foremost experts on subjective-well being (happiness) and its many facets. Following some of his work will hopefully enable me to gain a greater understanding of how to measure subjective well-being.
Expert 2: (Robert Roeser, Stephen C. Peck, Nailah Suad Nasir)
These three individuals have contributed substantially to the study of self and identity processes in school. The heart of my interest is subjective well-being but that is directly related to how student’s view themselves in various educational settings. Given this, these three experts on identity seem like a great place to begin looking at self and identity.
Expert 3: Robert Vallerand
Vallerand is one of the foremost experts on types of motivation and scales to measure motivation. Given that much of my interest will lie in how motivation is effected by personalizing the classroom, it will be critical that I am able to measure and assess these changes. Vallerand will hopefully supply the understanding to accomplish this task.
Next Steps
As my understanding of my own research interests has changed, so too has my reseach process and choice of articles to read and review. My most recent reading reviews are also my most relevant to my interests. My next steps are first and formost to find additional, plentiful articles on the various topics of my now refined research interests to further my understanding and hopefully provide me with greater direction toward my ultimate research question. Additionally, I plan to use the aforementioned experts, their own citations and the articles they are cited by, to help me dive further into the particulars of my research interests.
Annotated Bibliography
Bonifaz, A., & Zucker, A. (2004) Lessons learned about providing laptops for all students: Education Development Center.
Covington, M. (2000). Intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation in schools: reconciliation. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 9-(22), 22-25.
Diener, E., Sandvik, E., Seidlitz, L., & Diener, M., (1993) The relationship between income and subjective well-being: relative or absolute? Social Indicators Research, 28-(3),195-223.
Elliot, K. (2003). Diffusion of technology into the teaching process: strategies to encourage faculty members to embrace the laptop environment. Journal of Education for Business, 78-(6), 301-308.
Fried, C. B. (2008). In-class laptop use and its effects on student learning. Computers & Education, 50, 906-914.
Goder, L. (2008). A study of teacher perceptions of instructional technology integration in the classroom. Delta Pi Epsilon, 50-(2), 63-75.
Gulek, J. Demirtas, H. (2005). Learning with technology: the impact of laptop use on student achievement. Journal of Technology Learning and Assessment, 3-(2), 3-38.
Vallerand, R., Pelletier, L., Blais, M., Briere, N., Senecal, C., & Vallieres, E. (1993). On the assessment of intrinsic, extrinsic, and amotivation in education: evidence on the concurrent and construct validity of the academic motivation scale. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 53-(159), 159-172.
