QED+&+ED+Group+4

Chris, thanks for your imput. I'm ok with which ever way we decide to go. I just was thinking and thought I should through some thoughts out there for us to consider. I also like the way Pam came up with some adjustments. I hope that is ok with you. Regards Willi

Willi --

I agree with your ideas on the equalizing of the populations and I have adjusted the design to accomodate this modification. I'm not certain if we can account for the other intervening variables (though I completely agree with you on their importance if this were to be an actual study) in the time span that we have to design this experiment.

I'm leaning toward the one school environment for thsi study since it is somewhat smaller scale. True, one could say that we would have some critique on our study's validity. However, feel free to make the modification to the design.

I love the way this study has shaped up!

-Chris

Hey Guys please take a look at the attach article. I think this give us some theory to support our hypothesis or at least gives us a jumping point for our discussion section. Let me know what you think, as there is some strong correction with transcription fluency with note taking quality thus if students hare freed up mentally with graphic organizers i.e. powerpoint notes then we could suppose they would be more successful in class and take better quality notes. Also, that transcription fluency is correlated to woking memory especialy when there is a cognitive load, I would think in situations as ours where students are subjected to a lot of new information, i.e. lecture setting.

Pam I can't seem to get the article uploaded so I will send it to your e-mail if you could please upload it for me. I will also add the piece in your e-mail for you and Chris's review. Regards Willi

I got it posted, Willi. Pam

Hey Guys:

I have a few question or suggestions to think about as well finalize or come to terms with the final proposal. Population:
 * How are we accounting for standarizing differing ability level in each class, special need, diffent learning styles etc., even though we say slightly below, on, or above grade level and that they will be randomly assigned. How will we make sure each class has the same amount of students with differing learning needs in each group. Just something to think about. Would that scew our results as far as effectiveness of powerpoint vs. chalk notes? I think we should at least try to make sure the percentages of students in each population is at least equal since we are standardidzing the teacher and instruction given (i.e. lesson). Not sure we can draw the conclusion we want without taking this factor into account. How can we isolate the variable of effect of powepoint over chalk notes without taking into account factors of the learner? Or, does it matter? Please help me to feel comfortable with this. I suggest maybe determining the percentages of equal number of students from each population group and distributing them in each class. But then are we actually changing the study to being quasi-experimental design? Not sure how to accomodate for this problem.
 * Should we consider making the sample size larger more classrooms across different schools to assist in increased validity in our experiment design methodolgy section?

Any thoughts you guys have, I look forward to hearing from you.

-Willi

Pam , Wilberlee, Chris
 * Group 4 (**


 * ) Please post your research proposal here. Each time you'd like to add something, simply click on "Edit." You may also use the "Discussion" area to communicate with each other.**

Need any help getting started? Francia Thanks for your assistance over the phone, Francia. The information was helpful. pc Abstract This is a brief summary of your research proposal. Since we are already only presenting a brief version of our proposals, this need not be completed and is only included here to model the format of a research proposal.

Hello. Chris, I like the idea you came up with looking at how students perform when technology such as PowerPoint is used compared to students having to take notes while the teacher is writing on a chalkboard. Some ideas I was thinking about regarding this is that we could look at how much discussion was occurring in each scenario and other areas of engagement. We could use observation for this. Also, I think having pre and post tests on topics to see what student learning may have occurred. Should we start this out as a small study looking at only having one teacher providing or several who teach the same grade level and subject area? What do you think about how extensive we want this study to be? Did you want to use one school or several within a district? I am thinking it would be good regardless to focus on one grade level and subject. Chris, I know you were going to be getting on here later so I wanted to share some of my thoughts. pc Pam - I see you've got the hang of it! good job. I know our group realizes this is a daunting task and we really can't expect complete projects in the span of 1 week. FR Introduction Formally state the problem to be researched and briefly discuss why this question is important to the educational and research communities

For our study, we will examine the differences in student participation in six ninth grade biology classrooms when one group is exposed to chalkboard style notes (wherein the student must organize their blank looseleaf paper notes themselves and decide if they are going to summarize the notes or copy notes verbatim) versus Powerpoint slide presentations (wherein the student will be given a more guided format in which to receive the information). The “chalk and talk” lecture style will be used for the chalkboard notes and students will have to rely on taking notes into their own notebook. The Powerpoint presentations will be printed and distributed to students prior to class and will contain blank lines on the sides for students to jot down any additional notes they wish to take.

With the advent of Smartboards, Elmos, and Microsoft software being readily available to teachers to use in the classroom, we felt that an examination of how students respond, via class participation, to the two different formats would be invaluable for teachers to use to determine their best practice.

Literature Review Normally, this is fairly extensive and details existing research that has already been done on the area of inquiry. For the purpose of this project, please omit the literature review.

Omit

Let this area be your primary focus for the experimental design. You have great ideas Pam - just plug them in here Method - Methodology: If possible what methodological approach has been taken by previous researchers in this area and what approach do you intend to take?

As a backdrop theoretical framework for this proposed study, we would like to think about and possibly extend knowledge and data already in the field of effects of different types of note taking, quality, and possibly future studies on its effect for quality note taking and student success. Acccording to Ransdell & Levy, 1996; Ransdell, Levy, & Kellogg, 2002 studies, their "data, along with data from research on the experimental manipulation of transcription fluency, suggest that transcription fluency is related to working memory and to writing quantity and quality, especially in situations in which there is a substantial degree of cognitive load." (Peverly, Ramaswamy, Garner, Brown, Sumowski, and Alidoostp, p. 168). Therefore, we hypothesize, that quality of student note taking will increase with the aid of PowerPoint graphic organizers as a tool to focus students efforts. Therefore, the PowerPoint graphic organizer will enable students to take notes more fluently and be of better quality. We also hypothesize that due to the graphic organizer, student's working memory will be freed up for transcription fluency and better quality notes.

Given that we are doing an examination of student participation toward two different media, we will first do a pre-examination field observation to get a sense of how the class participation in the classroom normally flows. Are the students usually actively engaged in the lesson or are they usually detached? Additionally, we will administer a pre-test to the students to determine how they would rate their own level of participation in the classroom environment. The pre-test will be a questionnaire style assessment and will a 5 point Likert scale format (strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, strongly disagree). These same style of questionnaires will be administered via post-test assessment.

The study methodology will be to use both teaching formats in both of the classrooms -- classroom1 will get “chalk and talk” notes while classroom 2 will get Powerpoint notes and then after one week the formats will switch. Field observations will be done in both classrooms to establish that the teacher is, in fact, staying true to the lecture format, and to ensure that the questionnaire data has some significant matching to the actual observations seen of students. The post-test will ask questions on how students would rate their level of participation in both of the teaching formats. In addition, the teachers will also be given a questionnaire to gauge how he/she felt about the level of participation in the classroom after each session. Hence, we will be using a mixed methodology of quantitative and qualitative.

- Design This is where you discuss the type of study you’ll be undertaking. In this case, you'll be describing the QED or ED approach you have chosen and why it makes sense for your investigation.

We will be using the Experimental Design (ED) approach. We chose this design so that we would be able to compare and contrast the outcome of student performance using two different teaching techniques. We will also be implementing pre and post tests so that we will be able to gauge individual students' knowledge before and after the lessons for the week. Additionally, we will use the ED approach to analyze the observations made regarding student involvement in the lessons through observations and the student surveys on the perceptions they have regarding their lesson involvement.

- Population/Sample Who will be the subjects of your research? Will they be randomly assigned to groups or will they self-select? Give as much detail about the participants as possible

The subjects of our research will be 9th grade students. They will be randomly assigned to two different classrooms within each of the 3 school buildings in our study. The buildings are in diverse geographical areas - one urban, one suburban, and one rural. One biology teacher from each building will be in the study. This study will be done on a small scale so we will not be able to have a wide variety of ethnic groups, but this information may be used as a starting point for possible further investigation. Academically, the students will be either slightly below, on, or above grade level in science. We have a mix of girls and boys. All the students will have the same instructor.

We will randomly assign students to the two different biology classrooms by using computer-generated randomization based on student id numbers. The demographics of the area where the school is consists of low to upper middle class students so we will have a range of socioeconomic statuses represented. In two of the schools we are working with, there is one biology instructor so they will automatically be selected to be in the study. In the urban high school, we will randomly select the biology teacher to be involved in the study by employing computer-generated randomization based on teacher id numbers.

Have you decided which method you will use to randomly select these 9th graders? and the teachers? FR Thanks Francia, we had the student information and somehow lost it so I put it back in. We are addressing the teachers now, too. PC This study will be done on a small scale so we will not be able to have a wide variety of ethnic groups, but this information may be used as a starting point for possible further investigation. The percentages of the students (based on academic reports - report cards, teacher characteristics) will be equal across each of the groups. Academically, the students will be either slightly below, on, or above grade level in science. We have a mix of girls and boys. A total of 3 instructors will participate with each of them teaching one "chalk and talk" lesson and one PowerPoint lesson. We will randomly assign students to the different biology classrooms by using computer-generated randomization based on student id numbers. The demographics of the area where the school is consists of low to upper middle class students so we will have a range of socioeconomic statuses represented.

- Data Collection/Analysis What are the important variables under consideration? How will you analyze your data and what steps can be taken to ensure as much validity as possible.

An important variable is the availability or lack of the students having a graphic organizer of their notes. In the one case, students will have PowerPoint notes available that will have written outline information as well as visuals. In the other situation, the learners will need to take their own notes based on the teacher's presentation and notes written on the chalkboard. Another variable is the use of technology verses chalkboard, paper, and pen.

Regarding validity, we will provide instruction to the teachers regarding proper use of PowerPoint for classroom instruction. We have researched articles on the best practices of utilizing PowerPoint to provide information. This will assist us in having the teachers use the technology tool in the proper manner. Furthermore, we will have the same researchers observing the students so this will avoid concerns about different researchers' subjective judgments on classroom participation. By having the same teacher instruct the PowerPoint and the "chalk and talk" lessons, we will control for other aspects of teaching styles. After we have randomly placed the students in the different classroom instructional environments, we will analyze the data to see if the demographics of the students were similar between the classrooms in each school, such as the gender and socioeconomic ratios.

- Techniques Briefly describe how you will collect the relevant data. Will you need specific instruments? How will you ensure that you are collecting sufficient quantities of data?

We will collect the data in varying ways. We will gather the data on student knowledge of the material using pre and post tests that will be 75% multiple choice and 25% open-ended questions. Scantron sheets will be used for the Multiple Choice section and the students will use pencils to record their responses. We will also administer pre and post surveys asking the students how they rate their level of engagement in the classroom with the responses being from the Likert scale. Furthermore, we will observe the classes before and during the study. We will record our field notes based on parameters such as student attentiveness, the flow of discussion in the class, the types of questions the teachers and students pose, and the energy level in the classrooms.

- Ethical Considerations Are there ethical issues that may arise from this study? If so, how are they addressed and minimized?

We will seek permission from the Internal Review Board of our institution and the students (and their parents) will receive permission slips to do the research. Given that the curriculum will be maintained and that only a week’s format will be altered, we feel that we will not be having any risks with further ethical considerations.

- Discussion Finally, discuss the possible implications of your research. If your hypothesis is correct, what impact will it have on the educational community? Are there any limitations of your study and what conclusion do you hope to be able to draw from this work?

If our hypothesis is correct that instructor proper use of PowerPoint will engage students more in the lesson, lead to better quality note taking, and lead to higher learning, then we will have demonstrated a best practice. This may then lead to additional teacher training in how to create PowerPoint lessons and use them effectively. This study could also lead to future reseach on the correlation between quality note taking and student success or better performance in school. A limitation in this study is that although the teachers of the students we studied were trained in the effective use of PowerPoint, they may not follow all this guidance throughout their preparations of the slides and delivery during the week. Likewise, there may be a better way to use "chalk and talk" then the teachers employ when instructing. If the teachers feel already that using PowerPoint was a better teaching method, they may inadvertently work harder in delivering this type of instruction and/or be more dynamic because they enjoy the use of this technology tool more than writing notes on the chalkboard. Conversely, if any of the teachers prefer the "chalk and talk" method, they may be more dynamic during those lessons. The conclusion we hope to arrive at from this work is that as long as teachers are educated well in the use of integrating PowerPoint lessons in the curriculum, students will be more engaged in discussions and learn more from the graphical organizer as well as the lecture and conversation on the topic.

- References Please include citations used in constructing this project. It need not be extensive.

Adams, C. (2006). PowerPoint, habits of mind, and classroom culture. //Journal of Curriculum Studies, 38(//4), 389-411. Retrieved on October 10, 2010, from Academic Search Complete database.

Brier, D. & Lebbin, D. (2009). Perception and use of PowerPoint at library instruction conferences. //Reference & User Services Quarterly//, 48(4), 352-361.

Peverly, S. T., Ramaswamy, V., Brown, C., Sumowski, J., & Alidoost, M. (2007). What predicts skill in lecture note taking? //Journal of Educational Psychology//, //99//(1), 167-180.

Yilmazel-Sahin, Y. (2009). A comparison of graduate and undergraduate teacher education students' perceptions of their instructors' use of "Microsoft PowerPoint." //Technology, Pedagogy, and Education//, 18(3), 361-380. Retrieved on October 10, 2010, from Education Research Complete database.