Category: Unit 6

Link to Edenguessi’s Post

How does one identify biases in qualitative studies considering the level of subjectivity involved in the interpretation of data? (Edenguessi, 2018)

I really liked your question! I guess one has to look at the credentials of the researcher, the participants in the study (how were they chosen and how many), the type of study conducted, whether the data was coded and how it relates to the question being explored.

Is the researcher going to gain profitability from this data? If so, in what way?  Has this research been peer reviewed? Published? In what kind of journal? How credible is the journal in which it is published compared to others?

Link to Kwantlen Brenda’s Post

My question to my classmates I am curious to know is, how you too might have managed your biases when participating in a qualitative research study or when reading a qualitative study? (Kwantlen Brenda, 2018)

I think it is important to be honest, especially about what we don’t know. We need to be open and willing to see things from another persons lens and to ask a lot of questions.   When looking at historical narratives in the classroom there are always differing perspectives depending upon who is recording the documentation. Is it a first hand account? Is it from a reliable source? When studying European Medieval History, it was  helpful to note what was written from the viewpoint of each group involved.

There are also those among us, who are rich in knowledge about certain areas. Not only is it okay to ask questions, it is also strongly encouraged. For example,  I feel very blessed and grateful for the guidance myself and my students have received from our Aboriginal Support worker in helping us to better understand the atrocities of our own history through activities such as holding a Blanket Ceremony representing the loss of land and looking at first hand accounts of  residential school survivors.  Students and teachers are walking away better informed and knowledgable in ways that they never were before.

I believe that when we open our minds, question the evidence presented and can look at multiple reliable and credible viewpoints is when we  are able to learn the most.

Link to Achsahs Springs Post

First, in light of our studies in LDRS 500, is critical thinking a necessary leadership skill?  Is the ability to think critically a leadership trait, or is it a learned behaviour, or can it be both?  How critical is too critical?  For example, if I am critically reviewing someone’s work, at what point does it just becoming an exercise in finding fault and no longer has any value? (Achsah’s Springs, 2018)

I loved your question! You have obviously been reflecting quite a bit on it.

I thought you might find the following interesting as it connects to your question. As part of the new BC Education Curriculum for K-12, there are 6 core competencies that all students are expected to reflect upon and to self-assess where they are at throughout their learning journey.

The 6 core competencies are:

1. Creative Thinking
2. Personal & Social Awareness
3. Social Responsibility
4. Communication
5. Personal & Cultural Identity
6. Critical Thinking

As you noticed, one of the six is critical thinking.  Here is the student friendly language for which they reflect on where they are at.

Student friendly language Core Competencies reproduced with permission from DW Poppy Secondary School

I believe that critical thinking, like other skills is part of our life long learning journey. Some of us are also better at certain things than others. A lot of what is listed here, we do without even consciously realizing we are doing it in our jobs each day.

To answer your question of “how critical is too critical?”, I think the answer lies in what we have learned about Servant Leadership so far. The role of a leader is to help enable others to grow so that they can be their best selves. To do this, we need to focus on people’s strengths and to ask ourselves, “Is this helpful or hurtful?” before responding.  The role of the servant leader is to build people up, not tear them down.  Whenever I am providing feedback to a student, someone wise once told me that a quick way to know if something is acceptable, is to ask myself, “How would I be responding right now, if a TV camera was on me and this was going to be on the 6 o’clock news?”

Link to Charlie Mable’s Post

Do you think that pure qualitative research has a lot of parallels with marketing research? (Charlie Mable, 2018)

A great question! I do believe that qualitative research does have a lot of parallels with marketing research. Both can involve observations, interviews, analysis of documents, historical analysis and  focus groups to name a few. However, qualitative research tends to focus on a smaller number of participants which might not lend a lot of credence to National marketing decisions for the amount of time and effort that would be involved. What works in one city/province might not work in another.  Quantitative studies that are randomly conducted with large numbers of participants might reveal more transferable data.  Qualitative studies might be handy for a company for specific ad campaigns that target a select group of people such as teens, seniors, pregnant moms etc.,.

Part A

Please note that all tables referenced in this blog post are from Plano Clark & Creswell (2015).

Article Link: Sturm (2009)

Having had the opportunity this week to delve further into Qualitative research and to read more of Plano Clark & Creswell (2015), I decided to return to my first article, Principles of Servant-Leadership in Community Health Nursing by researcher Bonnie Sturm (2009)  in order to study it with a fresh perspective.

Plano Clark & Creswell (2015)

 Part B

Plano Clark & Creswell (2015)

Part C

Plano Clark & Creswell (2015)

Part D

As a consumer of research reports, the most important aspects I will need to consider in the methods and findings sections of a high quality qualitative research report are:

• What type of research is being conducted (narrative, case study, ethnographic, grounded theory)
• Whether the research focuses on a particular phenomenon of interest or a story of either an individual or a few individuals
• Evidence of respect for and ethical treatment towards all participants
• Understand and define the sampling of data (whether it is probability or purposeful)
• Are there clearly defined themes/sub-themes and has the researcher coded them?

I am still a work in progress in learning how to better read, understand and evaluate both quantitative and qualitative research studies. However, I definitely feel much more confident and familiar with qualitative reports than I do with quantitative.  Qualitative research studies are very applicable to education.  By conducting case studies and observations of small groups of students/teachers/administrators;  educators can gain a wealth of knowledge about classroom management, classroom set-up, student learning disabilities, relationships between staff and administrators, staff and students to name just a few. Important themes can be identified as well as the relationships between them and be explored further.

Image courtesy of www.themontessorimessage.net

What I have learned the past couple of weeks isn’t necessarily about qualitative research. Life circumstances and the course content have caused me to be self reflective about my own practice. I believe that I will be a better leader in my Department as well as a better teacher after having completed these lessons/this course for the following reasons:

• Learning is a lifetime process. We are never done.
  • This is something that I want my Grade 12’s to understand as they transition from high school.
  • This also applies to the members of my Department and myself as a teacher. There is always new curriculum to learn, and new and improved ways of doing things. It is detrimental to our own growth and those around us if we remain stagnant.
• Learning isn’t always easy and doesn’t always come naturally.
  • The past two weeks have been extra difficult.  The material is brand new to me and has taken me much longer to absorb than usual.  I began to get extremely discouraged and as the work piled up due to work (parent/teacher interview nights, overnight professional development conferences, facilitating school workshops, after school volleyball coaching) and family obligations, I began to feel like I would never catch up. It was an overwhelming feeling, especially when I found the content to be difficult to grasp.
  • This experience was a great reminder to me of why/how some students want to give up and why they stop coming to class. When students begin to feel, “What’s the point, I’m so far behind now” or “Why bother, I don’t even understand it” I can better relate now to that feeling and I don’t ever want my students to feel so overwhelmed that they want to give up.  I will be adjusting my teaching practice even further as a result.  I would rather have a student feel successful learning  smaller portions at a time, than feeling so burdened  down with work and burnt out that they give up.
• Focus on strengths first.
  • Dr. Strong’s comments on our blogs are always very encouraging and she refers to each of our comments in her weekly summation blog post. It is a great reminder of how important it is to focus on strengths first instead of the things each of us need to improve upon.
  • This is encouraging and motivating and a great example of servant leadership.

Questions:

I have two questions for you, one related to the topic this week and another simply out of curiosity.

• In your line of work, which is the design type that you would most likely use for qualitative research? Please refer to the extensive list on page 289 in Plano Clark & Creswell (2015).

• What is your biggest take away so far in this course? What have you learned about yourself as an individual and as a leader?

References

Plano-Clark, V. & Creswell, J. (2015). Understanding research: A consumer’s guide. (2nd Ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Sturm, B. A. (2009). Principles of servant-leadership in community health nursing: management issues and behaviors discovered in ethnographic research. Home Health Care Management & Practice, 21(2), 82–89.

There has been a lot of discussion in the past few years regarding the promotion and development of a people-technology hybrid model for education.  It is an exciting time as the possibilities are endless and also a challenging time due to budget, resource and support limitations that vary according to schools and school districts.

Technology can be used in education to promote organizational citizenship behaviour. Each year, our school district has all students in Grades 4, 7, 10 and 12 as well as staff take an anonymous online Satisfaction Survey. It is a province wide customer satisfaction type questionnaire that was developed to help meet the needs of students, staff and parents.  A link to the types of questions asked can be found here on the BC Ministry of Education website. There is also an online survey that students complete each year entitled Tell Them From Me. This anonymous survey is conducted in grades 8-12 and collects information that individual schools can then use to determine better ways to teach and reach kids based on the input collected. It enables student voices to be heard and focuses on the assessment of intellectual, social, emotional learning of students.  Here is a video link explaining how the results from Tell Them From Me can be immediately applicable. The goal is to recognize and acknowledge the needs of students and to make changes that will enable students to be more engaged in their learning which in turn leads to a higher rate of high school completion.  These types of surveys are extremely eye-opening and enable self-reflection to take place. For example, last year, we discovered that there were a high majority of Grade 8 students who felt that they didn’t have an adult in the building that they could turn to for help. We made it our mission to put initiatives in place that would ensure that each student had a special connection to at least one adult.  The difficulty with these types of surveys are that not every school has access to technology that would allow for students to complete them during school time (which is how they are conducted).  At my school alone, we have over 1200 students and only 120 laptops available at a time so it makes it rather difficult to smoothly coordinate this whole school initiative while balancing  teaching schedules and blocks.  Another pressing issue, is the lack of consistent WiFi service in  schools as well. When large groups of people are on at one time, the service usually crashes or becomes significantly slower resulting in frustration from both the teachers and the students.

We had an initiative in our District a few years ago, where there were Digital Literacy coaches available in each school to help mentor other teachers in the application of technology within the classroom to help co-create lessons that would inspire wonder and innovation in our students beyond paper/pencil tasks.  I was one of those coaches and worked out of the School Board Office helping to promote digital literacy through whole school and small group workshops as well as one on one sessions.  We needed ways to help keep parents informed and ways for students to be able to access learning materials outside of class time. I helped teachers create their own websites, create flipped classrooms (where the  lesson is taught online and the work done in the classroom) and find innovative ways to share  student learning through programs like KidBlog or FreshGrade (a learning portfolio platform accessible by students, teachers and parents).  As digital literacy coaches, we wanted to avoid teachers simply replacing paper tasks with digital ones that basically did the same thing. Our goal was to help teachers move beyond the basics and find new ways for students to share their individual unique learning and focus on student strengths. We referred to the SAMR model developed by Dr. Ruben R. Puentedura frequently as a way to help explain how to create a hybrid model of technology and education for teachers.  Here is a link to a great video clip explaining the model and how it applies to the classroom.  Basically there are 4 levels as illustrated below with the first being simply a substitute activity leading all the way to an activity that would have originally been impossible to do without technology.  For example, the first two levels of the SAMR model enhance teaching but the final level transforms it and enables students to collaborate beyond the 4 walls of the classroom and have access to a global community for feedback and self-reflection.

www.marsscott.com

Our District has moved away from having Digital Literacy Coaches within schools to having two technology support mentors who work with teachers who are interested in providing opportunities for students to learn coding and robotics within the classroom.  Teachers can apply for grants each year to receive iPads, GoPros, mini robots and other tech gadgets.  Teachers are also supplied with one tech device for themselves to use within the classroom (an iPad or a laptop) and each teacher was asked this year to define their teaching style and how they use the device provided to support student learning.

Some ways in which my school district  provides innovation in a Service Oriented Culture is by offering Microsoft Office for free to all of our students.  Students can upload this program on up to 6 different personal devices and it will still be accessible to them after they graduate. We used to use Google Classroom to enable students to collaborate online, however, due to Google servers being located in places other than Canada, we wanted to ensure that our students privacy was protected under Canadian laws and switched to Microsoft Office.  By providing students with free access to Microsoft Office, student learning can take place both inside and outside school hours and on personal devices that are convenient for students to use. We used Microsoft Office forms  at our school this year with our Grade 9’s to conduct student surveys to better improve courses like Career Education that have recently become embedded and to promote student engagement in their learning. We also use it to create quick surveys for staff that allow for immediate responses. We also use apps like Remind to keep parents and students informed of upcoming events and assignments for individual classes. We utilize social media such as Instagram to post whole school messages that will make it more likely for high school students to see. Teachers can access lesson ideas and build their professional learning community through forums such as Pinterest, Twitter and Teachers Pay Teachers. Teachers and students are able to access and bring experts/mentors from the local and global communities into the classroom through programs like Skype. Virtual reality programs enable students to build and develop their STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) skills.  Fun and engaging programs like Kahoot help enhance student learning and enable teachers to reflect on areas that need further work. Students can create and share their learning globally through student made podcasts, videos and blogs. Collaboration is no longer confined to the four walls of a classroom or building. Students can work together on the same document at the same time and provide peer feedback in real time.  We are currently using a program called MyBlueprint to enable students to create portfolios and collect artifacts of their learning that can be shared with Universities and parents.  This program ties into their highschool courses, provides transcripts, enables them to complete surveys that help them better understand their strengths and provides possible career suggestions.

Technology when used to promote student engagement, to assess emotional, social and intelligence needs of students and used to transform learning that goes beyond the four walls of the classroom is a very useful tool indeed.

References:

Government of British Columbia. Retrieved from https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/administration/kindergarten-to-grade-12/surveys/satisfaction-survey

Kandampully, J., Bilghihan, A., Tingting, C. (2016). Developing a People-Technology Hybrids Model to Unleash Innovation and Creativity: The New Hospitality Frontier.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhtm.2016.07.003

Northouse, P.G. (2019).  Leadership: Theory and Practice.  (8^th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA:  Sage Publications, Inc.

Scott, M. (2016, May 23). A Glimpse Into Technology Coaching. Retrieved from http://marsscott.com/visionaryleadership/a-glimpse-into-technology-coaching/

I have had the opportunity to both be an adult learner and to work with adult learners. As someone who has worked with elementary, middle and high school students, I am extremely confident in stating that working with adults is a whole different world!   Libra Boyd (2015) in her review of Merriam and Bierema’s (2004) book Adult Learning: Linking Theory and Practice  shares that for the most part, children’s daily lives are filled with learning, whereas adults have to balance family, work, school and other social obligations. Unlike young children, adults are able to make deeper connections to their learning because they have a larger database of life experiences to draw upon.  For the focus of this post, I am going to address my own experience as an adult learner rather than as an adult teacher.

Malcolm Knowles as referenced in our Unit 6 notes discusses 6 principle assumptions about Andragogy (the art and science of helping adults learn).

https://www.educatorstechnology.com/2015/03/andragogy-visually-explained-for-teachers.html

1. As a person matures, his or her self-concept moves from that of a dependent personality toward one of a self-directing human being. 
   • The older I get, the less dependent I am upon others for validation of my identity or my thoughts/ideas. I used to place a tremendous emphasis on how I fit into the social hierarchy of my school/work/personal life and tied my identity to that role. I now care more about acting with integrity and being true to myself and my values than I am about fitting in to a role/mold that I think others want me to be. I am focused more on discovering who I am as a person so that I can become the best me possible. If I can figure this out, then I will have more to offer to others. In the past I wouldn’t question or rock the boat, and now I do not prescribe to a group mentality and am proud of having a voice to call my own. I like to form my own opinions and don’t take what other people have to say as ‘gospel’ especially when they are talking about other students or adults in the building. This definitely has only come about in the past 5 years or so as I have matured into myself.
2. An adult accumulates a growing reservoir of experience, which is a rich resource for learning.
   • This is definitely true! I appreciate every experience that I’ve had (the good, the bad, the ugly) because they have helped shape me into who I am today. When facing difficult decisions, I know that I have a toolbox full of skills and experience to draw upon to not only help myself but to help others and benefit my learning community.  Adults are able to make deeper connections to their learning because they have a larger database of life experiences from which to draw upon. By sharing these experiences we learn from each other.
3. The readiness of an adult to learn is closely related to the developmental tasks of his/her social role. 
   • My life circumstances have forced me to take charge of my own future.  I have never been more ready to learn! I know what I want in life and I’m going to do whatever it takes to seek it out and make it a reality.
4. There is a change in time perspective as people mature – from future application of knowledge to immediacy of application. Thus, an adult is more problem than subject centred in learning.
   • Unlike when I was in high school I now take what I learn and apply it immediately to my life, and to my career. The material being taught is no longer something that seems far off in the future, instead it is right now, in the present. My learning is relevant and job related and therefore immediately applicable.
5. Adults are mostly driven by internal motivation, rather than external motivators.
   

   Adult Learning Styles – YouTube

   • While I cannot speak for others, this is definitely true for me.  I went back to school in 2008 as a mature student and got my teaching degree after being a stay at home mom for 10 years because it had always been my dream to become a teacher. I didn’t do it for the money, I didn’t do it for social status,  I did it for me. I signed up for this Master’s course because I want to continue to challenge myself by soaking up as much knowledge as I can so that I can become a better me.  I do it because I am intrinsically driven to do it. Unlike in high school or during my first Bachelor of Arts Degree (I left home and went away to University when I was 17), I am driven to do the best that I can instead of just producing the bare minimum to get by.  I know that whatever I put into my learning is what I will get out of it.  I am intrinsically driven to be an adult learner because I want to be the best me possible.
6. Adults need to know the reason for learning something. (Merriam & Bierma, 2014, p. 47)
   • According to Donnelly-Smith (2011) in the article “What Adult Learners Can Teach Us About All Learners: A Conversation with L. Lee Knefelkamp”, they state that, “learning is meaningful to the degree that we can connect it to the concrete experiences of our student’s lives.”  As an adult learner, I need to be able to connect what I am learning to my own life. There needs to be a direct correlation in order for it to be meaningful and for me to want to be motivated to learn it.
   • According to Boyd (2015),  Merriam and Bierema (2004, p. 106) in Chapter Six of their book Adult Learning: Linking Theory and Practice discuss the need for “reflective practice, situated cognition and communities of practice” in adult education. By reflecting on our own practice, building and sharing our professional learning networks with others, by reading and commenting on each other’s blog posts and by expanding our cognitive knowledge through our assigned readings and essays we are slowly transforming ourselves into the leaders that we wish to be.

Adult learners take on an active role in their learning and seek out opportunities to add and develop skills to build up their toolboxes.  A team like relationship begins to develop between the learners, their educational peers as well as their professors. It is mutually beneficial for everyone involved to share their knowledge, and mistakes so that all of us can learn from them. Our notes from Unit 6, sums this up “we must willingly seek input and collaboration with stakeholders” as  “our personal growth and transformation impact others”.  I have learned so much already from reading the blog posts of my peers in this course. I have gained insight and perspective that I might not otherwise have been exposed to. I am grateful for this experience.  Our Unit 6 notes also mention about the presence of  “wisdom often being in the room” with us and I have definitely found this to be so. As a mature student, I want to continue on my journey of  choosing to learn and choosing to participate because I want to, and not because I have to.

References: 

Boyd, L. N. (2015). Adult learning: Linking Theory and Practice, by Sharan B. Merriam and Laura L. Bierema. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2014. 320 pages, $50.00 (hardcover). New Horizons In Adult Education & Human Resource Development, 27(4), 66. don:10.1002/nha3.20125

Dewey, J. (1944). Democracy and Education. New York: The Free Press.

Donnelly-Smith, L. (2011). What Adult Learners Can Teach Us About All Learners: A Conversation with L. Lee Knefelkamp. Peer Review, 13(1), 8-9.

Hui, C.,Snider L., & Couture, M. (2016). Self-reguluation workshop and occupational performance coaching with teachers: A pilot study. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 83(2), 115-125. don:10.1177/0008417415627665

Katz J., & Sugden, R. (2013). The Three-Block Meodel of Universal Design for Learning Implementation in a High School. Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, 141, 1-28.

Klinger, D.A., Voluante, L., & DeLuca, C. (2012). Building teacher capacity within the evolving assessment culture in Canadian education. Policy Futures in Education, 10(4), 447-460. don:10.2304/pfie.2012.10.4.447

Merriam, S.B., & Bierema, L.L. (2014). Adult Learning: Linking theory and practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Merriam, S.B., & Grace,  A.P. (2011). Contemporary Issues in Adult Education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Sokal, L., & Sharma, U. (2014). Canadian in-service teachers’ concerns, efficacy, and attitudes about inclusive teaching. Exceptionality Education International, 23(1), 59-71.