2012 Educational Research Symposium

From Theory to Practice : Educational Research Symposium

Learning Domains:

Leadership	Social Advocacy and Justice	Education	Assessment and Evaluation	Personal Development
	X	X		X

Description:

This entry describes my experience attending the 2012 Educational Research Symposium presented by the California State University Fullerton, Education College, Ed.D Program and the Center for Research on Educational Access and Leadership (CREAL).  I sought out this event as an enriching opportunity to broaden my overall awareness of the current trends in education.  I had hoped to expand my overall knowledge in the field of higher education by learning about various issues that are noteworthy of research. I also perceived the symposium as a networking opportunity by enabling me to connect with other student affairs professionals and educational leaders.

Learning Outcomes:

SWiBAT: Engage in meaningful conversations with 4 or more student affairs professionals and identified at least 2 of them as sources of potential research guidance.

SWiBAT: identify at least 4 current topics in student affairs that I would like to explore further as a possible research topic for my personal research

	Advanced	Competent	Basic	Needs Improvement
SLO # 1	I engaged in meaningful conversations with  4 or more student affairs professionals and identified at least 2 of them as sources of potential research guidance	I engaged in meaningful conversations with 3 student affairs professionals and identified at least 2 of them as sources of potential research guidance	I engaged in meaningful conversations with 1-2 student affairs professionals and identified at least 1 of them as a source of potential research guidance	I did not engage in a meaningful conversation with any student affairs professionals
SLO # 2	I identified 4 or more current topics in student affairs that I would like to explore further as possible topics for my personal research	I identified 2-3 current topics in student affairs that I would like to explore further as possible topics for my personal research	I identified 1 current topic in student affairs that I would like to explore further as a possible topic for my personal research	I was unable to identify any current topics in student affairs that I would like to explore further as a possible topic for my personal research

Evidence:

Event Flyer

Follow up e-mail to Symposium Scholar 

Reflection:

I had hoped that the research symposium would serve as a successful networking opportunity to enable me to expand my professional contacts. However, I did not account that the poster session duration was rather short, which prevented me to spend more time engaged with other professions.   Although I had briefly talked to several professionals about their research, I was only able to engage in a meaningful conversation with one scholar,  Dr. Martha McDonald, who conducted research on veteran students.  I was drawn to research on veterans because I am currently working on an a qualitative research group project addressing veteran students for the Student Sub-Populations graduate course, EDAD 522. When I asked Dr. McDonald if she has identified any existing gaps in the literature about veteran students, she replied that more research should be done to investigate the experience of female veteran students. Therefore, my group members and I decided to use her insight as a guide to narrow down our research question by exploring whether female veteran students feel that their higher education institutions are meeting their unique needs. I also e-mailed Dr. McDonald after the symposium to ask her a few additional questions that pertain to veteran student issues.  As a result, I achieved the first learning outcome at the basic level by engaging in a meaningful conversation with one student affairs professional and identified her as source of potential research guidance. The second learning outcome pertained to identifying relevant research topics that were of interest to me as potential issues to explore. Although, there were many fascinating and important issues covered at the event, the two that stood out to me included the Supplemental Instruction in Stem-Related Disciplines by Eric Rabitoy and the Engagement of Community College Student Veterans by Marta McDonald.  I met the second learning outcome by identifying two current topics in student affairs that I would like to explore further as possible topics for my personal research.Reflecting on the overall event, I will use better time-management skills when attending another research symposium or a similar conference by deciding ahead of time on the amount of time I will spend on networking alone and use the rest of my time to learn about a few research issues in detail. Overall, I am glad that I had an opportunity to attend the symposium as I now feel more informed about the current trends in higher education (The complete journal reflection can be accessed here).