Week 8, Assignment 2

8 weeks came and went so quick!!! I understand why my Brandman Coach expressed the importance of this class. Since we started, I have used in my psychology class what I have learned in this one.

The literature review was the hardest assignment of all, what really helped was the video tutorial that was posted. The explanation was so clear and easy to understand. After finishing all the textbook chapters for this week, the video was the cherry on the cake. I still struggled somewhat, but then who said research would be easy. For me, the most difficult part of a paper is the beginning, once the introduction is written I feel that the rest of the paper just seems to flow. Literature review has such great importance for my major, being a psychology major I will have many of papers to write and research to perform.
My experience in this class was absolutely wonderful, so much important information relevant to my career. I will take away from this experience the purpose of research, the importance of citing and giving credit to others work and negative that plagiarism can bring.

Happy holidays to everyone! And thank you to our instructor Mrs. Chase for the feedback on our assignments and the lectures.

Maria Feagin

Week 7, assignment 2

This week assignment wasn't easy, but it wasn't hard either. I reviewed all of my previous weeks to see if any of the sources previously used were relevant to my research question. I was able to find 2 of my previous resources that were relevant, which both were found by using the Leatherby Library. For my other 4 I begin by using the Leatherby Library, I was having trouble finding articles or journals that would answer my research question ("What is causing more parents to choose homeschool over face-to-face classrooms?). I was able to find 2 more peer-reviewed articles, for my other two I tried using the open access websites to research my questions. Since I was not having luck and my results were repetitive I ended up turning to Google and was able to find two more websites with articles regarding my question.

What I found in the majority of my sources is that the information as to why so many parents are turning to homeschool is very repetitive, most of them if not all share the same information. For most, the fact of religious views, race, bullying were the number one factors why parents homeschool their children. I did find two other articles that helped satisfy my need to know why parents are turning to this option, which stated that parents just simply want to have control over their children's learning environment, their study curriculum, and because homeschool just gives them flexibility.

Research Question

What is causing more parents to choose Homeschool over face-to-face classrooms?

Benefits of home education. (n.d.). Retrieved December 15, 2014, from http://www.sheknows.com/parenting/articles/829847/why-are-so-many-parents-choosing-to-homeschool

In this article the author explains how homeschool in the past was a choice of the fringe groups such as church going families or hippies. But, homeschool in the U.S. has increasingly become more popular and is becoming the biggest choice for parents when it comes to their children’s education. Over 2 million families in American homeschool their children and it grows as much as 8% each year. In this article we learn other reasons parents homeschool their children, such as the flexibility that it gives families and the diverse education options they have. Parents can tailor the education needs of their children.

ENGLISH, R. (2015). Use your freedom of choice: Reasons for choosing homeschool in Australia. Journal of Unschooling & Alternative Learning, 9(17), 1.

This article talks about the growing trend of parents choosing to homeschool their children in other countries such as Australia. Like the U.S., Australia and the U.K. and adopted this growing trend. This article talks about the stereotype of parents who homeschool their kids as “social 'misfits': either 'tree-hugging hippies', religious fanatics or 'hothousing' parents determined that their offspring should achieve academic excellence at an early age” (English, p. 3).  The article discusses that in Australia,  the parent’s choice to home educate their children is mostly philosophical. The study “argue that the reasons people home educate include religious belief; parental responsibility; concerns over quality of teaching, especially around literacy and numeracy; social development; avoidance of bullying and other negative peer experiences; distance and special needs” (English, p. 4).

Ice, C. L., & Hoover-Dempsey, K. V. (2011). Linking parental motivations for involvement and student proximal achievement outcomes in homeschooling and public schooling settings. Education and Urban Society, 43(3), 339-369.

This article discusses the motivation of parents to homeschool their children because the strong desire of parental involvement, and to have an active role in their child’s learning process. Parents want to take on the role of construction and effectiveness in helping their children learn. Parents have different motivators for their involvement in their children’s education such as their achievement outcomes. A study performed found that some students that were homeschooled averaged better than those who were educated in a public school.

Martin, Margaret. "Homeschooling: Parents' Reactions." (1997): ERIC. Web. 7 Dec. 2014.

This journal discusses a survey performed on 12 parents that homeschool their children located in the Bronx and Manhattan in New York. The study states that “A growing number of people are very dissatisfied with the public school system and are looking for alternatives to public education” (Martin, p. 2). The study was performed over a 5 year period; in which parents pointed out that religion is one of the biggest reasons why they chose to homeschool their children. Other reason mentioned was trust, and amongst other reasons the journal states that “Other reasons include safety issues, such as overcrowding and drugs in the public schools, parents who want to discipline their children as they chose, and to avoid negative per pressure” (Martin, p. 3).

Probing Question: Why do some people choose to homeschool their kids? | Penn State University. (n.d.). Retrieved December 15, 2014, from http://news.psu.edu/story/141246/2005/10/17/research/probing-question-why-do-some-people-choose-homeschool-their-kids

This article written by Melissa Beattie-Moss from Penn State, say that parents that homeschool their children due to religious views was due to their Christian fundamentals. These parents want more control of their children’s education and their social life. Parents that homeschool feel that public schools have a “one size fits all” approach to education. Homeschool allows parents to tailor their children’s educational needs, interests and abilities. “The teaching methods and materials parents choose are equally diverse, from the most classical education, emphasizing Latin, grammar and rhetoric, to the least structured "unschooling" approach, often defined as "using the whole world as your classroom” (Proving question, n.d.).

Ronsisvalle, T., & Watkins, R. (2005). STUDENT SUCCESS IN ONLINE K-12 EDUCATION. (Undetermined). Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 6(2), 117-184.

This article discusses the advantages that home school or online education has for parents and why a parent would choose to go this way. For example; a child that might have an illness that causes him/her to miss school often and put him/her at risk of dropping out, an online education would be a good solution for this child and parents. Student motivation is definitely one of the tools for success in online education.

Week 6

I thought this week was going to be easy since we had to review and learn about plagiarism. I will get out of that way first what I found a challenge in. My challenge was our first assignment, finding research for our research question. Since my original topic is advantages and disadvantages of online education K-12, my question was "why are parents choosing home-school/online education over a face-to-face education?". Using the open access journal search was not easy, it took me a long time and a lot of breaks from frustration. I finally changed completely the keywords that I was using and found an article using Google Scholarly.
As for plagiarism, this is a topic that has always made me nervous since I started attending college and learned about it. I have always tried to be careful not to fall into it, but unfortunately unknowingly I did, and my instructor talked to me about it and found out that I didn't do it on purpose or even knew about it. I had expressed an opinion that sounded as one of another, but the case was that my paper was written and turned in before another student and since it was an online class we never met or exchanged notes; it happened by coincidence. But ever since I cite everything, even the smallest quotation. I even try not to paraphrase! I feel that plagiarism is critical topic, especially because I don't feel it to be proper or fair for someone to steal others work when that other person so much time in effort in it.

Week 5, Assignment 2

Hope everyone had a safe, delicious and Happy Thanksgiving. For this week, at first when I saw the title of our assignment I felt intimidated. Empirical research! What's that?? The hardest part to be honest was all the reading, seems like every week we have more and more reading. But once it comes down to do the assignment, the reading pays off. I found the Empirical research method to be very helpful, I was able to narrow my research quite a bite, considering the normal results I get is usually in the thousands. Empirical helped narrow my topic of  "Online K-12 education" down to 1 page with 3 articles. It wasn't an easy task at first, but I feel as if I;m getting better at it. I really liked having the Subject-Specific Databases guide, that helped me narrow down my search better. I prefer to use the Leatherby Library because I find that it has the filters I need and it allows me to refine my research by specific subjects, which is what I used this time around. I chose online education, elementary education subjects to be more specific.

Overall, I feel that this class is getting easier and it has facilitated me with other classes. I have learned terms I have never heard of before and how to do better research in ways I never thought I could.