Research Project Guidelines

Learning Outcome:The student will identify the theoretical foundations of various approaches to teaching and learning and reflect on them in relation to their personal philosophy of teaching and learning.

This assignment gives you the opportunity to explore the implementation of a learning theory in greater depth by reading further on a selected topic. You will select a particular theory (or instructional approach or overarching idea) from the course readings related to teaching, learning, and/or pedagogy (see the Themes/Guiding Questions Column of the Syllabus) and develop a Research Project that applies your chosen topic.

The following conceptual considerations should be explored in your assignment:

· Clearly describe the theory and its history

· Who are the main proponents of this theory, and what are their backgrounds/experiences/research areas?

· What are the most important “big ideas” from this theory?

· Based on this theory, consider the following questions:

o What is the purpose of education/learning?

o What is the role of the teacher?

o What is the role of the learner?

o How do we know learning has occurred?

o Does the larger socio–cultural context matter? If so, why? And if not, why not?

· Are there other theories that are aligned to or are compatible with this theory? How so?

· What are the critiques or limitations of this theory?

· How has this theory been applied in practice? What instructional approaches/curriculum/pedagogies are aligned to this theory?

· Does this theory resonate with your own experiences, beliefs, and practices as an educator? Why or why not? This section should be substantial as it is 30% of the project.

Requirements

· You will need to read and reference from at least three primary academic sources and five practitioner articles

· You will have the option of sharing your project as a formal thesis, a presentation (PowerPoint or Prezi®), or as a video presentation

· APA writing, citations, referencing required

Notes:  No page limit. Practitioner articles are not peer-reviewed research. They are newspapers, magazines etc.