This was truly a challenging assignment in many ways. The first challenge was deciding which interests to include on the concept map. In the end I landed on two personal interests, and three professional interests.
As I am traveling through Europe right now, my interest in world history is in the forefront of my mind. I have been a worship leader in my local church for many years, and worship music is another personal interest. I have worked in health care for over 30 years, and continues to be a passion. Specific to health care I am very interested in the sustainability of public health care in Canada, and improving patient and family centred care. I am a physical therapist, and clinically my greatest skill and passion is teaching patients and families how to self-rehabilitate, or self-manage their condition. I have been a manager for over 11 years, so leadership is a recent but dominant passion. I have 5 managers reporting to me, so I am very interested in how I empower and equip them. I volunteer in my local church with teenagers, have teenage and young adult daughters, and have many new graduates in my employ, so I am also very passionate about teaching the next generation.
Unfortunately due to the technological issues currently being experienced in Europe my concept map is only a Word document at this time.
Based on the interests I selected, I was able to identify five potential research questions which are in the red text boxes on the concept map (please refer above). Four are related more to my current role as a director, and one is related to my clinical practice.
The one research question that I have selected as the strongest is: what teaching methods do managers perceive to be the most effective? The reason that I have selected this one is because I think it best meets the criteria that have been outlined. It is a topic that I will remain interested in and likely to pursue to completion. I currently have 5 managers reporting to me, one who has been managing for years, one who just began two months ago, and 3 who have various years of experience, so selecting participants is possible. This is also a question that can potentially be used as it is posed, or refined if too large in scope as currently stated, or if the question has already been answered as stated. I expect that since it crosses the lines of leadership and education in scope that a literature review will be possible.
I am interested in knowing how others selected their areas of interest. How would you decide?
Hi Achsah’s Springs,
I think this is a great topic and one that will be great to explore in your final paper in this course. Just so that you are aware, the research question you chose to focus on in this assignment will determine what you work on for assignment 3, 4 and what you write for your final paper in assignment 5. That being said, we may need to refine the question a little more. I will follow up with you via email with more specific feedback and information regarding the evaluation of this assignment.
Have a good day.
Dr. Strong.
Hi Liz! I hope that you are having a wonderful anniversary trip in Europe! It’s so beautiful there!
To answer your question, I too found it really difficult to pick a research topic and had to keep going back to the drawing board to find something that was relevant and that could add to discussions already taking place. I also wanted to pick something that would relate to transformational servant leadership that we have learned about in LDRS500. I believe that the act of mentoring someone else and enabling them to grow and develop falls into that category.
Enjoy the cappuccinos, the croissants and amazing cuisine!