Heather's EDET636 Blog

Essential Question: What are the characteristics of an engaging Action Research Report? I had a difficult time finding a clear answer to this essential question because action research is meant to inform the researching educator about how to make improvements for their students. Craig Mertler asks educators to consider the following question while planning their action research projects: “Why would you want to try to answer your questions or solve your problems about your students and your teaching by using someone else's methods, data, and results?” (2013). So what is an engaging action research project to one person might not be to the next, but if it helps them improve their instruction in their classroom then I would call it a success! With that being said, there are some common characteristics of action research that I found while researching. According to Melinda Kolk (n.d.), action research is a cycle of inquiry and reflection in which you will determine 1) where you a...

Essential Question: How will you format and disseminate your research? As I have already written a decent amount of my final action research project, I will have the headings of Introduction, Project Description, Literature Review, Description of Methods and Implementation, Data Collected with Analysis, and Conclusion with Reflection. My introduction discusses the why behind my action research project. The purpose of this project is to conduct action research into the application of technology to continue learning during this unprecedented time of the COVID-19 global pandemic. I have decided to conduct research during this pandemic by gathering information from my colleagues and students about their use of technology, comfort level with technology, and where they obtain help from during this remote learning time. My project description explains my goals and how I plan to achieve them. This will be done through a survey of WPSD middle school and high school teache...

Essential Question: What primary concerns exist in ethics, validity and reliability in AR? How are you managing these concerns (or how will you) within your study? “Reliability refers to the extent to which the same answers can be obtained using the same instruments more than one time. In simple terms, if your research is associated with high levels of reliability, then other researchers need to be able to generate the same results, using the same research methods under similar conditions” (Dudovskiy, 2019). This statement makes it impossible for educational action research to ever really be reliable because we are working with ever changing students. From one day to the next with the exact same students you could get completely different results. Indiana University (n.d.) recognized this issue and noted that “the key assumption is that one large group of students, on average, is similar to another large group of students if they both come from a similar cultural and environmental ba...

Essential Question: How will you go about making sense of your data? As I began thinking about this question, my mind wandered to all of the data we collected as a school district that goes unused. We have state standardized tests, MAPS three times a year, ASVAB, in addition to all of the informal assessments given within our individual classes. Most of which ends up being a waste of time because no one ever really used that data to inform decisions about teaching and learning. So as I create my research project and think about how I would like to go about making sense of the data, it is first important that I tailor the collection method to make it as easy as possible for me to sift through my data. An article by Marsh et al. (2006), discusses the challenges and limitations of time in the classroom and suggests that we should narrow our focus with data collection so that we can target strategies that can improve instructional time. As I noted in week 5, my data was generated thr...

Essential Question: How can data mining assist you in triangulating your research findings? Source: Pixabay.com “Educational Data Mining (EDM) is an emerging discipline which seeks to develop methods to explore large amounts of data from educational settings, in order to understand students’ behavior, interests and results in a better way” (Villanueva et al., 2018, p. 235). The literature review by Villanueva et al. (2018, p. 237), states there are four phases of data mining, giving credit to Virseda Benito and Carrillo (2008). The four phases are: Filtering data. Selection of variables. Extracting knowledge. Interpretation and evaluation.  Data mining can assist me in triangulating my research findings because it gives me the opportunity to look at a large amount of information and break it down into digestible chunks of data. Through the process I am encouraged to look at all the multiple sources or approaches to analyzing data and narrow it down into just the va...

Essential Question: What are the most important things to remember when observing your students? (Infographic) Observations of our students can tell us a great deal about them and their learning processes. We are able to see their strengths and weaknesses and construct our instruction to best fit their needs. The most valuable times as a teacher tend to come when I give my students time to work on a project or assignment and I can walk through the room and observe them. We can have conversations about their process and I can give individual feedback right on the spot. Whether I am trying to learn more about my students or am looking for data to help guide my instruction, there is so much to learn from observations if they are done with purpose and intent. Resources : Emory University School of MedicineSOM – OPEX. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://med.emory.edu/opex/preceptors/tips/observation-evaluation.html Jablon, J. (NA). Taking It All In; Observation in the Classroom. Tea...