Research Project Portfolio COUN 508 – Research Methods in Counseling
Assignment - Research Portfolio: 75 points – Team assignment. Members of the team are assigned a common grade based on an assignment rubric distributed in class. Each team submits a research portfolio containing copies of all items produced during the course. The portfolio also contains the student’s reflections on assignments, the research project, and the research process in general. Score: 75 points. The scoring is based on the criteria shown below.
Each collaborative action research team is responsible for creating and maintaining a Collaborative Action Research Project Portfolio. The portfolio reflects corporate authorship, that is, each member of your team will contribute and each member will get credit for the work. Your team will submit your research portfolio at the end of the semester. The research portfolio contains all items produced by your team – individually and as a group - during the course. You may want to maintain two portfolios, as one will be kept as a part of the permanent collection for the Resource Library of the Center for Student Support Systems (CS3). The portfolio will contain at least the following sections for the fall semester: Research Project Proposal Section Introduction Observation assignments Reflective interview PFR IRB proposal or project proposal Reflection Section Research reflections / Research journal Final team reflection For the first section, include copies of all assignments indicated. Also write a brief (onepage) statement that introduces the content of this section and puts the materials into the context of the action research project that has been undertaken. For the second section, include any and all reflections that have been written as a part of your individual and team work on the project. Also include a final team reflection that addresses the questions included at the end of this document. To assist you with the content of this section, we have included background material on writing reflectively.
Research Project Portfolio COUN 508 – Research Methods in Counseling
On Writing Reflections Self-reflection is a crucial element both in critical thinking and in the life-long learning associated with being a counselor. In general, “Critical thinking is reasonable reflective thinking focused on deciding what to believe or do” (Ennis, 1993, p. ). In general, reflective writing in COUN 508 addresses: 1) experiences (including in-class learning experiences, out-of-class experiences with communication and communication skills, and life experiences in general); 2) reflections on experiences (in order to better understand such things as your emotional reactions to, and thoughts about, activities, interactions, life experience, etc.); and, 3) the candidate’s developing ideas about issues in research, the nature of collaborative action research in school counseling, and/or discoveries that you may wish to explore further at another time. In the research class, in other words, you have many opportunities to write short reflections on your understanding of various aspects of research and the collaborative action research process. You may have written reflective comments in your own class notes or taken time at the end of meetings, site visits, interviews, etc. to jot down your thoughts and feelings regarding these experiences. Any of these comments can be organized into the reflective writing section of the portfolio. What do you do when you reasonably and reflectively go about deciding what to believe or do? Here is a pretty standard list of things that qualify as elements of reflection:
Judging the credibility of sources Identifying conclusions, reasons and assumptions Judging the quality of an argument, including the acceptability of its reasons, assumptions and evidence Developing and defending a position on an issue Asking appropriate and clarifying questions Planning experiments and judge experimental designs Defining terms in a way appropriate for the context Being open-minded Trying to be well informed Drawing conclusions when warranted, but with caution
To what extent have you utilized any of these elements in your own thinking this semester? How might these elements have shaped interactions within your team? These are the crucial questions we want you to engage with.
Research Project Portfolio COUN 508 – Research Methods in Counseling
Final Team Reflection In this section of the portfolio your team takes a step back from the semester’s work and reflects on what you have accomplished, what you have learned, and how it relates to your preparation for school counseling. Try to capture the bigger picture of your involvement with collaborative action research. It might not be a totally rosy picture, and that is OK. See if you can begin to address what you learned from the mistakes and failures as well as from the victories and accomplishments