Week 5 Peer Reviewed Empirical Research Articles

I don’t think it is in my DNA to be a researcher. I find the process hard and I am usually one to catch on super easy and enjoy a challenge. Maybe I am having a harder time because this is an online class and I would learn this type of material better if someone was showing me and telling me exactly what I was looking for. I read the activities and all the lecture materials and I watch the videos and I feel like I have the concept. Then I go and try to find the material on my own and I get myself all lost.

I ran into a number of issues this week. When I looked at the Subject-Specific Database material it suggested that I use EBSCO. I tried and had a hard time getting Journal Articles. I became frustrated because I liked when I could just check a box and select journal articles. I felt like I was looking for something that wasn’t there in the EBSCO search engine. I also felt this way when trying SAGE and GALE. After an hour of feeling unsuccessful I decided to use Discover! Again. I felt it was the most user friendly and that I actually found a number of Peer-Reviewed Empirical Researches.

So far the book search and the article searches I found to be the most user friendly searches. I also knew exactly what I was looking at then I read/skimmed the material. This peer reviewed empirical article was a little rough. There was so much data it was hard to figure out what fit my topic and what was extra. I looked at five different articles and it wasn’t till the 5^th one that I felt like I had found something that would be useful.

Week 4 Assignment Article Research

I have not had to write very man y research papers in my school life. In fact I cannot think of a paper that was considered an actual research paper that I have had to write. I have written a lot of papers but most are read and analyze style. I have found the research process a little exhausting. I keep wondering if I am headed in the right direction or if I am completing my assignments as they are meant to be. In prior papers I was always given the material that I needed to read and the thesis statement was always from the material given so most of the time the papers were along the same line.

This week we explored finding articles using Discover! Search Database. The database was very user friendly and easy to navigate. However, finding an actual article that fit the mold I wanted was a little challenging. I liked the search for books better, but I found the articles had a lot to offer also. During my search I found that the parameters I wanted to use were too vague. My keywords were returning a wide range and variety of articles but non that seemed to be what I was looking for. One of the articles I found based on the title sounded like a jackpot but upon further reading I was left with inconclusive results and I found that frustrating.

I finally changed my search keywords to more specific elements of classroom management and was able to get results that were more in the area I was looking for. I liked the article that I chose, Examining classroom influences on student perceptions of school climate: The role of classroom management and exclusionary discipline strategies. After skimming the article and having a lot of the heading catch my eye I wanted to read and learn from the piece. I really like that it was an article on using positive supports rather than discipline strategies to promote positive classroom behavior.

I think that I was closed minded about articles before starting my research because I was so unfamiliar with them. Add on the difficulty of finding what I wanted and I was in full I hate this mode. Now that I rethought my strategy and decided to give it one last go I am thankful I didn’t give up. I enjoyed the extra insight that reading the articles gave me and after reading it decided that the reading was not as daunting as I felt when trying to navigate a book. It was more to the point and didn’t have a whole lot of skimming to do since it was a whole lot shorter.

Week 3 Assignment Book Research Online

In my classroom I see a lot of children act out in ways that seems they may be seeking attention. Most of the time this attention they seek given in a negative way. Writing on the desk, intentionally cutting up papers, and aggression are among the many negative behaviors I witness on a daily basis from the same 6-10 children. While I originally wanted to research what parents are not doing in the discipline area compared to 10 years ago it has come to my attention that pointing out what parents are lacking will not fix the issues in my classroom. I then decided to change my direction a little to what can I do for these children in the 5 hours that I touch their lives to make their life and my life a little easier. I realize that not all children learn and relate to disciple in the same way, I also feel that parenting and teaching may overlap in the classroom when it comes to techniques.

I have decided to research both parenting and classroom management techniques to help get a wide variety of information that may be of help in the classroom. A book that I found through the Chapman Leatherby Library EBSCO database really sparked my attention in the classroom management area. The Developmental Management Approach to Classroom Behaviour : Responding to Individual Needs. The table of content had many chapters that I could relate too and the breakdown of the different type of classroom behaviors was a great. I also liked a chapter that focused on teaches’ aggression toward misbehaving students. It was an eye opener for seeing your own actions from the outside.



Further researching books this week really helped me to see where I wanted to go with my research. It gave me some insight and better direction. I realized what aspect of the classroom behavior I could have an effect on rather than trying to control situations that were beyond my reach.