Reflective Research Process:
- Formulate a specific question: What do I want or need to know?
- Collect and document data: How will I find out?
- Discuss and analyze data: What did I find? What does it mean?
- Take action: What will I do as a result of my findings?
- Reflect and evaluate: What did I learn?
Teachers gather a lot of data due to grading expectations. Since a lot of time is spent gathering and analyzing this data, this time can be used efficiently if grading is also used to answer questions that can be use to improve student learning. Also, using a reflective research process can be used to test and revise new projects and new lesson plan designs.
Preparation Steps
- Identify a question worth asking and that can be answered by gathering data
- Decide what data can be gathered to simultaneously serve as formative assessment and as research data sources
- Recruit data partner(s) who can help you make sense of your data interpretations
Early Implementation Steps
- Gather and interpret data.
- Share interpretations with data partner and see if they can see the plausibility in your interpretations and notice other connections
- Make lesson plan or project revisions in response to lessons learned
- Generalize lessons learned so they can be applied to future projects and lesson plans
Advanced Implementation Steps
- Include students as data sounding boards
- Ask and investigate questions that develop more empathy for students and deeper understanding for how they learn
- Integrate reflective research process with human centered design process
- Use reflective research process to evaluate classroom systems and routines and improve them
- 10: Grading smarter, not harder
- 11: Human-centered design
- 12: HCD: Inspiration phase
- 25: Engaging students with data
- 29: Responsive teaching: assessment principles
- 30: 4 assmt prac that honor student differences
- 45: PBL dilemmas & resolutions
- 48: Building data organizations
- 49: Building assessment literacy
- 50: Building data summaries
- 51: Amping up the authenticity
- 52: What the hack?
- 53: Coaching lenses
- 57: From framework to protocol