RESEARCH PROBLEMS By Paul Silli Below is a list of broad research topics.

These subjects affect many parties within a school setting. 1. Learning new research tools/methods, Student Access, Internet & Public Libraries: It would be interesting to research the variety of possible solutions, including filtering, online-search, restricted access, blocking software for students in class or at the media center, training, parental permission procedures etc to learn what teachers can do to improve research skills for students and staff. 2. Improved Integration of Technology into Lesson Plans: Learning new ways to incorporate technology into learning across the board for teachers (all school subject areas /grade levels) would be beneficial to education. 3. School Crime: What can your school do to reduce theft, vandalism, assault, verbal harassment, physical harassment, abuse, fighting and other issues that hinder learning for students? Researching the causes, effects and outcomes of this topic and hopefully finding new ways to reduce crime in your school would be a worthy task. 4. School Safety Improvements: How can your school create new safety methods to better protect your kids & faculty? From running in the hallways to how your school dismisses students at the end of the day could be reviewed to find new ways to improve safety. 5. Class Tardiness: Why are students late to class? How are teachers and learning affected by student-tardiness? How can this issue be reduced? What can you do as a staff to deal with tardiness? Learning how to create a unified tardy policy for your school would be a tremendous effort. 6. Truancy (Overboard absences): Often teachers have different policies, punishment/consequence, and develop a different overall outlook when dealing with students who are excessively absent from class and/or school. What is the underlying cause of this issue? How can you collectively work toward improved student-attendance? 7. Enhancing Methods to address the Needs of Diverse Learners: From gifted to non-English speaking students there are often extreme diverse populations on school campuses. What methods, policies and strategies are in place and could be created or improved to aid in the learning of your diverse learners? How can using technology shorten this gap and improve learning? 8. Incorporating More School Community Service Programs & Promoting Parent Volunteering: What can your school do to improve community service programs? How can you attract more parental-volunteer-involvement? What have you been doing or what can you be doing to enhance the learning for students by showing them the value & need of community service activities?

9. Improved Integration of Web 2.0 Technologies into Curriculum: How can your staff utilize more programs such as implementing Web 2.0 tools within your curriculum to improve learning? Is your school doing enough to engage-learners by using a rich variety of methods to teach students? 10. Your School /District /State often has to deal with Censorship Related Issues: It would interesting to learn the boundaries of Censorship as it pertains to a collection of documents, position papers, research reports etc It would be beneficial to review how the Privacy Act and the Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act affect learning for students. Are these laws in anyway infringing on certain civil rights to better educate students? You also could broaden your scope by researching how Censorship comes as a guide for teachers, librarians, booksellers and others who disseminate the printed word

Here are five topics for research in education. The perfect gift for the college student wondering what to select as a topic, or the educational professional seeking to enlighten us with a breakthrough or two. 1. What nutritional elements elevate learning abilities?

Are there foods that aid in the educational process? Certainly there are foods to be avoided, such as an excess of sugar and the caffeine laden drinks that send my fourth grade students bouncing off the walls. There are the "New Age," well intentioned, but ill informed folks, who would have us eat nothing but dandelion leaves. There are the hucksters promoting their "overnight weight loss/increased sex drive/mind calming/IQ enhancing wonder diets," each bearing the disclaimer, "these findings are not substantiated by scientific research." But is there any real scientific data out there? I'd be fascinated to learn. 2. What methods most greatly encourage elementary school students to read for pleasure? What is the psychology behind the impetus some students feel, and some students will never experience? Is there a proven existent paradigm for greater success? What are the latest and most promising approaches? How do I break down the reluctant reader and infuse them with a least a cursory desire to read? All of these questions spark my intense interest. 3. Are newly arriving freshmen college students better or more ill prepared academically than 1966's freshmen? Educators decry the state of affairs of all things educational, and routinely proclaim a crisis is coming or already upon us. But just as every generation in America has resisted and maligned the favored music of their offspring, I suspect this educational outrage is equally ongoing and unending. Is there data supporting the claims that today's freshmen are more ill equipped to deal with college life?

4. How does physical movement benefit brain development in elementary students? I was amazed to learn of the correlation between regular physical movement and brain development in young children. What programs exist that would aid in my bringing movement - and by extension, greater brain development - to my students? What are the latest research findings on physical education's impact on other areas of learning? What is the physiology involved? 5. How does art instruction influence other academic progress? I infuse all my courses with art, and have found it tremendously helpful in capturing the attention of my students. I want to learn more about how art impacts student development, both to make myself better able to utilize this tool and to give myself greater justification for using it. I want to glean all the latest and most well documented research that supports my view that art instruction compliments all other subject lesson planning, captures the attention of a segment of students who would otherwise remain apathetic, and broadens the academic universe of all students. As this is one of my own personal favorite topics, I'll throw in a thesis, free of charge. "Art instruction in elementary school curriculums - often among the first targets of politicians seeking to balance budgets - is a powerful and practical educational tool, with far reaching and often underappreciated benefits." Possible subtopics include art as a means to reach at-risk and otherwise educationally challenged students; how art instruction gives students a welcome respite from more difficult subjects, reenergizes and makes them better able to focus; how art education compliments and augments standard educationally required subjects; statistical data suggesting (or proving) that students who receive instruction in art have higher grades and do better on standardized tests (assuming this is demonstrable).
his list will be reviewed from time to time and updated as appropriate

1. The Continuum of Teacher Education

Examples of possible research topics under this heading: - Initial teacher education - The professional portfolio - The career entry phase, including induction and probation - Continuing professional development, including current needs (individual, school, system), current provision, etc.

- Developing professional learning communities - Standards of teaching, knowledge, skill and competence across the continuum

2. Teaching in a Changing Society

Examples of possible research topics under this heading: - Teaching for diversity, inclusion and special educational needs - Teaching for social capital - Teaching for citizenship and moral development - Developing creative, lifelong learners - Using ICT for teaching, learning and assessment - Places and spaces for learning, including virtual learning environments and multimodal texts.

3. Pedagogy

Examples of possible research topics under this heading:

- Effective teaching of literacy and numeracy - Integration of subject themes and cross curricular working - Whole school curriculum policy development and evaluation - Assessing for learning/formative assessment - Pedagogic approaches and perspectives on learning

4. Teaching as a Profession

Examples of possible research topics under this heading:

- Perceptions of the Teaching Council - Effective strategies for partnership between the Council and its stakeholders - Perceptions of teacher professionalism - Perceptions of the role of the teacher - Self-regulation in the teaching profession - Collegiality in teaching

- Entry criteria - The development of teaching as a profession (national and international trends) - Progression paths in teaching (national/international trends)

5. Core Education Principles and Policy Issues

Examples of possible research topics under this heading:

- The changing context of patronage/ethos - Supply of, and demand for, teachers - Partnership within education - The potential for reconceptualisation of the education system towards an improved teaching and learning experience

BEHAVIOR
Behavior and discipline systems for diverse groups. Character education. Impact of behavior on grades (and vice versa?). Starting with younger children and tracking children's behavior over the years What are some of the psychological issues that may be going on with children that are impacting behavior and contributing to discipline problems? Attendance and its relationship to behavior. Bullying, intimidation, harassment, humiliation, during secondary school and the transition in high school. Racial interactions and tensions related to education and behavior. Emotional, behavioral or mental health issues that impact secondary students and their educational success. Student engagement with school.

NEW CHOICES
Gifted Education and Accelerated Programs. Alternative schools. Transferable models of successful, small urban schools. Summer bridge programs. After school academic intervention and enrichment programs. Overall student health including physical health and socio-emotional well-being.

PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT AND FULL SERVICE COMMUNITY SCHOOLS

Addressing the full spectrum of issues preventing their child's school success e.g. homelessness. Mapping current services that either are in the school system, community, or are linked to the system. Working with the most 'at-risk' or 'vulnerable' populations particularly those with young children. Family/ Parent impact on their childs literacy.

CURRICULUM ISSUES
Vertical teaming K-12 alignment of curriculum or possibly P-16 beginning with math. Early intervention - particularly with vulnerable populations. Foreign language including dual language program and immersion programs. How would a duallanguage program impact students who may not be proficient in either their maternal language or English. Required reading programs in 6, 7, 8 - what are the alternatives? What is the documented value? Well defined models of support for struggling adolescent readers. Reading instruction for special education students Evaluation of math programs at the elementary level and effectiveness of preparation for the next level. Summer enrichment programs in mathematics. Evaluation of instruction, curriculum, and programs.

SCHEDULING OF STUDENTS
Block scheduling at the middle school level.

STAFF DEVELOPMENT AND TRAINING

Teaming at the middle school level - productive use of time, team meetings, and planning time. Effective methods for staff training. Success of training modules. Looking at 3-4 year benchmarks of productivity. Staff training of excellent teaching methodology (lesson planning and lesson structure). Training teachers to be good administrators, researchers etc.

ISSUES RELATED TO THE COMPLIANCE WITH FEDERAL EDUCATION LAWS

Impact of a consent decree and how that has affected the district compared to other districts that have had a consent decree. Analyzing available secondary data being gathered for No Child Left Behind.