Week 30 - Reflect on Your Evidence

Step 1: Describe the data you have collected

As per my Action Plan, I have chosen to collect qualitative data, the ideas and opinions of my stakeholders.  At the start of the inquiry, I surveyed both parents and students to find out their feelings on writing, and the home/school relationship.  Many parents chose to not respond to the survey at all, but were happy for their children to be included in my inquiry.  The students were surveyed and were given the option to remain anonymous or to put their names on the survey.  As expected, those who responded with negative feelings about writing were those who struggle and are borderline with achieving what would have been National Standards expectations for their age.  

As the inquiry nears its end, I sent out a parent post-survey on Class Dojo, querying the use of Class Dojo as a e-Portfolio forum, their understanding of their child's learning goals and processes, their willingness to comment online and discussions that may have taken place with their child about their work. Unfortunately the parents were no more interested in completing the Post-Inquiry survey as they were the Pre-Survey, so data from their perspective is inconclusive.  I can only assume that the parents are happy enough with how things are progressing as surely they would complain if given the opportunity to do so.

I also surveyed the students to see if they have enjoyed writing this term, any highs and lows, their thoughts on publishing online and whether it motivated them more, and any conversations that were had at home regarding their published work.  Luckily I have a a captive audience with my students, all of whom completed their survey to a satisfactory standard.

As my inquiry is based around engagement and relationships qualitative data was appropriate.  Quantitative data could be used if I was looking for actual improvement in graded assessments, for example improved e-asTTle scores on writing samples.   

In order to prepare this data for analysis I needed to consider both students engagement (better or worse), and the discussions that have or have not taken place when work has been published online.

Step 2: Explain how you are analysing your data

Babione (2015) discussed using coding methods to assist in analysing themes in qualitative data.  Using a coding method requires creating codes under themes that occur in the data, and noting down each time they appear in the stakeholders responses.  Similar themes can then be grouped together and classified accordingly.  Results can then be displayed in the format of a tally chart or other such graphic organiser.  (p.143.)  Reading through the responses given from both surveys, I am looking for patterns and similarities to explain why things happen.  When surveying the children I asked closed questions that gave yes or no answers, then gave the students an opportunity to expand their ideas.  The yes or no answers meant that I was given very clear data, while some of those that expanded on their answers gave me a great insight into their thoughts.

The students post inquiry survey gave me the following responses.

	YES	NO
Have you enjoyed writing this term?	18	4
Have you enjoyed publishing your work through Book Creator and Class Dojo?	19	3
Has this process made you more motivated to improve the standard of your writing?	18	4
Did you talk to your family about your writing when it was published online?	18	4

The last two responses are the most relevant as 18 out of 22 children reported increased motivation, with the same number of children saying that they had discussed their writing with their family's after their work being published online.

Step 3: Reflect on your evidence so far

My inquiry has been to find out if publishing writing on Class Dojo increases engagement and improves home school relationships.  The data shows me that my inquiry has been successful for the majority of the students.  As to the feelings of the parents, whether they feel there has been any benefit in the discussions they have had is unclear.  I am satisfied with the student responses, but were I to repeat this inquiry I would make the parents more accountable to respond to my questions.

References:

Babione, C. (2015). Practitioner Teacher Inquiry and Research. USA: John Wiley & Sons.