Course Evaluation

1.      What is/was the most beneficial information/knowledge gained from the course about the process of conducting research/inquiry?

I think when you shared stories of your experience with conducting research.  I really understood the application of conducting research.  You made it come to life and I could see the excitement of doing research.  The process is pretty straightforward and I have taken another research course, so I had no trouble going through the process for my research study.  The Classroom Inquiry Book does a good job of describing the process of conducting research.

2.     What is/was the most significant insight gained from the course as it relates and applies to issues in education and schooling?

The exercise of listing theorist or theories, then going back and creating annotations was the most helpful.  I was really able to think out the theories I wanted to use and then take time to explore them before I wrote my final paper.  When I sat down to write my final paper, I was not overwhelmed by the references as I had time to reevaluate and decide what really fit into my research piece.

3.      What are and/or remain questions or issues in education and schooling that need to be or should continue to be addressed?

My focus is in higher education and specifically online education.  This is a relatively new area of study so there are many questions that arise.  I do think that some of these questions do trickle down to the K-12 arena.  Here are some questions:

 1) How do we engage/motive the learner? 2) How do we go about teaching critical thinking? 3) How can we change the paradigm of teacher centered learning to student centered learning? 4) How can we go about assessing learning outcomes in a meaningful way? (No just a grade) 5) How can emerging technologies assist learners in achieving learning outcomes?

I could go on forever with a list of questions for education and schooling, but I will stop with these five.  By the way, the fifth question is the broad one I am using for my dissertation.

4.      What were the strengths of this course?  What worked for you?

The format of the class was engaging.  I much prefer an active classroom experience than a passive one.  I enjoyed our group discussions and learned from both you and my fellow students.  I also benefited from the guest speakers, including past students.  The readings and the journals help contribute to my overall learning experience.

5.      What suggestions could you offer or recommend that I consider in terms of changes in the class sessions, structure of the course, course topics/issues, course material and activities?

I would like to see more technology implemented into the course. The notebook and journals are wonderful ways to show we have achieved learning outcomes, but I would have rather produced them in electronic form.  Not only is it better environmentally and economically, but also I could have viewed my classmate’s work.  If our journals had been blogs, then we could have commented on each other’s entries and created another learning experience.  And if the notebooks had been displayed on a website, then we could view each other’s work and possible refer to it or use it later.

If you are interested in making the technology transition, I could help out with this area the next time you teach this class. J

Data Analysis

Readings:
Hubbard & Power - Chapter 4 - Strategies for Data Analysis
Gonzalez - Chapter 11 - Meesing - Social Reconstruction of Schooling

Hubbard & Power – Chapter 4 - Strategies for Data Analysis
    There are many strategies for the analysis of data discussed in this chapter. They talk about how to prepare your field notes, teaching journals, audio and videotapes, student samples for data analysis.  Then indexing is discussed with many various examples of how to go about the indexing process.  There is a section on analyzing student work and handling memos.
   The Constant Comparison Method by Glaser and Strauss list the four steps of data analysis.  This includes: 1) analyze the data in terms of categories and concepts, 2) integrate the concept categories with the properties of the categories, 3) define emerging theories or themes, and 4) write the theory with description and summary.
   Other interesting ideas that are discussed is triangulation and crystallization.  Triangulation is defined as supporting a finding by presentation independent measures that agree with your findings.  Crystallization is a three dimensional version of triangulation.   The researcher analyzes the data by looking at it as if it were a crystal or a three dimensional object.
   My big take away in this chapter is that there are many ways to shift through the data and as you do this you are seeing, looking and exploring the data in many different ways so as to truly see the truth of your data.

Gonzalez - Chapter 11 - Meesing - Social Reconstruction of Schooling
   This was a wonderful follow up to Dr. Gonzales presentation in our class. I will start with a short summary of the presentation in class and finish with some insights from Chapter 11 of the book. 

The presentation:
The researchers of the Funds of Knowledge did the following:
·      Established a relationship with the families and gained their trust

·      Created “sense making” of the household

·      Observed the movement of the household

·      Recognized the household economy both formal and informal

·      Documented the knowledge, practice and lived experiences of the family

The research question:
How do we engage a diverse student body without falling into a trap of stereotypical and essentializing characterization of our students?

Some definitions:
Essentialize – reducing a complex issue (ways) to limiting elements or the essentials
Orientalize – a western idea of a culture from a position of power

Favorite Quotes:
“A teacher who teaches and a teacher who learns”
“Fewer answers, but better questions”

The reading:
    The observations from this showed that all of the people who participated in this project experienced a change in their perception as a teacher, which lead to a change in the educational environment.  The teachers became learners as they wore the ethnographer’s lens with the students and their families.  There was a shift in the teachers from a “deficit view” to a positive view, of a wealth of knowledge in the households.  One quote from a teacher, “…I just don’t think about parents as not knowing things.  I think about them as being very knowledgeable and having amazing skills.”   She goes to say that in the homes, she went from doing less talking and more listening and was amazed at how much she learned.
   The key concept I gained from this chapter of the book is that the Funds of Knowledge Project challenged teachers to learn new things about their students and families.  This in turn helps them be more compassionate, understanding teachers who are less judgmental about their students and the families.

Narrative as Teacher Research

Readings:
Hubbard & Power - Chapter 5 - Creative Review of the Literature
Goswami - Lewis - Using Narrative as Teacher Research

Goswami, Lewis, Rutherford & Waff – Chapter 3 – Using Narrative as Teacher Research

This was a powerful example of how the use of narratives in research not only effects students, but can have a profound effect upon the teacher.  I feel the key to the success of this narrative research lies in the teacher beginning the journey.  Her story helped her students understand who she was and the purpose of sharing with narratives.  She discovered through this process that language is a gift, but must be used carefully as to not become a weapon that can cut and scar.  I really liked how she framed her interpretation of one of her students when she states that language was like a swarm of butterflies that turned into wasp.

Another one of her insights about teacher research that hits home to me is that while many questions have been answered, more questions have been generated.  I think this is one aspect of teacher research that we need to made aware of before we enter into a research project.

I like the quote by Leo Tolstoy, “It’s impossible and absurd to teach and educate a child for the simple reason that the child stands closed than I do…to that ideal of harmony, truth, beauty and goodness to which I wish to raise him. The consciousness of this ideal lies more powerful in him than in me. All he needs of me is the necessary material to fulfill himself, harmoniously and multifariously.”  This is a truth that we should all keep in mind as we work with children.

Parson and Denos Articles

Readings:
Goswami - Rutherford - Fostering Communities of Language Learners
Parson - Visualizing Worlds from Words on Page
Denos - Negotiating for Positions of Power in the Primary Classroom

Presentation:
Jessica Sleeper

The Parsons Article

Do you ever ask someone who just saw a good movie, “Yes that was good, but did you read the book?”  Most people respond that the book was much better than the movie.  I often feel this way, too.  Why is that?  I believe it gets at the heart of this research.  Most people who read the book before going to see the movie more than likely visual the book that they are reading, while those who don’t read the book before the movie read more for pure comprehension, than for the experience, so they don’t bother reading books for enjoyment.  They go to the movies.

This article brought to light the difference between efferent teaching and aesthetic teaching.  One is for comprehension; the other is for the experience.   I believe that both need to be the focus of teaching reading.  Some teachers and people look at reading from only the comprehensive side, but as this study shows a large piece of the puzzle is missing. 

The quote I like from this article is, “As educators, we owe it to our students to validate their construction of knowledge and aesthetic response and to foster the live-through experience of the text.”

Yesterday I heard Dr. Carmen Medina talk about children in Puerto Rico watching telenovelas, and then creating their own stories through writing scripts and acting them out for the class.  Her statement was, “They go from consumption to production.”  I think it is very powerful to teach students how to experience a story and then go a step further and create their own experience through storytelling.

The Denos Article

Method of inquiry by Dorothy Smith proposes to create “knowledge of the social” through people’s experiences in their own lives, but do not treating experience as the knowledge, but as a place to begin asking questions.  So when there is a sense of the problem that should be the beginning of the inquiry.

I liked that teachers gathered to read and discuss books and articles.  One of the conclusions they came to was that power was central to children’s learning of anything in the classroom, not only language learning.  They found that the children were constantly engaged in efforts to position themselves with the use of language and power in very complex ways.

The research finds that it is better to focus on understanding the process and practice that happens in this dance of power and not to fix or “normalize” individuals.

Research Questions and Data Collections

Readings:
Hubbard & Power - Chapter 3 - Strategies for Data Collection & Appendix C
Research Workshop: Strategies for Working Toward a Research Question
By JoAnn Portalupi
Bisplinghoff - Teacher Planning as Responsible Resistance
Frank - Chapter 2 - 7

“The first real step in learning is figuring out the question.”
"Many report that they cannot find the question until they get a glimpse of the answer."

Some strategies:
Take a look at your day and think deeper about what is happening. Wonder about what to pursue.
Create a list about areas that are interesting to you.
Examine the list of questions. 
Write some “what” or “how” questions.
Figure out what kind of data you need to gather in order to answer your question.  Ask yourself how you will go about collecting the data.
Be aware of how your investigation will effect your students.

Fostering Meaningful Change

Form and Function

Readings:
Hubbard & Power - Chapter 2 - Form and Function
Gonzalez – Chapter 2 – Beyond Culture & Chapter 3 – F/K for Teaching

Class Presentation
Darden Bradshaw
Art Makes Us See: Critical Visual Literacy in the Classroom
Elliot Eisner – Art and the Creation of the Mind

Tensions in the Classroom –
Art is being removed from the classroom and curriculum
Bullying is on the increase (middle school peaks)
Education as black and white instead of multifaceted and interconnected

Through my eyes…Aware of her perspective
o   Her education
o   Queer
o   Parent
o   School Culture
o   Null curriculum

Question
How can I help students to see…?
How might critical visual literacy education learn …?

My investigation
3 lessons
o   Art History (Western Art and Islamic Art)
o   Stories of Muslim Rescuers of the Holocaust
o   The Grand Mosque of Paris
      by Karen Gray Ruelle and Deborah Durland DeSaix

Where and Whom
Describe the location and subjects

Data Collection
o   Pre-question and post questions
     §  Random sample and same students took both
     §  3 questions/3 questions
o   Observations and Reflections
o   Artwork (small group)
o   Interview about their perceptions of the lessons

What I found…
Rich forum for students
Knew little about topic
Parallels between two religions
Funds of knowledge
Student engagement grew

Comments that students made…
Reading the Word in the World- Kathy Short

Quest for the Question
Fostering Meaning
Categorize the questions.
Is there a theme in each category?
Narrow your focus for your research questions
Look at your questions and find the themes that emerge.

Ask yourself:
What do we want to figure out?
What do we want to know?
What do we want to know about student learning in this situation or context
What do we want to analyze?

4 Core Teacher Research Principles
Identify real questions
Avoid Yes/No
Eliminate jargon
Identify value-laden words or phases (values shared should emerge form the study).

Funds of Knowledge

Readings:
Gonzales, Moll & Amanti, Funds of Knowledge (Preface & Introduction)

Class Presentation
Kathy Zeleski
Refugee Community – Iskasnitaa: More than Grapefruit

Reflection:
Classroom Presentation
      Kathy’s presentation gave a great overview of the entire teacher research process.  Her work with the refugee community is very inspirational.  It is nice to see someone with such a heart for the people with ideas and knowledge on how to improve their plight as they migrate to another country.

Some of the takeaways I had from her presentation include:
Formation of the questions, her questions were:

• What are the objectives for the course?
• What are the reasons students take the course?
• How can I use these reasons to shape the curriculum for the students’ needs?
• How can we better match the topics and teach to the learners needs?

I can foresee using some of this insight into the research I am developing about online learners.

• Parts of the Research include:
• The Inquiry Process includes setting, anecdotal record, interviews, observations
• Literature Review
• Annotated Bibliography
• Findings
• Identified needs that can help students become successful

Funds of Knowledge
       The first reflection about the Funds of Knowledge reading is the conversational style that persists throughout the Preface and the Introduction.  It was almost like I will sitting down and talking to Norma, Luis and Cathy.  This did not really hit me until the section, Is This Scientifically Based Research?  The response is, “Of course it is.”  I could also see Norma coming up out of her chair defending the study.  This approach made the readings easy to understand and relate to on a personal level.
       In the section about Scientifically Based Research there is a quote that from Pellegrino and Goldman (2002) criticizing government scientific methods that hits home for me in regard to researching education.  Teaching and learning is a messy, complex process that requires various approaches to study and achieve solutions that will make a true impact upon teachers and students.  This study takes an innovative approach that respects and honors those who are usually not respected or honored. 
       I gathered knowledge from each perspective that was presented in the book.  In the Anthropologist’s view, I read that the project did not emerge in a fully formed state, but evolved through incremental steps.  This is reassuring to me that as the study progresses, there might be twist and turns to reshape my thinking.  I need to be prepared for this to take place and be open to this readjustment.  In the Educational Researcher’s view, I became familiar with the study that came before this one and the lesson learned.  I realize that by studying other’s work will only enrich my own study and thinking.  The Teacher’s View had the most impact upon me because this was a volunteer who was participating in the study and was totally vested in the process.  She was there to learn and implement her findings.  I really like her quote, “…the desire to improve our teaching practices and a willingness to step out of our comfort zone to achieve that end.”
       Overall, the preface and the Introduction gave me a sense of the entire process of the teacher research that was conducted in the Funds of Knowledge study.  I believe this reading will help me as I go about structuring my own study.  Especially the section on “What Kinds of Questions Do We Ask?”  I appreciate how they approached the people explaining the study and benefits.  I loved the statement about the problem was not getting into the homes, but rather getting out.  I experienced this with my World of Warcraft study.  Once the boys started talking about their gaming, they did not want to stop.  They were amazed that an adult was taking interest in their gaming strategies.
       The story aspect of this book has always made it one of my favorite studies to read and share with others.

Stand and Deliver/MAS

Readings:
Tucson Daily Star Articles and Ed Ops on TUSD Mexican-American Studies Program
Hubbard & Power - Chapter 1. - Finding and Framing a Research Question
Teacher Inquiry – Chapter 4 - Coresearching and Coreflecting:  The Power of Teacher Inquiry Communities

Movie:
Stand and Deliver (1988)
A movie about Jaime Escalante based on the book Escalante: The Best Teacher in America, by Jay Mathews documenting the events of 1982.

Reflection:
Actors:
Angel  - driven but in conflict with his peer group
Anna –very bright but parents in conflict with education
Sophia –self esteem issues and role conflicts
Sophia boyfriend – struggles with immediate gratification and long term goals

Some ideas from the movie:

• Bring the content to where the students are
• Applies the content to the real world
• Expectations are set high and students live up to those expectations
• Department head has low expectations.  She does not believe the kids can do the math; she thinks the kids will fail and lose self-esteem
• Contact with students
• Parent support (?)
• Instant gratification vs. Long-term satisfaction

Good Quotes from the movie:

• “They learned that if they try really hard nothing changes.”
• “They lost their confidence in the system that they are now qualified to be a part of”
• The testers who had PhDs were Black and Hispanic.
• “There were some illogical computations for students of this caliber.”

      There are some comparisons between this movie and the MAS, but the issues are very different.  Both revolve around Mexican American students at the high school level and deal with forms of discrimination.  However, I think that the movie is not as politically charged as the MAS.  Math is a mainstream curriculum that cannot be challenged by the state, where as the MAS is more political in nature and can be debated.  The students in the movie were accused of cheating while the MAS were reprimanded for challenging a historical perspective different from the leaders of our state.  Even though the students in the movie had to retake the test to prove their innocents, they had an avenue with which to do this.  The students in the MAS program are up against powerful politicians that are not interested in compromise and want to enforce their standpoint.
     In reviewing the articles and from what I remember about this situation, I think that both sides were so polarized by the issue that they could not come to an agreement. If they could have had a civil discourse about the issue instead of an emotional fight where both sides would lose face if the other gave in, then I believe the MAS would still be in existence. 

Coresearching and Coreflecting:  The Power of Teacher Inquiry Communities
     My big take away from this chapter is the creation of  “safe spaces for real dialogue”.  Without a safe space for conducting research not much will be accomplished.  The creation of a community of inquiry is keep to the success of any research.  Only with this kind of environment will teachers be able to learn and make changes in their lives and the lives of their students.

Questions to Ponder:

• Doesn’t being an individual mean you are allowed to participate in your own culture? Or are we all to do away with our individual cultures and assimilate into a “melting pot culture” designed by the dominant government?
• Is it a crime to study individual cultures and governments and how they have made an impact upon the United States of America?
• Are all of the other ethnic studies being banned from TUSD?
• Will it always be the case that the one’s with the purse strings are destined rule over the rights of what students are taught in the classrooms?
• The judge talked about no damage to the teachers, but what about the damage to the students.  To me, the judge is taking the students out of the equation and saying to them that your history is not important to Arizona and the United States of America.
• Isn’t it ironic that the history of the oppressed is being brought to life in classrooms of TUSD?

What is Teacher Research?

Readings:
Cochran-Smith & Lytle – Research on Teaching & Teacher Research
Goswami – Teacher Inquiry (Chapter 1 – What’s going on here?)

Favorite quotes from this week’s readings:
“…too many of us are left not knowing if the students we teach are receiving enough of what they need to be great citizens, strong and productive members of the communities they inhabit who are able to make a decent living because they can think, write and analyze their world.” (Goswami et al., p. 2)

“Teacher research-systematic, carefully conceived and well-executed inquires-are urgently needed in this time of excessive testing that does not even begin to document learning.” (Goswami et al., p. 10)

What is Teacher Research?
      It is logical that teacher research search be conducted by teachers in the classroom.   However, classroom teachers need guidelines for designing and conducting inquiry projects to document student learning.  There needs to be a systemic research model for studying teaching and learning.  The problem is that the classroom can be an unpredictable, messy environment where systems run can run amuck.  Another major issue is that teachers are not given incentives or support for conducting research in the classroom.
     In the readings this week, Janet Emig explained a paradigm for inquiry.  She states that inquiry is a more useful term than research as it has greater breadth for addressing the issues.  A paradigm as described by Thomas Kuhn is an explanatory matrix.  I did not know who Thomas Kuhn was so I did a bit of research and found out that he is a physics who wrote the book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. In this book, he discusses how scientific discovery goes through paradigm shifts.  It is interesting to note that Kuhn does not believe paradigms are found in the social sciences. However, I have heard of social paradigm that I do believe is used in the social sciences especially when it comes to educational changes.  But getting back to paradigm as an explanatory matrix.  I get the definition of explanatory as a way to understand something, but I have not heard the matrix defined in this manner.  It is defined as a situation that encourages the development of something.  So I thought about the movie the Matrix, and in fact that is what the Matrix in the movie represents.  It is a created environment that allows another reality to evolve.  I am guessing that Emig wants teacher inquiry to be able to explain the development of learning in the classroom environment.  I would like to discuss this further in class.  I would also like to bring up when a paradigm shift happens and perhaps how research can facilitate a change in the perception of teaching and learning.
     There are six characteristics that Emig refer to when describing the inquiry paradigm.  I will list them and give my thoughts on each.

·      Governing Gaze – We need to be aware of the lens we are looking through when we conduct our research.  As much as we want to be objective, we carry with us our own set of perceptions.  Being aware of these perceptions will help to guide us through our inquiry.
·      Set of Assumptions – We should set our expectations of the inquiry, being very clear about our focus.  This will help us frame and conduct the inquiry.
·      Coherent Theory – We need to wrap our inquiry in theory.   It is imperative that we understand the theory we are using to help explain the foundation of our research.
·      Intellectual Tradition - We need to reach back into a knowledge base of those who came before us in order to guide our research into the future.  I like the term that Emig uses here, “web of meaning”.  This is something that I would like to discuss further in class.
·      Methodology – This book will give some examples of methodology, but time, circumstance and context are the guides that are used to develop the methodology that will work best for our own inquiry.
·      Indigenous Logic – The questions that are given in this section are good ones that get at the heart of “Is this inquiry worthy of my time?” and “Will I and others learn from or benefit from the experience?”

Coming from the design field, I like that there is no scripted blueprint, but that there are a set of parameters that need to met for the inquiry or research to be effectively conducted.