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Hacking The Research Paper

alexjmann — Wed, 19 May 2010 14:24:51 +0000

Hey teachers–want to teach your students how to develop a well-researched paper in half the time (and pain)? I can help.

Research papers can be an unproductive mess for both students and teachers if not approached with the correct educational strategy. The following seven step method will provide an outline on how your students can approach and prepare for the writing of a research paper while learning and meeting the goals of the assignment.

1. Have your students find a topic they are interested in. The easiest way to make sure an assignment won’t be done well is to have them drag through a topic that either bores or repels them.

2. If you decide to give your students freedom with the research topic, approve the topics before the research and writing process begins. If you are unsure about any of the students’ topics, encourage them to make a case as to why their paper idea meets the learning goals of the assignment.

3. The first step in having your students hack their research paper is to have them review the Wikipedia entry for their subject. The Wikipedia entry, depending on its depth, can provide a basic outline regarding the organization of how a topic is generally perceived. It will provide key dates, figures, statistics and often even pictures. The key isn’t to encourage copying of the Wikipedia, but to help students keep the perceived organization of the topic in mind as they begin research.

4. After students receive an idea on how the general public organizes their thoughts around a topic, have your students develop a single thesis. The thesis will provide a skeleton for the paper that every sentence researched and written should argue.

5. Once students have developed a thesis, it’s time to have them begin collecting sources for the actual research portion of the paper. Using the “References” and “External Links” section of the Wikipedia page, students can easily identify a starting point. The goal here is to have the students identify one or two books that are generally considered “bibles” of a subject.

6. Now that the students have identified key books on their subject, I’d recommend them finding a large, public library, either at a university or in a major city, to take them out. Librarians may be able to point students in the direction of complimentary texts to use for their project, as well.

7. The single best tip I can provide, that was once passed on to me for expanding sources on a research paper, is to have students utilize the bibliographies of other texts. If “the bible” text your students found on their subject is considered the leading collection of thoughts, they can be sure that the citations used in it are equally valuable and reputable.

This is by no means a scientific method for teaching students how to research a paper. It’s simply a efficient method that allows students to learn how to research while targeting the most valuable sources to do so. Using the above method, your students will not only be happy with their theses, but the writing should reflect a thoroughly research subject.

Should Students Be Bribed?

alexjmann — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 14:00:52 +0000

That’s the question asked in a recent Time article:

To find out, a Harvard economist named Roland Fryer Jr. did something education researchers almost never do: he ran a randomized experiment in hundreds of classrooms in multiple cities. He used mostly private money to pay 18,000 kids a total of $6.3 million and brought in a team of researchers to help him analyze the effects. He got death threats, but he carried on. The results, which he shared exclusively with TIME, represent the largest study of financial incentives in the classroom — and one of the more rigorous studies ever on anything in education policy.

How did the experiment work?

The experiment ran in four cities: Chicago, Dallas, Washington and New York. Each city had its own unique model of incentives, to see which would work best. Some kids were paid for good test scores, others for not fighting with one another. The results are fascinating and surprising. They remind us that kids, like grownups, are not puppets. They don’t always respond the way we expect.

What happened?

In the city where Fryer expected the most success, the experiment had no effect at all — “as zero as zero gets,” as he puts it. In two other cities, the results were promising but in totally different ways. In the last city, something remarkable happened. Kids who got paid all year under a very elegant scheme performed significantly better on their standardized reading tests at the end of the year. Statistically speaking, it was as if those kids had spent three extra months in school, compared with their peers who did not get paid.

What techniques have you used in the classroom, bribing or otherwise, to incentivize students? As the article suggests, students are always that excited by just “learning.”

Chegg

alexjmann — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 14:00:21 +0000

I avoided buying textbooks at all costs while in college. I knew I would only use them temporarily (if at all), and their high prices would have put a major cramp in my limited college budget.

I remember once discussing the issue with the dean of our business school. After bringing up my concerns, he asked me if I knew who the number one seller of textbooks on campus was.

I answered, “Amazon?”

He said, “No, the university is.”

While some students prefer to own their textbooks, there are other solutions. Check out Chegg.

Chegg allows you to rent textbooks and return them when you are done with free shipping. If I was going into college now, I would be using this.