COOPERATION
Evidence for Scholarly Cooperation Ability
During my time in the ETAP doctoral program, I have collaborated on many papers and projects with fellow students, and have completed a study with a faculty member and her research team. These experiences have been invaluable and have had tremendous effect on my intellectual growth as a scholar. The first paper I selected as evidence for my scholarly collaboration is not within the course work. From 2005 to 2007, I had the fortune to be in Dr. Joan Newman’s research team, which fostered my cooperative abilities. Throughout a year, we met once a week to discuss the conceptualization of the theoretical basis of the study, and elaborate on the progress of our research. Our efforts resulted in a paper published in the “Journal of Early Adolescence” in November 2007, titled as “What do they usually do after school? A comparative analysis of fourth grade children in Bulgaria, Taiwan and USA”. The second piece I selected exemplifies my cooperation ability with fellow students from the ETAP doctoral program. It is an 80-page information book that we prepared in ETAP 710, Principles of Curriculum Development for our fictitious school, the C.I.H.
1)
Collaborative research
Newman, J., Bidjerano, T., Ozdogru, A. A., Kao, C.-C., Ozkose-Biyik, C., & Johnson, J. J. (2007). What do they usually do after school? A comparative analysis of fourth grade children in Bulgaria, Taiwan and USA. Journal of Early Adolescence, 27 (4), 431-456.
My research during my doctoral studies has been multidisciplinary. In addition to foreign language studies and teacher education, I am interested in educational psychology. I believe that this interdisciplinary perspective leads to a wide range of knowledge and tools that one can bring to bear upon research problems and understand human experience. This was the main reason why I showed interest after hearing that Dr. Joan Newman was about to bring together a research team for after-school activities of early adolescents across cultures. I worked with Dr. Newman and her research team for this cross-cultural study from 2005 till 2007 (please refer to Dr. Newman’s support letter for details). Our research efforts resulted in various presentations and a paper published in the “Journal of Early Adolescence” in 2007. Taking part in this team was an invaluable experience for me because I learned how to share roles for a collaborative research project, how to incorporate a variety of opinions as well as how to write a research article from beginning till the end. Besides, the revision process allowed me to see the power dynamics between reviewers and researchers, to be aware of the procedures, and to realize how difficult it was to get a paper published. This experience also stimulated my interest in learning statistical analysis tools. I would like to include this publication as evidence of my scholarly cooperation ability since it demonstrates that I am able to work with fellow researchers on scholarly tasks. I would also like to offer this paper as evidence of my scholarly research ability because I took part in the efforts to collect and code quantitative data, interpret results, and prepare the final report.
Support letter (statement of collaboration)
2)
ETAP 710
PRINCIPLES of CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT
Fall 2007
Dr. Carla Meskill
The “development of a curricular framework” project for ETAP 710, Principles of Curriculum arrived right on time to rescue me. Until then, I did not have much practical knowledge about how schools ran in the United States. I thought that working with native speakers who had first-hand knowledge about the educational system would be a good opportunity for me to gain practical knowledge about the secondary school system in the US while developing a framework for an ideal curriculum. Bearing this in mind, I did not impulsively join a group in which the main focus was English as a Second Language. Being in line with my empathy for the underprivileged, my classmate Ned’s idea about ‘trying to work things out in a low-income school’ sounded quite appealing and challenging to me, so I joined Ned, Chin Ee, Francine and Andy for this collaborative project. As a team, we prepared an information book for our fictitious school, The C.I.H. School, including the mission statement, overarching goals, and organizational features such as professional development opportunities for teachers. In line with our specialty areas, we developed five curricular frameworks taking both state and national standards into account: project-based learning for 10th grade, 11th and 12th grade poetry, science, English as a second language and economics. This was truly a team-based project where each member played a key role and worked efficiently. The statement of collaboration and the reflection I present at the end describe our curriculum development process and illustrate each team member’s contributions to and roles in this major project, which considerably deepened my understanding regarding the complexities of developing curricula. I offer this piece as evidence of my scholarly cooperation ability because it demonstrates my ability to work with others on scholarly tasks.
Reflections on the curriculum project
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