Trust The Process
Honestly, at the beginning of this module, I was quite stress and pressured on starting a research project outline. I have done scholarly research before, and I understand how rigorous, systematic, and time-consuming it can get. So, while I do love to do research, I always opt not to after considering the amount of work needed to be done. To my surprise this module actually made it fun for me to draft a research outline. It helped me get motivated as it made me realize that this is for my student’s success in the courses that I teach or will teach.
With that mindset I was able to draft my research question and that is How do I enhance international student learning outcomes, engagement, and attendance in the current economy? I was able to think of this research question because of the student focused approach described in the characteristics of School of Teaching and Learning research. It made me think about what my students are going through and what is hindering them from engaging fully in class.
In order to answer my research question, I intend to go directly to the source before making any formal or systematic research design, and that is to speak directly to my students. I intend to directly ask them the question, how can I better support them to achieve better learning outcomes in their current situation. Based on their answers, I will generate keywords to focused on when looking for articles or journals that back such pedagogy or learning strategy.
After completing some background research and completing the design, I intend to collaborate to five other professors, program coordinator, and the dean of our department in order to execute my plan of action. After getting the go ahead from the dean, research committee and support of the program coordinator, I will have three professors teach the control group, and three teach the experimental group. At the end of the semester, we will tabulate our findings and analyze them.
After completing the research as a dissemination strategy, I would want to publish my finding first in a journal. This would help add credibility to my work and make it sharable to a wider audience. After which, I intend to present it in educational conference in hopes that institutions will take interest and ask me to implement my research into a project so that the institution can adopt the pedagogy, in this way my research would not just be a piece of paper but it would actually be able to improve student learning outcomes.
I chose an image of a water to depict where I want my research and pedagogy to go because water is everywhere, I want it to reach the far corners of the world and like water in the ocean, I want it to generate a wave of change to my discipline. Lastly, like water forming the shape of the object it is poured in I want my pedagogy/research to be able to change according to the needs of my students in order to help them succeed.
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TweetExample for "Trust The Process":
https://bank.ecampusontario.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Plan-for-a-SoTL-Project-Dissemination-JC-1.pdf