Methodology

RICH FEEDBACK - CAPS IN GREEN

School: 4 similar size K-12 (1000) school - both urban and suburban - have different schedules for upper and lower schools, all take ERBs. TRICKY - BETWEEN SCHOOL DIFFERENCE? THEN 4 IS GOOD/REASONABLE. WE NEED TO DOCUMENT OUR ASSUMPTION AND LIMITATIONS.

- Look for higher enrollment to avoid cross over of teachers - able to cut schools by divisions.

Data to collect

Length of school days: - Easy to see - Probably different time use by division

Collection of time use:

- Teachers use logs, devices, clickers to collect time use data (researchers can do that) - (only on for instruction - don't use it for logistics, attendance, etc) - this will help us pull out funkiness. - Survey of time use - perceived efficiency of time use. - Researcher go in unannounced? What if teacher sleeping? - Video tape for class time use (least intrusive) - tape average class. - EXPENSIVE - LABOR, COST, PERMISSION - FOR TEACHERS TO RECONSTRUCT THEIR PREVIOUS DAY - DAY RECONSTRUCTION METHOD - YOU CAN GET THEIR FEELINGS, AFFECT. THERE ARE WAYS TO DO IT SO THEY ACCURATELY - SCIENCE ARTICLE - LOOK AT AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY - TRADITIONALLY DONE BY SOCIOLOGISTS IF THEY HAVEN'T LOOKED AT TEACHERS, WE COULD BE ONTO SOMETHING BIG. - CAN THIS BE A TOOL FOR THE TEACHER? - This is the control to see connection with achievement. - Detail study of schedule (time use: study hall, recess, passing periods, lunch, sports) - Academic/non academic, social (LUNCH)/individual, athletic/not, INSTRUCTIONAL/not - AFFECTIVE FACTORS OF INSTRUCTIONAL TIME (AT END) ... IF IT STOPS THERE... PROBABLY NOT VERY GOOD RESEARCH QUESTION OR PROGRAM. - NOW IS TIME TO THINK ABOUT NEXT TIME.

What is instructional time?

- Activities deliberately planned by the teacher to meet curricular aims. - Movies/documentary ok - not baby sitting movies. - Excessive instruction time is not instructional time. - Teacher lecture time - Group work - Tests and quizzes??? FORMATIVE ASSESSMENTS?

VIDEO TAPE MIGHT BE THE WAY TO GO SINCE WE HAVE A CODING ISSUE. 1) OBSERVE THINGS HAPPENING 2) GIVE TEACHER A DIARY INSTRUMENT 3) ALIGNING VIDEO TAPE WITH TEACHER PERCEPTION - CALIBRATED APPROACH.

How to manipulate time data? - all in hours and seconds - by grade? by activities? - graphically: x axis - time (overall, instructional, break, etc) and y axis - achievement (ERB grades) - PURE CORRELATION, SCATTER PLOT - HOW ABOUT ADDING IN DISCIPLINE RATES. (MAYBE SUSPENSION RATES)

How to assess achievement?

- ERB and other standardized scores - GPA (tricky - grade inflation) - Qualitative - narrative comments can be coded

Hypothesis:

- High correlation between total time and achievement - High correlation between instructional time an achievement - Higher amount of individual work time will leader to greater achievement; however, some level of social time and play time will lead to higher achievement. We don't want to forget the extras are helpful. - HELP WITH FATIGUE RESEARCH - non instructional time in the classroom can be a detriment. - Teacher's perceived and actual instructional time vary dramatically. - I LIKE HOW TIME IS VERY QUANTIFIABLE.

Discussion section:

- b/c we are looking at ind schools (moving away from teacher-centered lectures) - it is hard to measure - all these hippie teaching techniques. - Confounding variables. - Possible reasons for hypothetical findings. - Independent schools don't really have a lot of data on achievement. (SSAT?) (PSAT) - GRADE INFLATION HUGE ISSUE.