RESEARCH METHODS IN EDUCATION

Research Methods in Education



Research Methods in Education

Educational Value of the Holidays

In a world where most educational settings are filled with such diversity, it is often difficult to celebrate the true gift of the season through educational activities. Many educators steer away from a holiday focus to avoid offending anyone. Here are some ideas on how to incorporate some holiday traditions into your curriculum, in a fun way:

Reading & Writing - The holidays are a perfect time to focus on creating greeting cards, writing thank you notes and writing family holiday stories. Students can practice spelling, grammar, letter writing, story development, etc. It will also reinforce the importance of etiquette.

Math - Make math interesting by using graphs and excel documents to track holiday spending and sorting for gift giving lists; baking can focus on measurements; building gingerbread houses will help with geometry.

Social studies - Create lessons plans around the appreciation of cultures and religions and old-world traditions; research family history.

Science - Research and discuss holiday plant traditions - students can learn about the origins of the plant and their growing cycle; include a discussion on recycling wrapping paper.

Arts - The holidays are filled with music, dance, theatrical performances and visual displays. Exposure to and participation in the traditions will further cement their knowledge and appreciation.

Educational trip - children should be taken to trips that can prove to be a learning experience for them (Bradburn, 2000, pp. 25).

Read something everyday - Encourage children to read snippets from the morning paper, pamphlets at the supermarket, posters and billboards - in fact, anything! Visit a bookshop or library and help them pick a stash of holiday reads.

Have a quiz - A family quiz can be great fun. One of the adults is quizmaster, making up age-appropriate questions or reading them from a book. Include general knowledge, simple mental arithmetic, odd man out and spelling.

Surf the net - Help your children to find educational games online. It won't even feel like work because there's no pen and paper involved but they'll be getting an educational workout anyway.

Go green - Get outdoors and do something educational. Plant a vegetable garden, start a compost heap or build a bird feeder.

Survey

The term "survey" refers to one, or some combination of two procedures: questionnaires; and interviews. A questionnaire almost always is self-administered, allowing respondents to fill them out themselves. All the researcher has to do is arrange delivery and collection. An interview typically occurs whenever a researcher and respondent are face-to-face or communicating via some technology like telephone or computer. There are three subtypes of interviews: unstructured, which allows spontaneous communication in the course of the interview or questionnaire administration; structured, where the researcher is highly restricted on what can be said; and semi-structured, which restricts certain kinds of communication but allows freedom on the discussion of certain topics (Stephen, 2001, pp. 168).

Although surveys can be a cost-effective research, survey research design suffers from inherent ...