This literature review was a whirlwind of information for me. Each reading started off as dry and academic and in the end because very emotional and personal. As I got better at finding articles that were more and more relevant to my topics (alternative schools, students BED, at-risk & low-income high school students) I started to see myself in the situations the authors were discussing, and to internalize the messages they were trying to convey through the data. Much academic research seems abstract to me, like it was discussing events on a foreign world or in the empty space where Newtonian physics play out. This, on the other hand, felt like it was an over-the-shoulder description of my every day life in the trenches. What I liked about it was the qualitative aspects that were able to academically conclude things similar to my viewpoint (better relationships, more open environments); here was something I could potentially take to another educator and say “See? It’s in the literature.” Whether I will actually do this or not remains to be seen…
This is a follow up to the above post. I wanted to address how I would attempt to achieve triangulation in my Action Research study. I also neglected to mention in my post my methodology for assessing and enhancing student motivation, which would primarily be based on a qualitative questionnaire such as the one found here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.pdx.edu/sites/www.pdx.edu.psy/files/media_assets/Assessment-7-EngItems.Student.1.07.doc
Getting back to the issue of triangulation, I would ideally achieve this in my study by using a quantitative Semantic differential that assessed students' reactions to various classroom approaches (i.e. lecture, group projects, etc.) and perhaps also to potential lesson choices within the curriculum (e.g. optional topics beyond those required). To further round out the study, I would like to utilize student artifacts, ideally photographs or videos on topics made by students. Although I'm not sure how well artifacts would figure into a study on unmotivated students, I'd like to think they would present their own opportunity for motivation.