Katha 2014: Science Track-Facilitating Change through Action Research

Minutes of the Workshop Transcribed. Speaker Dr. Maricar Prudente

KATHA 2014 Batch 2: Day 10

Science Track: Facilitating Change through Action Research

Dr. Maricar Prudente

Science Education Department

De La Salle University-Manila

October 4, 2014

Minutes of the Workshop

1. Introduction. The speaker first introduced the importance of action research not just for the sake of doing it but for the sake of making a difference in their students’ learning. She also emphasized about facilitating change that leads to new knowledge, which will also eventually lead to change in teaching the course for the students. It is a research that attempts to embed action and change in the actual research process.

 

2. Action Research. Research generates knowledge to 1) build broader knowledge, which entails a basic or pure research 2) pave way for change through applied or evaluative research 3) action change within a system 4) emancipate through action and 5) expose and change the dominate system through critical or radical ethnography. The speaker also discussed about the credibility of one’s work of action research which should be change oriented. She further explained that action research paves way for change and is often linked to policy or program development, which includes studies that 1) investigate a problem situation 2) assess potential interventions and 3) evaluate change initiatives. Action research is not limited to teaching, rather to other professions because it is a practical approach that is of particular relevance. It covers a variety of strategies that is dedicated to integrated production of knowledge. It is also cyclical where the teacher should not stop in one action, but rather keep abreast of the changes in the environment and with the influx of new information for learning. Action research should be the essential tool for basic education, the speaker added. She also said that action research is to improve a teacher’s practice of teaching and reflecting on their current methods. The teacher’s concern should be on teaching practices and the student’s learning processes. The ultimate goal for action research of the teacher is the student’s learning, where high scores in NAT, greater participation of students and mastery of the skills would eventually follow. This entails good teaching, the speaker emphasized. She said that the teachers themselves know best the nature of their students if they are effective and good teachers. This entails that the teachers would change their techniques and create new approaches that would engage their students to learning.

3. How does this qualify to Research. Action research requires the same rigor, systematic research process, and reflects a professional development. This also qualifies as a research because it is an act that would make the teachers understand their methods of teaching better. It is also the act of finding the teachers’ solution makes them understand their practice better. Practice in this case means the way the teachers teach and carry out their professional action. It is an avenue to the teachers’ reflection with their own practices and professional actions to improve student learning. The speaker then asked the teachers to reflect on their own teaching practices if they have improved on their professional actions and emphasized that it should be a way of looking at their role in the world that would drive them to do better in their profession.

4. Professional Knowledge Makers. The speaker also discussed that teachers, through action research enhance their professional development, where they understand their own practice, how to make them better, how to accommodate outside change in their practice and how to change the outside to make their practice better that would affect their students’ learning. It is about enacting a practice that the teacher should understand based on their students’ needs. She emphasized that the teacher should not follow the cookbook style of teaching lessons to students but rather catering to the students’ learning needs.

5. Action Research at Work. Action research involves four acts: 1) observe 2) reflect 3) plan and 4) act. It can also be worked out through the following process: 1) identifying a classroom problem 2) developing and implementing an action research plan by conducting a strategy to address the classroom problem 3) collecting and analyzing data and while conducting the strategy 4) using and sharing the results, where dissemination is an essential part of the research. The speaker gave a specific example of an action research plan about how a science teacher changes her strategy to engage her students more to ask questions and explore on the lesson in the classroom.

6. Limitations of Action Research. The speaker asked the teachers what may be the problems that would arise with the use of action research. One teacher raised that the consistency of the action research may be a problem but the speaker said constant examination of the strategy should be required. Another teacher raised the familiarity and the knowledge of action research. The problem is that superintendents don’t exactly know how to do action research and so do not encourage such action plan to their teachers. She emphasized that action research is classroom-based and encouraged the teachers to do action research and pointed out that the teachers often do not go out of their comfort zone of teaching and not changing their strategies in teaching to engage their students more. They should focus more on how to teach and how to make their students learn. A teacher shared his problem on discussing the most difficult topic in his subject and the speaker suggested a process of action research that would make the students more engaging on the topic. The teacher should conduct the action plan and document it so that they can see the development of their action research.

7. Individual or Collaborative Work. Use of different strategies through individual or collaborative works may be used, more on collaborative strategies, the speaker emphasized, so that there would be sharing of results and discussions to formulate conclusions based on their data. Collaborative work also leads to the teachers’ reflection and comparison of their own work with other teachers’ works. Factors that may help collaboration include the teachers’ professional desire to improve on their teaching strategies instead of competing with other teachers. However time management may also be a problem but this may be given a solution if the teachers know what to do, the speaker added.

8. Methods in Action Research. There is a need to employ triangulation in action research, which includes 1) observation of interactions of the students’ work in the classroom 2) analysis of children’s work and 3) interview with the children. The question now is how to employ these action plan, where considerations include questions such as 1) does the method give a form of data which relates to my question? 2) is it feasible in the available time? 3) have the teacher made himself aware of its strengths and limitations of the methodology? 4) will it be an acceptable method for the other people involved? and 5) will it disrupt normal routines?

Barret and Whitehead (1985) proposed six questions on the methods of action research, which includes 1) what is the teacher’s concern? 2) why is he concerned? 3) what does he think he could do about it? 4) what kind of evidence could he collect to help him make some judgment about what is happening? 5) how does he collect such evidence? and 6) how would he check that his judgment about what has happened is reasonable, fair and accurate?

 

9. Beginning of Action Research Process. The speaker gave the teachers an activity about investigating and identifying classroom concerns, their method of collecting information and sources of data and how to focus their instruction method in teaching. The speaker emphasized that the teacher should focus only a classroom problem and should be feasible and should not disrupt normal routines. The speaker called on three volunteers to discuss their answers and their co-participants and the speaker commented on their works. One teacher shared that one of his classroom concerns is how to motivate his students to ask questions. The speaker said that the teacher’s problem is on student inquiry and suggested action plan solutions for his dilemma. Another shared the low and passive participation of the students in his class. Effective strategies that should be employed include identifying indicators on how students participate in class, the speaker suggested. Finally another teacher shared a similar concern on the active participation of her students in the classroom. The speaker suggested classroom observation and making a checklist, a corresponding tool for evaluating strategies on how to make the students more active in participating in class.

10. Identifying the Classroom Problem. The teachers must first observe their class and identify their problem statement. The speaker then gave a second activity on identifying classroom problem by specifically describing who is affected, supported causes of the problem, the goal for improvement and what might be done about the problem.

Katha 2014: Part 2 Course Assessment and Student Learning Outcomes

Minutes of the Workshop Transcribed. Speaker Dr. Maricar Prudente.

KATHA 2014 Batch 2: Day 9

Science Track: Course Assessment and Student Learning Outcomes Part 2

Dr. Maricar Prudente

Science Education Department

De La Salle University-Manila

September 27, 2014

Minutes of the Workshop

5. Characteristics of an Exemplary Assessment Task. 1) Valid, which yields useful information to guide learning 2) Coherent, which should be structured so that activities lead to desired performance product 3) Authentic, which addresses ill-defined problems that are emerging 4) Rigorous, which requires the use of declarative, procedural and metacognitive knowledge 5) Engaging, which provokes student interest and persistence 6) Challenging, which provokes and evaluates student learning 7) Respectful, which allows students to reveal their uniqueness as learners and 8) Responsive, which provides feedback to students leading to improvement. The speaker also shared most of her experiences in teaching students using the simple context in their classroom, like introducing problems on pimples and oral bacteria that the students are able to relate to. One teacher raised the issue of using technology for more exposure to the students. The speaker agreed with utilizing technology as much as possible for them to be more engaged and interested in the lesson. She introduced internet learning and gave samples of online modules. She also emphasized that the lessons to be taught should be challenging to the students and not easy to accomplish. Asking the students on the project they could come up with may also help in improving the lesson at hand, the speaker added. She again emphasized the issue of finances when applying these methods.

Teaching in the context of assessment depends on providing effective feedback to students, encouraging students’ active involvement in their own learning, adjusting teaching to take account of the results of assessment, recognizing the profound influence of assessment on students’ motivation and engagement and ensuring that students assess themselves and understand how to improve. One thing that the teacher must be in the classroom is unpredictable, the speaker emphasized, so that the students will be engaged and interested in class. The teacher should also be techy in their own way to be able to enter their world which already started in the technology era. The speaker also shared her techniques in manipulating the students’ addiction in technology by utilizing it in her topics and lessons in Science. The speaker also suggested the use of a progress chart with regards to the quizzes of her students to see their learning development in class. As teachers, they have to be open to their students, the speaker added, by giving them the element of choice to make them feel responsible and empowered.

6. Implications for Learner-Centered Assessment. The students 1) are clarified in the learning outcomes at the course planning stage 2) are shared with the learning goals throughout the semester 3) ask appropriate and effective questions 4) focus oral and written feedback n the learning outcomes of lessons and tasks. The teachers on the other hand 1) encourage students’ self-assessment against the learning outcomes and 2) organize individual student target setting that builds on previous achievement. The speaker emphasized that the teachers should enter the students’ world of digital age so that there is more productive learning in the classroom.

7. Rubrics. The speaker said that there should be a question and an action in rubrics. There should be a criteria or essential elements in the rubrics, with a clear description of performance at each achievement level. There are also task-related rubrics for specific assessments by indentifying the skills and abilities needed in the context of the lesson. The teachers may also add the teamwork rubric, with expectations from group members and their level participation. She presented a sample teamwork rubric for the teachers, where it involves creativity, cooperativeness and skillfulness. This entails a more objective process of making a rubric for the students. This must be continuous and ongoing as a feedback to the students that should be focused on quality feedback. She paralleled the use of feedback in a classroom with a panel of judges, who first comment and provide suggestions to the students for them to be guided in their activity. Feedback should be 1) specific 2) descriptive 3) be offered ASAP after the event 4) offer alternative or ask the learner to do so 5) Encourage and plan for opportunities for the feedback and 6) involve the learner wherever possible to improve the chance of feedback being understood and acted upon.

The teachers should also encourage students for self-assessment to create a supportive environment where students are willing to share and discuss on their work in pairs, groups and with the whole class. The speaker shared some of the online resources for assessment as a final note.

8. Workshop 1. The speaker grouped the teacher-participants and asked them to construct conceptual test items. The teachers presented their questions and the speaker and other teachers critiqued and commented on their work.

9. Vee Map. This provides the students with questions to help them with assessment, which includes skills that should be developed such as planning, conducting and reporting. This is also to give students a focused question. Concepts are related to each other through a concept map, while finding out more questions lead to state claims. This shows the template to the rubric to evaluate components and a chart to map out results and feedback.

10. Dynamic Assessment. This is driven by self-assessment which is trust-worthy. The speaker also discussed the advantages and disadvantages of dynamic assessment. The speaker also shared some of the complaints of the students with regards to this type of assessment: 1) the test did not assess what they learned 2) students have difficulty recognizing which strategies to use 3) tests are beyond their level 4) there is no way of assessing learning processes and 5) passed the test but did not understand. However she said that the teachers should always challenge the students when it comes to exams.

11. Static Assessment. There are three types of questions for this type of assessment: 1) recall 2) algorithmic 3) higher order, where it includes conceptual questions, translation of the information, interpretation of info, extrapolation and evaluation 4) misconception, i.e. identifying a common misconception and generating a question based on it.

12. Authentic Assessment. This involves direct evidence on the performance of the students through their tests. This is also about how students monitor their understanding in the classroom. The speaker suggested a progress chart. This also entails a meaningful learning in the classroom, where the students do science experiments, conduct social science research, write stories and reports and read and write literature. The teachers on the other hand first determine and measure the students’ ability to apply the knowledge. Between traditional and authentic assessment, teachers can use both. Rubric making is still required. Such tasks may include performance assessment tasks and portfolio. Advantages of this assessment include the promotion of creativity, encouragement of collaboration and emphasis of integrated learning. However this is not applied in real time teaching nowadays the speaker said. The students should also have a self-assessment to evaluate their own participation. Disadvantages on the other hand include time-intensive process.

13. Metacognition. Students both have declarative, procedural and conditional knowledge which comprises of metacognition. The speaker asked the participants about the relationship of these three concepts, which includes authentic assessment, constructive feedback and self-regulated learning. One of the participants said that this will give them more idea on how to address the problems they encounter with their students with regards to self-regulated learning. Another said that the teachers can diversify on the students’ knowledge and explore their inclinations to produce self-regulated learners. The speaker then asked the participants to use the three concept in a single sentence. One said that authentic assessment opens the students to a world of new concepts, constructive feedback for students to realize their strengths and self-regulated learning for students to give them the drive and the motivation to a certain topic or lesson. Another said authentic assessment gives the students the opportunity to learn more and with teachers to have constructive feedback for the students to appreciate the lessons better and become self-regulated learners. The speaker asked more participants to make their own summarized statements about the three concepts. She then asked about the constructive feedback which would come from the teachers while the self-regulated learning comes from the students. She said that authentic assessment give evidence to how students learn in which the teachers will provide constructive feedback to make students self-regulated learner.

14. Workshop 2. The speaker asked the teachers to make a performance task and an authentic assessment based on the questions they made from the previous workshop. They also have to articulate the idea using a rubric. Each group presented their performance task and the speaker commented on their work.