Scott's+Page

=Module 1 = = = =Research Interest =

 My area of research interest lies in classroom technology. I have spent a significant amount of time reading research literature on clickers. I am writing KAM 2 around clickers and have developed a training program for the application in this KAM. I was thinking about doing my dissertation employing a quantitative approach to studying clicker impact on academic achievement employing objective pretest/posttest measures of achievement in a K-8 setting. Believe it or not little research has employed such methods. As well nearly all clicker research has focused on large college classroom.

 I have created both a quantitative and qualitative research plan to investigate clicker impacts in the classroom as part of RSCH 8200 and RSCH 8300. It is also a potential dissertation topic.

 I am also interested in on-to-one computing in the classroom. It is an area that I have not done much reading on yet. The school where I teach has a laptop program which provides each 7th & 8th grade student with a laptop for the school year.

=Theoretical Foundations =

 One theory that has been applied in some clicker research is social learning theory (Yourstone, Kraye, & Albaum, 2008). This would fall under a constructivist view and has been applied when clickers have been used to support peer instruction (Mazur, 1997). However in one potential dissertation study clickers will be used in technology enhanced formative assessments or TEFA. Beatty & Gerace (2009) identified radical constructivism (cognitive dimension), sociocultrual theory (social dimension), and theory of reasoned action (attitudinal dimension) as theoretical basis for TEFA.

 Another potential research area is clicker implementation. I see Bandura’s (1997) work on self-efficacy in social learning theory as an important in regard the study of teachers implementing new technologies into their classrooms.

=References =

 Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: W.H. Freeman.

 Beatty, I.D., & Gerace, W.J. (2009). Technology-enhanced formative assessment: A research-based pedagogy for teaching science with classroom response technology. Journal of

Science Education Technology, 18, 146-162. DOI: 10956-008-9140-4.

 Mazur, E. (1997). Peer instruction: A user’s manual. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

 Yourstone, S.A., Kraye, H.S., & Albaum, G. (2008). Classroom questioning with immediate electronic response: Do clickers improve learning? Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education,6,(1), 75-88.

=Module 2 =

=Literature Review =

=<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">CRS Use in Peer Instruction =

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> A lot of CRS research has occurred in large university physics classes in support of peer instruction. This seems to have been spurred in part by Eric Mazur, a physics professor at Harvard. His book, Peer Instruction: A User’s Manual (Mazur, 1997) lead to many professors adapting this pedagogy. CRS technology is well adapted to supporting peer instruction.

=<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">CRS Research Employing Pretest/Posttest Experimental Designs =

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Only a few studies have employed strong experimental designs, including pretest/posttest assessments of learning, to assess the impact of clicker use on academic performance and learning outcomes.

=<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">CRS Survey Research =

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> This research falls in to two categories. The first involves the vast majority of CRS research. It surveys students in large university classrooms. These seem like fluff studies, essentially asking students if they like CRS.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> The other category is a survey of CRS methodologies. There has been one study that surveyed elementary, middle school and high school teachers. This is also the study I have found that studies CRS in a milieu other than university classes.

=<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Response Cards =

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Response cards are a low-tech version of CRS. This research could be helpful in providing theoretical rationale in support of how CRS can help learning. The theory of active student response was the focus of a meta-analysis on response cards.

=<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Formative Assessment =

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> One way in which CRS can be used is to administer and track results of formative assessments. Formative assessments have been shown to have a powerful impact on learning outcomes and academic performance.

=<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Module 3 =

=<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Gaps in the Research =

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">There are numerous gaps in CRS research. The main gap my research will address is the lack of experimental CRS research in elementary and middle grades. The existing research has focused almost exclusively on large university classes. This body of research has also used simplistic CRS models with limited response capability. More recent models allow multiple-choice, true/false-yes/no, Likert scale, sorting, and text and numeric entry response formats. These models also allow follow-on questions make simplistic question formats such as true/false-yes/no much more powerful as a formative assessment tool (My research will to compare these models with more recent models with multiple response formats. CRS models No comparison of CRS in support of different pedagogies (formative assessment, peer teaching, think-pair-share, etc.)

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Also no research has examined the potential impact of administering summative assessments with CRS technology. Some newer models allow self-paced administration of questions sets making this possible. With the more diverse response formats they provide quizzes and tests would be more efficient to administer.

=<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Research Questions =

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Does CRS impact younger learners in ways similar to older learners?

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Does CRS capable of multiple response formats and used in support of appropriate pedagogy effect academic performance more than more simplistic CRS models.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Do self-paced CRS assessments (formative and/or summative) have a more positive impact on test performance than either CRS assessments taken as a group or paper administered assessments.

=<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Problem Statement =

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">The creation and production of new educational technology is often ahead of the field of education. Schools and students are sometimes pressured to purchase new technologies often without adequate training, teacher input, or empirical evidence of its effectiveness. Wireless classroom response systems (CRS) or clickers are one such technology. Similar to a cell phone or personal data assistant (PDA) in appearance, CRS allows teachers to send questions to students. Students answer by keying in responses which are wirelessly sent to the teacher. Responses can be instantly corrected, graphically displayed for students to view and exported to spreadsheets.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">A significant body of CRS research exists, but it is limited in both its scope and quality. The vast majority of studies have focused on large (60 to 300+ students) college level courses (Fies & Marshall, 2006, Judson & Sawada, 2002, Penuel, Boscardin, Masyn, & Crawford, 2007). Most of that research has examined student perceptions of CRS’s impact on student achievement and learning outcomes, but has failed to corroborate these subjective measures of CRS effects with more objective measures. Pretest and posttest measures of CRS effects on academic performance, control or alternative treatment groups for comparison, and clear description of CRS methodology (type, number and response format of questions and frequency of use) have also been missing from much of the existing research. As well this research has used simpler CRS models with more limited capabilities. More recent models provide a wider variety of response formats, follow-on questions and self-pacing.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">This study will extend the current research to examine the use of clickers in small, middle and elementary school classes, employ objective pretest and posttest measures of academic performance, and include an alternative treatment group. It will also examine the impacts of complex CRS models in conjunction with appropriate pedagogies.

=<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Theory =

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Active learning and constructivist theory served as the basis for several CRS studies. It will also be used in support of certain pedagogies (think-pair-share, peer instruction, problem-based learning, cooperative groups, etc.) in this study.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Black & Wiliam’s (2009) formative assessment theory will be used in support of CRS administered formative assessment.

=<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">References =

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (2009). Developing the theory of formative assessment. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability, 1(1), 5-31. DOI: 10.1007/s11092-008-9068-5.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Fies, C., & Marshall, J. (2006). Classroom response systems: A review of the literature. Journal <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">of Science Education and Technology, 15,(1), p. 101-109. DOl: 10.1007/S10956-006-0360-1

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Judson, E., & Sawada, D. (2002). Learning from past and present: Electronic response systems in <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">college lecture halls. Journal of Computers in Mathematics and Science Teaching, 21(2), p. 167-181.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Kwan, F. B., (2010). True/false test: Enhancing its power through writing. Journal of <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Instructional Pedagogies, 4, 1-10. Retrieved from http://www.aabri.com/jip.html.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Penuel, W., Boscardin, C., Masyn, K., & Crawford, V. (2007). Teaching with student response <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">systems in elementary and secondary education settings: A survey study. Educational <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Technology Research & Development, 55(4), p. 315-346. =<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Module 4 =

|| **Strengths** || **Limitations** || **Authoritative Primary Source for This Methodology** || **Why I Will or Will Not Use This Method** ||
 * **Research Methodology**
 * **Experimental** || Strong internal validity, tight control of variables, control group comparison, can establish cause and effect relationship, random assignment || Weak generalizability || Trochim, W. K. (2005). //Research methods: The concise knowledge base.// Cincinnati, OH: Atomic Dog. || Probably will not use due to difficulty in using true random sampling ||
 * **Quasi-experimental**

Nonequivalent-groups design || Pretest-posttest comparisons, control group comparison, can establish cause and effect relationship findings more generalizable than experimental design || Internal validity not as strong as experimental design || Trochim, W. K. (2005). //Research methods: The concise knowledge base.// Cincinnati, OH: Atomic Dog. || Will probably use due to nonrandom sampling, external validity, and to establish cause and effect between treatment and outcome || I include this because surveys would be administered in each of my studies. || Can provide detailed description of large populations || Responses limited to format provided, don’t establish causality, perceptions often don’t match, || The Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan, [] || Will use because it is important to have student and teacher perceptions of CRS impacts and influences || || **Sample** || **Data Collection** || **Statistical Analysis** ||
 * **Mixed methods** || Can provide in-depth understanding/insight of complex settings/phenomenon while also establishing cause and effect relationships || Large amount of data to collect and analyze, challenge of connecting or merging quantitative and qualitative data from different phases of the study || Creswell, J.W. (2009). //Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches.// Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. || Probably won’t use this method due to large amount of data collection and analysis ||
 * **Survey**
 * **Research Questions** || **Methodology**
 * 1. Does CRS impact younger learners in ways similar to older learners? || **Quasi-experimental –**

Nonequivalent-groups design, survey || Convenience sample || Pretest and posttest measures of academic achievement, surveys || ANOVA ||
 * **2.** Does CRS capable of multiple response formats and used in support of appropriate pedagogy effect academic performance more than simplistic CRS models. || **Quasi-experimental –**

Nonequivalent-groups design, survey || Convenience sample || Pretest and posttest measures of academic achievement, surveys || ANOVA ||
 * **3.** Do self-paced CRS assessments (formative and/or summative) have a more positive impact on test performance than either CRS assessments taken as a group or paper administered assessments. || **Mixed methods -**

Concurrent Triangulation Design || Convenience sample || Pretest and posttest measures of academic achievement, surveys, interviews || ANOVA & Content Analysis ||

=<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Module 5 =

Other than one survey of how teachers use CRS in their classrooms there is no research in middle and elementary grades of CRS use. In particular there is no research at this level that examines how CRS impacts the classroom environment, pedagogy, student achievement, discipline, and data management. This research will advance the profession of educational technology because it will be a significant first step in examining CRS use with younger learners. It will also focus on how CRS influences smaller classroom as the vast majority of CRS research has focused on its role in facilitating peer instruction in very large university classroom. This will promote social change as it will enhance the self-efficacy of children raised in technology a rich world but currently learn in classrooms often devoid of technology. This can lead to school being a more positive and engaging experience for many children.
 * Significance of the Study**

The three journals I selected for publication of my research are Journal of Research on Technology in Education, Education Technology Research and Development, Learning Media and Technology. I selected these journals because they are all peer-reviewed journals focusing on original research in the field of technology and education. The two conferences I selected are International Society of Technology and Education’s annual conference and the Connecticut Educators Computer Association’s annual Conference. These conferences were selected for different reasons. The ISTE conference was selected because it would be a great challenge and experience and would disseminate my research findings to a larger audience. I chose the CCE because it would be beneficial to disseminate by findings and how I use clickers in my classroom locally. Being able to connect with local and regional teachers would be an excellent way to fins support and ideas from teachers nearby. Being able to visit their classrooms and see their practices in action would be an outstanding experience.
 * Dissemination of Research**