Research Question:
What has led to a decrease in student productivity in my video production class, and how does class organization, student ability and student effort impact student performance in a technology class?
Research Setting:
This research will take place in an 8th grade video production classroom in a rural/suburban middle school. This school has had a video production program for the past 13 years.
Research Participants:
This is a class of 10 students with nine females and one male. Two of the 10 students are African-American and all of the students except one are in their second year of the class. All of these students completed an application process to participate in this class. While the students in the class are the primary stakeholders, it is also possible I will include some members of the viewing audience, which would include a sample from all students, teachers and administrators. These groups will provide perspective on the quality of the student productions.
-Jeff Kitchen
Comments (9)
While reading over your question I was thinking the same thing about my math students. What has led to a decrease in student productivity in my math class, and how does student ability and student effort impact student performance. This is an excellent research topic, and your results will help more teachers than you think. I look forward to reading your final research.
Good Luck!
Posted by Jill Mann | January 30, 2009 8:57 PM
Posted on January 30, 2009 20:57
Why do you think your class is less productive? What are the indicators?
You and your students have control over organization and effort, but ability is not something you can control. The implied goal is to improve productivity--to take action. What are you going to do with the knowledge of how ability affects performance?
I like the detail you provided about the participants and the idea of interviewing a variety of audience members.
Posted by Daniel Skinner | January 30, 2009 9:08 PM
Posted on January 30, 2009 21:08
I've mentioned this before, but I experienced something similar with a newspaper journalism staff many years ago. I'll be interested to see what you find.
Posted by Conrad Martin | January 30, 2009 9:36 PM
Posted on January 30, 2009 21:36
Student productivity is something that many teachers look at. Why is it that it seems that the productivity level is going down. Maybe through this research you can give each of us an answer to this. Maybe, it isn't going down, the standards maybe going up, or the work load maybe going up. What are the variables that are causing this to happen. Look forward to the findings.
Posted by Scott Harrill | January 31, 2009 6:10 PM
Posted on January 31, 2009 18:10
I agree that student productivity is an excellent topic for your research. I wonder if attitude and effort flatten out because some of the new shine and excitement has worn off and what was new and exciting is now mundane.
Posted by Craig Cavender | February 1, 2009 7:51 AM
Posted on February 1, 2009 07:51
I see the same thing on ocassion with student productivity and participation. Middle school students can be very interesting and difficult at the same time. I hope you get to the bottom of this and I'm interested in what you discover.
Posted by Kristen Clark | February 1, 2009 6:10 PM
Posted on February 1, 2009 18:10
Jeff, you may find it easier to manage if you focus on one aspect in your question: organization OR ability OR effort instead of all three. I had to pair mine down as well to make it manageable in our time frame.
Posted by Roxie Miller | February 1, 2009 9:15 PM
Posted on February 1, 2009 21:15
Jeff,
You've got a lot going on in your research question -- there are really two studies here! I think you should settle on the first part of the question. You may find that your second question comes up in the data, so asking the question before the study is redundant. The point is that you want to investigate what is causing the problem -- not try to hypothesize what is the problem and then finding out if that is the case. Does that make sense?
Don't worry so much about including the viewing audience. Right now, keep the setting and participants limited to the class.
Posted by Alecia Jackson | February 4, 2009 11:12 AM
Posted on February 4, 2009 11:12
Fantastic post you have created here! The internet is overflowing of bad writing and I was grabbed by your lucidity. Your decisions are true and I will directly subscribe to your rss feed to remain up to date with your up following posts. Thank you!
Posted by hair removal for women | November 27, 2011 4:17 AM
Posted on November 27, 2011 04:17