Action Research Plan
1.Determined that all pre-AP chemistry students will be taught with the use of online video lectures.
2. Students will be sent home information and requirements in Welcome Letter. Welcome Letter Parent signature acknowledging letter required prior to beginning research.
3. Assign logins for students to view online lectures. Have students login to watch “How to benefit from video lectures” to verify students can logon and view lecture. Determine which students had online access and fix those issues for students who were unable.
4. Video lectures will be produced and placed on line for viewing every other day throughout the first semester. Secure teacher website to upload video lecture with sign- in for students only with login.
5. Determine best method for accountability of students viewing lecture (scores from quizzes, classroom feedback, parent and student feedback, survey). Evaluate quiz scores and survey to determine number of students viewing lecture. Document classroom feedback or discussion of online viewing and accountability.
6. Compare test scores from Larriba’s class to all other teachers classes. Determine if there is a difference between Larriba’s scores and all other chemistry teacher’s benchmark scores and see if the differences are consistent with online lecture verses traditional teaching method.
7. Conduct two separate surveys of the advantages and disadvantages of online lectures for both parent and student. One directed towards students and the other towards the parents. Quantify the number of times students scored positively and compare numbers to those who did not. Determine percentage of students that felt online lectures were beneficial in learning.
8. If successful, share results with all staff and discuss the pro’s and con’s of video lectures as well as ways to make it better during staff meeting or collaboration meeting. Show data in different manners, such as, graphs and percents and survey comments in easy to understand manners.
9. Share results with stakeholders. Show easy to interpret data of all results as well as procedures.
Friday, August 6, 2010
Friday, July 30, 2010
1. Examining the work: Setting the Foundation- Throughout last year, the chemistry department collaborated on ways to increase student achievement. After several meetings, the department concluded that some students were not successful for the following reasons:
• Too many absences
• Students did not complete homework
• Students did not attend tutorials when it was obvious that they needed additional help
• Students become frustrated with the more difficult concepts and had a tendency of giving up
One idea proposed was to place video lectures online for students to access. This would allow those students who were absent from class the opportunity to listen to the lecture as if they had not missed class thus not falling behind, and those students who needed a review of how to solve a particular problem could easily view the video for help.
2. Analyzing data- Unit and benchmark tests would be the extremely beneficial data. If overall scores improved after online videos were introduced then the program could be considered a success. The use of videos would resolve most of the reasons for examining the research to begin with such as, decreasing student frustration, students falling behind, lack of homework completion.
In addition, analysis of Survey Monkey would give feedback from parent’s and student’s perspective so that over time improvements could be made that would continue to increase student scores for years.
On my teacher website, we have student blogging. This would be an ideal place where students could give immediate feedback so that adjustments could be made throughout the semester.
3. Developing deeper understanding- Throughout the research, chemistry teachers would meet weekly to collaborate on the research. Discussion of the pro’s and con’s of the project and what the teachers observe on a daily basis would help to determine program success. Some of the questions needing answered would be: student understanding of concepts, are students viewing lectures, student frustration, and increase grade averages.
4. Engaging in Self-Reflection- It would be important to remain focused on the student and student needs. Often times us as researchers become so consumed with the process that we forget student learning needs to be at the forefront. If at any time during the research student success diminishes than reevaluation of the program needs to be determined.
5. Exploring Programmatic Patterns- Some of the problems that might be encountered along the way would be the following:
• Should every teacher make their own video for online viewing?
• How difficult will it be for teachers who are not tech-savvy to make a video?
• Will students benefit from hearing a different teacher’s lecture or will it be too confusing?
• If the videos were divided up so that teacher’s workload was reduced, would this be acceptable to all stakeholders?
• What if students cannot access videos due to computer/internet problems?
These questions need to be addressed early on in the research so as to eliminate or reduce problems.
6. Determining direction- I believe that the action research plan has been well thought out and that after several collaborative meetings, most teachers are excited to begin the online videos. Likewise, administration is supportive of the project.
7. Taking action for school improvement- The purpose or goal for online video lectures is to improve student achievement for all students. The main idea came from collaboration of teachers who felt the need for change or ways to address struggling students.
8. Sustaining improvement- During and after the research, I plan on collaboratively sharing the results with the entire high school staff so that other departments would be able to determine if the project would be beneficial to their classroom or not. Likewise, sharing information allows for constructive feedback and ideas that might not have been thought of prior.
• Too many absences
• Students did not complete homework
• Students did not attend tutorials when it was obvious that they needed additional help
• Students become frustrated with the more difficult concepts and had a tendency of giving up
One idea proposed was to place video lectures online for students to access. This would allow those students who were absent from class the opportunity to listen to the lecture as if they had not missed class thus not falling behind, and those students who needed a review of how to solve a particular problem could easily view the video for help.
2. Analyzing data- Unit and benchmark tests would be the extremely beneficial data. If overall scores improved after online videos were introduced then the program could be considered a success. The use of videos would resolve most of the reasons for examining the research to begin with such as, decreasing student frustration, students falling behind, lack of homework completion.
In addition, analysis of Survey Monkey would give feedback from parent’s and student’s perspective so that over time improvements could be made that would continue to increase student scores for years.
On my teacher website, we have student blogging. This would be an ideal place where students could give immediate feedback so that adjustments could be made throughout the semester.
3. Developing deeper understanding- Throughout the research, chemistry teachers would meet weekly to collaborate on the research. Discussion of the pro’s and con’s of the project and what the teachers observe on a daily basis would help to determine program success. Some of the questions needing answered would be: student understanding of concepts, are students viewing lectures, student frustration, and increase grade averages.
4. Engaging in Self-Reflection- It would be important to remain focused on the student and student needs. Often times us as researchers become so consumed with the process that we forget student learning needs to be at the forefront. If at any time during the research student success diminishes than reevaluation of the program needs to be determined.
5. Exploring Programmatic Patterns- Some of the problems that might be encountered along the way would be the following:
• Should every teacher make their own video for online viewing?
• How difficult will it be for teachers who are not tech-savvy to make a video?
• Will students benefit from hearing a different teacher’s lecture or will it be too confusing?
• If the videos were divided up so that teacher’s workload was reduced, would this be acceptable to all stakeholders?
• What if students cannot access videos due to computer/internet problems?
These questions need to be addressed early on in the research so as to eliminate or reduce problems.
6. Determining direction- I believe that the action research plan has been well thought out and that after several collaborative meetings, most teachers are excited to begin the online videos. Likewise, administration is supportive of the project.
7. Taking action for school improvement- The purpose or goal for online video lectures is to improve student achievement for all students. The main idea came from collaboration of teachers who felt the need for change or ways to address struggling students.
8. Sustaining improvement- During and after the research, I plan on collaboratively sharing the results with the entire high school staff so that other departments would be able to determine if the project would be beneficial to their classroom or not. Likewise, sharing information allows for constructive feedback and ideas that might not have been thought of prior.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Action Research
I believe action research is essential to the success of a leader. Not only will action research help in answering questions or solving problems but it is a continuous ongoing process. It collaboratively finds ways to solve problems and then continues to work on increasing the success of the program or project. Action research is not a onetime fix to a problem but a process that continuously works to re-evaluate data and make adjustments accordingly regardless of how many times or the length of the time. Obviously if too many changes are made in too short a time, the data would be erroneous. However, the key is to research, determine best changes, wait, collect data and re-evaluate. If more changes are necessary, collaboratively decide on the best approach.
I believe this type of research is beneficial in building a school culture that is unified and one that is constantly striving to increase student achievement. Teachers are more likely to take ownership thus project success is likely to increase as well.
Because teachers already feel overwhelmed with busy schedules, blogging is an excellent tool to involve more teachers without setting a formal meeting time to accommodate everyone. Also, some teachers are more likely to suggest ideas if they are blogging verses sitting in a large group of stakeholders. Another benefit of blogging is increase feedback or reflection without time constraints.
I believe this type of research is beneficial in building a school culture that is unified and one that is constantly striving to increase student achievement. Teachers are more likely to take ownership thus project success is likely to increase as well.
Because teachers already feel overwhelmed with busy schedules, blogging is an excellent tool to involve more teachers without setting a formal meeting time to accommodate everyone. Also, some teachers are more likely to suggest ideas if they are blogging verses sitting in a large group of stakeholders. Another benefit of blogging is increase feedback or reflection without time constraints.
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