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. 

Narrowing My Focus

Sifting Through Data

The process of finding my TIP critical question has slowly refined and narrowed my focus. I find myself wondering what my staff needs to best serve students with autism. I am observing the staff working with our students with autism (my first point of data) and I notice areas where they can improve. I notice skills that work but are rarely shared from staff to staff. When looking at the staff as a whole, I see an overall inconsistency in the way we approach "Student A." For a person with autism, these inconsistencies can cause confusion which could lead to behaviors. 

I am also interviewing colleagues who also manage a large staff (my second point of data). The interviews are revealing that I am not alone in my area of inquiry. I am finding that my colleagues also want to help their staff grow and learn new skills for working with those students impacted by autism. 

Finally, I am surveying a large number of instructional assistant staff members from around the district (my third data point). I have not looked at the trends or themes here yet. I do think this data point will be very interesting. Getting input directly from the source of my study should be the most accurate and valuable. However, there is the Dunning-Kruger Effect which states that people often over asses their ability levels. This could be a possible bias in my study. 

Sifting through this information and trying to find a common thread is my next step. 

Teacher Inquiry - A Conversation

In an attempt to better fit my context and to better serve my needs for this year I am going to slightly alter and narrow the focus of my teacher inquiry project. The class and context that I work in requires a large support staff. Our instructional assistants take students out into the community daily to job sites, community activities, fact finding lessons , bus training and a variety of other activities designed to help our students grow toward independence. Our students have been diagnosed with a variety of disabilities and their only common thread lays in their behavioral needs. Each students disability manifests in a variety of behaviors that impact their ability to learn at the same rate as their peers.

This conversational blog could be a place to take reader suggestions on how to craft surveys, interviews and observations of my instructional assistant staff. Ultimately, I want to find out how IAs feel about their level of training to work with students with behavioral needs. My goal is to survey IAs in behavioral needs classrooms from around the district, observe and take data on the interactions my IAs have with our students and to interview selected IAs about their experiences and ideas on the topic of professional training.

Your thoughts are welcomed.

What is good action research? 

The author talks about the emancipatory aim of action research. This idea, or at least my version of it, is pointing in he same direction as many of my questions, thoughts and inquiries. I want to work with my staff to better understand what they need in order to feel more valued, appreciated, 'heard', and ultimately discover how they can better serve the students we work with. 

Example #3 was useful to help me begin to pair down my big idea into something smaller, more narrow, that I can better study and understand. I often get caught in the trap of thinking that I have to do a comprehensive study and understand every aspect of the work life of an Instructional Assistant. Narrowing my focus seems like cheating in a way but I am starting to realize that the point is to just learn something, maybe just one idea, that will help me in my setting. 

The idea of partnership and participation that the author talks about also resonates with me. This is essentially what I am trying to do. I want to better work with my staff and in order to discover how to do this, I need to actively work with and listen to my staff. The partnership and participation can also take the form of talking to and working with other lead teachers who manage large staff. Surveying, interviewing and talking to these colleagues could allow me to see different points of view. 

As for publishing... I don't know... but I hope to discover something of value to pass on to my colleagues that will improve their practice. 

50 Questions

50 Questions

L: Why does the school district try to force so many people into the "diploma" or "modified diploma" model?

49: Why do we value wrote skills over social and behavior skills?

48: Who would want their child to be great at integral calculus at the expense of social and emotional skills? 

47: If society wants people with special needs to be independent, productive and engaged members of society, why are so few resources spent in this area? 

46: Did you know that a new Senate bill passed that will now limit the services that students with special needs who graduate with a modified diploma can receive after high school?

45: The above bill will apply to three of my students, I wonder if they will be grandfathered in or if they will not be able to return to the program once this bill goes into action?

44: I wonder if I overestimate my students sometimes? I find myself challenging and pushing them which is generally good but at times I might be causing some behaviors...

43: What additional training do instructional assistants need?

42: What additional training do instructional assistants want? 

41: Do instructional assistants feel prepared to do their jobs?

40: Do IAs feel like they can voice their concerns and needs to their coworkers, the teacher they work with and their supervisor?

39: Where do IAs find the most value or meaning in their jobs?

38: How important is monetary compensation to IAs? 

37: Special education takes up vast amounts of resources for the school district, How much more expensive is it to provide an education to a student receiving special educational services as apposed to a student on a general education track? 

36: How is the money distributed? (I assume mostly toward support staff)

35: Is the money being used in the most effective way for the benefits of the students? 

34: How do I get staff to let students be more independent? 

33: How do I get my message/philosophy across to staff in a consumable way? 

32: Can you teach old dogs new tricks, so to speak?

31: How do I push students toward a growth mindset?

30: How many students come through our CTP programs and leave with an actual part time job? 

29: How can I better connect my students to the service providers that can help them once they leave our program?

28: What service providers are available? 

27: How do students qualify for various services? 

26: Which services are most crucial for student continued success?

25: My program is part of a district pilot program to assist with a "seamless transition" from high school and CTPs to the services providers and to employment. How do I get some of  our students to buy into the value of work beyond our program?

24: Am I setting a good example for staff?

23: How do I handle crisis moments with behaviors? 

22: How do my various staff handle crisis? 

21: Should I expect them all to do as I do? 

20: Can we handle these moments with a variety of roles, responsibilities and skill levels? 

19: What are the best ways to debrief with staff after an incident involving students?

18: What are a few good strategies for negotiating conflict between staff?

17: How do I best place staff in areas of their interest and strength while maintaining what is best for the overall program?

16: Am I delegating enough to my staff or is it too much? 

15: How would I know the answer to #16?

14: What is the best way to check in with staff about their job, responsibilities, satisfaction etc? 

13: How often should I check in? 

12: Will some staff require more check ins? Less check ins? 

11: What is the best way to continue to do my job and meet my responsibilities while trying to meet the needs of my staff? 

10: Am I over thinking the needs of my staff? 

9: Are some staff happy to show up, do what their told, get paid and go home? 

8: Is that (#9) necessarily a bad thing? 

7: How many staff meetings do I need to have per week? 

6: Is morning better than afternoon for meetings? 

5: Would a meeting agenda help staff be better prepared for the meeting? 

4: Could I create a place for staff concerns to be listed and then added to the meeting agenda? 

3: Would this increase staffs sense of ownership in the program? 

2: How can I gauge staff satisfaction and feelings of team? 

1: Are we all working toward the same goal as a team? 

BTAR Ch. 8

BTAR Ch. 8
Living Action Research as a Professional Teacher

I have spent many years as an instructional assistant learning and honing the tools and methods that I use to motivate, inspire and teach students with special needs. The process of becoming a master teacher, winning coach or a martial artist is a never ending process and cycle. What works today may not work in the future. We must discard or modify old techniques to adjust to our ever changing environment and context. I have noticed that this mind set can be difficult to attain for some people. Certainly in some areas of my life I am less flexible, less open to change, less open to self analysis, but in many and in fact most areas of my life, I am open to belief revision. I want to be the kind of person and teacher who is able to change with the times, who will admit when I am wrong, and change with the evidence. I think that this mindset is the essence of action research.

In a previous blog , the first blog I wrote about Action Research, I compared this process to my experience coaching high level basketball teams. This comparison is even stronger for me today as I am reaching the end of the BTAR book and nearing the actual action research project that I will embark on. While I know that I will have many questions and sticking points during my first “real” action research project, I also know that I have the right mindset to carry out this task.

BTAR Ch. 7

BTAR Ch. 7

Telling the Story of Your Action Research

When I think about presenting my research or as the book puts it, “going public,” I try to imagine it as something that is useful and possibly inspiring to other teachers that work in a similar area of special education. I want to find the best way of showing how this project is personal to me but at the same time I do not want to come across as if I am ranting, complaining, or preaching. The authors try to tear down the myth of the “academic” voice and I appreciate their efforts. When I read academic papers, most of them have a similar voice. My goal is to avoid this academic voice and to find my own.

Traditionally, academic language is valued and thus papers written in this way will be better received. This however leads to the very dry writing style that we have come to stereotype academic writing as. I want to make a point, I want to show objective data, I want to clearly lay out my thoughts and ideas so that it can be understood by virtually anyone. This is the tension between the professional and the personal that they talk about.

I appreciate the many tips given to guide the “going public” process. Understanding and clearly communicating the purpose of the research and understand the audience that will be reading it is very important to me. I feel like I know where I want to go in these areas. I am just not exactly sure how to get there. As I experiment with different ideas and data collection tools, I am beginning to see why the authors are constantly telling us that we need to let our critical question change and evolve.

Finally, this chapter lays out a very clear road map to developing the action research paper. This will be very useful to me as it conforms to the way that I like to put a paper together; section by section, linked by interlocking ideas and concepts. I think that I might even start an outline of my paper rather soon and build in the information and content as it comes to me. Later next year as I am conducting my research and gathering new ideas and data I can incorporate into this project.

BTAR Ch. 6

BTAR Ch. 6

Final Data Interpretation

The chapter begins by challenging us to define interpret. My definition would be; to reconstruct a message in a more understandable form. The authors draw a line between interpretation as instruction and as provocation. This is a difficult concept for me. I want to ANSWER my critical question at times. I want to do an experiment and solve the mystery. The authors suggest that we never truly solve these types of problems and that we never find “truth.” I agree with this concept when it comes to many claims, even many scientific claims.

This book can be frustrating. At times it is describing technical means of data collection and analysis and then quickly turns to “personal meaning making.” These shifts from hard scientific techniques and processes to the “touchy-feely” makes for confusion.

I like the clarity of the general steps to data collection. The tip of taking time with the data, revisiting it, and analyzing it over many sittings makes sense to me. I am familiar with a few data analyzing tools, such as excel pivot tables and slicers, and I know I will use that tool. The other ideas, including, mind mapping, color coding, and charting the “thought-know-want to know” of the data will be helpful and make logical sense to me for my research. However, I will not know until I attempt these processes and use these tools.

Finding colleagues and mentors to bounce ideas off of has always been helpful to me. With my research question in particular I will need to hear from multiple self contained classroom teachers in order to get a feel for what works best for building a strong staff work environment. The book suggests seeking out different perspectives as one of the many layers of data interpretation.

Finally we are given the criteria for trustworthy teacher action research. The idea that jumped out at me the most was “thick data.” This means using multiple perspectives, consulting with mentors and distant colleagues, and illustrating the themes of the research and your recommendations in a way that shows you are on a thorough and unique journey toward improving yourself as a teacher.

BTAR Ch. 5

Ongoing Data Analysis

I am immediately struck by the distinction between data analysis during the research project and final data interpretation after the study is completed. This is a distinction that I have not considered before and I generally assumed that while you might "peek" at your data as you gathered it, analyzing it would not be beneficial until you completed the length of your study. The chapter goes on to outline important terms and techniques for research data.

Analysis : Breaking down data into smaller pieces. A dissection to look at each part.
Synthesis: Putting all of the parts together to observe the data as a whole. Looking for what the big picture is telling us from our data.
Deconstruction: Taking apart our methods and looking to see where we might be influencing data or making assumptions about the data.
Contextualization: This is a meta process of viewing how we view data. Understanding who we are as observers. Understanding the culture, location, historical influences, social influences, etc. that may be skewing our view of the data.

We have been given the task to start an observation protocol and I am finding it difficult to perfectly locate my targets, however chapter 5 suggests being open to ongoing data analysis that changes, adapts, and evolves as the study progresses. I know that I will need to do this with my critical question. Ultimately, chapter 5 is urging us to be mindful of the data that is coming in, journal our thoughts, make notes on what is working and what is not, be open to the possibility that our focus could shift as the data reveals new information, and to deeply analyze where we could be missing something or making mistakes based on our contextual views.

Designing Research

Moving from the conceptual to the execution of a study, specifically my unique study area of teambuilding among instructional assistants, is a deep concern of mine. Infact I have been weighing the idea of making a dramatic shift in my research focus to better allow me to approach this project from a slightly more traditional direction. Similar thoughts begin to arise when I consider the implementation of my strategies. At the moment I am considering team building, staff meeting, and group involvement strategies to “test” on the staff that will be under my supervision. My goal is to build better communication and sense of “team” within the staff that will ultimately have positive effects on the students in our class. I can already imagine implementation fidelity issues with my current plan.

I do not think that having a comparison group will apply to my current research question. However I could see using interviews and narrative reports from staff on their previous experiences in self contained classes as a form of comparison to the interventions that I would like to implement.

The design experiment, described in the article is interesting and I think it might be more applicable to my study. I have a goal (staff feeling appreciated/part of a team) and I want to try various tools to increase this feeling among the people I work with. Perhaps this is a direction I should go…

In general I would say that this article is scaring me off my current area of interest, which is too bad because i am passionate about the importance of building and maintaining a cohesive team for self contained classrooms. As I read through the measurements section, I found myself wondering “how will i get multiple measures of the ‘feeling’ of being appreciated and part of a team?” This is just another of the many concerns that are bubbling up for me.

*Steve, if you think that I am way off base with my general idea of studying IA staff as it relates to their perceived levels of appreciation and “team,” please tell me.