CB130008S

Monday, 2 March 2009

THOUGHTS ON THE WORKPLACE CONTEXT OF

A C T I O N I N Q U I RY
In this report I will look to see how working as a teacher of Vendor ICT provides a framework for
action inquiry to be built around the question: “How can I drive a sense of urgency and engagement
in my students at both KS4 and 5?” I will also look to demonstrate how the institutional application of
the inquiry possibly contrasts with existing research on engagement among students at KS4 and 5.

To begin to answer this question, a degree of research is required to investigate how engagement is
achieved and the means through which we can achieve it.

First, it is important to classify who we are actually talking about; the students. Students currently in
KS4/5 are classified as: Generation Y (demographic born between 1977-1997) (Rockler-Gladen, 2006.)
Going onto read the report by Rockler-Gladen, she outlines the following characteristics and context
of the generation:

• Generation Y is extremely comfortable with technology

• Generation Y is cynical
• Generation Y has a non-existent attention span
• Generation Y loves consumerism
• Generation Y is more diverse than previous generations
• Generation Y is used to chaos

Looking at these points on Generation Y I have to concur as I am one of them. This then raises the
point that the fact I am the same generation as my students, how can I use this to my advantage?

To look at one specific point raised by Rockler-Gladen; “Generation Y is extremely comfortable with
technology” this is a point I can relate with as using technology and ICT as a framework for a higher
purpose (i.e. To use ICT as a framework for learning a modern foreign language) is one of my passions
and visions in education. Constance Staley (1999) comments that: “Teaching with technology requires
us to re-evaluate not only what we teach, but how and why we teach it.” I take this to mean that ICT
provides an additional component to the Student - Teacher framework, but then how can we use ICT
within that framework and how can it be used to drive engagement?

Astin (1984) phrases: “Students learn more the more they are involved in both the academic and
social aspects of the collegiate experience. An involved student is one who devotes considerable
energy to academics, spends much time on campus, participates actively in student organizations and
activities, and interacts often with faculty” (Astin, 1984, p.292.) With the previous discussions, this
provides an extra component on how to target specifics when it comes to engagement. From my
own experiences, students that ‘get involved’ with curricular activities, as and when they happen,
achieve a high level of attainment when it comes to some kind of assessment of their learning (i.e.
grades.) So how can ICT facilitate and extend this?

At this point it is important to reflect and see how all this actually matters. Driving and heightening
engagement is important because the more engaged a student is in a topic or subject, the higher the
sense of urgency to do well. This then reflects back on the student as praise and good marks

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(attainment) spurring the student on further and the cycle then repeats. Next, how does it fit? This will
fit within my organisation as my Academy is always looking to improve teaching and learning
methodologies with the view to increasing student attainment as percentage pass rates at the end of
KS4 (Year 11) and KS5 (Year 13/14.)

As I will only be looking at my own practice with a view to furthering something that is a basic part of
my job description (student attainment), there aren’t too many ethical considerations to consider. In
my inquiry, it may be that I reflect in action and see that an avenue of qualitative data needs to be
collected from my colleagues or students. This could be in the form of a questionnaire which would
then have to have ethical considerations applied to it depending to the nature and focus of the
questions asked, such as anonymity.

This all provides a brief premise for the action inquiry, but now the focus needs to be honed into
some possible specific research questions. The aim of the inquiry is to find avenues to answering the
question: “How can I drive a sense of urgency and engagement in my students at both KS4 and 5?”. To
answer this broad and open question, a sub-set of questions need to be devised. These will be general
qualitative questions about the context of the inquiry, but these may also be targeted at elements of
the workplace such as student and colleagues. Some example questions could be:

What do you enjoy most in a lesson?

This could be a possible question to find out what a student enjoys and therefor engages with.

What interests you most about this subject?

This is another student question that could be compared with the first to see whether what a
student enjoys is the same as what interests them, thus identifying that possibly a topic they enjoy
wasn't delivered in an enjoyable way and therefor not engaging.

What kind of learners am I working with (Kinaesthetic, Auditory, Visual)?

A VARK test could be delivered to students to identify how they learn, thus finding a mode
way of teaching for the class and finding activities to take advantage of a common learning style.

What capabilities do I have at my disposal for delivery of an ICT framework?

Investigate with heads of my organisation to see what capabilities we currently have and what
could be ‘on the cards’

What constraints do my organisations policies stipulate on the action inquiry?

Look at organisational policies with regards to how to carry out this research, use of student
data and research within the organisation in general.

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