research

Our Research Topic!

For the Purpose of this assignment we chose to focus on the impacts classroom settings have on students and different learning stlyes. We came up with this topic when we both shared a mutual interest in how the pandemic and virtual leanring effected students as well as how the lack of field trips have impacted students learning.

Our Research Question

How can variable classroom settings support different learning styles?

Our problem statement

Our problem statement is: Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, students, teachers, and families have had to adapt to virtual learning. This has stunted the development of many students learning, presenting issues with how students learn in virtual settings, and prompted a debate on how classroom settings impact students learning. With the goal of creating a more equitable learning pathway for our students, we believe that a greater effort could be made to implement variable classroom settings to accommodate students of all learning styles. Among others, we are considering different classroom layouts, outdoor education, and class excursions.

Literature Synthesis

Our action research is focused on how variable classroom settings can support different learning styles. We discussed how the COVID-19 raised important questions about how students adapt to different classroom settings (virtual learning), the connection to learning styles, and the value of out-of-classroom learning experiences. With students returning to a more consistent and structured school agenda, we should be looking at literature that examines students’ learning habits, behaviour, and mental health and wellbeing. It also extends to learning experiences outside of the traditional classroom, such as forest schools and class trips.

On student behaviour, Simmons, K. Carpenter, L., Crenshaw, K., & Hinton, V. (2015) led an investigation into how different seating arrangements impacted student behaviour in a second grade classroom. We thought that this was valuable in supporting our research because their findings suggest that students behaviour is variable with classroom layouts. If we can find a classroom layout that suits our students, we can influence their behaviour to the benefit of the whole classroom.

Data Analysis

Data for this study will be collected over the course of a full school year. It is important that this data is categorized by learning environment as we anticipate differentiating impacts of each setting. Furthermore, particular attention will be given to the impact of classroom settings that benefit from this (science, social studies etc).

In order to analyze data, we will use a combination of qualitative and quantitative markers. Quantitative markers will be in the form of progress reports, using tangible letter grades to see the impact of students learning has been reflected in assessment. Qualitative markers will ultimately hold more weight with our research as we look to measure intangible markers (mental health and wellbeing, learning skills etc) that may impact student learning. We aim to analyze the qualitative data through use of key descriptors/codes and represent their frequency through bar charts. With this, we can cross-analyze our qualitative/quantitative data to find a link between variable classroom settings and tangible progress in assessment.

Participants

School Boards Progress Reports - Teachers, Administrators, School Boards will all play a role in this data collection. The data will collected from individual student report cards, contributing to a wider school report and then onto the board level.

School Mental Health Ontario - Teachers, Parents, Students are contributors to this data. Data should be collected via anecdotal evidence of teacher reports, parent correspondence, and student interviews

Ontario Society for Environmental Educators - Teachers and students will provide this data. This data should be collected promptly after class trips/outdoor education learning experiences in the form of exit tickets and student interviews.

Data Sources

In order to investigate how variable classroom settings support different learning styles, we discussed how this could be measured both quantitatively and qualitatively. We thought that school board progress reports were a natural measure of enhanced student learning, but we must find a link to class trips/outdoor education and student mental health/wellbeing. In this regard, we believe that School Mental Health Ontario and the Ontario Society for Environmental Education may provide useful information. This data is likely to come in the form of anecdotal evidence and it will be up to us to find links to the quantitative progress report data. Our hope is to demonstrate that students that participate in stimulating classrooms, with care for their mental health and non-traditional learning experiences, will achieve greater academically

Intervention

We intend to explore how educators used virtual field trips during the COVID-19 pandemic and to what degree/how it affected student learning. Furthermore, we would ask educators how they have altered their classroom layouts or pursued out-of-classroom school trips since the return to in-person learning and their students reaction to such. For this, we would collect anecdotal evidence of discussions with teacher peers, aiming to survey a variety of grade levels and subject matters.

Ethical Considerations

Students and parents will be asked for consent prior to their participation in any data collection. They may withdraw their consent at any moment, in which case that data will be discarded. Participants will be referred to by letters (A, B, C etc) for privacy sake.