Determining the subject is the primary link and starting point of educational research. The essence of determining the subject is to choose the direction of scientific research and determine the goal of scientific research. The author is a project manager, and sometimes a teacher will find me and ask me for a project. Indeed, for teachers who are new to the field of education and scientific research, they have to prepare lessons, attend classes, finish classes, change homework and so on day after day. They are all unremarkable, and it is really difficult to choose a topic. Who knows, for every teacher, the topic is in the education and teaching work around him. As long as you can face the reality bravely, develop a mind that can find and analyze problems, and develop the habit of deep thinking, it is not difficult to find and establish an appropriate topic. So, how to find and choose educational research topics?
First, find problems from hot issues in education.
The hot issue of education is a common concern of educators, and the answer is not clear and controversial. These problems are generally closely related to educational reform, such as the change of learning methods, the development of curriculum resources and the professional development of teachers. These problems have a large space for research and discussion, and researchers can establish corresponding topics according to their own research ability and the actual situation of the school. For example, a math teacher in a primary school set up the topic of "Study on the Effectiveness of Group Cooperative Learning in Primary School Mathematics Teaching"; According to the geographical location and cultural characteristics of the school, a middle school in Jiuli District has set up the subject of "School-based Curriculum Development of Historical and Cultural Junior High School in Xuzhou during the Han Dynasty". A normal school has set up the subject of "Research on the Construction of Teachers' Learning Organization". Looking for problems from hot spots should be careful not to be greedy. The consequence of greed is that you don't know where to start when you study, and your operability is poor. Even if you barely study, the result is empty and ineffective. A teacher once set up such a topic: "Theoretical and practical research on the learning and development of nine-year students", but after repeated thinking, he thought that this topic was too time-consuming for teachers in grass-roots schools, involving too much research content and too difficult to operate. Later, he had to give up this research topic and choose a new one. Look for problems from hot spots and be careful not to follow suit, that is, don't blindly follow other people's research. First of all, through learning, we should have a certain understanding of the problems to be studied; You should consider your research ability. The research will be carried out after all conditions are ripe. I remember that when innovative education was first put forward, many schools chose this topic. So far, many researchers haven't figured out the difference and connection between creation and innovation, and the projects started in the Ninth Five-Year Plan still can't reach a conclusion, so they can only give up or cancel.
Second, find problems from practical problems and puzzles in education and teaching.
Every teacher has certain problems and puzzles in education and teaching. These problems and puzzles may become a good research topic after being concerned and refined. For example, a primary school English teacher found that the application of audio-visual media in English teaching was blind and ineffective, so he put forward the topic "Research on the application of audio-visual media in primary school English teaching". Through research, we can understand students' opinions on the use of various media, and put forward specific methods for the use of each media, such as the time of use and what content is suitable for use. , improving the effectiveness and pertinence of media use.
If teachers want to find problems worth studying from teaching practice, they should pay attention to their usual accumulation. You should take everything seriously. For example, pay attention to students and look for problems worth studying from them. A teacher's research is very commendable: a classmate in the class broke a bone, and after the second operation, the students took more care of him. But this classmate looks glum. By getting to know his parents, the teacher learned that he felt that everyone was pitying him. Teachers have sensitively grasped this problem, guided students to experience how to change from "learning to care actively" to "learning to care hard", carried out a series of activities, and conducted a good study on the subject of "learning to care". Teachers should also pay attention to recording the problems found, their own confusion and thoughts at any time. These materials may become research materials. Starting with finding problems, analyzing problems, exploring the crux of problems, drawing up solutions based on the understanding of problems, implementing solutions in practice, seeking solutions, and constantly reflecting in the process of practice are the basic ideas for teachers to carry out educational research.
Third, choose the topic from the guide to the topic selection of educational science planning.
Every place has educational and scientific research management institutions or educational and scientific research planning leading groups, and these institutions or departments will issue some educational and scientific research topic guides regularly or irregularly within a certain period of time. For these topics in the Guide, teachers can be further specific according to their own reality and put forward topics that are in line with their own actual situation.
The above three ways of finding problems and forming topics are relatively easy for primary school teachers to operate and are also the most commonly used. In addition, teachers can learn theories, ask questions and form topics. For example, a theory can be verified and applied; You can object to a certain aspect of a theory; It can solve the problem put forward by a certain theory but not well solved. These practices require teachers in primary schools to thoroughly understand the theory through study and thinking before asking questions. Don't rush into battle with a little knowledge. For example, to study the application of constructivism theory in subject teaching, we must first read several books about constructivism.
It can be said that the problems in the field of education are quite common. As long as teachers have a good professional theoretical foundation, always pay attention to the trends and development trends of educational research, be diligent in thinking and be brave in reform, they will certainly find problems of research value.
After the question is put forward, whether it can further form a subject that can be studied remains to be considered. Teachers should pay attention to the following aspects:
First of all, teachers should strengthen the study of modern education and teaching theory, update educational concepts and firmly grasp the current reform direction. Otherwise, even if there are problems that can be studied, an "inappropriate" topic will be established because of the wrong guiding ideology. For example, a school put forward a topic called "Research on Poor Students in Middle and Senior Grade in Primary School", which showed that it did not understand the modern educational concept. Because how can students be judged to be poor students only by their grades? A headmaster in Singapore bluntly said that there were no poor students in their school. Students have different levels of development, and each has its own specialties. Every child has achieved growth and development, so we can't say which child is bad and which child is bad. It has entered 2 1 century, and the evaluation of people still stays in the fifties and sixties, so it is really impossible to establish such a discipline under the background of the Tenth Five-Year Plan.
Third, many teachers are worried about the topics that others have studied, and they are afraid of following in others' footsteps and wasting time. The author believes that this kind of worry is unnecessary. Because the educational research of grass-roots teachers is a kind of "on-the-spot" research, each teacher's research place and research object are different from others, and the research perspective, research ability and methods chosen by researchers themselves are not necessarily the same as others. From this perspective, teachers can study topics of interest to them, study and think in the process of research, solve problems and form research results. Such research results may not have much promotion value, but they should be targeted to solve problems and school-oriented; Teachers can develop in this kind of research. However, the author does not advocate behind closed doors. Teachers should pay attention to the research achievements and trends of others in the same research field, learn from others' experience and create their own characteristics.
Fourth, we should attach importance to expert argumentation. Sometimes teachers are not sure whether a topic is properly established. At this time, it is best to use the power of experts to ask experts to take the pulse of the subject. Experts can be theoretical researchers and researchers in colleges and universities, as well as experienced front-line teachers and leaders. Grassroots teachers and theoretical researchers form a research community, which is a good paradigm for scientific research in grassroots schools.
To sum up, we can sum up the general steps of selecting a topic and establishing a project:
1, looking for clues to the topic. By reading the literature, observing and thinking about the problems and puzzles existing in education and teaching, and communicating with colleagues, we can find clues to the research.
2. Put forward the first topic. Sort out some clues of subject research as alternatives.
3. Sort out the selected topics, and further clarify the research purpose, significance, tasks and methods.
4, understand the research results of similar topics at home and abroad, learn from the experience of others, and establish their own characteristics.
5. Analyze the subjective and objective conditions of research.
6. Further analyze and demonstrate the feasibility of the research, and finally establish the research topic.