Updated research problem and methodology – Week 3: September 14-20

Please post you updated research problem and methodology. See Week 3 for description.

16 Responses to "Updated research problem and methodology – Week 3: September 14-20"

Barbara Tait says:

September 16, 2018 at 6:11 pm

Research Question Update: Does peer critiquing in the middle school art classroom promote growth mindset in terms of personal artistic ability and confidence.

Participants: 10 eighth grade students, 13-15 years old, intact art class, (private school)

Procedure: 1 Unit of Study, self portraits in conjunction with peer critiquing. Part 1: Pre-test with practice self portrait (no instruction) and introduce peer critiquing, Part 2: Teach parts of the face and begin self portrait, Part 3: Peer Critique in small groups with guidelines, Part 4: finish portraits.

Data Collection: Mixed methodology using observations, student critiquing worksheets (for them to record feedback) and a standardized questionnaire to assess growth mindset
Observations: Observe and record comments students make during pretest and after peer critiquing.
Standardized Questionnaire: I would like to use Dweck’s Mindset Instrument, but possible reword the questions so they apply more to art and the unit of study. I would use this at the beginning of the unit and at the end to see if their answers change.
1. Erik Laursen says:
  
  September 18, 2018 at 8:18 am
  
  Hi Barbara,
  
  Thank you for the updated research question and methodology. I think it is an interesting question and look forward to learning what you learn. I am not familiar with Dweck’s Mindset Instrument and therefore not know of the need to revise questions. If the instrument is tested for validity and reliability, it looses these features if you change the wording.
  Observations can be challenging because it is hard to record comments while you are teaching. Have you thought about how you can manage both?
  1. Barbara Tait says:
    
    September 19, 2018 at 2:58 pm
    
    So when I first posted that, I found Dweck’s Mindset Instrument but I’m struggling to find whether it was tested for validity and reliability. Dweck, from what I’ve found, was the first to write about growth mindset specifically. I’ll continue to look for this. The reason why I wanted to change the questions was because they aren’t related to confidence in artistic ability.
    
    I’m not sure how difficult it would be to record comments during at least the pre-draw portrait, because I would not be giving any instructions or “help” to see what they know about the proportions of the face. What I’m wondering about though, is if I can audio record or video tape the class. I know that requires more permission and could cause the students to not act how they normal do. Right now I’m not 100 percent sure on what to do in this case.
    
    Thank you for the insight and I’m excited to finally get to be in the classroom with everyone!
    1. Erik Laursen says:
      
      September 19, 2018 at 5:55 pm
      
      You are correct that Carol Dweck is the “mother” of and coined the concept growth mindset.
      Can you send me a link to the instrument or a pdf, so I can review it.
      In terms of recording comments and observations the difficulty depends on student motivation and self-direction. If you don’t have to think much about coaching or redirecting students to be on task, I think you are OK.
      Audio or video recording is certainly a possibility and as you suggest students will have to consent as well as their parents. If that does not cause to many hurdles, it would probably generate the best results.
      1. Barbara Tait says:
        
        September 19, 2018 at 8:06 pm
        
        Doing some more digging, I found the DMI used in another research study called “Using Dweck’s Theory of Motivation to Determine
        How a Student’s View of Intelligence Affects Their
        Overall Academic Achievement”
        
        It is under Appendix A and within the researcher’s paper it says that it was created by Carol Dweck.
        
        https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2217&context=theses
        
        I can also email this to you.
      2. Erik Laursen says:
        
        September 21, 2018 at 8:12 am
        
        Hi Barbara
        
        Thank you for sharing the DMI. I have reviewed it and it appears easy to understand and appear to be usable without editing for your purpose. What do you think?
Casey Vanderpool says:

September 16, 2018 at 7:40 pm

Research question and methodology (April and Casey):

Research question: Does the CRA teaching strategy increase student achievement in computation?

Participants: 28 sixth grade students ages 11-12, third grade students ages 8-9 (number to be determined) Participants will be selected using nonrandom samples – classes are already set when research is taking place.

Method: Researchers will use the CRA teaching strategy to teach a third grade unit on subtraction with regrouping and a sixth grade unit on computation with fractions

Data Collection: Researchers will administer a teacher-generated pretest using SOL type questions from a question bank. Researcher will introduce the topic in the concrete phase and teach to student mastery, as evidenced by a mini assessment. Next, the researcher will continue teaching in the representational phase and teach to student mastery, as evidenced by a mini assessment. Last, the researcher will introduce the abstract phase. Students will perform the skill without using manipulatives or a picture representation of the manipulatives; the skill will be practiced using traditional algorithms only. Students will be required to show mastery of the abstract phase. They will be required to perform the skill with 80% accuracy. At the end of the unit, the researcher will administer a post test. The post test will mirror the pretest. Questions will be the same format but organized in a different order and contain different values
1. Erik Laursen says:
  
  September 18, 2018 at 8:24 am
  
  Great and interesting question with possible implications for your math instruction.
  
  Am I correct that you mean using convenience samples, i.e., your two classes or what you refer to as nonrandom samples?
  
  Have you had any thoughts on how you will analyze the data, i.e. descriptive and/or inferential statistics?
  1. April Junta says:
    
    September 19, 2018 at 7:55 pm
    
    Yes, you are correct about using convenience samples. We will be using our classes.
    
    I believe we want to use descriptive statistics- measures of central tendency and variation.
Catherine Bell says:

September 16, 2018 at 8:22 pm

Research question: What are best practices in gifted education talent development for underrepresented populations?

I am proposing to research talent development in gifted education rather than curriculum development. Talent development in gifted education includes students who are not yet identified as gifted, in addition to students who may be identified as gifted. I feel this focus will give a more holistic view of the state of gifted education in underrepresented populations. I am concerned that if I focus only on curriculum development, I may be too narrow in my scope.

I will conduct a review of literature and create an action plan in support of my research question.
1. Erik Laursen says:
  
  September 18, 2018 at 8:25 am
  
  Thank you for explaining talent development. Since you don’t plan to collect data, you are ready to start.
Timothy Corallo says:

September 16, 2018 at 10:24 pm

a. Revised research problem: Will 10 minute yoga sessions conducted at the beginning of each school day for four consecutive weeks reduce rates of problem behaviors in school-aged students with autism?

b. Seven total students diagnosed with autism; all participants from two classrooms within a private day school for students with autism and other developmental disabilities in a metropolitan area; three students (an 18 year old male, an 18 year old female, and one 14 year old male) from a classroom with 7 total students, 6 teaching assistants and one teacher; four students (two 21 year old males, one 20 year old male, and one 18 year old male) from a classroom with 5 total students, 4 teaching assistants, and one teacher; all participants receiving individualized instruction based on IEP goals

c. What will we do?: A-B-A study design—Collect baseline data on daily rates of problem behaviors for each participant (behaviors will vary from student to student) for 1-2 weeks. At the end of baseline data collection procedures, all participants will attend and participate in 10 minute yoga sessions at the beginning of each school day. Sessions will occur every school day for 4 weeks. One instructor will lead daily yoga sessions with 1-4 other teaching assistants available to assist participants as needed. Data will continue be collected on the occurrence of problem behaviors during the school day. After 4 consecutive weeks, yoga session will be discontinued. Data will continue to be collected on problem behaviors for 1-2 weeks after returning to baseline conditions.

Data regarding daily rates of problem behaviors will be plotted on line graphs for each participant (one line graph per behavior for each participant). Phase lines will be be placed on the line graphs to separate data collected during baseline phase, treatment phase, and return to baseline conditions. Researchers will look for sustained differences in rates of problem behaviors between baseline and treatment conditions.

d. Data collection will primarily be quantitative. Researchers will collect rate and/or rate/duration of daily problem behaviors for each student. Additionally, researchers will record percentage of intervals of participation during yoga routine (i.e. how many 10 second intervals during the 10 minute yoga sessions was each student actively participating).

We could also add a qualitative aspect by asking teaching assistance if they felt that the daily yoga sessions were effective in improving student behavior.

e. Data will be collected using daily data sheets. Frequency data will be collected by using tally marks and/or clickers and rate will be calculated by dividing the total frequency by the number of hours each student was in school. Duration data will be recorded using timers.
1. Erik Laursen says:
  
  September 18, 2018 at 8:33 am
  
  Very relevant question to your setting.
  
  A core element of your data collection is the recording of problem behavior. I assume you already have identified what constitutes problem behaviors? These should be identified in your research report.
  
  Is this basically a case study with seven subjects and is a result you will analyze data for individual students – and not look at any aggregated data for the all seven students?
  
  Please decide whether you want to include the perceptions of the teaching assistants – and if so, how will these be collected?
Carmen Frayser says:

September 18, 2018 at 7:47 pm

– Identify the participants
Our Participants include a class of 5th graders (23 students) and a class of 3rd graders (approximately 20, depending on which teacher agrees to participate). Currently students are attending Hanover County Public Schools. Possible 5th grade and 3rd grade classes in Henrico, pending IRB approval.

– What will you do?
Students will be working with each other (5th graders paired with 3rd graders) on reading, social skills, math, etc. Students will meet once a week for 6 weeks for a period of 30 mins each session.

-What type of information will you collect
We will be collecting both qualitative and quantitative data. The qualitative data will include open ended interview questions for both the 5th and 3rd graders (not all students), as well as the teachers. Quantitative data will include the pre and post scores on the “sense of belonging survey”

– When you collect quantitative date, specify the instruments you plan to use
We will be using a “sense of belonging” survey for the 5th graders and a slightly modified version for the 3rd graders. The pre and post test will be the same survey. Students will be given identifiers (numbers) when data is presented, rather than identifying with names. We will compare the pre test scores and the post test scores to see if there is an increase, decrease, no correlation, or trend of any kind.
1. Carmen Frayser says:
  
  September 18, 2018 at 7:48 pm
  
  Research question: Does peer mentoring increase the sense of belonging/school connectedness of 3rd and 5th graders?
2. Erik Laursen says:
  
  September 19, 2018 at 7:37 am
  
  Looks good. When you prepare the IRB from include both sites. You will modify it later if Henrico does not approve.

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