Tag: Collaboration

Collaborative Discussion on Topic Research

Week 4’s discussion post was to create a small annotative review of at least five of our scholarly articles that we are going to use in our literature reviews. We were tasked with reading our peers’ annotative reviews and compare them with ours to see if we could possibly collaborate with them since our topics were similar. I found one peer’s post that was similar to mine and I replied to hers. We were able to collaborate a bit on our topics, which helps tremendously. The best part of this post was being able to read a brief summary of our peers’ articles and see if any of those articles could possibly help us with our own research.

Collaboration seems to be what is keeping me a float in this class. I feel that this is Lamar’s way in showing us the value of collaboration so that we can give our students the chance to do the same.

Clarifying the Problem

In week two’s discussion post we were working on trying to narrow down our action research topic. We were given various tools to help us work on finding what topic we would like to research and how to focus in on adopting our question for our action research plan. Below is my discussion post.

I currently do not have an innovation plan because I have not yet taken that class, but I have come up with a topic, Inquiry-based learning and its effectiveness in an honors math classroom.  I choose this topic because I am an honors math teacher and I have been teaching for fourteen years.  Over the years I have noticed a push for more inquiry- based learning.  I have been intrigued by this style of learning because it allows the students to think on a much deeper level and puts the power of learning in their hands, but I find myself scared to take the leap.  Which leads me to my fundamental research question, “How effective is inquire-based learning in a high school math classroom in developing higher-order thinking skills?”

After reviewing over Table 4.1 Should I use a Qualitative or a Quantitative Approach, I found that the best method for me is to utilize the triangulation mixed-methods design.  I will need both qualitative and quantitative research to help me answer my question.  I will have three Honors Algebra 2 classes this coming up school year and I am planning to take two of those classes and perform the inquiry-based learning in those two classes and I am thinking to teach the third class just like I have over the past nine years.  On the qualitative side, I will plan to use the constant comparative method, where I will be collecting data from all three classes, where I will compare the behavior of the students and even survey them to see how they are doing.  For the quantitative research, I am planning to compare their test scores.  The three classes will have learned the exact same material, just in different ways and I will be able to compare test scores to see who has performed at a higher level.

I am hoping I am on the right track with my action research plan and I would be ecstatic if any of you can make any recommendations for me.

I received from very good feedback from my peers on my topic that has helped me to even further develop my plan. Collaborating with my peers has proven to be a great tool for this class.