Reflective Practice
Evidence selected
Action Research Project from EDU 545
Why this evidence was chosen:
I choose these pieces of evidence because they are the first research projects I had ever conducted in a classroom. The first piece of evidence is a pre-assessment project that was required in our first education class. I had difficulty with this project because I leaped into this project before I looked at the evidence that would help me shape my research. I had to backtrack and find literature to support misconceptions I was trying to prove. This project was my first experience in conducting research within my own classroom. In doing this research I gained valuable information about how students have alternative ways of thinking and how necessary it is to assess their thinking prior to beginning instruction on new concepts.
The second piece of evidence I choose to use was the action research project I designed and carried out in EDUC 545.
This was my favorite project. I have always been a proponent of student choice but was leery of giving full reins to students. I liked having some control. I don't think I had confidence that students would take the work seriously. However reading the vast amount of material on differentiated instruction, caused me to be curious about what would happen if students were able to decide for themselves how they would best learn particular concepts. Children, like adults, learn best when they are interested and vested in what they are doing. I decided to test this theory to find out how effective it would be in a classroom situation.
I don't have my own classroom so my first challenge was to find a teacher that would be willing to work with me on this project. I work with a wonderful sixth grade science teacher but I had to convince him that this project would be worthwhile. I shared the many articles I read on student differentiation and choice. He acquiesced after this. We were both very pleased with the outcome. It was delightful to watch the students enthusiastically decide how they were going to learn cell theory plus the organelles of the cell and how they function. Students took the task seriously and came up with some amazing projects. One student became a tour guide, others created songs to help them remember the functions. Some students made games and several did power point presentations. The students shared their work with one another which reinforced what they were learning. Most rewarding was how they enjoyed what they were doing. No child was sitting at a table holding his/her head up waiting for the lesson to be over. They were actively engaged throughout each class.
The education courses improved my ability to be creative, yet focused on outcome. I stopped just looking for activities that would be fun for students and began to be more analytical in my approach. With this unit I knew the concepts that I wanted students to have after a certain period of time. I gave the students the concepts, a time limit and the freedom to learn the material as they choose over this time period. This study was worthwhile, authentic and a valuable tool.
How this evidence shows growth:
Both of these projects are the first research projects I conducted in a classroom. The first gave me an opportunity to reflect on how important it is to research misconceptions that should be addressed when teaching a unit and how important it is to construct questions that will give the teacher information about concepts that will need to be addressed with students based on research evidence. It also provided me an opportunity to gain experience formally analyzing information gathered in my classroom.
The second piece of evidence gave me confidence to research findings that would benefit the students in classes I teach. The project was so successful that we are extending it this year to add on a student directed component in the next facet of the unit, the cell cycle.