Phase 1 Findings
Participation in small group discussions
After I encouraged each of the three focus students individually and listened to how much they participated in the next day's discussion, I found that two students' participation remained the same and one decreased. The following graph depicts these results.
Comfort Levels
In order to better understand these results, I examined the comfort levels during the small group discussion that my focus group reported. For the two students whose participation remained the same, one chose the response, "I felt very comfortable sharing my opinion," and the second student chose, "I felt comfortable sharing my opinion." The student whose participation decreased chose the response, "I felt very comfortable sharing my opinion."
These results conflicted with my observations of these students during the small group discussions. One of the students whose participation remained the same did seem comfortable. The other student whose participation remained the same seemed slightly uncomfortable and the student whose participation decreased seemed very uncomfortable. I'm not quite sure what to make of this data. I wish I would have pulled these students aside and said, "I noticed that you seemed uncomfortable in the discussion. What were you feeling during the discussion?" For the student whose participation decreased from his previous small group discussions, I wished I would have pulled him aside and asked him why he did not participate. The reason I chose not to was because he seemed upset, and he looked like he needed some time alone. The following day, he was back to his usual self and I forgot to ask him.
In this first phase, I also wanted to examine whether students' participation increased or decreased over a longer span of time. To measure this, I compared the students' participation on the first feedback form given on April 21st and the last given on May 16th. The first two students' participation remained constant in the small group participation, participating "two or three times," while the third student's participation decreased from "two to three times" to "none." This was the same student whose participation decreased after the individual encouragement.
Although these measurements do lend insight into these students' behaviors during small group discussions, these measurements don't seem to tell the whole story. Although the one student's participation decreased in the discussion after I encouraged him and in the final small group discussion, I saw improvements in his participation in whole class discussions. In my teaching journal, I wrote down two occasions where the student raised his hand to share an idea with the class. Before I started this action research, I never saw him raise his hand. I saw similar improvements in the other two students. When I asked the students to work with a group and deliver an informal presentation, both of those students chose to present their group's work. In addition, I distinctly remember one of these students raising her hand to respond to a question I posed to the class. These observations suggest that students did increase their participation not in small groups, but in other forms of participation.
These results conflicted with my observations of these students during the small group discussions. One of the students whose participation remained the same did seem comfortable. The other student whose participation remained the same seemed slightly uncomfortable and the student whose participation decreased seemed very uncomfortable. I'm not quite sure what to make of this data. I wish I would have pulled these students aside and said, "I noticed that you seemed uncomfortable in the discussion. What were you feeling during the discussion?" For the student whose participation decreased from his previous small group discussions, I wished I would have pulled him aside and asked him why he did not participate. The reason I chose not to was because he seemed upset, and he looked like he needed some time alone. The following day, he was back to his usual self and I forgot to ask him.
In this first phase, I also wanted to examine whether students' participation increased or decreased over a longer span of time. To measure this, I compared the students' participation on the first feedback form given on April 21st and the last given on May 16th. The first two students' participation remained constant in the small group participation, participating "two or three times," while the third student's participation decreased from "two to three times" to "none." This was the same student whose participation decreased after the individual encouragement.
Although these measurements do lend insight into these students' behaviors during small group discussions, these measurements don't seem to tell the whole story. Although the one student's participation decreased in the discussion after I encouraged him and in the final small group discussion, I saw improvements in his participation in whole class discussions. In my teaching journal, I wrote down two occasions where the student raised his hand to share an idea with the class. Before I started this action research, I never saw him raise his hand. I saw similar improvements in the other two students. When I asked the students to work with a group and deliver an informal presentation, both of those students chose to present their group's work. In addition, I distinctly remember one of these students raising her hand to respond to a question I posed to the class. These observations suggest that students did increase their participation not in small groups, but in other forms of participation.
Classroom Environment
In the final feedback form, I asked students, "What do you think about our classroom environment? Do you feel like your opinion will ALWAYS be respected? Why or why not?" Out of the 11 responses, 9 affirmed that their responses would be respected (I included the student's response below that stated "most of the time..."), and 2 replied that in some circumstances their opinion would not be respected. Below are the responses of my focus students:
Other students' responses were generally more positive:
Although some students shared that they still felt that their opinions might be disrespected, most of the responses were positive, which suggests to me that students have mostly a positive perception of the classroom environment. I did not take a baseline for classroom environment, but judging from the interviews from my needs assessment, these responses generally seemed more positive, which suggests that there was an improvement in the classroom environment
from when I began the action research to when I finished phase 1.
My observations also support this finding. As a teacher, I felt more comfortable discussing difficult issues with the class, because students seemed to respect each other's opinions. One day, we discussed how and why a journalist explicitly mentioned race in his profile article. This whole class discussion lead to talk on stereotypes and the dangers of making the assumptions that people frequently make with regards to people's differences. In addition to feeling more comfortable discussing difficult topics with students, my personal attitude became more positive. By the end of this phase 1, I found myself looking forward to seeing this group of students every day, whereas before I felt more nervous about my lesson plan.
One final observation I made on the classroom environment was that I saw myself having stronger relationships with the students. The third student seemed to have a better attitude towards me after I encouraged him, even though his participation decreased that next day and didn't increase in future discussions. In this student's case, I think it was because I took more of a notice of him and made it a point to call on him. He said that calling on him worked to get him to participate and that he felt comfortable that way. The teacher/student relationship is really important because, according to Gehlbach, Brinkworth and Harris, the teacher and student's perception of the teacher/student relationship predicted better academic achievement, a more positive attitude towards school and increased participation in discussions (Gehlbach, Brinkworth & Harris, 2011)
- Student #1: "I don't always think my opinion will be respected because someone will always think differently. But that is okay."
- Student #2: "Most of the time, but overall I think there will always be people who are disrespected."
- Student #3: "I always felt safe to say what I wanted to say. Lots of respect from both teacher and student."
Other students' responses were generally more positive:
- "Yes, I think my classmates are very respectful and wouldn't "diss" my comments/opinions."
- "I always feel respected and ready to share my opinion."
Although some students shared that they still felt that their opinions might be disrespected, most of the responses were positive, which suggests to me that students have mostly a positive perception of the classroom environment. I did not take a baseline for classroom environment, but judging from the interviews from my needs assessment, these responses generally seemed more positive, which suggests that there was an improvement in the classroom environment
from when I began the action research to when I finished phase 1.
My observations also support this finding. As a teacher, I felt more comfortable discussing difficult issues with the class, because students seemed to respect each other's opinions. One day, we discussed how and why a journalist explicitly mentioned race in his profile article. This whole class discussion lead to talk on stereotypes and the dangers of making the assumptions that people frequently make with regards to people's differences. In addition to feeling more comfortable discussing difficult topics with students, my personal attitude became more positive. By the end of this phase 1, I found myself looking forward to seeing this group of students every day, whereas before I felt more nervous about my lesson plan.
One final observation I made on the classroom environment was that I saw myself having stronger relationships with the students. The third student seemed to have a better attitude towards me after I encouraged him, even though his participation decreased that next day and didn't increase in future discussions. In this student's case, I think it was because I took more of a notice of him and made it a point to call on him. He said that calling on him worked to get him to participate and that he felt comfortable that way. The teacher/student relationship is really important because, according to Gehlbach, Brinkworth and Harris, the teacher and student's perception of the teacher/student relationship predicted better academic achievement, a more positive attitude towards school and increased participation in discussions (Gehlbach, Brinkworth & Harris, 2011)
academic Achievement
Unfortunately, I don't believe I have enough evidence to draw a conclusion on the effects of participation on academic achievement. However, upon examining their first news articles to their final news articles, which they turned in on the last day of phase 1, I saw improvement in all three, but particularly in Student #3. His first article was on Formula 1 Racing, and his last article was on his father. He seemed to put a lot of care into his final article. He starts off this final article with the phrase, "Meet my dad." Throughout the piece, he details his father's shift in careers and how he now has a job as an engineer at an aerospace firm where he first started out as a janitor. The two pieces are incredibly different, and we spent more time on the second article than the first, but there was an improvement nevertheless. This improvement could possibly be related to encouraging him, but I don't feel that I have enough information to draw this conclusion.
Because I didn't monitor this as closely as I would have liked, I want to make this a focus in my phase 2.
Because I didn't monitor this as closely as I would have liked, I want to make this a focus in my phase 2.
Student-to-Student Encouragement
Because I had seen a change in the classroom environment directly after the student-to-student encouragement activities and because students seemed more comfortable with their peers afterwards, I wanted to know whether the student's thought this was an effective method as well. I asked them on their final feedback form, "Do you think that sharing a comment you thought 'enhanced the discussion' encourages students to participate more? Why or why not?" Of the responses I received, 10 out of the 11 students wrote yes and 1 student wrote that they didn't know. All three students from the focus group wrote yes. Below are their responses:
- Student #1:"Yes, because it might help them be more confident next time."
- Student #2: "Yes."
- Student #3: "I believe it does encourage students because it lets them know what they are saying is valuable/meaningful."
Conclusions on the Impact of Encouragement
Based on the data presented above, teacher-to-student and student-to-student encouragement did not seem to lead to increased participation in small group discussions, and may or may not have been a contributing factor in the students' increase in other forms of participation. However, my observations and the data I collected suggests that the classroom environment improved. Students' responses to the feedback form also suggest that encouraging each other was an effective strategy.