Education

Posted: December 10th, 2013

Read and then answer questions

My focus in integrated studies are: Health and wellness and Psychology.

Selecting an Issue
It sounds like a bit of a cliché, but one of our goals at Nevada State College is to make the world a better place. Of course, the world “better” is open to debate: one person’s idea of a better world may be very different than an another person’s idea of a better world.

No matter what your idea is of a better world, I would like you to use this class as an opportunity to at least consider how we could get a little closer to it. That does not mean you need to start a food bank or donate all your money to charity in order to pass this class. It does mean that you have a chance to affect positive change during your life, even if it is in a small way, and I would like you to start thinking about how you might do it.

When I used to camp in the woods of New York with the Boy Scouts, we were always told to leave the campsites looking better than when we found them. Perhaps that is a good way to think about this task: how can you leave this world better than when you found it?

To encourage you, I am asking you to select an issue. For the purposes of this class, I am considering an “issue” a problem that a particular group of people face. You could also consider it a “challenge,” as in “it will be a challenge for Nevada to maintain mental health facilities in this economic climate.” You can select any issue you would like, so long as it is important to you and it relates in some way to one of your concentrations.

For example, some issues that are important to me:

1. Utilizing solar energy
2. The low educational rankings of Nevada
3. Maintaining Nevada’s state parks

Notice that I am not taking a stance here. The purpose of this activity is simply to select an issue. You can take a stance later.

To get started, consider some of these “big” issues:

Global Challenges

http://www.millennium-project.org/millennium/challenges.html

Keep in mind that there are many more. I am just trying to give you as many ideas as I can. I would also like it better if your issue was closer to home. This will make it easier to explore in a short class. Rather than saying: “My issue is the number of animals that are not adopted worldwide,” you could say “My issue is the number of dogs that are not adopted in the Henderson/Las Vegas area.”

Importantly, this issue needs to relate in some way to your major concentration or your minor concentration. For example, if my major concentration is English and my minor concentration is Visual Media, I might have a hard time selecting “Solar Energy” as my issue. That said, it is not impossible. I could justify the choice by saying that I will be looking at how newspapers write about solar energy and how television advertisements portray it, which would actually link the issue to my concentrations.

Once you have selected an issue, you are ready to start working on a research question. I will cover the research question in the next part of the module. For now, it is enough to know that you will be asking a question and then spending the semester working on ways to answer it. Ideally, that answer should address the issue that you have selected here.

Developing a Research Question
People come to this program from all kinds of backgrounds, which is one reason why I love it. Technically, my field of specialty is English, but I study movies quite a bit. In the years I have worked with both subjects, I have found that a literary perspective on film studies is remarkably helpful, as is a “cinematic” perspective on literature. Both disciplines see problems and questions in different ways. By using both perspectives, I can develop broader and more complex solutions to the questions I have.

Let me go back to the definition of Interdisciplinary Studies: "a process of answering a question, solving a problem, or addressing a topic that is too broad or complex to be dealt with adequately by a single discipline or profession" (Klein & Newell 1997).

The research question is the beginning of this process.

Requirements:

1. The question should relate to the larger issue you selected.
2. The question should interest you. What might you like to know? Picking a topic that you actually care about will make the project much more beneficial for you.
2.The question should be broad enough to be explored from multiple perspectives.
3. The question should be complex, but manageable for a paper that is approximately 20 pages long. This means that there need to be multiple aspects to the question that you could investigate. If the question is too simple, you won’t be able to expand it into a paper. If the question is too broad, your paper will be too general and you won’t be able to provide careful insight into it. “What is the history of China?” is clearly too large, whereas “Why are pillows soft?” is too narrow. Furthermore, neither question is truly complex.

Of course, to get there, you need to develop a good research question – one that is broad enough to study for an entire semester, but also narrow enough to keep you focused. For this week, I just want you to do some research about your question: Is it “big” enough to study for an entire class? Have people written about it to some extent?

You can choose a research question with elements that no one has written about, but it will make this class more difficult. I will be asking you to do a lot of research, and if there is nothing out there, you will have to do a lot of searching to find relevant materials. Therefore, it is a good idea to look at a question with elements that researchers have discussed, even if they have not asked your exact question.

For example, lets say your concentrations are Education and Psychology. Here are some thoughts about possible research questions:

Research question 1: How might psychological theories of depression help high school teachers recognize the disease in their students and develop better lesson plans?

Has someone asked this question before? Maybe. It is okay if they have. But if they have not, it is also okay. You can research depression from the perspective of Psychology, and mental illness in class from the perspective of education. By putting both together, you may be able to answer your question in an interesting way.

Research question 2: What are the depression rates amongst teachers and how can they be lowered?

This works for me as well. You could look at depression from a psychological perspective and look at the effects of depression in educators from an educational perspective.

Research question 3: What are the kinds of depression?

This one does not work for me. It only asks a question from a single perspective, and it does not ask anything that leads to a thoughtful discussion. Essentially, this question could be answered with a list.

Research question 4: How can I make myself less depressed as a teacher?

This one also does not work for me. It is too personal. Try to write about a broad subject that affects a bigger population. Question 2 is a broader way to handle a question like this.

Research question 5: What are the qualities of a good teacher?

Like #4, this question is too narrow, and it does not really present a question that can be examined from multiple perspectives.

So what does make a good research question? Let’s begin with the concentrations I mentioned earlier: Education and Psychology

How can behavioralist methodologies help instructors better educate middle school students with ADD?

Here, I could imagine looking at ADD from a psychological perspective and from an educational perspective. The combination could form a third perspective, which synthesizes the perspectives of the first two.

Let’s try another set of concentrations: English and History

Question: How might a historical understanding of the role of upper-class women help to explain the character’s actions in Hamlet?

Here, I could imagine looking at women in Hamlet (for the first paper) and looking at the historical role of upper-class women (history) for the second paper. The third paper would combine both.

A good question will interest you, and it will help you know when you have done enough research. Notably, I want you to work on the question, but I don’t necessarily expect you to solve it. Some questions may be too complex too solve fully in a project this size, or there may be no complete answer. Your primary goal isn’t necessarily to answer the question entirely, but to shed some light on the question, to evaluate the answers of others, and to propose some possible answers of your own.

Discussion 1:

Read through module 1 on issues and research questions. Then answer these questions:

1. Please list your major and minor concentrations here again, just to help others that are reading your posts.

Answer these questions in in at least 250 words:

2. What major issue would you like to use as a starting point for your work in this class? Remember, it does not have to be monumentally big (e.g. world hunger), but it should not be incredibly small (e.g. dogs that snore). Try to select something that truly interests you and that relates to at least one of your concentrations. After you have selected the issue, explain why you are selecting it and why it is important. You may also want to say a bit about possible solutions.

3. Develop a research question that is related to your issue and write it here. Then justify it. Is it complex enough for an extended project? Can it be examined from the perspective of your two disciplines? What do you expect to gain from examining this question?

Next Assignment:

Major: Health and WEllness
Minor: Psychology
Assignment 1: Issue, Research Question, and Sources.
Use this form for the first assignment. See the explanations below. There are four
separate but related questions. It is worth 50 points, or 5% of your total grade for the class.
My goal is to help you prepare for the papers and the final project. Notably, you will be
working on these questions for the research journals as well. It is okay to use some of your
material from the journals, but I also want to see evidence of thought and revision.
Part I: Concentrations (List your two concentrations here.)
Major Concentration:
Minor Concentration:
Part II: Issue. (Describe your selected issue here in at least 250 words)
Part III: Research Question. (List your research question here and explain what you hope to
explore.)
Part IV: Sources. (List two sources here and provide short annotations for them)
Guidelines
Part I: Concentrations. This one is easy!
Part II: Issue
Please describe an important issue that relates to your two concentrations in some way. In
your description, please explain the problem and why it is complex.
Ideally, your education should allow you to help make the world a better place, even if it is in
a minor way. For this first question, I want you to consider an important issue in our culture.
This can be something local (e.g. the number of foreclosures in Henderson) or global (e.g.
the current conflict in Syria). Whatever issue you select, make sure that it applies in some
way to at least one of your concentrations.
For example, let’s say that my concentrations are: Environmental Science and English. The
issue I want to address is solar power in Henderson. In my explanation, I would discuss the
increasing implementation of solar power cells, as well as the problems this process might
cause.
If my concentrations are: Education and Psychology, I might choose the education level of
the United States (as compared to other countries) as my issue.
Whatever issue you choose, make sure that it is debatable in some way. Also, make sure that
it relates to at least one of your concentrations.
Part III: Research Question
Select a research question that will allow you to look at an aspect of this issue from the
perspective of your major concentration and your minor concentration. Using the examples
above:
My concentrations are: Environmental Science and English.
My issue is: solar power in Henderson.
My research question might be: How could grant writers fund more solar power initiatives in
the Henderson area?
My Concentrations are: Education and Psychology.
My issue is: the education level of the United States (as compared to other countries)
My research question might be: How can advances in the psychology of memory help
students in the United States improve their standardized exam scores?
As you can see, both questions are complex enough to encompass both disciplines. After
you have listed your research question, tell me a bit about it. Why is it important? What
Part IV: Initial Sources.
Provide two sources here and a description of each source (at least 100 words). You want to
be sure that your issue and your research question will allow for detailed research, since you
will be working on them all semester.
First, cite each source properly, using MLA or APA guidelines, depending on what style you
plan on using for the class. Whatever style you pick, please use it throughout the entire class.
The sources should be books or academic journals. Do not use websites.
Describe each source carefully. Consider what the source says and how it might be helpful
when you are considering your research question.
Example (in MLA):
Robinson, Gregory. “Oh! Mother Will Be Pleased: Cinema Writes Back in Hepworth’s How
It Feels to be Run Over.” Literature/Film Quarterly 39.2 (2011): 181-211. Print.
Robinson makes several important points related to my larger argument. First, he notes that
much of the existing criticism of Hepworth’s famous 1900 film relies heavily on
psychoanalytic theory. This in itself is not bad, but the much of this criticism relies on a
preexisting belief in the assumptions of that theory. Robinson also notes that the movie’s
frequent appearances in critical works are due not to the movie itself, but rather because the
ending is so mysterious that it supports multiple readings. This relates to my research
question on the history of movies by questioning some assumptions about them, including
the idea that they were not particularly sophisticated.