Data Collection and Analysis Decision Making
Solution to a problem of your choosing in your educational setting based on a data analysis with a detailed rationale as to why the chosen method is the best method for analyzing data and for yielding accurate and illuminating findings.
Educational setting: St. Bonaventure School is in Huntington Beach, California. St. Bonaventure is a parochial elementary school educating kindergarten through eighth-grade students. The school is fully accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. The classroom, 1A is one of the three first grade classrooms in this educational setting. Classroom 1A consists of 26 students (12 boys; 14 girls; ages six to seven years old). The students included two English Language Learners (ELL), both classified as advanced in their language acquisition proficiency levels. Two students receive an accommodated curriculum, one for dyslexia and one for emotional outbursts related to autism-like behaviors.
Choosing the right data and analyzing it correctly will help us make better instructional decisions. Interestingly, trusting one’s instincts can prove to be incorrect, unless we gather and analyze data to verify the root problem. For example, a student who is not turning in homework could be viewed as lazy and unmotivated. However, after gathering data from the student (for example, through an interview or asking questions), we might find that he simply does not understand the concepts in the manner in which they are being presented and feels so discouraged he does not do the homework. In this case, we would then need to experiment with strategies (and continue to collect and analyze data) to determine what instructional techniques work best in helping the student understand the subject matter.
Identifying the right data is also important to the process. For example, if you want to understand the perspectives and experiences of students regarding why they are not engaged in learning a new concept, you would be best served by either having them complete an open-ended survey or interviewing them. However, an open-ended survey may not produce the richest information; you may need to instead conduct short interviews in order to gain the trust of your students in order to get them to relay the root of the issue.
Choosing the right data analysis procedure is equally important in order to illuminate the realities of the situation, treatment/strategy, or experience. For example, if we want to know if there is a relationship between student absenteeism and the amount of homework assigned, we would need to run statistical analysis (likely a t-test first to determine differences between means, and then a Spearman, or Pearson r, to determine if/how data is correlated). If we want to analyze narrative data, we have to choose a coding method in order to then categorize/organize the data and identify patterns and/or themes.
We can often do quick data gathering and analysis to inform inquiry by doing formative assessment. For example, if we want to know areas where students need assistance to master subject matter, we might have them complete an exit ticket and then analyze key words used in their description of what they learned and still want to know more about in order to identify areas that can be targeted for redirection, remediation, or enrichment. Being able to identify what data will assist in making sound instructional decisions and using that data to inform practice will help you to provide students with more dynamic learning opportunities.
Demonstration of Proficiency
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following competency and assessment scoring guide criteria:
Competency: Describe effective classroom data collection and analysis strategies to inform instructional practice.
Identify appropriate data to inform an inquiry.
Analyze how data will inform inquiry.
Explain how data will be physically collected.
Evaluate how data will be analyzed to yield accurate and illuminating findings.
Describe how data may be used to inform future instructional practice and decision-making.
Instructions
Identify something you want to know more about within your classroom. Some examples are listed below:
*What are the perspectives of 8th grade students regarding completing homework using mobile technology? (Qualitative/narrative data.)
*How do students who create a class disruption (attention is taken away from learning for most or all students due to some behavior) four or more times a week describe their experiences in the classroom? (Qualitative data/narrative data.)
*What differences exist in homework completion rates for students who use mobile technology to complete the work and those who do not? (Quantitative/numerical data.)
*What is the effect of the incorporation of a mobile technology application designed to assist students in doing homework on students who are labeled at-risk? (Quantitative/numerical data.)
*What is the relationship between at-risk student homework completion rates and the daily use of a mobile technology application designed to assist students in doing homework? (Quantitative\numerical data.)
Identify and describe what data you could collect to provide illumination to the inquiry.
Identify the data type (qualitative or quantitative), and explain why it is qualitative or quantitative data.
Provide a detailed explanation as to how the data you identified would help you to investigate the issue, situation, experience, or phenomena.
Explain how you will physically collect data (for example, how long will interviews last, how much time will it take to administer the survey, who and how many will take the survey, will you send follow-up reminders to collect survey data, will you administer a test, will you review archival records, et cetera).
Identify the best method for analyzing the data, and provide a detailed rationale as to why it is the best method for analyzing data and for yielding accurate and illuminating findings.
Describe how the data might serve to inform future decision making regarding your work as a teacher or your instructional practice.
