Basic Information
Name: Alanah VanCleve
UC Email: [email protected]
College: College of Allied Health Sciences
Major: Health Sciences
Title of Project: The Value of an Education
Thematic Area: Research
Expected Project Start Date: January 2014
Expected Project End Date: July 2014
Project Information
1. Abstract
For my self-designed experiential learning project, I plan to build upon one of the current organizations I am in, Bearcat Buddies. Bearcat Buddies is a chance for students from the University of Cincinnati to go out to various Cincinnati Public Schools and tutor students who need extra help and attention to develop skills and a good attitude about school, as they do not usually come from a good background. To build upon this, I plan to compare the effects of tutoring at a Cincinnati Public School, an inner-city school system, and tutoring at a suburban school, in particular one from my hometown in the Monroe Local Schools system. My comparison and research essentially will focus on whether or not tutoring is more effective in a suburban school system compared to an inner-city school system, and if so, delving deeper into why this happens. One of the comparisons I will do with my tutoring will be comparing the backgrounds of the students at the Cincinnati school to that of the students of the Monroe school. One of the first things I will do will be to compare the skills of the students who need extra help in the Cincinnati school to those of the students in the Monroe school at the same age level – I will see if the students from the Cincinnati school need more, less or equal help compared to students from Monroe. My theory is that the students from the inner-city school system will need more help and may not improve as much as the students from the suburban school system due to a lack of emphasis on education in their home life, as shown by a pattern of the students currently needing help in the Cincinnati school system. Comparing these two school systems and the effects of tutoring and home life on education will discover what is causing these students to need extra help and how to get them it to help them succeed in education. Overall, I want to compare how different living situations affects education, and to develop ideas to help inspire students from both a suburban and inner-city setting to learn and do well in school.
As someone who loves to learn, I’ve always found joy in inspiring other kids to feel the same as I do about education. I love tutoring because I believe that when you help kids who are normally behind in class see that they have the ability to do just as well in school as other children, it inspires them to try harder in class and to believe in themselves. I want to ignite a spark in these children to be passionate about education. This project is personally meaningful because I hope to find ways to encourage children who don’t normally enjoy school or learning to do so.
For this project, I will accumulate 75 hours of contact work, research, and reflection. Through Bearcat Buddies, I will attain about 15 hours of tutoring time with a student from Cincinnati Public Schools during spring semester. In order to keep the times consistent and to see how a student from the Monroe Local Schools system does with the same amount of time, after spring semester ends, I will return to my hometown and tutor a Monroe student for about 15 hours also, spread out over the course of a few weeks. With both students from different school systems, I will make sure that the tutoring session consist of the same content in order to do a fair comparison. I will focus mainly on reading and writing, and depending on time constraints, math also. With permission from both school systems, I plan on sitting in on classes in each school for a total of 10 hours each to get a feel for the students and the way the teachers teach, to see if the time spent in the classroom has any effects on learning or doing well. After my time spent tutoring and sitting in on the classroom has concluded, I will have accumulated 50 total hours. I will use 4 hours of the remaining time, two at each school, to talk to the teachers and principals and discuss what they think the causes of the students needing extra help are, and what they believe could be done to solve it. These interviews will help get insight with people who know the children well and who have had the opportunity to see things that I was not able to in my short time at the schools. I will use 15 of the remaining hours to do conclusions about how much each student from each school improved, what the common living situations and backgrounds of all the children from each of the schools are, and to research how different living backgrounds have been shown to affect education. I will also research how each school performs yearly on their achievement tests, which will give me insight into if the common living situation truly does have an affect on education. Through my comparison of the students and research on the schools and the communities which the students who attend them are from, I will come to a conclusion on whether or not my earlier mentioned theory was correct or not and whether or not background and living situation do have an effect on education. I will then use these conclusions and the research to develop theories on what can be done to help students in these situations have the desire to pursue education. I will use the remaining 6 hours out of my 75 total to write a research paper to reflect on how students from different backgrounds performed, and how background and living situation in general affect education, along with my theories.
2. Connection to Learning Outcomes within an Honors Thematic Area:
Research
· Ability to frame and develop the research project question or problem.
· Disseminate the research results and knowledge gained.
· Ability to think beyond the just completed research and articulate how your world view has been impacted by the experience.
I will accomplish the first learning outcome by using my current knowledge of both school systems and how background affects education to form my project question. I will then adapt this question as my research goes along and as I gain insight into what I am trying to discover. I will achieve the second learning outcome by using the research from my tutoring and finding out how it relates to my theories about how background affects education and discovering how the tutoring, backgrounds and school system tie together. I will publish my knowledge gained and my results into a paper. The third learning outcome will be accomplished by using my research results to look into how things can be improved in school systems, and also explaining in my paper how my opinion on certain school systems has changed and how I understand and sympathize with why certain students don’t do as well.
3. Connection to Goals and Academic Theories
A) My goal is to become a Physical Therapist. This project will contribute to that goal because, as a Physical Therapist, research must sometimes be used to find the cause of ailments and their solutions. In a way, my project is the same. I am researching to find the cause of certain problems, and to find their solutions. I can use the skills I will develop from this project to help with future endeavors in the field.
B) One of the theories that I have heard is that students from Cincinnati Public Schools do not do as well as those from suburban areas because they do not come from good backgrounds, and these backgrounds do not usually place an emphasis on education. Another theory that I have heard is that students from suburban areas usually do well compared to inner-city students because in their homes, education was valued as it was usually very important in their parents’ lives. Also, they do well because their parents are very involved in their lives and push them to do well.
4. Initiative, Independence and/or Creativity:
My unique contribution to the project is that I will not just research how students in different settings from different backgrounds do, I will actually tutor them and be able to see first-hand how different backgrounds or settings can affect their education during my tutoring sessions. Uniquely, I bring the experience of actually having past experience in tutoring in Bearcat Buddies, so these tutoring sessions in the Cincinnati area and in the Monroe area will not be completely new to me, so I will know what to do and how to tutor the students. My involvement is unique because I will have had previous personal experience in both Cincinnati Public Schools and the other school system I plan on going to , Monroe Local Schools. This is unique because, if anyone else is involved, they most likely will never have had the experience in the Monroe Local Schools system. I have demonstrated initiative by looking into different theories about background and education already and being involved in Bearcat buddies.
5. Reflection:
I will actively reflect on my learning throughout the experience by consistently doing research on various theories, taking notes during my interviews with faculty and how the students I am tutoring are performing. My format for reflection will be a research paper, in which I will examine the following questions: Does background affect education and performance? Do students in different settings and from different backgrounds do the same, better, or worse? What are things that can be done to help students who do not enjoy learning or want to pursue education?
6. Dissemination:
I will share what I learned with others in a public forum by attempting to publish my research in a teaching journal and by sharing it with the faculty from both school systems, possibly on each of their websites, or by simply writing it and distributing copies, and by sharing it with those involved in Bearcat Buddies, who may be interested in what else can be done to improve tutoring. This audience is relevant because, when published in a teaching journal, teachers would be interested in newly developed ideas to help their students learn. The faculty from both schools would be interested because it would also show them the effects background has on the children in their schools, and it would give them ideas to help improve this situation. Those involved in Bearcat Buddies would be interested because it would help them see if the tutoring is effective.
7. Project Advisor
The person who will provide me with support throughout this project will be Fran Larkin, who is the director of Bearcat Buddies. His number is (513) 556-1503.
8. Budget
Name: Alanah VanCleve
UC Email: [email protected]
College: College of Allied Health Sciences
Major: Health Sciences
Title of Project: The Value of an Education
Thematic Area: Research
Expected Project Start Date: January 2014
Expected Project End Date: July 2014
Project Information
1. Abstract
For my self-designed experiential learning project, I plan to build upon one of the current organizations I am in, Bearcat Buddies. Bearcat Buddies is a chance for students from the University of Cincinnati to go out to various Cincinnati Public Schools and tutor students who need extra help and attention to develop skills and a good attitude about school, as they do not usually come from a good background. To build upon this, I plan to compare the effects of tutoring at a Cincinnati Public School, an inner-city school system, and tutoring at a suburban school, in particular one from my hometown in the Monroe Local Schools system. My comparison and research essentially will focus on whether or not tutoring is more effective in a suburban school system compared to an inner-city school system, and if so, delving deeper into why this happens. One of the comparisons I will do with my tutoring will be comparing the backgrounds of the students at the Cincinnati school to that of the students of the Monroe school. One of the first things I will do will be to compare the skills of the students who need extra help in the Cincinnati school to those of the students in the Monroe school at the same age level – I will see if the students from the Cincinnati school need more, less or equal help compared to students from Monroe. My theory is that the students from the inner-city school system will need more help and may not improve as much as the students from the suburban school system due to a lack of emphasis on education in their home life, as shown by a pattern of the students currently needing help in the Cincinnati school system. Comparing these two school systems and the effects of tutoring and home life on education will discover what is causing these students to need extra help and how to get them it to help them succeed in education. Overall, I want to compare how different living situations affects education, and to develop ideas to help inspire students from both a suburban and inner-city setting to learn and do well in school.
As someone who loves to learn, I’ve always found joy in inspiring other kids to feel the same as I do about education. I love tutoring because I believe that when you help kids who are normally behind in class see that they have the ability to do just as well in school as other children, it inspires them to try harder in class and to believe in themselves. I want to ignite a spark in these children to be passionate about education. This project is personally meaningful because I hope to find ways to encourage children who don’t normally enjoy school or learning to do so.
For this project, I will accumulate 75 hours of contact work, research, and reflection. Through Bearcat Buddies, I will attain about 15 hours of tutoring time with a student from Cincinnati Public Schools during spring semester. In order to keep the times consistent and to see how a student from the Monroe Local Schools system does with the same amount of time, after spring semester ends, I will return to my hometown and tutor a Monroe student for about 15 hours also, spread out over the course of a few weeks. With both students from different school systems, I will make sure that the tutoring session consist of the same content in order to do a fair comparison. I will focus mainly on reading and writing, and depending on time constraints, math also. With permission from both school systems, I plan on sitting in on classes in each school for a total of 10 hours each to get a feel for the students and the way the teachers teach, to see if the time spent in the classroom has any effects on learning or doing well. After my time spent tutoring and sitting in on the classroom has concluded, I will have accumulated 50 total hours. I will use 4 hours of the remaining time, two at each school, to talk to the teachers and principals and discuss what they think the causes of the students needing extra help are, and what they believe could be done to solve it. These interviews will help get insight with people who know the children well and who have had the opportunity to see things that I was not able to in my short time at the schools. I will use 15 of the remaining hours to do conclusions about how much each student from each school improved, what the common living situations and backgrounds of all the children from each of the schools are, and to research how different living backgrounds have been shown to affect education. I will also research how each school performs yearly on their achievement tests, which will give me insight into if the common living situation truly does have an affect on education. Through my comparison of the students and research on the schools and the communities which the students who attend them are from, I will come to a conclusion on whether or not my earlier mentioned theory was correct or not and whether or not background and living situation do have an effect on education. I will then use these conclusions and the research to develop theories on what can be done to help students in these situations have the desire to pursue education. I will use the remaining 6 hours out of my 75 total to write a research paper to reflect on how students from different backgrounds performed, and how background and living situation in general affect education, along with my theories.
2. Connection to Learning Outcomes within an Honors Thematic Area:
Research
· Ability to frame and develop the research project question or problem.
· Disseminate the research results and knowledge gained.
· Ability to think beyond the just completed research and articulate how your world view has been impacted by the experience.
I will accomplish the first learning outcome by using my current knowledge of both school systems and how background affects education to form my project question. I will then adapt this question as my research goes along and as I gain insight into what I am trying to discover. I will achieve the second learning outcome by using the research from my tutoring and finding out how it relates to my theories about how background affects education and discovering how the tutoring, backgrounds and school system tie together. I will publish my knowledge gained and my results into a paper. The third learning outcome will be accomplished by using my research results to look into how things can be improved in school systems, and also explaining in my paper how my opinion on certain school systems has changed and how I understand and sympathize with why certain students don’t do as well.
3. Connection to Goals and Academic Theories
A) My goal is to become a Physical Therapist. This project will contribute to that goal because, as a Physical Therapist, research must sometimes be used to find the cause of ailments and their solutions. In a way, my project is the same. I am researching to find the cause of certain problems, and to find their solutions. I can use the skills I will develop from this project to help with future endeavors in the field.
B) One of the theories that I have heard is that students from Cincinnati Public Schools do not do as well as those from suburban areas because they do not come from good backgrounds, and these backgrounds do not usually place an emphasis on education. Another theory that I have heard is that students from suburban areas usually do well compared to inner-city students because in their homes, education was valued as it was usually very important in their parents’ lives. Also, they do well because their parents are very involved in their lives and push them to do well.
4. Initiative, Independence and/or Creativity:
My unique contribution to the project is that I will not just research how students in different settings from different backgrounds do, I will actually tutor them and be able to see first-hand how different backgrounds or settings can affect their education during my tutoring sessions. Uniquely, I bring the experience of actually having past experience in tutoring in Bearcat Buddies, so these tutoring sessions in the Cincinnati area and in the Monroe area will not be completely new to me, so I will know what to do and how to tutor the students. My involvement is unique because I will have had previous personal experience in both Cincinnati Public Schools and the other school system I plan on going to , Monroe Local Schools. This is unique because, if anyone else is involved, they most likely will never have had the experience in the Monroe Local Schools system. I have demonstrated initiative by looking into different theories about background and education already and being involved in Bearcat buddies.
5. Reflection:
I will actively reflect on my learning throughout the experience by consistently doing research on various theories, taking notes during my interviews with faculty and how the students I am tutoring are performing. My format for reflection will be a research paper, in which I will examine the following questions: Does background affect education and performance? Do students in different settings and from different backgrounds do the same, better, or worse? What are things that can be done to help students who do not enjoy learning or want to pursue education?
6. Dissemination:
I will share what I learned with others in a public forum by attempting to publish my research in a teaching journal and by sharing it with the faculty from both school systems, possibly on each of their websites, or by simply writing it and distributing copies, and by sharing it with those involved in Bearcat Buddies, who may be interested in what else can be done to improve tutoring. This audience is relevant because, when published in a teaching journal, teachers would be interested in newly developed ideas to help their students learn. The faculty from both schools would be interested because it would also show them the effects background has on the children in their schools, and it would give them ideas to help improve this situation. Those involved in Bearcat Buddies would be interested because it would help them see if the tutoring is effective.
7. Project Advisor
The person who will provide me with support throughout this project will be Fran Larkin, who is the director of Bearcat Buddies. His number is (513) 556-1503.
8. Budget