How do teachers internalize what they have learned during professional learning and how does that knowledge impact their teaching during this time of COVID19?
My challenge now is to rewrite my ARP. I am planning to investigate four groups of colleagues: my PLC, another school's PLC, the district's Grade 4 Zoom Group and the district's teachers that attended the Beginning of School Online Workshop. I need to get organized and begin using a time-line. Focusing on the Principle of Importance, I need to be sure that my action research is worth the time, effort and energy expended on the part of both me the researcher and the participants. I need to follow the Principle of beneficence to make sure it benefits the all involved including Touro, NapaLearns and the teachers participating. Lastly, I must maintain the Principle of honesty in all aspects of my action research to be sure that the validity and reliability is trusted and of the highest academic standard.
As I plan for this group study, my purpose is to compare participation in these groups to the evolution of teaching in the classroom and the degree that teacher learning impacts the learning assessed by various tools. The first tool that comes to mind is Benchmark. It allows one to compare individual classes, to compare various schools in the district and the aggregate data for the entire school district. This would make it possible to keep the data confidential and the individual teachers anonymous. My intention is to survey the 4th grade teachers that are participating in these four groups, to get feedback and data that would help me to analyse what impact their participation has on their student's learning. I will provide ethical treatment of students and colleagues--as well as their respective data--as a key component of designing my action research study. I will use pseudonyms or numbers as identifiers. I will change the name of the district, the city, the schools and the teachers to protect privacy with a layer of anonymity, while providing confidentiality and requiring Informed Consent:
The following Teaching Performance Expectations tie into the data I hope to collect:
- TPE 3: Understanding and Organizing Subject Matter for Student Learning (7) Model and develop digital literacy by using technology to engage students and support their learning and promote digital citizenship, including respecting copyright law, understanding fair-use guidelines and the use of Creative Commons license and maintaining internet security.
- TPE 4: Planning Instruction and Designing Learning Experiences for All Students (6) Access resources for planning and instruction, including the expertise of community and school colleagues through in-person or virtual collaboration, co-teaching, coaching, and/or networking. (8) Use digital tools and learning technologies across learning environments as appropriate to create new content and provide personalized and integrated technology-rich lessons to engage students in learning, promote digital literacy, and offer students multiple means to Preliminary Multiple and Single Subject Credential Program Standards.
- TPE 6: Developing a Professional Educator (3) Establish professional learning goals and make progress to improve their practice by routinely engaging in communication and inquiry with colleagues.
- Describe the journey to becoming proficient in this time of COVID19 from the teacher's perspective.
- What do teachers need to begin the change process?
- What advice would you provide to others?
- Describe how the change impacts student learning.
- An Observational Study: I must acquire status as "trusted person" in the group to acquire honest feelings, perceptions, or opinions. I will be a participant observer in the XXX PLC and a full participant in my own PLC, likewise I will be a full participant in the 4th grade district wide group and I was a full participant of the Back to School Workshop.
- A Mixed-methods research design because it will involve the collection of both qualitative and quantitative data. Qualitative research questions are typically open-ended, providing for a holistic view (ask how or what). Within Qualitative Research Design are phenomenological studies that attempt to understand people's perceptions of a particular situation. I plan to use targetted feedback via data collected using Google Forms. Quantitative research questions are more focused, usually on only a few variables. I plan to use aggregate data from the district-wide Benchmark Assessments or other assessments such as Imagine Learning, or Dreambox.
- It will use data from four groups that will allow for the triangulation within the mixed-methods design. Both quantitative and qualitative data will be collected at about the same time and will be given equal emphasis.
- Second-person action research that is collaborative and aims to better understand the issues or phenomena of a group. This will be especially evident in the data collected from the PLC's in the study.
- My Action Research could also seek to discover how to motivate teachers that may be struggling or resistant to learning new skills.
- A Group comparison design:
- involving a manipulated independent variable (teacher learning within the various groups) and a dependent variable (the student's learning) measured across groups.
- examining cause-and-effect relationships and involve a manipulated independent variable (multiple teacher groupings) and a dependent variable measured across all groups (Student assessment).
- includes a causal-comparative design (which will explore the cause of an effect after the fact). Causal-Comparative research (aka ex post facto designs) look for relationships after the research is complete. This will be a part of the final analysis.
- quasi-experimental design (which will involve two groups being compared with each other on a common dependent variable).
- investigate cause and effect. Groups differ in one or more variables, for example PLC is not voluntary while Workshops and Grade level participation across the district while it is recommended and rewarded (paid) it is primarily voluntary.
- Does that affect the degree of internalization?
- Do internalization and student growth show a positive correlation?
- Descriptive Design: Survey Research- involves acquiring information from individuals representing one or more groups. it takes a "snapshot" of the phenomenon under investigation. This will be achieved by analyzing the data collected from teachers responding on Google forms.
- The Constant Comparative Method requires real-time monitoring and analysis of data. In this way I hope to adapt to information in real-time and adjust my action research accordingly.
- My plan is to view the data I collect as windows into their thinking, my purpose is NOT to place judgement
- I plan to share my notes and narrative story with the participants to check for accuracy and provide opportunity for feedback.