After three years of research, writing, and publication, Tommy’s research has made it into the Mid-Western Educational Researcher journal.
Choosing a Research Topic: Pairing a Passion for Computer Science and Education
Tommy’s research started during his time in an undergraduate research class freshman year, that everyone majoring in Computer Science must take. Being a dual major in Computer Science and Math Secondary Education, Tommy landed on researching the impact of COVID-19 on high school math classrooms. “My other major is Math Secondary Education, so I wanted to do something relevant to that,” Tommy explains. “I knew COVID-19 was a relevant topic, so it all sort of naturally fell together.” Previous research has found that virtual learning during the pandemic has led to a decline in student performance and engagement in classrooms, especially in regard to high school math, as well as a widening opportunity gap amongst students of different backgrounds. As someone preparing to teach math to the new generation, Tommy held a particularly important stake in this research.
For the research, Tommy interviewed four high school math teachers from two local Catholic private high schools, and pulled information from 29 different academic research studies relevant to his research. The study found that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a multitude of impacts on the performance of students in high school math classrooms, affirming the findings of previous studies on the matter. The main findings of Tommy’s research are that students who were in grade school during the pandemic are struggling with the transition to high school post-pandemic for multiple reasons. He holds his findings as particularly meaningful, as his decision to focus specifically on private schools in his research gives a broader picture of COVID-19’s overall impact on education. “Private schools are often underrepresented in research for a multitude of reasons,” Tommy explains, “but what we can learn from the experiences of the private schools is just as important as what we can learn from the experiences of the public schools.” Graduating from the private high school of Elder himself, Tommy made efforts to better represent private schools in educational research.
Standing Up to the Challenges of Publishing Research
Tommy describes the research process and writing of the paper as something that could be a lot to keep track of at times. The sheer amount of information and effort that went into the creation of the research demanded that he kept himself organized, both when looking at the research of others, and conducting his own study. Tommy also did not expect the process to take as long as it did, and he describes the intensive process of creating and publishing it. “I went through three rounds of revisions: a major revision, a minor revision, and a proofreading revision,” he says.
Tommy makes it clear that this is actually a fast turn-around for a research paper, as most people go through many more rounds of revisions. Although, despite his paper being able to go through the full publishing process relatively quickly, it still took him a year and a half to conduct the research and write it, then another year and a half to get it published after three revisions. Tommy discusses how different his original draft was from the final product, stating, “There were several sections, namely in the Discussion section, that were completely rewritten during revisions.”
Publishing Research With the Help of Professors
Tommy felt a great sense of relief when his paper was finally published. “It was a relief that I was able to get my article published with the first journal I tried to get published in,” says Tommy. He notes that the achievement was celebrated within both the School of Education and the Computer Science Department at the Mount. He’s additionally grateful to Assistant Professor Brook Batch, Ph.D., and Chair of the Department Computer Science and Mathematics, Rebecca Allen Ph.D., who guided him throughout the process of research and publication. Dr. Batch guided Tommy through the initial writing and research of the paper. She also helped him through the IRB (Institutional Review Board) process to get clearance for his work being used. Dr. Allen then helped Tommy take his paper up to the standards of the journal he had been trying to get his research published in, the Mid-Western Educational Research journal. Afterwards, she helped him through the revisions and how to navigate the revision process.
Looking back at the full process of researching, writing, and publishing a paper in an academic journal, Tommy reflects, “This opportunity has really informed me of the process of academic writing, as well as given me a good thing to put on a resume. A publication as an undergraduate student is a very big accomplishment.” With newfound knowledge on the process of publishing a research paper, Tommy now feels comfortable enough with the process to attempt publishing research on his own if he ever does any future research.
Using the knowledge he has gained from the Mount’s Computer Science and Education majors, Tommy currently works as a math tutor in the Learning Commons and a Near Peer for the Computer Science Department. Tommy feels that the experience of learning how to provide support to his peers in these positions will transfer into his future career as a math teacher, using what he has learned to provide spectacular support for his future students. Additionally, he hopes to pair his Computer Science major with his Education major to teach high school computer science alongside math, something he believes will be a very useful combination of skills when it comes to pursuing a career.
Interested in Tommy’s Full Research Findings?
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Want to Learn More About Computer Science at the Mount?
MSJ’s Computer Science major offers students a Computer Science major with a choice concentration in either Social Computing or Application Development. The Computer Science major provides students with a hands-on curriculum that involves work on real-world projects, and enables students to develop technical and research skills. Students at the Mount who pair a Computer Science major with another major are eligible for scholarships of up to $8,000 per year through the cITe Program. Click to learn more about what the Computer Science major has to offer!