The Research Process

My experience so far with the research process has been a bit challenging because there are many steps to creating a research plan.  The planning chart has been helpful in dissecting the different components of the research process and understanding what each step entails.  There is very little difference between African American children and Caucasian children at birth, but something happens in early childhood that causes African American children to fall behind academically between the ages of two and five.  It is my goal in life to increase the academic achievement of minority children using effective strategies.  So I must first construct a list of questions to research on this matter for instance:

1.     How do young children learn?

2.     How does poverty affect learning?

3.     How to increase literacy skills in minority children?

4.     How does culturally responsive teaching affect minority children?

This topic is of interest to me because I have experience in teaching in urban school settings and I am very concerned about the academic learning gap.  I have also witnessed very young African American boys being putting out of classrooms at the early age of three because of behavior.  These boys are feeling isolated at such a young age and this does not help them to like school or want to achieve, so I feel that the curriculum needs to be changed to be culturally responsive.  I am still trying to formulate a research question that will capture my concerns.