Convergence

I am happy to say that there seems to be a nice convergence between the research on autism related teaching skills and on staff development for self contained special education classrooms. The research on working with students with autism is as vast and varied as the spectrum itself but ultimately the ideas of communication challenges, social challenges and rigid and repetitive behaviors or interests tie everything together. The literature also seems to indicate that instructional support staff are generally under prepared to work with students with autism.

My challenge and my research question is to find a way to bring these two areas of research together. This is essentially my education plan; to find ways for my to staff get the education and training they need to better serve our students with autism.

I am also, finally, seeing a convergence between my TIP and my actual job. This project is starting to make sense to me and I am seeing how this way of thinking, observing and then acting will benefit me in the future.

My feelings on data about feelings

I decided to scrap my initial Instructional Assistant survey. I feel better as I scan over the initial returns from my survey. I am looking for patterns in the data but I am wondering if I am imposing what I want to find on what is actually there? This is clearly potential for flaws in validity of the data. I am wondering how I avoid this. Even in my interviews I feel like I am leading my interlocutor with my questions. My critical question is important, I believe in it, but I am just worrying that I am shaping the results a little to prove something. 

The third data source, observation of staff interactions with students, feels the best to me. When I am observing my staff work with students, I find positive and negative interactions. I am finding that staff are trying to use strategies with students. They only need a little refinement in some cases. More than anything, I am seeing that the staff has goals of their own that they are trying to accomplish with students (finish a project or assignment, get out to job sites on time, etc.) that do not allow the students to learn from the experiences. In this, I see where action research can lead to more action research.