Over the past two weeks our team has been solidifying our group methodology.  Since we are teaching different grades with different schedules (e.g., some are departmentalized, some are not), we are also beginning to individualize our methodologies according to our classrooms. We presented our group methodology to our research Grad school class tonight and received some very helpful feedback.  Our classmates appreciated how organized and specific our methodology is so far.  One of our classmates asked about the time interval that some of our group members plan to collect data:  several of us plan to check if students are exhibiting off-task behaviors every thirty seconds during two fifteen minute time periods (one before the brain break and one following the brain break).  Is that too difficult?  Would collecting data every minute suffice?  This is a valid concern, and one that I have wondered about myself.  Based on the research our team conducted for the literature review, thirty seconds is a commonly used time frame for a single subject study (the type of study we are doing) because it shows what students are doing on a regular basis.  Another classmate suggested having a back-up brain break in mind in case the first ones we implement are not effective. We appreciated this suggestion, and recognize that if we did need to do this, we would also need to address it in our analysis.

We are excited that the details of our research project are becoming clearer!

Moving Forward

Today, our team met at the Loyola campus in Baltimore.  We shared our progress with regards to defining the methodology for our Action Research Plan.  We discussed different data collection ideas and what intervention treatments each of us are thinking of implementing in our classrooms.  A few team members like the idea of using the Hoberman sphere to teach deep breathing, whereas others are considering a more active agenda, like a brain break from www.gonoodle.com or a Zumba-like activity.

Next, we discussed our team and personal Wikis.  We are in the process of consolidating information so everything is more comprehensive and flows smoother.

Lastly, we touched on the number of participants to use for our Action Research Plan.  Many of us decided to collect data on one or two students in each one of our classes.  Due to departmentalization, some team members have two classes.

On Monday evening, we will meet with our our Research and Inquiry professor and discuss the progress of our plan and our next steps.

Methodology

This week our team has been learning about Methodology.  We're laying out the design of our action research plan.

One major detail that has brought about discussion is our data collection.  How do we do it?  What will it look like?  Who are the participants and how will we select them?  While each teacher seems to have a slightly different plan, we all need to decide how to track off-task behavior.

Here's a quiz from Glanz (2014):

Place a check next to the target behavior that can be observed and measured by two independent observers without defining the behavior prior to observation:

1. Johnny is acting out in class.
2. Natasha says "thank you" during the lesson.
3. Felicia is disruptive during art class.
4. Billy completes his class assignments.
5. Sally is behaving well.
6. Kisha raises her hand to ask or answer a question.

Numbers 2 & 6 are target behaviors that can easily be developed.  The other choices require observers to define what is "acting out," "disruptive," "completing assignments," and "behaving well."  

In my search of a data collection form, I came across this site which has some great tools.

Now, my question becomes, how many behaviors should we track?  Is 1 enough to get a good picture of the student(s)?  Will 2 or 3 behaviors be too hard to track accurately?