Action Research Plan
A Little about my Innovation Plan...
The purpose of my innovation plan is to help student develop 21century skills with the use of one to one iPads. I believe students need to experience learning in a way that will expose them and prepare them for the world outside of their community, thus making their aspirations limitless. In the educational setting, it can be so easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of teaching content and testing that we often fail to see beyond the lesson. We are so focused on performance and test scores that we can sometimes overlook those necessary lifelong skills students will need to succeed in the future. I want to inspire students to dream big, make them aware of what opportunities are out there waiting for them. I genuinely believe that the best way to do that is to partner learning with technology applications to create meaningful experiences that promote and enable creativity, exploration, and critical thinking. My goal is to partner the iPad's coding and creativity apps alongside learning content to create meaningful and deeper learning experiences.
Topic of Action Research
The ultimate goal of my innovation plan is for all 5th and 6th grade students at Youngblood Intermediate School to use iPads as their primary digital learning tool across all subject areas. The idea is that through the use of different creativity apps, like Keynote, clips, iMovie, Numbers, and pages; students’ learning will be modified and redefined to reach higher-order thinking. Leading to the development of creativity skills, critical thinking skills, and math problem-solving skills. In order for this to happen purposeful planning must be involved, lessons must be designed with the development of these skills in mind. An undertaking like this one at our campus has to start small, subject by subject, with enough evidence for teachers to believe that this is something worth implementing. Due to this fact, the focus of my action research will be on the effectiveness of using iPad creativity apps in the 5th-grade math classroom to help develop students’ problem-solving skills. To learn more details involving the problem and idea behind my research topic, check out my action research outline.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of the study is to determine whether or not the curriculum that will be created for the implementation of iPads in the 5th-grade math classroom is effective or not. It is to determine the benefits it will have for students and see if it is something that teachers can implement. It will help determine the changes that need to be made to our current implementation plan. We will be able to observe student’s perceptions of what we hope to be a more engaging method of learning math.
Fundamental Research Question
What effects will the use of iPad creativity apps in the 5th-grade math classroom have on students’ problem-solving skills?
Research Design and Method:
Both quantitative and qualitative data will be collected to provide better insight into the research question. Our school is made of many different populations and they all learn differently. Students' experiences will provide their perspective about their learning process. Classroom observations will provide further evidence of the type of learning development that is taking place. We will be able to determine students' problem solving skills progression. Recoding these observations can be helpful to look back for any missing events. Additionally, test scores will provide qualitative measures in determining students' problem solving skills development. We will observe the strategies being applied and the steps students are taking to solve word problems and how that evolves over time. You can learn more about my research design and types of data collected in my action research outline.
Measurement Instruments
The instruments that will be used to collect data, and measure whether or not students are developing their problem solving skills will be test scores, observations, and student interviews.
As a math interventionist, I work with at least six different groups of students who all struggle with math. Their math skills are usually around the same level. To further measure the effect that implementing creativity apps will have on the students’ problem-solving skills, I plan to include a control group. A group of students whose math skills are similar to the other experimental groups will not be exposed to creativity apps in their math lessons. This will allow us to compare and see the effects that this implementation is having compared to other students who are learning the same material in a more traditional form
Literature Review
My literature review revolved around using iPads and the development of problem solving skills. I tried to find studies that supported the importance of developing problem solving skills and how technology can play a role in that development. I learned about the ways that 1:1 iPad implementation has affected other schools, and their approach to implementation. Furthermore, the most insightful thing I learned from the literature review, was how other researchers have measured the development of problem solving skills. Click here to access my full literature review.