Spring brings a new beginning

Well, the spring semester has begun! The current Fresno Pacific University kinesiology graduate students are half-way through their program. What a great accomplishment. This semester they will work on and complete their research study and/or research project.

What is a research study/research project? It is like a thesis...that does not help at all, does it. A research study is designed to make a student an expert in a particular area. Each student develops a question that they want to answer and then goes about answering the question. Research methods are developed to answer the question and then a study is conducted. An example of a previous student's research question was "Did male and female physical education teachers opinions toward co-ed physical education programs differ as measured by Perception of Coeducational Classes Physical Education (PCCPE) survey?". A survey was sent PE teachers to assess their perception of co-ed PE classes. Then the data was analyzed and conclusions were made. More about this later.

A research project is a little different than a study. In a research project, students develop a "product." An example of a "product" is developing a sports clinic that is based on curriculum development theory. Students are expected to run the clinic or to develop the "product."

So, this semester, students are conducting their study (administering the survey) or running the clinic. Then they are writing their final chapters of their paper. These chapters describe the results of the study and what they mean to other kinesiology professionals. With a project they reflect on how things went with their project and how they can improve it.

FUN WITH WORDS...OR LETTERS

What is it?

What is that stuff in the picture?

Ad for FPU Master of Arts in Kinesiology

The end is near!

The fall semester is over! All there is left to do is grade research proposals and turn in grades. This has been an interesting semester as it seems that my podcasts for research methods did not help all the students understand the material. I wonder how much of this is my teaching and how much is it the students' not reading and trying to learn the material? I know that research methods is a difficult subject. I do think that students did learn about research process.

About time...

I have finally decided that I need to blog more often. It is about time I do this!

Today, I am grading undergraduate and graduate assignments. The graduate students turned their research study/project proposals on Monday night. These research proposal are their guides for the research study or research projects that they will do in the spring semester. When I assess their work I read it for content (does it make sense), completeness (did they follow the assignment directions), formatting (did they follow all of the APA and other formatting requirements), and will the methods described answer the research questions and/or purpose statements.

Assessing the proposal takes some time. I try to give detailed feedback to each student that will help them develop the best study and/or project.

Funny video!

Watch this video and tell me what you think!