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I started in a new district this year where pacing guides are district wide. We follow the guides and are expected to be right around the same lessons as other teachers at different schools in the district. I came from a pretty relaxed district and there were no pacing guides. So, I started to be more curious about this.

My study aims to understand the effectiveness of curriculum and pacing guides in elementary settings by investigating the following question: To what extent does curriculum pacing affect instruction in elementary settings? Many districts have high demands and expect their educators to use the given curriculum pacing guides, and novice early childhood teachers may feel a sense of apprehension as the expectations to stay on pace with curriculum and pacing calendars. I will being interviewing my colleagues to discuss pacing guides. I am looking forward to what they say!

This was probably the hardest course I have taken in the masters program. A lot of the readings seemed like foreign language to me, and I found the material tricky and needed to re-read often. I didn't know too much about qualitative and quantitative research, and am leaving with more information on them.

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My proposal aims to synthesize these findings and explore their practical application by examining the association between fact fluency and student achievement in a  sixth grade mathematics curriculum.  What perceptions and practices do teachers report regarding fact fluency and achievement with grade-level standards? I will be surveying teachers, interventionists and specialists in Cumberland County to determine their beliefs on fact fluency, instruction practices, and their perceived effectiveness.

As reading research papers and researching is not my strong suit, I was very worried about this class. It was difficult for me to analyze texts and evaluate research. I feel like I am leaving this class with a greater understanding and knowledge base. The book was particularly helpful to reference and use as an outline. I particularly appreciate when specific pages were given to ensure I was including what I needed to discuss.

I am leaving this class with a significantly better understanding of the design and writing process. I particularly appreciated the qualitative and quantitative research reviews as this gave me a better understanding of the expectations and structure. It also has shown me areas in my proposal I need to improve upon.

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I have become much better at reading research articles. Particularly, I find myself being able to understand qualitative papers more now than before taking this class. Previously, I was intimidated by the language used in them, like coding and framework, and now these terms have meaning, and qualitative papers feel more approachable.

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My proposal is to look at the experiences of online instructors and grow an understanding of their strengths and struggles with teaching online classes.

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Course Takeaways

There are different methods of determining the reliability of a research article. Knowing these methods also help with understanding the papers as well as evaluate them.

Research isn’t something magical that only certain people are able to do, but something that I could write a proposal for and conduct myself as well.

Ethical Standards have been developed over the years and are very important to uphold the dignity and protection of research subjects.

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I have been working in a self contained behavior program for four years now. Most of the students that I work with have had moderate to severe trauma in their lives, during key times of brain development. This is beginning to be more and more prevalent across all of the special education programs as well as general education programing. Due to this increase in student trauma, our school has really started focusing more on trauma informed practices. I have seen the positive effects that the use of trauma informed practices have on the students I work with, allowing them to reach more of a behavioral baseline and thus become more able to access academics, where they were not able to in the past. I have decided to base my study on the impact that trauma informed practices have on the academic achievement of students such as those in the population that I work with. I am excited to hear what my co workers have to say about their experiences with using trauma informed practices, both teachers and service providers, such as our social workers. These practices are certainly going to be more and more prevalent in public school settings, due to the increase in students that have experienced trauma.

I have taken research classes during my BA, but it has been quite a few years since those were completed, so it's been interesting to refresh on the styles of research. I had never had to write a proposal to the extent of the one we are required for this paper and that was a pretty intense process for me. The fact that the APA style has recently changed was also a challenge for me. I feel more confident in conducting my research and writing my capstone after this course, it has definitely helped solidify some of that prior knowledge on research.

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I would say that I have learned a lot about how to conduct research and what to look for within each type of research article. Prior to this I was not very good at conducting research, but after taking the course I am more comfortable with the practices and methods of how to research. The book and article were good resources to use when going through the course material. I was pretty nervous with the timeframe over the course and getting the proposal done but the due date, but was well supported in getting it done. I am definitely leaving the class with more tools and resources around research and how to conduct research.

My proposal is looking at the teachers' perspectives of the school climate’s impact on students' social-emotional health and well being. It is aimed to look at the relationship between the school's environment and its impact on students' social and emotional well being. I chose to survey teachers to see how they believe the school is doing towards supporting kids and making sure the students' voices are heard. My hope is that the data from this survey will be used to make important decisions and changes to better support kids within the school.

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As a K-5 interventionist, I have noticed a steep decline in early numeracy skills in our youngest students over the past few years.  There are numerous students I have worked with in intervention who come to school unable to do things like like rote count, identify which tower is taller/shorter, or name basic shapes.  My proposal is an exploratory study investigating the question, ““In what ways do rural parents/guardians of young children incorporate mathematical activities into their lives?”  Through a survey of families in my rural community, I hope to gain a better understanding of what parents and caregivers are doing with their young children at home (both formally and informally) that may help them develop stronger numeracy skills before they arrive at school.  My long term goal is to develop some early numeracy enrichment programs in my community, either in a group setting (like at our library or school) or through mode delivered directly to students in their homes.  I picture the latter being part of a numeracy advocacy campaign like the Raising Readers or Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, where books are given to all parents of young children, either at well child doctor visits or mailed to their homes.  I recognize the challenges families face in communities like mine, a childcare desert where many families lack connections to programs, transportation, and funds that may make these opportunities possible.  I’m hoping this study will help me identify more specific strengths and needs and build upon those.

I learned a ton about what is known about early numeracy as I did the initial research for my proposal.  I had some assumptions about the opportunities that families provide and how they contribute to students’ mathematical readiness for school.  Some of those assumptions seem to be true based on previous research, but there is still a great amount of research that needs to be done in this area to provide clear guidance to families and educators.  I am really excited and hopeful about how this research can impact my community, and even what it might be able to add to the research base on this topic.

I also learned a lot about the research process and research proposals.  I took a research methods course during my first graduate degree program, but that was a LONG time ago, it was not nearly as comprehensive, and we were only asked to conduct a case study with one student, which was an entirely different process.  I really appreciate the work that the IRB does throughout the year to support researchers and ensure that the research they are doing is done ethically and responsibly.

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Proposal Summary
My proposal centers on the design of an Integrated Support Classroom (ISC) model for autistic students and students with significant behavioral and social-emotional needs who require more intensive support than a traditional resource room. The ISC model intentionally integrates environmental design, instructional practices, and systemic support to promote academic engagement, behavior regulation, and social development. Drawing on existing research, the proposal highlights how antecedent environmental interventions, structured visual supports, intentional classroom layouts, and consistent instructional strategies can reduce challenging behaviors and increase engagement. The study extends prior literature by shifting the focus from isolated interventions to a teacher-centered examination of how these elements come together in practice, with the goal of developing a scalable, equitable ISC model for district-wide implementation.

What I Have Learned (Course Takeaways)
Through this course, I have strengthened my understanding of the scientific method and the defining characteristics of educational research, particularly the importance of grounding practice-based initiatives in systematic inquiry. Conducting an interpretive review of the literature reinforced my ability to identify, locate, and critically evaluate both qualitative and quantitative research related to complex educational problems. I learned how qualitative research methods are especially well-suited for capturing teacher perspectives and contextual factors, which aligns with my research question. Additionally, the course emphasized the importance of research design decisions, clarity in problem identification, and the careful synthesis of findings across studies. Overall, this course enhanced my ability to be a critical thinker and communicator of educational research while planning a study that is both methodologically sound and practically relevant.

How I Will Move Forward
Moving forward, I will use my strengthened skills in literature review and critical analysis to continue examining evidence-based practices while remaining attentive to contextual and systemic factors. The course has reinforced the importance of balancing rigor with relevance, particularly when designing research intended to inform real-world educational decision-making.

Next Steps
Next steps might include refining the research design, finalizing data collection methods (such as teacher interviews or surveys), and developing clear procedures for analyzing data. I will also continue expanding the literature review to ensure comprehensive coverage of both instructional and environmental design research. Ultimately, the findings will be used to inform the development of a coherent ISC framework that can guide practice, support staff, and promote equitable learning opportunities for students with complex needs.

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My proposal is looking at the impact that flexible seating has on student academic achievement in a 8th grade math classroom. Students will be given a pre-assessment on functions, while some students are using flexible seating and some are not. They will then work through the module, the same instructional techniques used, while either using flexible seating or not based on their grouping, and take a post-test to look at their growth in comparison to the control group.

I came into this class with little knowledge of research methods and by the end I do feel as though I know a bit more about them. I did find the articles we read interesting, and did enjoy learning about the research that has already been done, both when doing my literature review and in the articles we had to do a critique on.

The takeaways I have from this class are:

The information I learned about the different methods of research.

APA style citations are hard to correctly format, especially with so many different versions out there when trying to research how to correctly do them. Also, figuring out the format needed to put it into my proposal myself was a challenge.

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My proposal seeks to further understand how principals perceive the effectiveness, challenges, and impact of restorative practices on school culture and discipline. My participants will include fourteen elementary, middle and high school principals in my district. The principals will complete an online questionnaire with 21 Likert-scale response questions. The questions are designed to gather data about perceptions, understandings, and the implementation of restorative practices within their school. At the end of the questionnaire they will be asked what would help them better implement restorative practices in their school. The data I collect from this study will remain anonymous and be shared with the district superintendent. Through sharing the information I hope to facilitate a conversation about the use of restorative practices within our district.

At the beginning of this course creating a research project seemed impossible and out of reach. It was an overwhelming task and I was unsure if I was going to be able to do it. This feeling continued as I searched for research articles. However, the more I read and created my proposal I realized I could do it, I just had to step outside of my comfort zone. This being said, I learned a lot from this course. I learned the difference between quantitative and qualitative research, how to determine if an article is trustworthy and transferable, and some statistics! I also learned how to create a survey, critique articles, and use online databases. Compared to my other classes I would say this was the most challenging, as it required an in-depth understanding of the research process. This meant a lot of time reading complex articles and trying to determine what the important parts were. Despite these challenges, I feel I am leaving this class in a better place as a leader, educator, and researcher. It proved to me that I am capable of tackling and completing challenging projects. In terms of next steps, I look forward to analyzing the data and sharing it with my superintendent. In doing so, I hope to create positive change within our district.

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Liz Bouchard Response:

It is fair to say that this was one of, if not the, hardest course I have ever taken during my time in college. Everything we learned in this course was brand new to me. From the start, just the knowledge that I now have about qualitative and quantitative data and how to analyze articles displaying each type of data is much higher than it was prior to this course. The concepts of experimental vs. nonexperimental research and what to look for in each was another big thing I learned about looking at research.

Another huge part of my take away is using databases to find specific types of articles, how to analyze research articles, and to use these articles to form a strong new research question to examine. Going along with this take away, I will say that I learned a ton about how to analyze an article correctly and also how to write a proposal using information I had gathered from these articles I read.

In this course I learned a lot about the power of quality and direct feedback due to an impactful professor. I was able to use this specific feedback to complete assignments correctly with the complete understanding that was needed.

Lastly, I was able to grow my experience and knowledge about using the APA style format of writing.

My proposal is to survey candidate students in grades 3-5 in my district and ask them about their anxieties when they are asked specific math questions. I have created 3 question example document(1 for each grade level) that I will show the students 3 examples of math questions in each of the 4 strands that are assessed on NWEA and ask them to what extent do they feel anxious or nervous to answer each of the questions presented. I will then compare their level of anxiousness about the questions to their actual NWEA score in each of the 4 math strands. I want to see if there is a relationship between their anxious feelings about certain mathematical areas and their scores on NWEA in these certain mathematical areas. I would also like to see if there are any trends in the data in these specific math strands. I wonder if any connections will be able to be made between children's feelings about math in specific areas to the current curriculum that is being used. I would love to use the information that is gathered in this survey to share with my district coach and curriculum director so they can see which direction to head in for math professional development.

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My proposal is investigating the relationship in middle school students between their feeling towards math (love it, hate it, indifferent) and their achievement and level of classroom participation. I chose this because I am new to teaching 8th grade math this year. Previously I was an elementary math interventionist and special education teacher. By 8th grade I noticed that my students have a very strong feeling towards their ability in math. I wanted to research to see if there was a relationship between how they feel about math and how well they do in class and on the NWEA assessment. My hypothesis is that students who don’t like math or feel they aren’t good at it participate less and score lower. I have leaned a lot about the different types of research and the strengths and limitations of each type. My proposal is quantitative because I wanted to include all of the students in the school. That is 200-300 students per grade in 6-8th. Qualitative would have been unrealistic for me to accomplish. I do wish that I had some type of interview included to make it mixed research study. If I were to do it again after learning about all the types, I would have included a random sample of the larger group to include an interview.

I enjoyed reading the articles of various research styles. I became more critically aware of research and I feel more confident.

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I will be working on the effects of advanced math on middle-school students. RSU 12 has a program for middle-school students to advance their math in order to take Algebra 2 as a freshman. The qualifications and expectations are varied, depending on the school and the parents. I am interested in seeing what, if any, the process has on the students themselves, within my own school. I'm not sure what I'll find. I'm hoping I will at least be able to clarify and solidify some of the inconsistencies.

The best projects in this course were the article reviews. They required me to use what I learned in my readings and apply those concepts in a real, practical way. (Did I enjoy them? No. Did I learn from them? Yes.)

The other math teacher in my school took the same course through Orono. Her only task was to create the research proposal. At first I was a bit jealous. In retrospect, I believe I learned more from course readings and assignments than if I had only to pass through the IRB. I am also thankful for Farmington's IRB process which seemed much more cohesive than the IRB process in Orono. I am also thankful for the pickiness of our instructor (although not at the time) which made the actual IRB review less painful than that of my peer teacher.

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The research that I proposed and got approved from the IRB was how the lighting in the classroom can affect student behavior and academic performance. I will use different lighting to observe student’s behavior and their academic performance.

I learned a significant amount in this class. I learned that the research that is conducted in academic settings is all supported by a university’s IRB. I learned that academic research is a lot more governed than I originally thought.

Also, learning how to actually read research articles has been a tremendous learning opportunity. As someone who struggles to read in most settings, knowing what to look for in research articles has been an amazing tool to add to my toolbox.

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My proposal asked the research question, "how do teacher-directed laptop-use practices in a one-to-one high-school setting influence classroom engagement during instructional activities?" My question was influenced by the growing literature surrounding attention, engagement, technology, and pedagogy. I discovered that while studies often looked into the potential for technology to support or hinder learning for different populations, there was missing components for the contexts and methods of implementation of technology that would best serve teachers. This led me to focus on the specific teacher-directed classroom practices that might influence overall classroom engagement in high-school settings. My proposed study addresses this gap in its research question. I will use interviews and observations in a qualitative structure to do so.

I was familiar with the basic concepts of research methods before- qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods, reliability, validity, etc., but had never fully engaged with and implemented them in a more rigorous, structured setting. The studies that I did in undergraduate work did not need to go through any boards, and were more "proof of concept" generally, if you "were" to do this study, how would you do it. I did have a longer term paper in which I built up a focus group to examine a research question, which was more developed, and was implemented, yet did not have the formal structural components around it. In this sense, the most important things I have learned, and my course takeaways, are one and the same. The process of developing a research study is highly involved. It requires formulating a fine-tuned question, understanding the limits of specific sampling methods or a population. It requires identifying methodologies for implementation, and existing within a specific structure. I generally engage more with theoretical or qualitative works, and am not a fan of strict structure in academics, or in language or writing. I find conforming to a specific discipline or style to be a stifling of creativity and expression, leading to a state of acquiescence, a surrendering to the demands of external structures.

I have incredible respect for academia, anf for intellectualism, and engage with it often, yet I am not one to worship the domain of the quantitative or the scientific method, yet am glad there are those that do, as my fields of interest, such as politics, philosophy, anthropology, are naturally more situated in the humanities, and do not require those qualities. I suppose it is comforting to know the separation from the qualitative world is possible for those who reside in the sciences. Yet I remain skeptical of the need to impose that specific lens of scientific orthodoxy or absolute rationalism on to all other disciplines. In that sense, my takeaway is that I would not do well in academia/higher education/quantitative or more social scientific fields or disciplines.

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My proposal is to explore how the use of graphing calculators during instruction affects high school students’ ability to analyze and interpret functions. As a science teacher, I really wanted to conduct research related to science, but unfortunately, I could not find enough relevant articles on the specific topic I was focused on. Nevertheless, I am happy with the proposal I ended up with.

In this class, I learned a lot about how to identify specific research topics and how to use its references effectively. Reading research papers helped me to know more about the differentiation between qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. I also learned that all research involving human subjects must be approved by the IRB.

Throughout this class, the most challenging part was organizing the sections of the proposal, which was a valuable learning experience.

I am very excited about the next step, which will be putting my proposal into action and collecting data next semester. I am a little nervous, but I see it as a new learning opportunity.

Thank you, Prof. Cohen, for all your help and support during this semester.