Week 31 - Evaluate Your Impacts (Check)
Step 1: What is the observed impact after the ‘Take Action’ phase?
The evidence from the ‘Take Action’ phase is that students were engaged in their learning (as long as the activities were pitched at the right level) which resulted in positive student learning outcomes.
However, there is no evidence that it was actually the robotics that has improved outcomes and not other factors. I needed to have a control group, that I taught without the use of robotics, to compare with, in order to obtain evidence that robotics increased engagement and therefore student outcomes.
When researching for the ‘Learn’ phase it was evident that there is no research around teaching maths using robotics, only information on using robotics to teach technology such as coding. This research, if conducted again with a control group, could provide valuable information in this field.
Finally, my inquiry did not provide evidence for collaborative groups improving student outcomes as I focused too heavily on engagement at the expense of collaboration.
Step 2: How is the observed impact different from or similar to the anticipated one?
At the end of the ‘Learn’ phase, I anticipated that the students would have increased their number knowledge test scores and would be more engaged in their learning, leading to an increased love of maths.
According to Fredricks, Blumenfeld, & Paris, (2004) engagement in the classroom is a multi-faceted combination of behavioural, emotional and cognitive engagement. Behavioural engagement is the students on task behaviour when participating in activities. Emotional engagement is the student's attitude towards learning tasks and cognitive engagement has links to students goals, self-management, and agency, specifically the effort that students put into mastering skills.
For two target students, the observed impact was similar to the anticipated one and their number knowledge scores increased as was expected. However, for the other two students, the positive impact was slight. It is possible that for one, her increased absence from class due to a broken arm may have impacted on her engagement in learning over this period.
Currently, I have no evidence of an increased love of maths and I would need to survey students or have 1:1 learning conversations with them to find this out. I would have liked to have done this but because of time constraints have not done so as yet.
I anticipated that parents would be happier with their children's learning and progress, but it is very hard to find evidence that this has happened. I can certainly say that I have had no parent issues this term. My only comparison is with a comparable class who have had a number of concerned parents already this year.
Step 3: What is the impact on future inquiry/practice?
For my future inquiries, I will spend more time at the ‘Scan’ phase asking the four scanning questions (Kaser & Halbert, 2017). Stoll & Temperley (2015) state that “Often in education, we jump to conclusions and rush to action … well-intentioned interventions which turn out to be a waste of time.” This is something I would like to avoid.
I also need to narrow both my focus and data collection (planning during ‘Learn’) which will make my inquiry more manageable during ‘Take Action’. I must be very clear about what I am looking for, and check that the methodology I employ to collect the data will actually give me useful results.
I will obtain a more complete picture of achievement by looking at the pre and post test scores for all students in the class, comparing the median scores. Then even if a child is off with a broken arm, I still have enough data to draw meaningful conclusions.
I am looking forward to starting my next cycle of the Spiral of Inquiry very soon.
The evidence from the ‘Take Action’ phase is that students were engaged in their learning (as long as the activities were pitched at the right level) which resulted in positive student learning outcomes.
However, there is no evidence that it was actually the robotics that has improved outcomes and not other factors. I needed to have a control group, that I taught without the use of robotics, to compare with, in order to obtain evidence that robotics increased engagement and therefore student outcomes.
When researching for the ‘Learn’ phase it was evident that there is no research around teaching maths using robotics, only information on using robotics to teach technology such as coding. This research, if conducted again with a control group, could provide valuable information in this field.
Finally, my inquiry did not provide evidence for collaborative groups improving student outcomes as I focused too heavily on engagement at the expense of collaboration.
Step 2: How is the observed impact different from or similar to the anticipated one?
At the end of the ‘Learn’ phase, I anticipated that the students would have increased their number knowledge test scores and would be more engaged in their learning, leading to an increased love of maths.
According to Fredricks, Blumenfeld, & Paris, (2004) engagement in the classroom is a multi-faceted combination of behavioural, emotional and cognitive engagement. Behavioural engagement is the students on task behaviour when participating in activities. Emotional engagement is the student's attitude towards learning tasks and cognitive engagement has links to students goals, self-management, and agency, specifically the effort that students put into mastering skills.
For two target students, the observed impact was similar to the anticipated one and their number knowledge scores increased as was expected. However, for the other two students, the positive impact was slight. It is possible that for one, her increased absence from class due to a broken arm may have impacted on her engagement in learning over this period.
Currently, I have no evidence of an increased love of maths and I would need to survey students or have 1:1 learning conversations with them to find this out. I would have liked to have done this but because of time constraints have not done so as yet.
I anticipated that parents would be happier with their children's learning and progress, but it is very hard to find evidence that this has happened. I can certainly say that I have had no parent issues this term. My only comparison is with a comparable class who have had a number of concerned parents already this year.
Step 3: What is the impact on future inquiry/practice?
For my future inquiries, I will spend more time at the ‘Scan’ phase asking the four scanning questions (Kaser & Halbert, 2017). Stoll & Temperley (2015) state that “Often in education, we jump to conclusions and rush to action … well-intentioned interventions which turn out to be a waste of time.” This is something I would like to avoid.
I also need to narrow both my focus and data collection (planning during ‘Learn’) which will make my inquiry more manageable during ‘Take Action’. I must be very clear about what I am looking for, and check that the methodology I employ to collect the data will actually give me useful results.
I will obtain a more complete picture of achievement by looking at the pre and post test scores for all students in the class, comparing the median scores. Then even if a child is off with a broken arm, I still have enough data to draw meaningful conclusions.
I am looking forward to starting my next cycle of the Spiral of Inquiry very soon.
References
Stoll, L., and Temperley, J. (2015). Narrowing the Gap with Spirals of Enquiry: Evaluation of Whole Education’s Pilot. Whole Education, UK. Retrieved from http://www.wholeeducation.org/download,634
Fredricks, J. A., Blumenfeld, P. C., & Paris, A. H. (2004). School Engagement: Potential of the Concept, State of the Evidence. Review of Educational Research, 74(1), 59–109. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543074001059
Kaser, L. and Halbert, J. 2017. The Spiral Playbook: Leading with an inquiring mindset in school systems and schools. C21 Canada.
Well done Karen, this seems like a well conducted study. You mention that although number knowledge scores have improved for 50% of your students, you are not sure of the effect on engagement. From my own research into engagement I would say hang on in there! Rimm-Kaufman et al (2014) found that year 5 and six is is an inflection point where boys start to be outperformed by girls. Barkatsas, Kasimatis and Gialamas (2009) found that boys engagement in maths is positivly correlated with the use of ICT and computers. I know one of your focus groups is boys, and so I would think that even if you are not immediately showing results with this approach, eventually it should help to raise engagement levels, particularly with your boys.
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