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Improving Student Engagement in High School Mathematics Instruction
Get PDFThis action research project is a self-examination of my first-year teaching experience. This project begins by explicitly stating my teaching philosophy. That philosophy helps establish my goals as a teacher. Next, I examine many peer reviewed articles about teaching to help me better understand the state of knowledge and practice in the specific areas of teaching I wish to focus on improving in my first year of teaching. I then go on to state the specific questions I will be studying in this research project.
Those questions were 1) How do I use essential questions to prompt inquiry? 2) How do I engage students through classroom discourse? And 3) How effectively do I teach problem-solving? I used data collected from my own reflections, lesson plans and observations by my cooperating teacher and university supervisor to analyze my teaching in relation to the three principal research questions. After examining the data collected, I look for patterns and explain what my data reveals about each question.
I conclude that essential questions require careful planning to be effectively incorporated, that engaging students in discourse requires understanding of their background knowledge and that teaching problem-solving requires much more than modeling to be valuable. While these conclusions may be rather specific to myself, I do attempt to elucidate more general implications of my research that may apply to other teachers’ situations more generally
Transition Shock: Do Words Impact My Work?
Get PDFIn this action research, I looked at the interpersonal and intrapersonal aspects of the Demand Control Schema (DC-S) (Dean & Pollard, 2013) and how these aspects can play a role in my work as an interpreter, focusing on transition shock and colleague interactions. When interacting with coworkers, I have experienced comments that have scared me from taking the next steps in my career. These interactions can, at times, bring up unsettling feelings and in turn impact my work throughout the day. The goal of the research is to give a better understanding to myself about how we talk about our work with our colleagues and how it can have an impact on our work performance. I will also look at how major life events and comfort levels impact these interactions. Three experiences are at the forefront of focus in my mind when I think about transition shock; senior year undergraduate internship, my first job post-undergraduate degree, and moving to a new state in the middle of graduate school. Each posed their own challenges for me interpersonally and intrapersonally.
Throughout my research I kept a journal, logs, and other forms of notes, to keep a record of my experiences. My goal, although more of a marathon than a sprint, is to find a way to discover proper self-care/coping strategies due to the effects of transition shock, ultimately embracing the change and learning to find ways to continue growing in my endeavors. The prediction was that, at the end of all of this, a direct relationship will be found between how we talk about the work and the negative impact that talk has on my work performance. I also look at ways to analyze these interpersonal and intrapersonal aspects to improve my quality of life in the interpreting field
Scientific Inquiry - Getting Students Curious about Science
Get PDFThe following contains the results of a study from my action research project that seeks to better understand how my own teaching practices have changed over time. The study focuses on three research questions: How has my use of culturally relevant pedagogy changed over time? How has my use of evidence-based practices changed over time? And how has my use of scientific inquiry changed over time? This research does not seek to evaluate how well I made use of the concepts within these three categories, rather, to better understand how much they were utilized over time throughout the student teaching experience. The student teaching practice is meant to be a reflective time of growth and learning. The results showed a slight increase in the planning, implementation and use of culturally relevant pedagogy, evidence-based practices, and scientific inquiry. Ultimately, however, the conclusion reveals that there is a lot of learning left to do that I will carry with me well into my career as a teacher
Language is a human right: How modern classrooms address, adjust, and provide equal access to education
Get PDFStudents today make up the most diverse collective of learners, with school populations being comprised of large numbers of members from historically marginalized communities. Achieving equitable learning environments requires acknowledging and adjusting our approaches to education to fully support and include students from non-dominant backgrounds. The classroom strategies and content explored in this research focuses on the importance and impact of language inclusion, social justice pedagogy, and culturally relevant resources and representation. This paper explores findings based on published research, data collected from classroom experience, and information and feedback from professionals and experts in their fields. Keywords: social justice pedagogy, multilingualism, inclusion, culturally relevant, bilingual, language, representation, oppression, equity, educatio
Social Emotional Learning in the Secondary Mathematics Classroom
Get PDFThe purpose of the action research project was to conduct a review of research regarding social emotional learning and through that lens, study student teacher growth during the course of teaching during the Western Oregon University Master of Arts in Teaching: Initial Licensure program. The three focus questions served to guide the study. The questions are: 1) how has my implementation of social emotional practices changed to support inclusive practices in the learning environment 2) how does my teaching reflect what the literature states are best practices for teacher-student relationships and 3) what social emotional learning practices are used to help students in the mathematics environment? Data sets used to analyze the research questions were taken from formal lesson plans, observation commentaries and self-journaled notes.
As the transition from middle to high school can be thought of as one of the most problematic shifts for teenagers (Southern Regional Education Board, 2002) and the highest failure rate in secondary is ninth grade, which provides a significant indicator of negative outcomes (Southern Regional Education Board, 2005), taking the time to study practices that show promise in bridging pathways to success in mathematics practices (The University of Texas Dana Center, 2020a) is prudent and worthy of time and effort.
Through the analysis, action research has demonstrated growth in teaching with regards to professional practices and building an inclusive environment, implementation of actions that foster positive teacher-student relationships and the utilization of SEL best practices that lead to an increase of student efficacy in the mathematics classroom. My findings have driven home the abundant need for consistent, social emotional learning opportunities in the classroom environment but have also revealed exponential benefits when coupled with engagement teaching strategies
Developing my Teaching: Analyzing Personal Teaching Strategies
Get PDFThe purpose of this Action Research Project is to better understand how my teaching practices relate to research-based strategies. Throughout my Action Research, I chose to focus on three areas: implementing diverse texts, implementing scaffolding, and implementing civic literacy strategies. These focus areas were studied over the course of an eight-week period where I tracked when and how each of these areas was present in my lesson plans, my research journal, and my classroom observations. I collected and examined data from my personal practice and used the resulting analysis to anticipate further growth in these areas as I continue my education career.
As I studied my personal teaching, I uncovered the variety of ways I naturally incorporated diverse texts, scaffolding, and civic literacy skills. Additionally, I discovered and reflected on new ways that I could incorporate these skills in future lessons. Some results in this study show few examples of certain strategies, especially the incorporation of civic literacy skills. The reflective nature of this project has impacted my understanding of these skills, including findings that indicate the level of implementation difficulty posed by some teaching strategies. At the end of my study, I conclude that future Action Research will be needed to continue growing in these areas
Social Studies Doesn’t Have to Be “Boring : Engaging Secondary Students in Social Studies Education Using Student-Centered Strategies and the C3 Framework for Inquiry Towards Real-World Social Justice Outcomes
Get PDFThe way that students have traditionally learned social studies in secondary schools, with their teacher at the front of the classroom lecturing as students are expected to take notes and memorize facts, is an outdated method. This way of “learning” makes social studies unenjoyable, and often makes social studies seem completely unrelated to students’ lives today. These are a few reasons why social studies is often considered the least favorite subject of students in school. When social studies is taught in ways that piques students’ curiosity and makes curriculum relevant to students’ lives, is becomes enjoyable and can even be transformative for a students’ education.
To develop my ability as a teacher and go beyond the social studies classroom strategies I experienced in my secondary education, in this action research I implemented new strategies into the classroom where I am student teaching. I implemented lessons that worked towards a goal of social justice, using student- centered strategies and an inquiry model of learning for social studies from the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework, with an overall goal of engaging students in social studies learning that is relevant to them. Although implementing these changes in the classroom was not an easy task, as I found all students needed significant scaffolding for this style of learning they were unfamiliar with, the outcome was worthwhile
How Can Autonomy, Culturally Relevant Curriculum, and Scaffolding Impact my Teaching in a Physical Education Classroom
Get PDFFinding ways to connect with students during comprehensive distance learning has had its highs and lows. Every student is different in the ways they learn and sitting in a room with a laptop all day on zoom calls is not for everybody. That’s why I wanted to look at ways in which I can connect with students through culturally relevant curriculum, different scaffolding methods used in the classroom, and how I can use autonomy in my class to increase student engagement. These all tie into my main goal which is inclusion and how can I include all students in a physical education classroom. First, I started to look at my lesson plans that were made throughout my years of student teaching. I wanted to reflect on what I have done prior to this and how I can improve on my own teaching as it relates to these questions. Second, I looked over my field observation notes that my supervisor and the cooperative teacher gave me when they observed me teaching. This helped me get real insight from professionals in the area and I learned a great deal from what they wrote about me. Finally, I had an informal assessment where students answered questions relating to my questions just so I could get a better understanding of where they are coming from. During this tough time of Covid-19, it was hard to connect with students so being able to hear their side of things really helped me learn and gain knowledge on what I need to do as it comes to teaching more equality. The results from my research found that students\u27 engagement and learning improves when given the right scaffolding and autonomy in class. A culturally relevant curriculum was implemented throughout the lessons and connected with the class. It did not serve as great of an opportunity as it would have if it had been in person but improving in my lessons and activities each day to become more diverse and aware is what will inspire me to become a successful educator