Action Research Plan
Providing Educational Technology Tools in the Classroom to help students learn and master classes; Improve EOC test scores.
Purpose:
The purpose of my action research is to provide educational technology tools to assist Physics teachers to prepare students to master the courses and help improve EOC test scores above a specific percentage (i.e., 55%). Establish partnership(s) with teachers (via Professional Learning Communities) to aid students in mastering classes (i.e., Physics) and to help other teachers inspire students to learn by using technology in the classroom.
Problem:
Physics is one of the lowest scoring areas in our school. I want to assist teachers to increase scores in this area as well as other subject areas that have not met the EOC (end-of-course) assessment goal. One key reason why the test scores were low last year was due to several Physics teachers quitting in the middle and at end of the year. At this current time, it is an area of improvement that I wanted to take a shot at along with some of my other colleagues who feel passionate about teaching and being able to reach all students to have them succeed.
Research Question:
How will utilizing technology in the classroom inspire students to learn more about Physics and help teachers to prepare students increase EOC test scores?
The resources that have helped me the most are:
Aust, R., & Padmanabhan, S. (1994). Empowering Teachers with Technology: An Agenda for Research and Development.
Cantrell, P., & Robinson, M. (2002). How Do 4th through 12th Grade Science Textbooks Address Applications in Engineering and Technology? Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society , 22 (1), 31-41.
Dwyer, D. (1994). Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow: What we've learned. Educational Leadership , 51.
Jackson, M. (2009). The Digital Classroom: Collaboration in Action, Pepperdine University (MALT Cadre 11).
Means, B. (1995). Transforming with technology: No 'silver bullet'. Education Digest , 61 (12-01), 31.
Means, B. (1993). Using technology to support education reform. ERIC DIGEST - ED364220 ERIC Clearinghouse on Information Resources.
Mellor, F. (2001). Gender and the communication of physics through multimedia. Public Understanding of Science , 10, 271-291.
Smith, J. D., Wenger, E., & White, N. (2009). Digital Habitats; stewarding technology for communities. Portland: Cpsquare.
Wallace, R. M. (2004). A Framework for Understanding Teaching With the Internet. American Educational Research Journal , 41 (2), 447–488.
Wright, A. F., & Dickinson, V. L. (1999). Integrating Technology into the Science Classroom. Research, Washington State University.
Websites:
Bob Tinker and the Concord Foundation:
(http://www.constructingmodernknowledge.com/Bob_Tinker.html)
Center for Collaborative Action Research - Action Research with technology, Pepperdine University
(http://cadres.pepperdine.edu/ccar/)
Edutopia
Free Technology For Teachers
(http://freetech4teachers.com)
McGraw-Hill Interactives
(http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0070524076/student_view0/interactives.html)
Online Physics Demos and Exercises:
(http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/sci_edu/physites.html & http://www.falstad.com/mathphysics.html)
Teachers Domain:
(http://www.teachersdomain.org/)
ThinkQuest:
These resources have helped me to understand terms and best practices related to utilizing technology in the classroom and leveraging the expertise of teachers in professional learning communities. These resources have given me a solid academic foundation for this project and have helped me to frame my overall research question.
Community of Practice:
My position in this community of practice is that of a first-year computer technology educator at a technology magnet high school. As a first year educator who has recently transitioned from corporate to education, I would like to develop a framework to not only focus on Physics classes but, all classes since we are striving to increase or maintain scores 77% or higher. The District’s IT Department is another area that I would need buy-in because all of our software needs the approval to use it in the district based on the newly sanctioned guidelines. Lastly, I will work cooperatively with teachers to help boost the morale of learning for students by providing incentives for them wanting to master the course as well as excel in the EOC tests. I know I cannot do this alone and it will take all the teachers in my school to come together to make this experience rewarding I want to be involved by leveraging my expertise in technology in developing a framework to assist other educators to utilize technology to possibly improve student achievement.
My Actions (Cycle 1):
Initially, the initial action cycle for this project I have been meeting with the Lead Physics Teacher and Principal to inquire what has been done in the past in preparation of lessons for students. I’ve been talking with our local administrators to see if we can host our information on the local web server to serve as a place where we can establish a blog to record our findings and forums to post questions. Ground rules are being worked out to help us facilitate tutoring lessons and obtain the approvals for using learning technology tools (i.e., Microsoft Student, Moodle, T-Sparta, etc.,).
Also, I have been sitting in different Physics classes to learn more about Physics as a peer observer to grasp the learning styles of students. Furthermore, I have reached out to other teachers in the district who are scoring high and surpassing the state requirements to collaborate on some best practices and other ideas. This seems to be a strong challenge to face but, I truly believe that we can succeed together if we continually focus on student success and the mastery of learning.
Artifacts:
I will be leveraging the following tools to be utilized in my environment:
1. Forums/Wikis
2. Email (Gaggle.NET)
3. Online Courseware Systems (i.e., Moodle, Castle Learning, etc.,)
Evaluations:
By promoting the use of web 2.0 tools for asynchronous communication (forums) and collaborative document editing (wikis), and the online courseware I expect for students to use the technology more to obtain assignments/study materials and have fun with learning. Also, I expect to see a huge interest of faculty/staff wanting to use the technology tools to decrease the amount of work required to perform "repetitive" tasks. Furthermore, I am expecting that those faculty/staff members who are utilizing these tools will serve as an advocate for promoting the technology.
Plan/Cycle Questions:
1. After introducing the usage of educational technology tools (i.e., Blogs and Wikis) to the faculty and staff for evaluation, will knowledge sharing about utilizing these tools in the classroom to help improve student achievement increase in our Professional Learning Communities?
2. If I continue to facilitate discussions through Forums among the Department Lead Teachers and Administration, will they continue to respond in a timely manner or will utilizing Email be more efficient?
3. Upon working towards improving the EOC scores in Physics, can I provide assistance in other subject areas to help improve their scores through the usage of technology?.
Timeline:
Fall 2009 - Planning meeting, peer observations of classes, students, develop/establish organization and resources.
Early Spring 2010 - Ongoing meetings with PLC members, peer observations of classes, students, continue to develop organization/resources, begin tracking usage of technology tools, and evaluation process.
Mid-Spring 2010 - Ongoing meetings with PLC members, peer observations of classes, students, evaluate activity, design assessments, surveys, and interview questions.
Late Spring 2010 - Ongoing meetings with PLC members, peer observations, evaluate activity, interview and survey participants.
Summer 2010 - Reflection and evaluation period, MALT presentation (thesis)