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Action Research


 

Saint David's faculty at the IBSC Conference in Dallas, Texas (June 2022).

Action research is any systematic inquiry conducted by teacher researchers, principals, school counselors, or other stakeholders in the teaching/learning environment to gather information about how their particular schools operate, how they teach, and how well their students learn.—Geoffrey Mills, Action Research: A Guide for the Teacher Researcher

The most effective teaching incorporates art, craft, and science. Traditionally, the profession’s strength has rested in the art and craft areas. Art speaks to teachers using their own passions, talents, and creativity when teaching. Craft refers to the skill sets teachers exhibit, often gained through experience. The science of teaching leverages strategies that well-designed research studies indicate are most effective in eliciting desired outcomes in students. It is data driven, both quantitative and qualitative. By incorporating the science of teaching and learning to complement the art and craft, faculty grow their expertise in understanding what is happening in their classrooms and how to apply high leverage teaching practices.

Saint David's is piloting an action research program and is a member of the International Boys’ Schools Coalition, an organization that “celebrates boys’ schools as learning environments focused on the achievement of boys and advocates for boys’ education.” In addition to providing support, resources and workshops, IBSC sponsors action research projects by faculty in its member schools worldwide. In 2020, two members of our Saint David's faculty, Catherine Milligan and Flor Berman, submitted proposals and were selected by IBSC to pursue related research in the area of Technology in Schools. Both teachers designed their studies in the summer of 2021 and then collected and analyzed their data during the 2021-2022 academic year, with support from our action research coordinator, Tori Gilbert.

Ms. Milligan’s project, "The Feedforward Tech Effect: Bolstering Boys’ Engagement in Grade 8 Art History Through Video Feedback,” investigated the effectiveness of providing feedback to boys via video, rather than by written comments alone. Catherine made videos for each of the students in her art history class in which she commented on their writing and slide content in preparation for a major lecture project. She discovered that the video feedback increased students’ engagement. Boys described it as “personal,” “conversational,” helpful,” and “very detailed.” They particularly valued having the ability to choose when to watch the videos and being able to play them over again as often as they wished.

Spanish Teacher Ms. Berman questioned how a drone experience might support boys’ expression and understanding in a second language for her second grade Spanish students (Challenging Perspectives and Building L2 Proficiency with Drones and Digital Visual Representations). Her research found that drone use supported proficiency in learning the Spanish language through greater engagement; that collaborating with a partner using Digital Visual Representations led to growth in proficiency, and sharing and understanding others’ perspectives of aerial views challenged individual boys’ perspectives.

Last month, Catherine and Flor presented their research findings at the International Boys' Schools Coalition conference in Dallas, an annual event that brings together more than 600 educators from around the world to champion boys' education, They were joined at the conference by Jamie MacNeille, Saint David’s Director of Teaching and Learning, who oversees our professional development program, as well as Spanish and Homeroom Teacher Saybel Pipitone, who has been awarded an IBSC grant for action research that she will conduct this upcoming academic year.

These are exciting times for the faculty and boys at Saint David’s as our robust faculty professional development opportunities enable teachers to keep growing professionally and to better reach and teach our boys through the actions they choose to investigate. It is wonderful to see the contributions of our boys to the inquiry process as well.

Work in this area is done always to further Saint David’s mission and values, which are grounded in balance among academics, arts, athletics, and spirituality, and serve our ultimate aspiration… ut viri boni sint.

Click on the titles above to view the video teasers for Ms. Milligan's and Ms. Berman's presentations.

For more information on our pilot action research program see Dr. Gilbert's Saint David's Magazine article "New Action Research Pilot."


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