Initial design:
For my new research project topic on teacher-librarian collaboration, I will be using a simple survey (questionnaire) of teachers in my building to collect my data. I may also conduct a semi-structured interview with the media specialist. I have created short, informal surveys before, but this will be my first longer, formal survey.
Aim:
The aim of my survey is to collect answers to my research question: what factors affect media specialist-teacher collaboration in my high school? I will need to ask about the following factors, and I'm concerned about writing questions that will elicit honest, detailed feedback:
a. Opinions and beliefs about this type of collaboration
b. Attitudes behind those beliefs (their experience discussing this in teacher ed)
c. Past behavior (did they collaborate, to what extent), and the motives behind that behavior (why)
d. Maybe: future behavior
Construction:
I am still debating between using a web survey or paper surveys. Because I will be surveying the staff at my high school, I can easily use mailboxes to distribute and collect the surveys. I am wondering which would give me the highest response rate. I find web-based surveys easy to take, but I also tend to put it off until later, and by then the email is buried underneath new emails. Paper surveys, too, can get lost under piles of papers to grade, but they do seem "more important."
Sampling:
I am also debating about whether to survey the entire teaching staff, or choose a sample. Currently, there are around 134 teachers in my building. Not all of them are full time and some are special education, counselors, etc. who may not be in the classroom. If I do decide to sample, I'll have to decide how many to sample and how to choose. I could simply do a random sampling of the teachers, or I could stratify based on subject area. If I do stratify, it might make sense to use disproportionate stratification to account for the fact that some subject areas are much larger than others. Another way I might approach this is to ask the media specialist to identify teachers she has worked with in the last few years and those she hasn't and stratify the sample that way.
I am also now having second thoughts about the teacher ed piece. Should I also survey students in teacher ed classes at Augsburg, or should I just focus on my building? It seems like it might be too broad, too far away from my research question to bring a whole other population into the mix.
Obviously, I still have lots of decisions to make. I am finding the Gibbs' videos very helpful in thinking through these issues, and I hope we can discuss them in class next week.
Saturday, February 28, 2015
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
Blog #3.5: New Topic!
So, I have been doing lots of thinking since Saturday.....and after struggling quite a bit with my topic and methodology, and reconsidering other interests, I've decided I'd like to change gears. It's something that I discourage my own students from doing, but I feel good about the change and it's still early in the process.
New topic:
1. Establish purpose: As a classroom teacher who hasn't collaborated much with media specialists over the years and as a media specialist-in-training who wants to collaborate with teachers, I am interested in finding out why teachers do or don't collaborate with media specialists in lesson planning, teaching and assessing.
I plan to survey teachers in my own building as well as my media specialist. I am also interested in whether K-12 teacher preparation programs discuss this type of collaboration. I have contacted a professor in teacher education at Augsburg and she has agreed to let me survey her students as well.
2. Methodological location: Like most qualitative research projects, my project will be inductive, meaning I will be looking at particular instances and trying to make a generalization of some sort.
3. Scoping: I will survey and/or interview teachers in my own building: those who frequently, sometimes, and never work with our media specialist to create lessons; and I will interview my media specialist about strategies she has used to increase collaboration. I will also survey new teachers in a teacher ed program about their perceptions of media specialists and their experience learning about or being encouraged to collaborate with a media specialist in their teacher education program.
4: Nature of Data: Survey results and/or interview transcripts
5: Thinking Ahead: I believe this study should help shed light on factors that influence teacher-librarian partnerships, starting from teacher education on to the real world of everyday lesson planning.
New topic:
1. Establish purpose: As a classroom teacher who hasn't collaborated much with media specialists over the years and as a media specialist-in-training who wants to collaborate with teachers, I am interested in finding out why teachers do or don't collaborate with media specialists in lesson planning, teaching and assessing.
I plan to survey teachers in my own building as well as my media specialist. I am also interested in whether K-12 teacher preparation programs discuss this type of collaboration. I have contacted a professor in teacher education at Augsburg and she has agreed to let me survey her students as well.
2. Methodological location: Like most qualitative research projects, my project will be inductive, meaning I will be looking at particular instances and trying to make a generalization of some sort.
3. Scoping: I will survey and/or interview teachers in my own building: those who frequently, sometimes, and never work with our media specialist to create lessons; and I will interview my media specialist about strategies she has used to increase collaboration. I will also survey new teachers in a teacher ed program about their perceptions of media specialists and their experience learning about or being encouraged to collaborate with a media specialist in their teacher education program.
4: Nature of Data: Survey results and/or interview transcripts
5: Thinking Ahead: I believe this study should help shed light on factors that influence teacher-librarian partnerships, starting from teacher education on to the real world of everyday lesson planning.
Thursday, February 19, 2015
Blog #3: Research Project Design
My previous experience working with undergraduates (and high school seniors, as well), is that they are, as a group, very unlikely to independently seek help from librarians or writing lab tutors when working on research assignments. I assume the factors for this are any combination of the following:
a. They do not know about the type of help that is available to them
b. They feel confident in their work and don't feel they need help
c. They have procrastinated so long on the assignment that there is no time for help
d. They know there is help available and that they would benefit from it, but they feel intimidated about asking for it.
Using Richards and Morse's five steps, the following is a potential research design for my study:
1. Establish purpose: After working with undergraduates that did stop at the reference desk, it was common for them to remark about how valuable the service was, or that they wished they would have known earlier they could ask for help here. I would like to know more about why students are not using these services and how librarians and writing centers might work together to invite more students in.
2. Methodological location: Like most qualitative research projects, my project will be inductive, meaning I will be looking at particular instances and trying to make a generalization of some sort.
3. Scoping: I will interview a number of students (3-5?), reference desk librarians (2?), and writing tutors (2?) at two local private colleges, one with a writing center inside the library and one outside of it. By talking with 14-18 people, I hope to have enough responses to make my pilot study valid as well as manageable.
4: Nature of Data: I will be asking students who do/do not visit the writing centers and reference desks why they did/did not, what their understanding of the two services are, and how helpful they found them. I will be asking reference desk librarians and writing lab tutors about their perceptions of students, each other, and ways that they have/have not collaborated.
5: Thinking Ahead: I believe this study should help shed light on the value of these two services and how they could be more helpful to students. Because I plan to study two campuses with different models, I am obviously looking to compare and contrast. If it seems positioning the writing center within the library does lead to more use of and collaboration between services, I will focus on that. If, however, there is no discernible difference between the two models, then I will look at factors outside of their locations that may help explain students' perceptions and use.
a. They do not know about the type of help that is available to them
b. They feel confident in their work and don't feel they need help
c. They have procrastinated so long on the assignment that there is no time for help
d. They know there is help available and that they would benefit from it, but they feel intimidated about asking for it.
Using Richards and Morse's five steps, the following is a potential research design for my study:
1. Establish purpose: After working with undergraduates that did stop at the reference desk, it was common for them to remark about how valuable the service was, or that they wished they would have known earlier they could ask for help here. I would like to know more about why students are not using these services and how librarians and writing centers might work together to invite more students in.
2. Methodological location: Like most qualitative research projects, my project will be inductive, meaning I will be looking at particular instances and trying to make a generalization of some sort.
3. Scoping: I will interview a number of students (3-5?), reference desk librarians (2?), and writing tutors (2?) at two local private colleges, one with a writing center inside the library and one outside of it. By talking with 14-18 people, I hope to have enough responses to make my pilot study valid as well as manageable.
4: Nature of Data: I will be asking students who do/do not visit the writing centers and reference desks why they did/did not, what their understanding of the two services are, and how helpful they found them. I will be asking reference desk librarians and writing lab tutors about their perceptions of students, each other, and ways that they have/have not collaborated.
5: Thinking Ahead: I believe this study should help shed light on the value of these two services and how they could be more helpful to students. Because I plan to study two campuses with different models, I am obviously looking to compare and contrast. If it seems positioning the writing center within the library does lead to more use of and collaboration between services, I will focus on that. If, however, there is no discernible difference between the two models, then I will look at factors outside of their locations that may help explain students' perceptions and use.
Thursday, February 12, 2015
Blog #2: Topic Selection
In chapter 2, Richards and Morse (2007) list some common considerations in topic selection. Of the five they list, the one that best reflects my current thinking is number 4: What is going on here? Answers to pragmatic questions.
While working at the reference desk here at St. Kate's, I noticed that students were often confused and frustrated by the different roles--and locations--of the writing center tutors and librarians. As a writing instructor and librarian-in-training, I was also torn. My directive was to help only with research and citation questions, but to send students downstairs to the O'Neill Writing Center if they had writing questions. But I'll admit I "cheated" more than once and helped students with spelling, grammar, punctuation, and usage questions as well as larger writing issues such as thesis statements, paragraph cohesion, and transitions when I had time. In every one of those cases, students were incredibly appreciative.
This experience raised questions I would like to explore in this project. When undergraduates have questions about their college research assignments:
Who: Undergraduate college students, reference desk librarians, and writing center tutors
Where: During one of my observations for a reference class, I noticed the writing center at Augsburg College is located within the library. So, I am considering studying students at two private Minnesota colleges: St. Catherine University and Augsburg College.
Research methods: As of now, I'm a bit unclear about which of the three approaches Richards and Morse discuss (phenomenology, ethnography, or grounded theory) fit my research questions best, but I will likely use interview, observation, and possibly surveys in my research.
While working at the reference desk here at St. Kate's, I noticed that students were often confused and frustrated by the different roles--and locations--of the writing center tutors and librarians. As a writing instructor and librarian-in-training, I was also torn. My directive was to help only with research and citation questions, but to send students downstairs to the O'Neill Writing Center if they had writing questions. But I'll admit I "cheated" more than once and helped students with spelling, grammar, punctuation, and usage questions as well as larger writing issues such as thesis statements, paragraph cohesion, and transitions when I had time. In every one of those cases, students were incredibly appreciative.
This experience raised questions I would like to explore in this project. When undergraduates have questions about their college research assignments:
- To what extent/in what ways do they use the reference desk librarians vs. the writing center tutors?
- What is their understanding of the roles of these different resources?
- How helpful do they find these resources?
- To what extent do the following factors affect their use/understanding:
- The location of the writing center (within or outside of the library)?
- The level of collaboration between the library and writing center staff?
- Others?
Who: Undergraduate college students, reference desk librarians, and writing center tutors
Where: During one of my observations for a reference class, I noticed the writing center at Augsburg College is located within the library. So, I am considering studying students at two private Minnesota colleges: St. Catherine University and Augsburg College.
Research methods: As of now, I'm a bit unclear about which of the three approaches Richards and Morse discuss (phenomenology, ethnography, or grounded theory) fit my research questions best, but I will likely use interview, observation, and possibly surveys in my research.
Sunday, February 8, 2015
Blog #1: Goals and Introduction
When this class was offered as an alternative for the research requirement, I jumped at the chance to take it. Not only because I have really enjoyed taking classes with Joyce previously, but because I am excited for the opportunity to conduct in depth research on a topic of my choice. My goal is to design and complete a research project that will be of interest to me and my classmates, and that will contribute to the field of LIS. I am still refining my topic ideas, but as a writing instructor, I am very interested in looking at how students use (or don't use) writing centers and libraries to meet their information needs when working on research assignments, and how writing tutors and librarians might work together more effectively to help students succeed.
My experience doing research is mainly in academic settings. I conducted both primary and secondary research projects as an undergraduate student in English and psychology as well in both of my graduate programs for teaching and now LIS. Outside of the classroom, I was involved in a research committee studying school schedules and graduation requirements for my school district a few years ago. In addition, I have been teaching research skills to my 12th grade English students for many years. In the field of English, our research involves mainly explication of texts, but I also teach a writing class in which students conduct ethnographic and library research. For the past few years, I have also worked with IB students on the Extended Essay which is a 4000 word research project in a field of their choice. It will be fun for me now to be on the other side of the process.
Certainly, this class will help me be a better writing teacher as well as a better librarian. Obviously, studying information seeking behavior is crucial for LIS professionals. In our world of information overload, the more we understand about how people search and how we can help them search more efficiently and effectively, the more successful they will be at meeting their information needs.
My experience doing research is mainly in academic settings. I conducted both primary and secondary research projects as an undergraduate student in English and psychology as well in both of my graduate programs for teaching and now LIS. Outside of the classroom, I was involved in a research committee studying school schedules and graduation requirements for my school district a few years ago. In addition, I have been teaching research skills to my 12th grade English students for many years. In the field of English, our research involves mainly explication of texts, but I also teach a writing class in which students conduct ethnographic and library research. For the past few years, I have also worked with IB students on the Extended Essay which is a 4000 word research project in a field of their choice. It will be fun for me now to be on the other side of the process.
Certainly, this class will help me be a better writing teacher as well as a better librarian. Obviously, studying information seeking behavior is crucial for LIS professionals. In our world of information overload, the more we understand about how people search and how we can help them search more efficiently and effectively, the more successful they will be at meeting their information needs.
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
Librarian-Faculty Collaboration
Blog #11: What are different types of librarian-faculty collaboration?
What are the benefits and costs of such collaboration?
Describe an "aha" moment you had this week, if any.
Several years ago, I took a combined graduate/undergraduate Brit Lit course at the U of M. As we were starting an extensive research paper assignment, a sophomore in the class raised her hand and asked if the professor could spend some time going over MLA format. The professor seemed quite irritated and stated that if students did not know it by now, they would have to make a trip to the library. He simply did not feel he could take the time to do this in class (or, evidently, during his office hours). On some level, I do understand the professor's reluctance to give up his lectures and class discussions on the content. But I also feel that especially at the undergraduate level not discussing how to write in the field and then grading students on how well they can write in the field is...well, unethical. And the professor's vague directive to the student, to "visit the library" did not seem helpful at all.
Had the professor had some sort of a partnership with a librarian, this could have helped this student--and all of the class, really, even the graduate students. Faculty cannot just assume that students have picked up this knowledge somewhere along the way. There are many ways a librarian-faculty partnership could happen. One is the one-shot model that I've experienced here at St. Kate's. Giving up even just one class period to take the class to the library or have a librarian come into the class, though certainly not ideal, is much better than nothing. At the reference desk, I have worked with many students who did not really remember much of the one-shot lesson, but they did remember that they could come and ask librarians for help. That, at least, is a start.
Of course there are better models of partnerships that we read about for this week. One is to "embed" a librarian within every department. These librarians become subject area specialists and are seen as accessible resources for students. They might be housed in the department, make frequent class visits, and be listed in the course's D2L page. The best collaboration, however, happens before the class even starts as a "blended librarian." In my Observations and Analysis paper, I cited a study from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in which librarians and faculty sat down and looked at potential class assignments together. The result was that librarians became much more knowledgeable about what students were expected to do, and the professors were much more aware of the information literacy demands that were embedded within their assignments. Working together like this at the assignment--and even course design stage benefits everyone--librarians, faculty, and most importantly, the students.
What are the benefits and costs of such collaboration?
Describe an "aha" moment you had this week, if any.
Several years ago, I took a combined graduate/undergraduate Brit Lit course at the U of M. As we were starting an extensive research paper assignment, a sophomore in the class raised her hand and asked if the professor could spend some time going over MLA format. The professor seemed quite irritated and stated that if students did not know it by now, they would have to make a trip to the library. He simply did not feel he could take the time to do this in class (or, evidently, during his office hours). On some level, I do understand the professor's reluctance to give up his lectures and class discussions on the content. But I also feel that especially at the undergraduate level not discussing how to write in the field and then grading students on how well they can write in the field is...well, unethical. And the professor's vague directive to the student, to "visit the library" did not seem helpful at all.
Had the professor had some sort of a partnership with a librarian, this could have helped this student--and all of the class, really, even the graduate students. Faculty cannot just assume that students have picked up this knowledge somewhere along the way. There are many ways a librarian-faculty partnership could happen. One is the one-shot model that I've experienced here at St. Kate's. Giving up even just one class period to take the class to the library or have a librarian come into the class, though certainly not ideal, is much better than nothing. At the reference desk, I have worked with many students who did not really remember much of the one-shot lesson, but they did remember that they could come and ask librarians for help. That, at least, is a start.
Of course there are better models of partnerships that we read about for this week. One is to "embed" a librarian within every department. These librarians become subject area specialists and are seen as accessible resources for students. They might be housed in the department, make frequent class visits, and be listed in the course's D2L page. The best collaboration, however, happens before the class even starts as a "blended librarian." In my Observations and Analysis paper, I cited a study from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in which librarians and faculty sat down and looked at potential class assignments together. The result was that librarians became much more knowledgeable about what students were expected to do, and the professors were much more aware of the information literacy demands that were embedded within their assignments. Working together like this at the assignment--and even course design stage benefits everyone--librarians, faculty, and most importantly, the students.
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
Assessing Assessment
Blog #10: What methods are used to evaluate teaching and learning?
Why is evidence-based librarianship important?
Describe an "aha" moment you had this week, if any.
Kathi Rickert, St. Kate's Library, will talk this week about the design and preliminary results of a pilot study of a new IL initiative that embeds librarians in undergraduate core courses. What questions do you have for her about the assessment process?
This week, we read about the R stage of Booth's USER method. R stands for reflect: evaluate aspects of learner and instructor experience; revise: determine what you would do differently the next time; and reuse: instructional materials in other situations. Booth outlines James McMillan's assessment strategies: selected response (polls, multiple choice tests), constructed response (short answer essay), teacher observation, and student self assessment. She also discusses the feedback loop, which, she says, comprises the following stages:
a. Pre-assessment: to establish prior knowledge;
b. Formative assessment: to evaluate in-process;
c. Summative assessment: to judge overall effectiveness; and
d. Confirmative: to track retention well after the interaction.
Although I believe it is an essential part of the learning process, dealing well with the assessment of student work is the single most difficult part of teaching for me. One blocking force is certainly time. I have developed methods that help me assess more efficiently (rubrics, checklists, etc.), but especially as a writing teacher, I frequently feel overwhelmed by the amount of feedback I feel I should be giving students vs. the hours I have in the day. I know this is directly related to both class size and the competing demands on my own time. I have learned, over the years, that I don't have to give feedback on everything, that peer and self evaluations are beneficial, that grading portfolios of selected best work can save time and be just as effective. However, I also remember days of small classes when I could actually have a writing conference with each student and how beneficial that was.
Another blocking force, I admit, is my general cynicism surrounding assessment. I'm not talking about authentic assessment developed by teachers who know their students and curriculum best; I'm referring to our test-happy current educational environment where students are subjected to all sorts of summative and confirmative tests written by Pearson and other companies that are profiting big time on our buying into the belief that we must have quantifiable data to know if we are effective. These test results are published in the newspaper, and teacher shaming ensues, even from those very people who are supposed to support us. See the recent example from the Minneapolis schools' superintendent: http://www.startribune.com/topics/people/bernadeia-johnson.html
And it isn't just Pearson et al. We have five high schools in our district. The district office has decided that all schools must use the same end of the course summative assessments. So, a committee of teachers and "TALS" (Teaching and Learning Specialists) develop assessments for each class. Teachers need to administer the assessments on the same day, grade them according to the district rubric, then report the scores to the district office. This is a time consuming process, which might be worth it if: a) the tests were actually good, and b) the result data was transformed into something useful. Neither of these, for a variety of reasons, is true. For me, it boils down to the lack of trust surrounding teachers. It is interesting to me, now working in a college environment, that post-secondary teachers (many of whom have no background in assessment design) are free to assess however they wish.
Finally, there is the pushback that inevitably happens with assessment. Students complaining about their grades, and worse, parents complaining about their grades. And with an administration that typically tries to make parents happy, I am now to the point where I seriously stop and wonder if it is worth it to give a "bad" grade--which in some cases is an A-. I know I'm ranting, sorry. I'm just trying to come to terms with my feelings toward assessment. As a librarian, I know I will still deal with assessment, but in a different way. Many of these issues will be resolved. But in the meantime, I try to not let the system flatten me. I do lots of student self-assessment. I give verbal feedback often. I develop my own tests in addition to the district ones that actually measure what students should have and did learn.
Why is evidence-based librarianship important?
Describe an "aha" moment you had this week, if any.
Kathi Rickert, St. Kate's Library, will talk this week about the design and preliminary results of a pilot study of a new IL initiative that embeds librarians in undergraduate core courses. What questions do you have for her about the assessment process?
This week, we read about the R stage of Booth's USER method. R stands for reflect: evaluate aspects of learner and instructor experience; revise: determine what you would do differently the next time; and reuse: instructional materials in other situations. Booth outlines James McMillan's assessment strategies: selected response (polls, multiple choice tests), constructed response (short answer essay), teacher observation, and student self assessment. She also discusses the feedback loop, which, she says, comprises the following stages:
a. Pre-assessment: to establish prior knowledge;
b. Formative assessment: to evaluate in-process;
c. Summative assessment: to judge overall effectiveness; and
d. Confirmative: to track retention well after the interaction.
Although I believe it is an essential part of the learning process, dealing well with the assessment of student work is the single most difficult part of teaching for me. One blocking force is certainly time. I have developed methods that help me assess more efficiently (rubrics, checklists, etc.), but especially as a writing teacher, I frequently feel overwhelmed by the amount of feedback I feel I should be giving students vs. the hours I have in the day. I know this is directly related to both class size and the competing demands on my own time. I have learned, over the years, that I don't have to give feedback on everything, that peer and self evaluations are beneficial, that grading portfolios of selected best work can save time and be just as effective. However, I also remember days of small classes when I could actually have a writing conference with each student and how beneficial that was.
Another blocking force, I admit, is my general cynicism surrounding assessment. I'm not talking about authentic assessment developed by teachers who know their students and curriculum best; I'm referring to our test-happy current educational environment where students are subjected to all sorts of summative and confirmative tests written by Pearson and other companies that are profiting big time on our buying into the belief that we must have quantifiable data to know if we are effective. These test results are published in the newspaper, and teacher shaming ensues, even from those very people who are supposed to support us. See the recent example from the Minneapolis schools' superintendent: http://www.startribune.com/topics/people/bernadeia-johnson.html
And it isn't just Pearson et al. We have five high schools in our district. The district office has decided that all schools must use the same end of the course summative assessments. So, a committee of teachers and "TALS" (Teaching and Learning Specialists) develop assessments for each class. Teachers need to administer the assessments on the same day, grade them according to the district rubric, then report the scores to the district office. This is a time consuming process, which might be worth it if: a) the tests were actually good, and b) the result data was transformed into something useful. Neither of these, for a variety of reasons, is true. For me, it boils down to the lack of trust surrounding teachers. It is interesting to me, now working in a college environment, that post-secondary teachers (many of whom have no background in assessment design) are free to assess however they wish.
Finally, there is the pushback that inevitably happens with assessment. Students complaining about their grades, and worse, parents complaining about their grades. And with an administration that typically tries to make parents happy, I am now to the point where I seriously stop and wonder if it is worth it to give a "bad" grade--which in some cases is an A-. I know I'm ranting, sorry. I'm just trying to come to terms with my feelings toward assessment. As a librarian, I know I will still deal with assessment, but in a different way. Many of these issues will be resolved. But in the meantime, I try to not let the system flatten me. I do lots of student self-assessment. I give verbal feedback often. I develop my own tests in addition to the district ones that actually measure what students should have and did learn.
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