Action Research - Misconceptions and Experiential Learning

Action Research Topic

My overall study is about creating experiential learning in the classroom. I narrowed down my topic of action research to look at how experiential learning makes a difference in replacing misconceptions in a Science classroom.

Purpose

The purpose of the study is to analyze if experiential learning can help build schema and replace common misconceptions in the Science classroom. Background knowledge gaps can occur based on lack of exposure to experiences, cultural awareness, neighborhoods/areas students live, and in media they consume. According to Robert Marzano, “What students already know about the content is one of the strongest indicators of how well they will learn information relative to the content” (2004, p 1). I will analyze if experiential learning develops background knowledge will include the use of virtual reality, augmented reality, and virtual field trips compared to traditional teaching.

Research Question

What is the difference in addressing and replacing common student misconceptions when experiential learning is used compared to teaching with traditional teaching methods?

Data Collection

Qualitative Data: I will be using a semistructured interview with a preselected group of students. These interviews will allow me to collect narrative accounts on experiential learning and how it is impacting the way they are learning.

Quantitative Data: I will be utilizing formative and summative assessments. The students will take a pre-assessment at the beginning of a unit or lesson that has true and false questions with common misconceptions of that unit. At the conclusion of the unit, the students will take a similar assessment.

Assessment Data: In a study from 1988, the pre-assessment model was two-tiered. The first tier of the pre-assessment question asks students a multiple choice question with two to three answer choices. The second tier of the question has students choose a reason for the answer. Each answer shows different misconceptions of the concept and the results from the help the teacher become aware of what to focus on (Treagust, 1988). For my action research, I am the second tier of a Diagnostic Question Cluster (DBQ). A DQC is a method used to measure misunderstandings of biological and ecological processes with three different tiers. The second tier asks students the certainty of the right answer with “sure, guess, and not sure". Below is an example and explanation of a question from Treagust's study and how it will be altered to fit my action research.

Measurement

Qualitative Data: During student interviews, I will use Google Keep. On the mobile Google Keep app, it will create a transcript along with an audio recording. After the interview, I will create a coding scheme based on the narrative. Based on the different responses, I will add a “label” on Google Keep and color code the recordings. This will allow me to conduct an inductive analysis of the qualitative data to reduce the volume of information(Mertler, 2020, p. 173).

Quantitative Data: I will use Google Forms to pre-assess students’ common misconceptions. My district’s curriculum guide includes common misconceptions statements. The first tier statement will be a true/false questions on the Google Form. The second is the reasoning, and third is certainty. Students will see how many questions they got correct, but not specifically the questions they got correct or incorrect. Students will also graph their own data in their “data folder”. This data will automatically be collected into a Google Sheet to analyze for each unit.

Literature Review