Begging for help! Research question ideas

[Tillyscoutsmum]

I'll start with the sob story and hope someone will take pity on me!

I'm currently doing my PGCE (primary) via Schools Direct. I'm a lone parent with two young dc's and I am finding it very stressful trying to fit it all in.

I need to do a short research project (4,000 words). I've had a few ideas but these have been discounted either by my Uni or by my placement school. I am really, really struggling to come up with any ideas for a research question. It ideally needs to be something relating to English/Literacy. It needs to be something that is reasonably specific, as obviously 4,000 words isn't sufficient to cover anything extensive. I have access to children in KS1 and 2 (currently in year 2 but next placement is a 5/6 class).

I am utterly desperate. It's causing me sleepless nights. My proposal has to be in by the end of Jan and I genuinely have no idea where to start

If anyone does have any ideas they'd be willing to share, then I'd be so grateful.

I had two days to come up with my research proposal. What did you propose and why did they discount it?

You need to think of an intervention that links with current research. For example, I looked (secondary MEd) at not using marks, merely comments. You then need a way of measuring the success (most likely qualitative ie, questioning them, observations rather than quantitative - measuring by % improvement). Not sure about primary but what about play based learning, improving use of adjectives in writing, something like that. Examine current research, set out your hypothesis and then do your intervention, measure the results and then conclude.

I am a former teacher currently doing some work on linguistics in schools, and have available some Key Stage 2 (upper) standalone linguistics resources. Could something like this help you? You could look at pupils' attitudes towards language as a topic for scientific investigation, gauging their views before and after they complete (a series of?) these materials? PM me if this sounds of use!

Thanks all. geebie - I will PM you.

Funky - there were various half assed ideas I had. I'm really interested in the PESH/pastoral side (psychology degree) but anything related to that was discounted because it needed to relate specifically to a subject area. Ditto with any management things - I was considering doing something relating to universal free school meals and it's impact on pupil premium money but that was discounted on the same basis. I also considered looking at whether an alternative approach to phonics would impact progress on a small group of children who are struggling/"under achieving" with systematic synthetic phonics. That was discounted by the school because their policy is to only use SSP

I'm on my phone so can't remember the other poster who gave some really useful advice on the research process but thank you too

Does next step marking really improve children's learning?
What evidence is there that TAs create a barrier to learning? ( see the Lamb report)

Which interventions have the most impact on the accelerated progress of pupil premium children?

handwriting? cursive ab initio v cursive in Y2? FMS interventions and their efficacy?

How about making all resources suitable for a specific SN? I'm dyslexic and my handouts are always in the font lexia, some of my students (dyslexic ones) have noticed they are easier to read and the others don't complain.

For my research I looked at creating resources specifically for deaf (BSL using) students.

Maybe have some activity cards written in different fonts and see which the children prefer / find easier to read?

I'm not familiar with primary but if there is a reading scheme in place what about looking at the books children choose when they are not guided by what they should be learning?

Contemporary children's books v classics like Alice in Wonderland, do some children prefer older books? Does this impact on their vocabulary?

Are classrooms set up for right handed children? Does this impact on left handed children?

What about trialling coloured books for dyslexic students to write in? I always wonder about this-they have overlays and coloured worksheets but their exercise books are still white. Would it improve their literacy skills to have coloured paper?

I did a research project last year for my PGDE. I was in P1/2 and I wrote about the effectiveness of peer and self assessment in a younger age group. It was received really well by my tutor, she liked the idea. It was interesting because there was a lot of progression in the children from having no idea what to do to being quite good at assessment!

Haggisfish coloured paper to write on makes a huge difference. Yellow is widely tolerated but the correct colour for that child helps even more. Handwriting, spelling, speed and fatigue rates improve.

OP you could look at the need for consolidation to retain new learning.

Thank you so much for your responses. Lots to think about.

I had considered some kind of left handed vs right handed "research". We have a high proportion of left handed children in our class (compared to the other two year 2 classes and, I would imagine, nationally). We also have a lot of poor writers in the class. I just struggle to think of how to approach proving/disproving a hypothesis that the two were linked.

There are no children in the class with a dyslexia diagnosis but there are at least 2 that I would have thought display a lot of signs of it.

Hmmmm. As I said. Lots to think about. Thanks all.