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Integrative Project Planning ...

Suggested Preliminary Steps:

  1. Become familiar with the study of teaching, with learning theory, and with whatever other background knowledge that helps you make sense of your work.  Select practical courses that give you ideas along these lines.
  2. Get practice in the kinds of thinking, discussing, and writing that educators do.  Two specific suggestions related to planning the integrative project:
    1. Take the Issues seminar (CIGENRL/EDFOUND 723, Seminar: Issues and Perspectives in American Education) for a broad view of the kinds of issues of current interest to educators, and for experience reading, analyzing, and discussing educational research, and
    2. Take Techniques of Assessment and Research (EDUINDP 740) to become familiar with ways of evaluating programs and condcting investigations in education.
  3. Think of one or more significant changes that you would like to make in your work, or in some organization that affects your work.  Select one of them to be your culminating project, using the following criteria:
    1. Importance:  The project should have the potential to have a meaningful, positive effect on teaching or learning.
    2. Timeliness: It should be related to current issues and trends in education.
    3. Substance: It should involve distinct, meaningful changes; expect to spend time and effort specifically for this project.  Think in terms of semester- or year-long projects.
    4. Feasibility: On the other hand, it should be a project that you can realistically expect to finish in the time you allocate, with the resources you have or can readily obtain.
    5. Authority:Though the project can be part of a group effort such as a school's curriculum development, it should represent a clearly defined aspect of the work in which you are the principal author.
  4. Settle on an advisor.  Usually, this will be the same person you have worked with all along, but if your interests differ, ask someone else.
  5. Browse completed Integrative Project Reports to see what others have done.
  6. Attend a set of Integrative Project Presentations.  

Suggestions for Writing the Proposal:

  1. Outline what you plan to do:  Curriculum development, program evaluation, or some combination thereof  would be the usual categories. 
  2. Write an introduction to your outline that includes the following:
    1. A statement of why the project is important
    2. Justification in terms of research or theory
  3. State the results you hope for
  4. Indicate how you will evaluate the results
  5. Provide a timeline

Suggestions for Working with Your Advisor:

  1. Discuss the timing of your project--when you expect to complete various phases.
  2. Set a regular meeting time (say, once or twice each semester) to discuss progress, or set up a routine for email correspondence.
  3. Give your advisor enough time to review the proposal and suggest changes before the deadline.
  4. Discuss the timing of drafts with your advisor before the Integrative Project Seminar starts.  Give your advisor time to review drafts.
  5. Ask for specific feedback.
  6. Do your own review of literature, but get your advisor's perspective on useful sources.