09 Jul Topic Proposal Assignment

Topic Proposal AssignmentInstructions

Overview

The purpose of the Topic Proposal Assignment is to propose topics, guiding questions,and articles for three upcoming assignments: Annotated Bibliography Assignment, Philosopher Analysis Assignment, and Historical Topic Analysis Assignment.The Topic Proposal Template serves as a planning device to scaffold theother three assignments. Instructor feedback will help the candidate ensurethat plans are sufficient to move forward. As candidates select topics anddevelop guiding questions, they demonstrate some degree of knowledge ofeducational ideas of the past, consider the relevance of the topic, analyze thetopic in light of their own educational philosophy, and begin to develop acritical analysis of their topics.

Instructions

In the Topic Proposal Assignment, you will select topics, construct guidingquestions, and begin choosing journal articles for three upcoming assignments:

      AnnotatedBibliography Assignment (Module 3: Week 3)

      PhilosopherAnalysis Assignment (Module 5: Week 5)

      HistoricalTopic Analysis Assignment (Module 7: Week 7)

Template: Download theTopic Proposal Template for this assignment and submit your responses within thetemplate.

Two Topics

      Educational Philosopher: From Appendix A of the textbook, select one of theeducational philosophers from the list. The philosopher you choose may or maynot align with your own personal beliefs about education. Insert the name intothe template. This will be the individual whose philosophy of education andapplication of that philosophy you will explore in the upcoming Philosopher Analysis Assignment.

      Historical Topic: You have a great deal of latitude in proposing a topic forthe Historical Topic Analysis Assignment,but it must be relevant to the foundations of educationphilosophically,sociologically, politically, culturally, etc. Your topic should focus more on ahistorical event or movement ratherthan on individuals. Ideally, you should consider the historical aspects of atopic you already have in mind for your upcoming dissertation or capstoneproject. If you do not yet have an idea for the dissertation or capstone, youmay do the following to decide on a topic:

o  Reviewthe table of contents and the index of the textbook.

o  Skimthrough textbook chapters to get ideas from the list of key terms, bold words,and images.

o  Readthe Reflection questions at the end of each chapter. 

Topics may be events, educationalmovements, laws, court decisions, trends, developments, etc. Topics may or maynot be found in the textbook. Be as specific in your topic selection aspossible. For instance, instead of studying something broad like medievaleducation, narrow it to emergence of universities in the Middle Ages ormethods of teaching in medieval Scholasticism. Watch the 3-minute video on How to Narrow a Research Topic by considering time,location, category, and issue.

Two Guiding Questions: Inserta guiding question into the template for each of your topics. Watch the4-minute video on Developing aResearch Question. The guiding question should beclear, focused, and concise. However, it should be complex enough that it isnot answerable with a simple yes or no, but rather requires synthesis andanalysis of ideas and sources prior to composition of an answer.

Two References: List ajournal article reference in APA format for each topic. The article titleshould be relevant to the corresponding topic and guiding question.

      Reference Format: You need only to list the reference with proper APAformat (see APA Format Quick Guide), including hanging indention, proper capitalization,italicization, punctuation, etc. You need not write anything about the article.The purpose is to get you started in selecting articles and to practice APAreference format for journal articles.

      Databases:Search the Jerry Falwell LibraryEducation Databases of journals on the topic of education. You may want to begin with Academic Search Ultimate or Education ResearchComplete. Ensure that the articles arefrom professional, academic journals. Avoid searching for articles usinggeneric search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo!, etc.