Benefits of Research

Benefits of Research

          Research is definitely the baseline for the vast amount of information that surrounds us. What to properly feed our families, adequate television shows, best schools, proper teaching techniques, all of these things are based on research. Research is the backbone of almost every decision made. When it comes to children and families, the positive effects of research can be found all around us.

            Working as a teacher, you see the effects of research all the time. I have had many students that enter second grade distracted, hyper, and with a million thoughts in their head. Since some type of testing can be invalid if tested too early in a child’s learning experience, around 7 and 8 years of age, a lot of testing begins. I cannot count the amount of behavior surveys I have had to fill out for neuropsychologists and behavioral psychologists throughout my career. From these surveys, they are able to understand the child’s behavior in class and with other information gathered, be able to diagnose a child that might have a learning disability. For these doctors, being able to pinpoint certain behaviors and characteristics to developmental delays and disorders is all thanks to research. Through research I now know that I have a child with ADD and another with ADHD. I also have a student that is within the spectrum of having Asperger’s syndrome. Without previous research being done, as educators we would be struggling to educate these children the same way we would educate a student with no learning disability. Research has made it possible to reach every child in our classroom the way they need to be taught.

BEGINNING RESEARCH!!!

            Starting research is a lot more complicated than I thought. When you begin thinking about what to research about, there are endless ideas and topics that come to mind. Narrowing it down to something that I am currently living and have personal experience with, I chose second language acquisition as my general topic. Through this topic I would like to focus on ways to keep the heritage or “home” language strong. I have learned a second language and I am completely fluent in both English and Spanish. I am currently teaching at a school where all the children are learning English as a second language and from third grade on, they are also learning French. I think this research will help me with parents’ biggest fears of their children losing their home language while learning a second language.

This “mock” research project has me a little scared. I think what has me the most scared is beginning to do research and getting information and then realizing that it is wrong in some way and then having to start all over again. Like with anything new that you do, you won’t know until you try. It has been pretty smooth up to now and I hope it stays that way.

Through activities we have been doing to prepare for this research, I think the hardest part has been to be able to read other research projects and fully understand what they mean the first time. I have had to read and reread several parts of these research papers to fully understand what they are discussing. Hopefully, like everything else, this will get easier with time and practice.

I plan on using the Walden Library databases as well as other websites that target diversity and second language acquisition. If any of you have ideas or recommendations of articles or websites, I am open for any advice. Also, if of you might be a SLL as well and would like to share your experiences and strategies with me, I would greatly appreciate it!

THANKS 🙂 Good Luck to All!!!!