By Paul Silli
Below is a list of broad research topics. These subjects affect many parties within a school setting.
1. Learning new research tools/methods, Student Access, Internet & Public Libraries: It would be interesting to research the variety of possible solutions, including filtering, online-search, restricted access, blocking software for student’s in class or at the media center, training, parental permission procedures etc… to learn what teachers can do to improve research skills for students and staff.
2. Improved Integration of Technology into Lesson Plans: Learning new ways to incorporate technology into learning across the board for teachers (all school subject areas /grade levels) would be beneficial to education.
3. School Crime: What can your school do to reduce theft, vandalism, assault, verbal harassment, physical harassment, abuse, fighting and other issues that hinder learning for students? Researching the causes, effects and outcomes of this topic — and hopefully finding new ways to reduce crime in your school would be a worthy task.
4. School Safety Improvements: How can your school create new safety methods to better protect your kids & faculty? From running in the hallways – to how your school dismisses students at the end of the day could be reviewed to find new ways to improve safety.
5. Class Tardiness: Why are students late to class? How are teachers and learning affected by student-tardiness? How can this issue be reduced? What can you do as a staff to deal with tardiness? Learning how to create a “unified tardy policy” for your school would be a tremendous effort.
6. Truancy (Overboard absences): Often teachers have different policies, punishment/consequence, and develop a different overall outlook when dealing with students who are excessively absent from class and/or school. What is the underlying cause of this issue? How can you collectively work toward improved student-attendance?
7. Enhancing Methods to address the Needs of Diverse Learners: From gifted to non-English speaking students — there are often extreme diverse populations on school campuses. What methods, policies and strategies are in place — and could be created or improved to aid in the learning of your diverse learners? How can using technology shorten this gap and improve learning?
8. Incorporating More School Community Service Programs & Promoting Parent Volunteering: What can your school do to improve community service programs? How can you attract more parental-volunteer-involvement? What have you been doing… or what can you be doing to enhance the learning for students by showing them the value & need of community service activities?
9. Improved Integration of Web 2.0 Technologies into Curriculum: How can your staff utilize more programs such as implementing Web 2.0 tools within your curriculum to improve learning? Is your school doing “enough” to engage-learners by using a rich variety of methods to teach students?
10. Your School /District /State often has to deal with Censorship Related Issues: It would interesting to learn the boundaries of Censorship as it pertains to a collection of documents, position papers, research reports etc… It would be beneficial to review how the Privacy Act and the “Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act” affect learning for students. Are these laws in anyway infringing on certain civil rights to better educate students? You also could broaden your scope by researching how Censorship comes — as a guide for teachers, librarians, booksellers and others who disseminate the printed word…