Methodology

I love numbers; I love quantitative research.  Science and math...math and science!  My undergraduate degree is in Biology.  I enjoy the technical, scientific writing that comes with that field of work.  To me, those types of studies seem straight-forward; they cover more breadth and provide a greater sense of generalizability.  However, the types of data needed to support the things I have always been interested in are generally off-limits.  Achievement test data, SES data, and student interview data are all types of information that is virtually unavailable to me.

I have had a difficult time understanding how to approach a research project when I don't have access to K-12 teachers and students.  This is what I know, and this is realm I am in.  And I don't have access to pre-service teachers or any online group to use for data collection.

Once I decided to return to the program, I began looking around my "environment" for potential research problems.  I toyed with several ideas related to librarianship, but I never really settled on anything that was noteworthy.  The digital video recording is just gearing up for the year, and seems to be a viable option.

But the nature of the research problem seems to lend itself more towards a qualitative methodology. 

Qualitative...ummm...I don't like that word.  See first paragraph!  And to be honest, I didn't really care for the professor that taught Qualitative Methods.  Qualitative research seems more exploratory, more in-depth. It usually tells a story more than a t-test.  The method that I would choose to use would be a case study. Leedy defines a case study as, "a type of qualitative research in which in-depth data are gathered relative to a single individual, program, or event, for the purpose of learning more about an unknown or poorly understood situation" (p. 100).  

I have been gathering different case studies and thinking about different instrumentation techniques.  I feel like I am just in the beginning stages of how this should all look.  I think I would benefit from discussing my thoughts with a professor! 

Researching, Reading, and Ranting

Over the past week, I've been knee deep in article gathering--not reading discerningly, per se, but definitely collecting. I must say, I've been able to weed through several that came up through the library search engine and am filling up my dedicated Drop Box folder quite nicely. Now that it's brimming full--about 25 or so--it's time to start buckling down and actually reading the content after the abstracts.

I have had a chance to pour over two of my finds. The first is an article by Katherine Casey titled "Modeling Lessons." I found it in the October 2011 issue of Educational Leadership. Here, Casey makes the argument that "Teachers need to see effective instructional strategies in action before they can make them their own." Part of her suggestion with videotaped lessons is that they be shared among teachers--not just use them merely for reflective practice. This struck me as a good idea; heretofore, I was only looking at videotaping in the classroom as a way for teachers to improve their practice by looking solely at their own recorded lessons. Casey's idea would be yet another way to improve practice within a given school environment because teachers would see effective teaching being done to the same students that they see in their own classes. Thus, if a strategy works in Mrs. Jones' class with John and Jane, then why shouldn't it work in my class with John and Jane?

The next work that caught my eye discusses the hurdles inherent in recording in the classroom ("Taking Video Cameras into the Classroom"  |  Otrel-Cass, Cowie, and Maguire  | Waikato Journal of Education 15(2), 2010. Although this article does not deal directly with teachers using the camera as a tool for reflective practice (it speaks to researchers in general), it does highlight the challenges that school districts would face trying to implement their use:

• Can participants freely decide whether they want to participate in the recording or not?
• Do the participants understand how the videotapes will be used?
• Do the participants have the right to request that the tapes be destroyed after the research is complete?

As I read these, I reflected upon what I know about Shelby County's use of the Teachscape Reflect system. For the first point, parents and students can opt out of being recorded. This can be done for every type of photo or video recording at the beginning of the year or can be done on a case by case basis. For the second, I doubt seriously that students fully understand the use of the video recordings. From my own experience, most students believe that the camera is in the room to catch the bad students in action. For the third point, there is no rule in place regarding this in SCS. Right now, only the teacher has access to the video once it is uploaded to Teachscape. Only he/she can view it or share it out to other Teachscape users. Parents or students could request that videos be destroyed or deleted, but in the end, this would be up to the teacher's discretion.

Again, while this article did not address teacher reflective practice, it was great for highlighting obstacles that I might face when I attempt to do my own action research.

And speaking of obstacles, last week we found out that my school will be turned over to a charter school for failing to make academic gains for the last five years. Thus, with all that this entails for my livelihood, it also means that I may want to start collecting data this year for fear that I will not have access to the Reflect camera system next year.

And I thought having kids had stopped me from getting my Ed.D...

Initial Ramblings

Some background information:

• I started my career as a science teacher.  I have taught 7th and 8th grade science, physical science biology, and chemistry.
• I am currently a librarian in an urban middle school
• I began taking IDT classes in 1999.  Somewhere in the middle of that process, I took library class to get my endorsement in library science.  Towards the end of the initial time limit on my classes, I took a few more hours and actually had my research project approved by the IRB and my school system.
• Of course, some life events intervened, namely Ellie, Bailey, and Katie.

But, to be honest, I wasn't enthralled with the study that I had proposed.  I wanted to look at the data that we were generating in my school from a program called Study Island.  However, the data flow was inconsistent, and many pertinent parts (gender, socioeconomic status, etc.) were missing.  So, I set that to the side, and let the years pass.  Actually, this summer as I was cleaning and purging, I threw away a big stack of papers that dealt with that study that I been saving all these years.  I had made peace with the fact that my window of opportunity to complete my degree had closed.  I have three children (ages 5, 3, and 2), a labor-intensive job, a long commute back and forth to work, and extracurricular activities with my children. I know...plenty of excuses! But I really was finished thinking about that Ed.D.

Well, I recently received a letter from the University of Memphis, inviting former students to return and complete their degrees.  So, I decided to re-enroll and try to complete my degree.  In the past, trying to determine a research topic on my own contributed to my lack of progress.  And, of course, this led to me dropping out!

When I initially talked with Dr. Lowther about returning, we discussed studying some element of librarianship and technology and gathering data from pre-service librarians.  She suggested that I speak with Dr. Allen and solicit his advice on how to proceed with a study involving pre-service librarians.

While that is still an option, I have decided to go a different route.  I would like to investigate the use of the digital vidoe recordings as a reflective practice for classroom teachers.  Currently, we have the camera system at my school.  My husband is also a librarian in the same district.  He serves as the video coordinator at his school.  In the last few years, there has been a push in our district to use digital video recordings to gather classroom evidence.  At first, the data was utilized by the MET Project to gather base-line data as they worked to construct our new evaluation tool.  Recently, the shift has been to utilize the digital video recordings in place of an actual observer.  But, it is also being marketed as a tool for experienced teachers to use so that they can analyze their own practice in the classroom without the interference of another "body" in the classroom.  He has three teachers that are willing to utilize the equipment and reflect on their practice.  I believe that teachers at my school will also be willing to use the recordings to reflect as well.

So, I described all that background information so that "they" could understand where I am coming from and where I have problems.  Now that I have an initial topic, I need direction on how to refine it and turn it into something that will work for the completion of my degree.  This is where I got stuck last time!