Action Research Part 1: Formulating an Action Research Question

Summary

The speaker, an undergraduate professor, grapples with student disengagement in homework, leading to poor writing quality and submission rates. They explore potential causes, such as lack of perceived benefits or boredom, and consider integrating technology like blogging to enhance student participation and motivation. The professor outlines a plan to test this approach, comparing online writing with traditional methods to assess its impact on student engagement and writing improvement.

Takeaways

• 🎓 The instructor is concerned about students' lack of engagement with homework and their writing skills.
• 🤔 The instructor identifies two main problems: students not doing homework and poor writing quality.
• 🧐 Possible causes for the problems are considered, such as laziness, lack of perceived benefit, and unengaging assignments.
• 💡 The instructor contemplates using technology to make homework more engaging and to improve student participation.
• 📚 Current homework assignments involve reading a chapter and writing a personal response, which may not be sufficiently engaging.
• 🖥️ A potential solution involves incorporating online writing, such as blogging, to make homework more interactive.
• 📈 The instructor plans to compare two different approaches to homework: one with mostly online writing and the other with a mix of online and traditional assignments.
• 📝 The research question is formulated to investigate how technology can improve homework participation and motivation.
• 🤝 The instructor considers the use of peer evaluations to enhance the quality of student work.
• 🔍 The instructor emphasizes the importance of focusing on a single, manageable research question that is directly related to the classroom issues.
• 📈 The instructor aims to reflect on the findings to understand student motivation and the effectiveness of technology in education.

Q & A

What is the main issue the teacher is trying to address in their class?

The teacher is trying to address the issue of students not completing and submitting their homework, as well as the poor quality of their writing, which includes problems with punctuation, formatting, organization, and thesis statements.

What are the two main problems the teacher identifies?

The two main problems identified are: 1) students' reluctance to do their homework, and 2) the subpar quality of their writing.

What is the teacher's initial thought on why students might not be doing their homework?

The teacher initially considers that students might be lazy, but acknowledges that this assumption does not provide a productive way forward.

What alternative reasons does the teacher consider for the students' lack of homework completion?

The teacher considers that students might not see the benefit of doing homework, or that the homework assignments are not engaging enough, leading to boredom.

How does the teacher plan to make the homework more engaging?

The teacher plans to incorporate technology and the internet into homework assignments, possibly through blogging and online responses, to increase student engagement.

What is the teacher's proposed solution to improve student participation and motivation?

The teacher proposes to improve participation and motivation by integrating technology into homework assignments, such as requiring students to write online and respond to each other's reflections.

How does the teacher plan to implement the use of technology in the classroom?

The teacher plans to have one class where most or all writing is done online with peer responses, while the other class alternates between online and hard copy assignments.

What is the teacher's final research question regarding the use of technology in homework?

The final research question is: 'How will incorporating technology, the internet into homework assignments improve participation and motivation?'

What additional questions does the teacher consider exploring as part of their action research?

The teacher considers exploring how peer evaluations might improve the quality of student work and the relationship between student participation and motivation with multimodal work.

What characteristics should the teacher's research question have according to the script?

The research question should be important, manageable, contextual, focused, open-ended, and reflective.

How does the teacher plan to evaluate the effectiveness of the new homework approach?

The teacher plans to evaluate the effectiveness by observing changes in student participation, motivation, and the quality of their writing in response to the new technology-integrated homework assignments.