Dr. Villanueva started the event with a reminder to maintain research integrity by giving due respect to the MA student guest speakers.
The first speaker was Rio Sloan, currently an MDE student based in Kansas City, Missouri, working as a System Administrator of the University of Missouri System Office of eLearning. She presented her current thesis topic which stems from her personal interest and observation on the transition of teachers into online learning during the pandemic. She shared that the significance of her study is that If there’s something we can gain from this pandemic, it’s to hopefully build a better support infrastructure for our teachers.
Carrying on with the research conversation, Dr. Villanueva shared valuable insights regarding the presentation of research and formulating methodology. She explained that research panel members can be critical about research methodology and thus key details indicated in the written research proposal should be carefully integrated during oral presentations. Research students can create drawings, tables, or mind maps to see the inter-connectedness of the research questions/objectives, data collection, and data analysis. These are good ways to ascertain the alignment of these components to the central research questions.
Judeleen D. Balut, a graduate of the DSSE program and currently an MSSE student, shared her student research proposal in connection with teaching controversial social issues. Same as Rio, her research idea was also inspired by her own experience working as a social science public school teacher. She hopes that her study will be able to encourage “the establishment of professional learning communities for teachers”.
Judeleen raised questions on the concepts she intends to examine in her study. According to Dr. Villanueva, clarifying concepts and theories relevant to the study is critical in determining the research focus and, ultimately your stance on how to proceed with the investigation. She also stated that participating in collaborative conversations and activities helps to clarify the study’s research questions, significance, and focus. This is especially true when presenting to a research panel with a diverse set of expertise because they will be able to offer alternative views and ideas to aid in clarifying the study’s focus. She also emphasized that being comfortable with uncertainty will help you question your own ideas and eventually come up with better solutions on how to keep things together and ultimately, address the research problem at hand.
Before the event ended, the participants engaged in their respective breakout rooms to have a small group discussion about the main topics presented by the two speakers with these guide questions:
“How are you in your research proposals?
What are the enablers and challenges in writing your research proposals?
What are the research topics that you are interested to explore?
In case of a graduate research symposium next year, are you willing to participate? In what ways?
Written by Precious Guevarra