My research project has changed course over the last two weeks.  At first my project was attempting to answer a question I had long ago when I first began working in the math field.  As a math tutor I always heard one quintessential question and comment of when am I ever going to use this?  And I hate math; math is my worst subject.  When I heard this as a tutor I made it a practical goal of mines to change the student’s outlook on math, to make it a subject that they can at least tolerate and not hate. 

I had a hard time figuring out what to do with my paper and felt that my qualitative research was at a standstill.  I felt that I couldn’t further my research because all my research questions were too general.  I didn’t have a clear path to take my research because I didn’t have a particular question.  Thus, the reading on research questions was a huge help.  It helped me go from questions like

—  How can we take a negative space like math and begin to turn it in to a positive space?

—  What affect does STEMS^2 lessons have on students attitudes on mathematics?

—  How is a student’s perception of math transformed by math events?

—  What impact does place based education have on students from Ewa Beach, HI?

These questions not only were too general, but conflicted with my job since I work for a research project (called Ka Pilina) attempting to answer very similar questions.  Another main concern has been, what do I bring to the table? How does my research project enrich and expand the realm of education (and Ka Pilina)?  After hours and days (and hair loss!) my advisor helped me come up with a better (work in progress) question:  What affect does STEMS^2 lessons have on parent's perceptions of mathematics of students attending Ewa Beach middle to high schools?

What I really like about this question is it helps to capture something that doesn’t get seen within the scope of the current data of Ka Pilina.  Nowhere in the project do we report on feedback from students’ parents.  However, my perception of parent’s reaction to Ka Pilina is positive.  Parents come to talk to me about their child’s grades improving or their perception of their child’s attitude towards an event like math camp. Another aspect that I like about the current question is I feel the question is now more of an instrumentalist question that will reflect the limitations of my research, and at the same time it is enriching the education field (and my project, yay!)

With this new research question I plan to have focus on the topic of affects I have on parent’s perceptions.  I currently will collect data using a survey that contains qualitative and quantitative questions.  However, I have yet to finish the first draft of this instrument.

Lastly, I would like to blog about my overall state of being.  I have gone from the famous last words of “eh how bad could it be?” to… I am completely freaking out!

T_T