From this point till the next two months at least I'll be writing on my mini research which my supervisors had kindly allowed me to carry out on my children.
At the moment, I have just decided to carry out a study on how context- based experiences can enhance the learning process of a mixed-age homebased group of children through action-research.
I'm very happy to be able to do this because I'm returning to what I have started this journey of learning about education- my children. For me getting this certificate is just the icing on the cake of my four years of homeschooling.
To get started I guess I should write down my to do list:
1. Decide on the specific instruction method/s I will use during the study in the context of context-based learning.
2. Draw up a two-week lesson plan that will be carried out.
3. Read up on and choose the observation and recording methods I will use.
4. Read up on the guiding philosophies and curriculum theories my study will be situated on.
Next week's lecture will cover observation and recording, so I'm really looking forward to that. I have decided to use John Dewey's 'The Child and The Curriculum' as my guiding philosophy because Dewey spoke on the conflict between the curriculum, the child and learning.
The other angle that my study could cover in addition is how contemporary cognitive studies have shown how traditional teaching methods in their abstraction and instruction fails learning. The gap between enacted and experienced curriculum.
I have found a very useful article at http://www.education.com/reference/article/classroom-observation/
which spoke about the Brophy-Good Dyadic Interaction System, Stallings Observation System, and the Classroom Observation Schedule. I'm currently also reading Observing and Recording the Behaviour of Young Children by Cohen, Stern & Balaban, 1997 for my observation and recording methods.
