Clarifying my Research Interest with A Concept Map

Below you will find a picture of my rather large concept map!  It became larger and larger as I had to continually go back to the drawing board to further define not just my interests, but to further develop topics that not only had credible research available but that were relevant to current issues in education that warranted further exploration. You will most likely have to zoom in to read it! My apologies as I couldn’t make the image any larger.

General areas that appealed to me were:

• Women in leadership
• Student engagement
• Empathy in the classroom
• Teacher mentorship
• The impact of classroom design on students and whether it affected student achievement

I had several research questions that I was interested in pursuing, but these were in my top 4 (there are more listed on my map):

• I’m a huge fan of Brene Brown and her work! So I wanted to examine the importance of empathy as a critical skill for teachers, administration and students to develop. I wondered further if empathy was inherent or if it could even be taught. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a lot of research available that I could find. A lot of what I found, discredited the importance of trying to teach empathy, instead arguing that empathy is a subjective topic and it would be like trying to teach someone who is right handed to print using their left hand only and that not everyone is capable of displaying empathy to the same degree due to cultural beliefs etc.,
• I wanted to examine Myers Briggs Type Indictors, in particular, the INFJ (which I am) because according to online data found at 16Personalities.com, this type makes up less than  1% of the population. I wondered how this personality type related to leadership roles, in particular Transformational Servant Leadership as both a leader and as a follower.
• I have a 17 year old son who has lost his love of school and his elementary school curiosity. As a teacher and a parent, I know that my children and my students love it when I share stories.  Often through stories told they are able to make connections to their own lives as well as to larger global issues. My inquiry question was: How can secondary educators make school personally relevant to students and enable them to develop their own personal narrative through the use of storytelling in the classroom?

The research question that I ended up choosing was:

Why is mentorship important in reducing ‘burnout’ in new teachers and necessary to help facilitate success so that new teachers can have a long and prosperous career?

I chose this question because it is extremely relevant today due to the massive teacher shortage in British Columbia. Brand new teachers are being hired, many right from the classroom without any prior experience and are expected to cope with the same responsibilities and teaching loads as teachers with years of experience without any assistance or supports in place. Many new teachers don’t speak up and ask for help out of fear that they will be perceived as not being competent, especially when it comes to pedagogy or classroom management.  A lot of teachers leave the profession with the first 5 years due to exhaustion and teacher burn out.  I have a vested interest in this topic as well because my School District has a new teacher Mentorship Program and I have been a mentor teacher for others.

I combined the following areas in regards to teacher mentorship and honing the craft of teaching thoughts on my concept map to define my question:

• How long should first year teachers be mentored for?
• What does a good mentor look like?
• How is mentorship in teaching defined?
• Has teacher mentorship been proven to be successful for teachers who struggle with assessment or classroom management?
• In the shortage of teachers crisis, how do school Administrators ensure that ‘quality’ teachers are being hired and retained? What makes someone a ‘quality’ teacher?
• What makes someone a ‘master’ teacher? Can you ever truly hone your craft to become a ‘master’?

I anticipate searching for literature in the following fields of education, leadership, psychology and healthcare as they each relate to my topic.

Resources

Caraway, K., Tucker, C. M., Reinke, W. M., & Hall, C. (2003). Self-Efficacy, Goal Orientation, and Fear of Failure as Predictors of School Engagement in High School Students. Psychology in the Schools, 40(4), 417–27. Retrieved from https://ezproxy.student.twu.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ671155&site=ehost-live

Doren, B., Murray, C., & Gau, J. M. (2014). Salient Predictors of School Dropout among Secondary Students with Learning Disabilities. Learning Disabilities Research &                   Practice, 29(4), 150–159. Retrieved from               https://ezproxy.student.twu.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=tr

Elias, M. J., & Arnold, H. (2006). The educator’s guide to emotional intelligence and academic achievement : social-emotional learning in the classroom. Thousand Oaks, Calif. : Corwin Press, c2006. Retrieved from https://ezproxy.student.twu.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cat05965a&AN=alc.178470&site=eds-live

Goodwin, B. (2016). “High touch” is crucial for “high tech” students.(promoting empathy inside the classroom)(Research Matters)(Column). Educational Leadership, (1), 81. Retrieved from https://ezproxy.student.twu.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edscpi&AN=edscpi.A464028667&site=eds-live

Hobson, A. J., Ashby, P., Malderez, A., & Tomlinson, P. D. (2009). Mentoring beginning teachers: What we know and what we don’t. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25, 207–216. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2008.09.001

Hudson, P. (2012). How Can Schools Support Beginning Teachers? A Call for Timely Induction and Mentoring for Effective Teaching. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 37(7). Retrieved from https://ezproxy.student.twu.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ995200&site=eds-live

Keogh, J., Garvis, S., & Pendergast, D. (Eds.). (2010). Plugging the leaky bucket : the need to develop resilience in novice middle years teachers. Primary and Middle Years Educator, 8(2). Retrieved from https://ezproxy.student.twu.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsaed&AN=rmitplus183973&site=eds-live

Lawford, H. L., & Ramey, H. L. (2015). “Now I Know I Can Make a Difference”: Generativity and Activity Engagement as Predictors of Meaning Making in Adolescents and Emerging Adults. Developmental Psychology, 51(10), 1395–1406. Retrieved fromhttps://ezproxy.student.twu.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1075074&site=ehost-live

Park, S., Holloway, S. D., Arendtsz, A., Bempechat, J., & Li, J. (2012). What Makes Students Engaged in Learning? A Time-Use Study of within- and between-Individual  Predictors of Emotional Engagement in Low-Performing High Schools. Journal of Youth  and Adolescence, 41(3), 390–401. Retrieved from https://ezproxy.student.twu.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=tue&db=eric&AN=EJ956027&site=ehost-live

Strati, A. D., Schmidt, J. A., & Maier, K. S. (2017). Perceived Challenge, Teacher Support, and Teacher Obstruction as Predictors of Student Engagement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 109(1), 131–147. Retrieved from https://ezproxy.student.twu.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1125534&site=ehost-live

Waajid, B., Garner, P. W., & Owen, J. E. (2013). Infusing Social Emotional Learning into the Teacher Education Curriculum. International Journal of Emotional Education, 5(2), 31–48. Retrieved from https://ezproxy.student.twu.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1085617&site=eds-live

Wormeli, R. (2014). Motivating Young Adolescents. Educational Leadership, 72(1), 26–31. Retrieved from https://ezproxy.student.twu.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1038882&site=ehost-live

Yilmaz, E., Sahin, M., & Turgut, M. (2017). Variables Affecting Student Motivation Based on Academic Publications. Journal of Education and Practice, 8(12), 112–120. Retrieved from https://ezproxy.student.twu.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1140621&site=eds-live