ECE660: Action Research and Inquiry in Education
Instructor Krummick
Action Research Area of Focus
My future professional role would be an early childhood educator in both Science and English. This would educate students through lectures and hand-on learning with adherence to the curriculum. My setting would be the classroom whereby it would ensure that there is a happy environment for all students. Also, act as a role model and a mentor by encouraging students to learn and ensuring that they do not face challenges such as depression or discrimination which would inhibit their learning.This would ensure that interacting with students more often and learn about their families. Maintaining good relationships with their families and having frequent communication would be a good way to understand any challenges the students could be facing. Comment by Juliet Krummick: Williams… we need to write in third person. Comment by Juliet Krummick: To teach in both… Comment by Juliet Krummick: This section should also include current and previous experiences. This entire paper should be in third person.
The purpose of the study is to find various ways in which students could more engage during the learning of science. The student outcomes that need influence are their knowledge and skills in science and their attitude towards learning the subject. Students are expected to obtain a positive attitude toward science learning. The performance of students in science is also an area of interest to be influenced. They should achieve good grades. The behavior of students in learning is also to be influenced since students would be expected to be disciplined and adhere to the classroom conduct rules. Comment by Juliet Krummick: Could be… Comment by Juliet Krummick: How do you know this? Through assessments, observations? I would state how you know. Comment by Juliet Krummick: Why? Comment by Juliet Krummick: Good grades to show mastery and understanding of the topic at hand? Comment by Juliet Krummick: This is off topic.
An example of a scholarly article that shows the importance of motivating students to learn is “Motivation in the classroom: Reciprocal effects of teacher behavior and student engagement across the school year”. This article discusses the importance of teacher involvement in motivating students to learn. It argues that the provision of autonomy support to students enhances their motivation in learning. “These findings suggest that students who are behaviorally disengaged receive teacher responses that should further undermine their motivation” (Skinner et al, 2013).The behavior of teachers has a significant effect on the motivation of students in learning various subjects. Comment by Juliet Krummick: This first paper is not a literature review (that’s week 3). I understand your want and need to add in a resource. I would write your information and then go in and add resources to support your ideas, not the other way around. I’ll point as some areas as I read where a resource would be appropriate.
Most of the first-grade students do not seem to be engaged enough during learning science. Even though some perform well, others fail to perform very well because of a lack of adequate engagement during learning. Teachers do not put much emphasis on the teaching of science, and this leads to a loss of interest among their students. Science forms the basis of subjects such as Biology, Physics, and Chemistry. Many students are not interested in learning these subjects because they were not motivated to learn science during early childhood education. Comment by Juliet Krummick: We need to be right on with our conclusions, how do you know this? Comment by Juliet Krummick: Well on tests? Comment by Juliet Krummick: How were you able to determine this? Comment by Juliet Krummick: How do you know this? In research writing, we need to stick to the facts and stay away from opinions. You can explain this idea without opinions…Teachers dedicate most of their time to reading within the researcher’s school. There is a big push for reading skills and science is put on the back burner. There is limited time for planning and for conducting lessons during the school day due to the classroom schedule. (see how I am showing how my idea is supported?) feel free to use anything that I suggest in the comments. Comment by Juliet Krummick: Which students will learn in the future. Comment by Juliet Krummick: See if you can change this sentence into facts, while avoiding the opinion or made up information (the stuff that doesn’t have support written in).
However, to pursue this topic to determine the role of student motivation in the performance of students. Specifically, wanting to determine whether there is a connection between the poor performance of students in science and inadequate engagement. It would also be good to determine various ways in which early childhood educators could motivate them to learn science.The target population is students in the first grade who are 6-7 years old. The reason for choosing this population is that the students begin to be taught science at this grade. First-grade students are encouraged to learn about their world by making observations and asking questions about nature. First grade forms the basis of learning science and contributes majorly to the interest of students in learning specific subjects such as science as they advance to higher grades of learning. Comment by Juliet Krummick: This is an incomplete sentence. Comment by Juliet Krummick: Are you trying to explain your research questions here? Comment by Juliet Krummick: These numbers should be written out. How many students are there? Comment by Juliet Krummick: You need more information here. How many classrooms, how many students, what is the student population? Comment by Juliet Krummick: This is a good place for a reference, maybe your state guidelines that shows that science benchmarks start in first grade? Comment by Juliet Krummick: This information is fine but it is not tied to your target population. Are you only focusing in on students? What about parents, teachers, administrators?
What are some of the ways to increase the motivation of first graders towards learning in early elementary in the area of science? Comment by Juliet Krummick: Your question gets to stand all by itself, it’s important!!
The idea is within the locus of control since we can fully engage the first-grade students to learn science. As an early childhood educator, spending most of my time with the students and would also be held accountable for their poor performance. Achieving to control the behavior of children in the class by guaranteeing to reward those who exhibit positive behaviors. Comment by Juliet Krummick: Here you can add an indirect quote about locus of control from our textbook. Comment by Juliet Krummick: Your first sentence here is right on!! You are in control of selecting the population. You don’t have control over the behavior; however, you can provide good strategies, that you will select and decide when to use them, during science lessons. You can help students achieve happiness when learning about science. You also have control over how you monitor students and collected data. Does that help?
This can ensure that all students adhere to the code of conduct while in the classroom. Having to keep more focus on teaching science and ensuring that all students stay happy while learning the unit. “Praising positive behaviors in the classroom is a simple, yet powerful, way to motivate students to be on their best behavior” (Urdan et al, 2015). Early childhood educators can change the negative attitude of students by teaching more understandably to ensure that students do not live with the mentality that science is a difficult subject. Comment by Juliet Krummick: I’m not sure why you keep going back to this idea, how are code of conduct and increasing motivation tied together? Comment by Juliet Krummick: This is an incomplete sentence. Comment by Juliet Krummick: Do you really want to increase motivation in science or is your problem really in classroom management? These are two different things. Comment by Juliet Krummick: Have you conducted research to determine this solution? If not, it is not needed. If so, you already have solutions to your problem and need to change your topic. Comment by Juliet Krummick: We do want to stay positive throughout the paper.
REFERENCES
Mills, G. E. (2014). Action research: A guide for the teacher researcher (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu
Skinner, E. A., & Belmont, M. J. (2013). Motivation in the classroom: Reciprocal effects of teacher behavior and student engagement across the school year. Journal of educational psychology, 85(4), 571.
Urdan, T., & Turner, J. C. (2015). Competence motivation in the classroom. Handbook of competence and motivation, 297317.