The Why Behind the What

Being on fall break this week has left my data collection on pause.  But it has given me time to reflect on how I have come up to this point in this process.

Settling on a topic for my research project was never a difficult decision.  It was more of a narrowing down in what is very important to me.  Now, don't get me wrong.  I love all of my students in some way or another.  But I have always been drawn to the kids at each end of the scale, both high and low ability.  That is in part what motivated me to come back to school in the first place to get my second Masters degree: being better equipped to help kids on the far ends of the scale.

I decided to get my talented and gifted certification while completing my rank one designation.  I really enjoy working with gifted students in many ways.  They have their own unique types of challenges but I enjoy the challenge that they offer me and try to challenge and grow them in return.  I have been a co-sponsor for KYA and KUNA all six years I have taught.  I have been the Academic Team coach for all six years of teaching as well.  I enjoy working closely with the Odyssey of the Mind team and have coached and judged for them for several years as well.

Student achievement is something that is always on the forefront of every educator's mind.  It is a pertinent and omnipresent part of our profession.  So it was a natural fit for me to start out my initial drafts of my research question with gifted students and achievement in mind.  I did not want to choose my own classroom for my study.  My student rosters did not offer enough gifted population to pull from.  I wanted to get a little bit out of my comfort zone that my content provides.  After speaking with my advisor, I chose math.  With a few back and forth revisions I settled on the following research question:

How does differentiated learning impact gifted students' achievement in math?

As we come back to school after fall break, I continue to collect the consent forms and share the data from the students' surveys, pre-, and post-tests as I can.  This week sets up as a critical period to collect, organize, and begin to analyze data.