In this lesson I was expecting to start my research project. The teachers had explained to us that for our modules research skills and word processing we would have a research project to do that is combined for both modules.
I was expecting to get a start and find some websites that would help me with my project.
In this lesson I learned how to source websites and information for my project
The teacher explained to us that we had to look up different websites to find out information that we could use for our project. She told us that when we find a website that seems useful, to copy and paste the link. She gave us a sheet to copy and paste the links into so that we could later print it out and add it to our research project.
I googled different websites. My research topic is about the different factors that can affect students academic performance.
I googled topics such as the leaving certificate in Ireland, students mental health in Ireland, exam pressure, socioeconomic background.
When I found the websites that I thought would be useful to my project I copied and pasted the links into the worksheet that the teacher gave to us.
I will apply this learning by using this research technique whenever I have future research projects or even when I want to find out information about something that I need to gain more knowledge in.
When I am researching for my next college project I will look up many different websites by typing in key words and topics relating to my project to find as much information as possible.
By researching many different websites you can gain different perspectives and viewpoints about certain topics.
My preffered learning style is through visual and audio. I researched many different websites but the ones that helped me the most were the ones that were neatly designed and well structured, if a website is messy or uneasy to read I will not stay long enough to read everything. I also watched some youtube videos that related to my research topic as I learn best through visual and audio this really helped me to gain the information that I needed for my project.
My most successful outcome of this activity was finding out exactly what topics I would use in my research project. I googled many different topics that relate to the effect of students academic performance but the ones that I found and chose throughout this activity were : mental health/ stress / anxiety / exam pressure / socioeconomic background
A strength of the weakness is that it encourage students to look at multiple sources for their project instead of just one.
A weakness was that
In the future instead of looking at the same two websites for research projects I will look at as many websites as possible to gather all the information I need then I will choose the best and most reliable websites to use as my sources or references. This will improve how I gather and use the information for my future projects.
The activity was useful because it gave students a chance to research a broad range of different topics that might relate to their research project.
One change that I would make to the lesson is to get students to do a brain map first using keywords and topics that relate to their research project to make it easier for students to know what they are looking for.
Another change that I would make to improve the lesson is to get students to make sure that the websites they are using are reliable as there can be alot of fake and unsourced information on the internet.
The next time I am in a similar situation I will use the new research technique that I learned. I can use this technique when I have to do my research projects in Whitehall and also in DCU. Next time I can also go to the library so that I can also have books to reference that can back up the points I have found on the internet to make sure that the information is correct.
I can apply this learning technique to my future career by researching different schools and different places that I would like to teach in. In the future I would like to teach abroad so I can research what TEFL courses are the best choice for me and research what country will be the best place for me to teach abroad in. I can also research new learning techniques to teach my students and new lessons/ways of teaching.
RSSKirstyHorrigan 