My action research plan will be to determine the effectiveness of technology devices and web 2.0 tools in a 4th grade science class on student learning and understanding of curriculum content.
My research will be conducted in four 4th grade science classes at two schools in my district. One of those schools will be implementing these technology tools in their class instruction, enhancing what is established in the current curriculum documents. The other campus will be teaching the curriculum content as written.
I hope that through this research project and can help determine if these tools are an effective way to deliver content to students and if they gain any more knowledge or understanding of the curriculum content by using these methods of learning. I plan to share my results with key players in the district's curriculum and technology departments and hopefully begin changing mindsets about these tools. Helping others understand that they are key tools for today's students to learn and retain information.
My action research plan will begin with testing the student's knowledge of the particular subject matter before the content is taught in class. I will give these pre-tests to both campuses. I will then take the next several months to implement the tools and devices in the classrooms at the focus school, encouraging teachers to use them as often as possible. I will be available for student instruction, teacher planning and discussions throughout the process. At the end of the first half of the science unit the district has a Content Based Assessment (CBA) on the first half of the curriculum. Then again at the end of the unit there is another CBA over the 2nd half of the content. I will use the test results from these two tests in comparison to the pre-test data at the beginning of the plan to determine the differences, if any, in the testing results between the two campuses. I will be measuring the growth from the pre-test data to the CBA data between the two groups.
My ultimate goal is to see a change in the curriculum development to include these tools more often in the required lessons and activities set in place by the district. So often teachers feel they can't "afford" to take up any of their class time with these tools when the district doesn't require it. I hope to begin changing those mindsets.
A copy of my Action Resesarch Plan - DRAFT can be found here: http://txteacher25.blogspot.com/p/action-research-plan.html
1 comment:
Shelly,
I sure wish I'd looked at your plan before posting mine. You thought of some key points I didn't think of - such as the fact that the actual timeline could not be determined until I'd spoken with the principals to determine who would cooperate. You also somehow got your file to actually load on Blogger. I had to post it on my wiki and put a link to it. I'm impressed. How did you do that?
Post a Comment