Mini-Research Projects
Name
Project Title
Purpose
Descriptors (Key
words)
Data collection
methods
Connor, Michael
Novice Early Educators
and Young Children's Play
Learn more about how novice
play, early
early educators think and feel about educators, scaffolds
play, especially how to support
dramatic play
Survey and short
answer; follow up
interviews (not
completed)
Garrison, Vivian
An Investigation of
Instructional Leadership in
Elementary Principals
Implementing an RTI an
RTI Framework
The purpose of this study to
examine the leadership of
elementary principals that
developed during the initiation and
implementation of an RTI service
delivery model.
instructional
leadership,
elementary
principals, RTI
service delivery
model
Interview of 4
elementary principals;
classroom
observations; artifacts
Hatfield, Lisa
Freshman Inquiry Faculty
Perceptions of Writing
Instruction at the HighSchool Level
The purpose of this study is to
examine FRINQ faculty’s
knowledge and perceptions of
writing instruction at the highschool level.
Academic writing,
college-level writing,
alignment, Common
Core State
Standards, faculty
preparation
Google form survey of
37 faculty who taught
FRINQ courses during
fall 2012 and winter
2013 terms
Jung, Su-Jin
A Korean Language
School Experiences:
Perspectives from Korean
Immigrant Mothers
The purpose of this study is to
examine Korean immigrant
mothers’ rationale and needs for
sending their children to Korean
language schools in the U.S.
Korean immigrant
mothers, Korean
language schools,
heritage language
retention
A small focus group
interview of three
Korean immigrant
mothers
Lee, Kirk
Hmong Parent Involvement
in Schools: Interaction with
Parents in their Children's
Education
The purpose of this study is to
identify underlying issues affecting
Hmong parents' involvement in
their children's education.
Parent Involvement,
lack of education,
motivation, barriers
Interview up to five
participants, parents, or
students.
McConachie, Lisa
Early Childhood Special
Education Alignment
with HeadStart Child
Development Early
Learning Framework
The purpose of this study is to
examine goals identified on the
Individual Family Service Plan
for students age 3-5 and their
alignment with Head Start Child
Development and Early
Learning Framework, a
framework of developmental
building blocks most important
for a child’s school and long
term success.
Early childhood
education, special
education, Head
Start
Random sample of
10 completed
Individual Family
Services Plans: A
text comparison
between goals
identified and the
Head Start Early
Learning Framework
will be made in the
following
developmental areas:
Social/Emotional
Development,
Language
Development,
Approaches to
Learning and Literacy
Knowledge & Skills
and Mathematics
Knowledge & Skills.
An analysis will then
be completed to
identify how many
IFSP’s have goals
that are in alignment
with the framework
identified.
Michaud, Meredith
Survey of dance in the
classroom
To explore how teachers are using
dance in the classroom
Dance, K-12
education,
classroom teaching,
physical activity
Online questionnaire
using Google docs
Panaccione, Kate
An examination of teacher
feedback regarding autism
assessment instruments
Examine teacher feedback
regarding the accuracy and
usefulness of the teacher
questionnaires of autism
assessments
Autism,
assessment,
teacher,
Survey with rating
scale
Parker, Matt
Middle School Burmese
Refugee Students’
Attitudes Toward
Interacting With Other
Students
The purpose of this study is to
examine the attitudes, opinions,
and knowledge of Burmese refugee
students toward interacting with
students of other cultures and how
those attitudes affect their
interactions.
Intercultural
interaction, refugee
students, Burmese,
middle school
Interviews
Webb, Donna
Effects of Elementary
Teacher’s Background
Knowledge and
Attitudes towards
Engineering Practices
on Instructional Time
To examine the effects
of elementary teacher
background knowledge and
attitudes towards teaching
engineering practices on the
amount of instructional time they
devote to this topic.
Inservice elementary
teachers;
engineering
practices;
background
knowledge; teacher
attitudes;
instructional
time
Access teachers
through email.
Administer survey
using survey monkey;
consisting of 11 closed
and 3 open ended
questions.
Wenzel, Marcus
Perceptions of Preservice to examine the perceptions of
Teacher Education
various strategies that teacher
Strategies to Specifically
training programs currently use to
Address Large Class Sizes help their students related to large
class sizes
class size, teaching
strategies,
perceptions
anonymous online
survey
Xiang, Li
Chinese Language
Teachers’ Feelings &
Strategies in Teaching
Mandarin in the U.S.
Chinese language
teachers, teachers'
attitudes,
teaching strategies
Interview
The purpose of the study is to
describe and explain the feelings
and strategies that CLTs use when
they are teaching Mandarin in the
US so that we can help them be
better teachers.
Yeo, Marie
Exploring Multicultural
Literature: Impacts on
South Korean students’
attitude toward different
cultures
The purpose of this study is how to
implement multicultural literature for
South Korean students so that they
can improve their attitude toward
different cultures.
Multicultural
education, diversity,
cultural attitude,
book club
Interview analysis