Research Question and Hypothesis: Year 2

A returning Education Scientist, I’m looking forward to refining and extending my research instrument from last year: a survey written to elicit student reactions to increasingly frequent use of in-class group learning as a method for nurturing inquiry and student-to-student collaboration.

My biography has not changed much since last year. Except for a recently affected interest (obsession some would say) in the astonishingly rich sub-culture of yo-yoing (I kid you not. Watch this 10 minute documentary if you doubt my characterization of this powerfully addictive skill toy), I’m pretty much the same dude I was last year:

A 29-year veteran of secondary school history teaching, I am the chair of the Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart upper school history department wherein I teach United States History to grade 11 students. I lead the U.S. history oral history project at Stone Ridge which combines my love of history with enthusiasm for the new possibilities presented by rapidly evolving production software. I am also the Executive Producer of Lunch Duty Podcast, a podcast for teachers by teachers. When not immersed in school-related projects, I ride my bicycle and work at a Vermont outdoor adventure camp during summers.

In response to the first invitation to frame research questions on the Step 1 form I wrote:

— What are high school student perceptions of in-class group work?

— What do students believe to be the best arrangements or approaches to in-class group work?

— What could teachers learn from student responses to survey questions about in-class group work and how could teachers apply information from this research for optimal effect?

I’ll refine these into a concise question or research objective, but the essence of what I hope to consider is in this draft. Last year’s survey was surprising in that my prediction of the number of students that find group work onerous was not born out by survey results. More students proved receptive to group work than I expected. I will revisit and elaborate on other results in subsequent blog posts, but I look forward to writing this year’s survey and interpreting the results with the benefit of prior experience.