FINAL PROJECT – ECI 735 – Fall 2023

FROM THE SYLLABUS:

Investigating a Problem of Interest in Teaching and Teacher Education (45%)

You will identify a problem of interest in teaching and teacher education. Over the course of the semester, you will identify and read existing empirical research on the problem of interest. Details for each component will be provided as the semester progresses. The project is scaffolded to provide ongoing support from both peers and your instructor. The final products are a digital poster presentation and a critical literature review. The due dates for the assignment are as follows:

● Products across the Semester to Prepare for Final (10 points)

○ Initial identification of problem of interest – due August 29

○ Refined identification of problem of interest – due September 12

○ Four research articles on problem of interest with key themes – due September 26

○ Four research articles on problem of interest with key themes (and appropriate revisions)

– due October 24

○ Four research articles on problem of interest with key themes (and appropriate revisions)

WRITTEN PAPER:

Throughout the semester, you have been finding and reading at least 12 empirical research articles on your identified question or problem of interest. You were provided with a template that serves as a tool for keeping track of your articles and identified themes.

Possible steps for writing the paper:

(1) Start with an outline. Outlines don’t need to be fancy. I like to write “stream of consciousness”

outlines where I write all my thoughts on paper and how I see myself organizing the big parts of a paper. Which theme will I introduce first? How will I connect the first theme to the second one, the second to the third, and so forth?

(2) Start with an introduction to your problem or question of interest. Describe the topic, provide any necessary definitions, and make a case for why it is important to investigate this topic in the literature.

(3) Cue the reader on what you’ve identified as the themes in the literature. Be explicit. Don’t leave the guesswork up to the reader to figure out what the themes are.

(4) One by one, present the themes. To be a “theme”, the theme should surface in multiple research studies. For this project, I would expect a theme to surface in at least one-third of the research studies that you reviewed, possibly more. Remember that a theme might surface in different ways. Maybe one of the themes is “Teacher efficacy in classroom management seems to improve after the first year of teaching,” but there are exceptions and caveats to this theme across

  – due November 28 Product

● Final

○ Digital Poster Presentation (10 points) – due December 7

○ Written Component - Critical Literature Review (25 points) – due December 10

 the research studies. You can write about that. I would expect a theme to have multiple paragraphs to support it. Try to have a topic sentence in each paragraph supported by details.

You will not have space for a super detailed literature review, but aim to create a coherent presentation of the themes. In other words, avoid the trap of providing lots of details about individual studies, but you will need to include some details to support your points/themes.

(5) For a given theme, what is missing? What is left to find out? How might the research methods play a role in what has already been found – do you have a critique? Are there any dangers in how the findings in the studies that support your theme might be interpreted by various audiences? I would recommend that you fold your critique into each theme.

(6) Write a discussion as your closure. Discussion sections typically start with a brief summary (recap the themes). Then, present implications broadly and across themes for the reader. In other words, what does the collective group of themes mean for the field of education? What are the next steps for research and/or for practice? Basically, your goal is to say that the research you reviewed gives us information, but that there are questions that still need to be addressed. Remember that the questions should be couched in fairly broad terms, rather than as sharpened research questions.

FORMATTING: Your final paper should be presented in approximately 16-22 pages. (NOT including title page, abstract page, references, the appendix, figures/tables). The paper should be double-spaced, Times New Roman 11 font, one-inch margins, grammar- and spell-checked. Use the APA Publication Manual (7th edition) for your writing style and references. If you don’t own the manual, the Owl website at Purdue is rather comprehensive.

DIGITAL POSTER PRESENTATION:

The digital poster presentations will take place in METRC on Thursday, December 7. You are expected to be there the entire time to support your peers (4:30-6:00 PM). PLEASE ARRIVE EARLY. Click

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see the complete schedule. Here are a few expectations for the poster:

Clear title so that someone standing back while you talk to someone else knows what your poster is about

Question: Your question should be on the poster. What is your final question or questions that you’re trying to answer? We worked on trying to frame your problem as a question at the beginning of the semester.

Significance: You should make a statement about why this is an important question to investigate in the literature.

Themes: Your themes should be clearly displayed on the poster with support.

Implications: Include some key implications for future research (and/or for practice in teaching/teacher education).

 You cannot put everything from your paper on your poster! Stay at the theme level with some support from what you reviewed (but you won’t be able to include all support!).

Avoid being text heavy. You might display your themes in a visual or some other way that makes sense to you. Or, you might include clip art or symbols to go along with the words for a theme. In other words, I would avoid a poster that only has words.

 ● Be prepared with a quick “elevator” speech about your poster (75-90 seconds). When someone stops by your poster, they want to hear the big ideas so they can then ask you questions.