EDU 657: Elementary School Practicum and Research Methods (MST)

This course is for graduate students who are close to completing their Master's of Science in Teaching degree. The course provides a seminar format for students to discuss current topics and issues that arise in their 100 hour field practicum placement that they complete while registered for this course and prepares them to conduct an action research project in their field placement setting.  To view my past course syllabus, assignments and grading rubrics, please
click here to visit the course website I created and click on the provided links to view my past work.

I find that this is an exciting course to teach because students can talk about and connect their  field observations to in-class discussions. One of the assignments that I created to facilitate students' reflections on and conversations about their own teaching is to have them videotape one lesson that they teach in the field, write a reflection on their observations of themselves while teaching and present what they've learned about teaching through their reflections. Part of students' in-class presentation is to show a 5 minute video-clip of their teaching. I've chosen to ask students to show a segment of their own teaching in class so all class members have a shared observational experience that we can discuss in class. To view the assignment description, click here. Although students are initially hesitant to show their video-tape to their peers, they have repeatedly mentioned that this is a worthwhile assignment for them because they can begin to reflect on their own teaching and ways that they facilitate elementary students' learning.

Students who take EDU 657 are asked to complete various teaching assignments while completing their field practicum. The teaching assignments were part of the course and program requirements before I started teaching the course. When I started teaching this course, I didn't have any written descriptions for the practicum assignments so I talked with another professor who also  teaches this course to learn more about the assignment requirements. Then, I wrote an assignment description for students' field practicum requirements. I followed the same pattern for understanding all of the other assignments that were already part of this course. While the assignments were well thought-out, there weren't any written descriptions for students to fully understand their course requirements. To view the assignment descriptions that I created for this course, please visit the course website by clicking here. Assignments are linked by clicking on the title of each assignment.

To prepare students to choose a topic for their action research project, I have encouraged them to do some preliminary observations to think about ways that student learning could be improved in their host classrooms. I use email dialogue with students so I can communicate with them one-on-one as they begin to define and narrow  their research topic. While this is incredibly time consuming on my part, it allows me to have the necessary individual student contact for ongoing assessment so I can provide the needed support that I believe is essential during the beginning stages of this project.

To better prepare students for writing a comprehensive literature review (one component of their action research project), I've created an outline that I will distribute for their reference. To view the literature review outline, please click here.

As a scholar, I believe that one of my strongest areas of expertise is with understanding educational research design, development and evaluation. I am very excited about teaching this course because I believe that it is an area where I can use my knowledge to contribute greatly. One of the ways that I am helping students to understand how to write a proposal for their action research project is by using my own research as an example for their reference. In class,  I have shown students copies of my own research proposals, notes and analyses and have been told that this practice is helping them to more fully understand all aspect of a research project -- from early design, to planning and conducting the study.

One of the elements that I see missing from the MST program is students publishing their action research studies that they're completing. Throughout the past few semesters that I have taught this course, some of my students have presented their action research projects at our annual Scholar's Day. A goal that I have for this program is to create a partnership with host teachers to help them learn about effective classroom research so they can work alongside preservice teachers to formulate and carry-out a research project that will have the potential to (1) contribute to in-service and pre-service teachers' professional understandings about conducting action research,  and perhaps more importantly, (2) contribute elementary students' learning.

I consider this to be the most rigorous course that I have taught and that students take in the MST Program. I find it very rewarding to guide my students through the learning process as they reach the goals for this course.