a3.+Activity+3


 * Reflecting on Approach.**

//Haven't really started the reading for this activity yet. Some general thoughts below but not informed. Need to also decide and make clear my research perspective.//

1. Examine NSW educational body policy documents. 2. Interview a selection of 10 different employers across a wide range of fields as to the skills they believe are needed in school/uni leaving age employees. 3. Select 20 schools to explore (expect this data collection to place over a full year). School selection of schools in Sydney as per the following based on a representative sample: 10 government (8 co-ed, 1 each single sex : 2 each in syd district and northern syd district, 3 each in west and south-west districts), 5 catholic (3 co-ed, 1 each single sex : 3 syd diocese, 1 parramatta, 1 broken bay), 5 independent (3 co-ed, 1 each single sex ). Some categories to consider: - Selective co-ed high school in western Sydney (high achievers) - ‘Difficult’ co-ed govt school - Private girls school lots of resources Eastern Suburbs - Average girls catholic? - Private boys school lots of resources North Shore - Average boys catholic? - Average co-ed school? Findings will be affected by the type of focus groups: - private, independent & public schools are quite different cultures - location of schools – back to socio-economic background! - students who are willing to participate and those who aren’t - how honest students will be? - their individual levels of motivation and attitude towards school
 * PART 1: How do secondary students develop independent learning skills and what role does the secondary school system play in this development? **

Arrange with the school to undertake an analysis of what their school does to help students develop independent learning skills. Output will be 2 documents. First a report that the school can use to promote their school ie showing all the things their school does to support their students development of independent learning skills and the second a summary of the student data as to how their students believe they develop these skills. - ** PLAN FOR A DAY IN THE SCHOOL: ** Through initial phone/email discussions with contact person in each school, determine who in the school are the most likely people to know what the school does to help develop students’ independent learning skills. - ** INTERVIEW INDIVIDUAL STAFF: ** Spend a day in each school having set up 15 minute interviews throughout the day with people in the school. Starting at a top down approach will interview firstly different levels of executives in the school, through to support staff and teachers to gather information on what this school does. Every school has a different structure and different people responsible for developing these skills. May need to clarify with follow-up phone calls or emails depending on how the interviews through the day go. Notes will be taken on each interview. - ** WEB FORM STAFF: ** As not everyone can be interviewed, also have a web form where an email is sent to all teachers asking that if they also do things to help students develop independent learning skills please go to this web address and let us know about it. - ** INTERVIEW STUDENT GROUP: ** Also set up a 40 minute lunch meeting to take place during that day of a group of 12 students across the year levels and of differing academic abilities. Teachers will have asked for volunteers in advance and also selected students from those volunteers to get a range of students. Will provide a ‘pizza lunch’ as an incentive to volunteer. Students will discuss what skills they think are important, how they think students develop these skills and if they personally have developed independent learning skills. - ** WEB FORM STUDENTS: ** Also allow students to share through a web form how they have developed independent learning skills. - What study skills do you think are most important? - How do you think students develop these skills? - What role do you think schools play in this? - Do you perceive any gaps between what students need and what is provided to develop these skills?

__ Issues/Assumptions: __ - Assumptions on representative sample. - I will also have to consider the ethical issues of parental, school and school body permissions for such research. This could be addressed by adding information into the letter that is sent home to parents prior to the session.

//Old ideas, may not do this now:// In terms of analyzing the data I will probably look initially at simple methods such as mean and standard deviation to discover the main time management issues. I will also apply this technique to sub-groups. I will then use significance tests to test hypothesizes as to whether factors such as gender and socio-economic background impact on the results. Gorard (2001) covers parametric statistics and correlations which I may explore when analyzing my data. My background in statistical analysis will be useful in this stage.
 * Analysis of Data **

__Issues/Assumptions__ Gorard also looks at reasons why the sample may be biased or misleading and one factor that stands out is the idea of respondents giving misleading or deliberately incorrect information. Students generally tend to do the right thing simply out of habit but there are always students who will supply misleading information. One advantage I have is that students are always keen to talk or write about themselves and what they do or think. The disadvantage is that some students have a tendancy to say what they think you want to hear so need to be taken into account in the survey design. There is also the ethical issue of embarrassing students or making them feel uncomfortable if they do not have the same skill level as everyone else.


 * PART 2: What design principles or approaches could guide the development of an online learning environment to facilitate and support the development of these skills? **
 * Stage 2. DESIGN BASED METHODOLOGY WITH FOCUS GROUPS **

The data gathered in stage 1 about how students develop independent learning skills and what schools do to facilitate this development will be used as stimulus material in stage 2. The approach will be a design-based methodology with 3 focus groups, following the guidelines suggested in the work edited by deMarrais and Lapan (2004). From the 20 schools 3 will be selected to move to the next stage. Each school will have a team of students, a few teachers, and possibly even parents working in parallel on the same design outcome. At the end will bring all 3 teams together to brainstorm a final design that incorporates the best ideas developed by all 3 groups.
 * Focus Groups **

__Issues/Assumptions:__ - A non-judgmental atmosphere of mutual respect where the aim is not to reach consensus but to share thoughts and ideas, clear ground rules and guidelines in respect of confidentiality needs to be established. - For the focus groups I will select 3 co-ed schools – one private, one catholic and one government (providing all permission criteria and ethical considerations are met). - Focus groups may be enthusiastic about the new technologies, but that this may not reflect the take-up rate overall The information collected in the first data stage and the findings from the literature review on online learning principles will then be used with the focus groups to propose a first stage solution to the problem of how to create an online solution to help develop students' independent learning skills (or a particular aspect). The design process will be documented with the groups meeting to identify gaps between the current design and the design goals. This will then be used to create the next iteration in the design process with subsequent meetings with focus groups.

The decision to undertake design-based research as opposed to action research were twofold. The first consideration was that while both approaches identify real world problems and look at steps to deal with these, design-based research has the goal to generate not just a solution, but theory around the solution which could lead to a design framework that provides a set of design guidelines for a particular class of design challenge (Reeves, Herrington, & Oliver 2005). Secondly, in design-based research it is the researcher as opposed to the participants who take the initiative as both researchers and designers (Wang & Hannafin, 2005).

As it is likely that the students involved in the process will be motivated and enthusiastic about school, I would like to have a number of disengaged, unmotivated students to use case studies. Students who are not involved in the design process, but who can test the ideas generated by the focus groups in order to determine the effectiveness of the design solution iterations.
 * Case Studies **

- The data gathered in part 1 about how students develop independent learning skills and what schools do to facilitate this development will be used as stimulus material in part 2. - The approach will be a **design-based methodology** with focus groups. - From the 20 schools 3 will be selected to move to part 2 stage of data collection. - Each school will have a team of 6 people consisting of students, a teachers, and possibly even a parent working in parallel on the same design outcome. At the end will bring all 3 focus groups together to brainstorm a final design that incorporates the best ideas developed by all 3 groups. - This data collection stage is anticipated to take 1 year. Each group will be met with twice over each term (8 f2f meetings in total for the year) with a wiki set up for each group where ideas can be shared and developed between meetings. MEETINGS WITH FOCUS GROUPS: <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"> .........................................................................................................................................................................................
 * 1) The first meeting will a briefing of the data collected in part 1 and the theoretical framework for design based on the findings from the literature review on online learning principles.
 * 2) Ideas brainstormed for the first solution.
 * 3) Testing of first solution and discussion on data obtained.
 * 4) Ideas developed for second iteration of solution.
 * 5) Testing of second solution and discussion on data obtained.
 * 6) All 3 groups together to discuss their solutions, what they have learnt, look for commonality and brainstorm ideas for a joint solution.
 * 7) Testing of joint solution and discussion on data obtained.
 * 8) Brainstorm ideas for final changes and evaluation of process.

<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings; msobidifontfamily: Wingdings; msofareastfontfamily: Wingdings; msolist: Ignore;">v **//Initial Thoughts on Data Collection Approach/Methodology for Part 1//** Select 20 schools to explore (expect this data collection to place over a full year). School selection of schools in Sydney as per the following based on a representative sample: 10 government (8 co-ed, 1 each single sex : 2 each in syd district and northern syd district, 3 each in west and south-west districts), 5 catholic (3 co-ed, 1 each single sex : 3 syd diocese, 1 parramatta, 1 broken bay), 5 independent (3 co-ed, 1 each single sex ). Arrange with the school to undertake an analysis of what their school does to help students develop independent learning skills. Output will be 2 documents. First a report that the school can use to promote their school ie showing all the things their school does to support their students development of independent learning skills and the second a summary of the student data as to how their students believe they develop these skills. To collect the data in each school:
 * 1) **PLAN FOR A DAY IN THE SCHOOL:** Through initial phone/email discussions with contact person in each school, determine who in the school are the most likely people to know what the school does to help develop students’ independent learning skills.
 * 2) **INTERVIEW INDIVIDUAL STAFF:** Spend a day in each school having set up 15 minute interviews throughout the day with people in the school. Starting at a top down approach will interview firstly different levels of executives in the school, through to support staff and teachers to gather information on what this school does. Every school has a different structure and different people responsible for developing these skills. May need to clarify with follow-up phone calls or emails depending on how the interviews through the day go. Notes will be taken on each interview.
 * 3) **WEB FORM STAFF:** As not everyone can be interviewed, also have a web form where an email is sent to all teachers asking that if they also do things to help students develop independent learning skills please go to this web address and let us know about it.
 * 4) **INTERVIEW STUDENT GROUP:** Also set up a 40 minute lunch meeting to take place during that day of a group of 12 students across the year levels and of differing academic abilities. Teachers will have asked for volunteers in advance and also selected students from those volunteers to get a range of students. Will provide a ‘pizza lunch’ as an incentive to volunteer. Students will discuss what skills they think are important, how they think students develop these skills and if they personally have developed independent learning skills.
 * 5) **WEB FORM STUDENTS:** Also allow students to share through a web form how they have developed independent learning skills.

<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings; msobidifontfamily: Wingdings; msofareastfontfamily: Wingdings; msolist: Ignore;">v **//Initial Thoughts on Data Collection Approach/Methodology for Part 2//** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">- The data gathered in part 1 about how students develop independent learning skills and what schools do to facilitate this development will be used as stimulus material in part 2. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">- The approach will be a **design-based methodology** with focus groups. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">- From the 20 schools 3 will be selected to move to part 2 stage of data collection. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">- Each school will have a team of 6 people consisting of students, a teachers, and possibly even a parent working in parallel on the same design outcome. At the end will bring all 3 focus groups together to brainstorm a final design that incorporates the best ideas developed by all 3 groups. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">- This data collection stage is anticipated to take 1 year. Each group will be met with twice over each term (8 f2f meetings in total for the year) with a wiki set up for each group where ideas can be shared and developed between meetings. <span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; msobidifontfamily: Arial; msofareastfontfamily: Arial; msolist: Ignore;">1. The first meeting will a briefing of the data collected in part 1 and the theoretical framework for design based on the findings from the literature review on online learning principles. <span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; msobidifontfamily: Arial; msofareastfontfamily: Arial; msolist: Ignore;">2. Ideas brainstormed for the first solution. <span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; msobidifontfamily: Arial; msofareastfontfamily: Arial; msolist: Ignore;">3. Testing of first solution and discussion on data obtained. <span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; msobidifontfamily: Arial; msofareastfontfamily: Arial; msolist: Ignore;">4. Ideas developed for second iteration of solution. <span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; msobidifontfamily: Arial; msofareastfontfamily: Arial; msolist: Ignore;">5. Testing of second solution and discussion on data obtained. <span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; msobidifontfamily: Arial; msofareastfontfamily: Arial; msolist: Ignore;">6. All 3 groups together to discuss their solutions, what they have learnt, look for commonality and brainstorm ideas for a joint solution. <span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; msobidifontfamily: Arial; msofareastfontfamily: Arial; msolist: Ignore;">7. Testing of joint solution and discussion on data obtained. <span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; msobidifontfamily: Arial; msofareastfontfamily: Arial; msolist: Ignore;">8. Brainstorm ideas for final changes and evaluation of process.
 * MEETINGS WITH FOCUS GROUPS:**

Data will be collected in 2 stages.


 * Stage 1.** **IDENTIFY ISSUES:** Exploration of independent learning skills needed from the perspective of school bodies, employers, teachers, parents, and of course, students.

This stage will comprise of: 1. Analysis of existing policy documents with respect to time management skills across the different school boards in each state in NSW (and consider documentation of Bristish system?). 2. Interviewing a number of different employers across a wide range of fields as to the skills they believe are needed in school/uni leaving age employees. 3. Surveying teachers and students across a wide range of schools in Australia (and overseas?) from different sectors and socieconomic backgrounds about what they see are the main independent learning skill gaps. After testing a pilot questionnaire, students and teachers across a wide range of schools are to be surveyed. Statistical methodology will be employed to make generalizations about the population being examined and to discover the main issues around independent learning skills. This may also provide interesting insights into the correlation between independent learning skill development and demographics.

__ Issues/Assumptions: __ - In choosing the sample size I will simply survey as many schools as I have contact with during the research period. If two months are allocated to this time, I would be able to survey approximately 50 schools. - I will also have to consider the ethical issues of parental, school and school body permissions for such research. This could be addressed by adding information into the letter that is sent home to parents prior to the session.

In terms of analyzing the data I will probably look initially at simple methods such as mean and standard deviation to discover the main time management issues. I will also apply this technique to sub-groups. I will then use significance tests to test hypothesizes as to whether factors such as gender and socio-economic background impact on the results. Gorard (2001) covers parametric statistics and correlations which I may explore when analyzing my data. My background in statistical analysis will be useful in this stage.
 * Analysis of Data **

__ Issues/Assumptions __ Gorard also looks at reasons why the sample may be biased or misleading and one factor that stands out is the idea of respondents giving misleading or deliberately incorrect information. Students generally tend to do the right thing simply out of habit but there are always students who will supply misleading information. One advantage I have is that students are always keen to talk or write about themselves and what they do or think. The disadvantage is that some students have a tendancy to say what they think you want to hear so need to be taken into account in the survey design. There is also the ethical issue of embarrassing students or making them feel uncomfortable if they do not have the same skill level as everyone else. Although you can say that the survey is to be undertaken in strict silence and totally by yourself, when you have 100 plus students together it is inevitable they are going to show each other what they have written.


 * Stage 2. DESIGN BASED METHODOLOGY WITH FOCUS GROUPS**

Using the results of the 3 steps above to generate the issues to be addressed in a number of separate focus groups : one with teachers, one with parents, possibly a few with students.
 * Focus Groups**

During this stage I will be mainly working with focus groups, following the guidelines suggested in the work edited by deMarrais and Lapan (2004). __ Issues/Assumptions: __ - A non-judgmental atmosphere of mutual respect where the aim is not to reach consensus but to share thoughts and ideas, clear ground rules and guidelines in respect of confidentiality needs to be established. - With respect to logistics, through my study skills consultancy I have access to a large number of high schools across all demographics of Sydney so am restricted in my sample choice for the focus groups through self-imposed limitations. For the focus groups I will select 3 co-ed schools – one private, one catholic and one government (providing all permission criteria and ethical considerations are met). I will work with two groups of 6 students within each school, one with students from Years 7-9 and one with students from Years 9-12, as it is likely that the different age groups may take a different approach to time management skills issues. If possible and permissible given privacy considerations and parental permissions, I will record the 45 minute focus group sessions.

Findings will be affected by the type of focus groups: - private, independent & public schools are quite different cultures - location of schools – back to socio-economic background! - students who are willing to participate and those who aren’t - how honest students will be? - their individual levels of motivation and attitude towards school - focus groups may be enthusiastic about the new technologies, but that this may not reflect the take-up rate overall

The information collected in the first data stage and the findings from the literature review on online learning principles will then be used with the focus groups to propose a first stage solution to the problem of how to create an online solution to help develop students' independent learning skills (or a particular aspect). The design process will be documented with the groups meeting to identify gaps between the current design and the design goals. This will then be used to create the next iteration in the design process with subsequent meetings with focus groups.

The decision to undertake design-based research as opposed to action research were twofold. The first consideration was that while both approaches identify real world problems and look at steps to deal with these, design-based research has the goal to generate not just a solution, but theory around the solution which could lead to a design framework that provides a set of design guidelines for a particular class of design challenge (Reeves, Herrington, & Oliver 2005). Secondly, in design-based research it is the researcher as opposed to the participants who take the initiative as both researchers and designers (Wang & Hannafin, 2005).

As it is likely that the students involved in the process will be motivated and enthusiastic about school, I would like to have a number of disengaged, unmotivated students to use case studies. Students who are not involved in the design process, but who can test the ideas generated by the focus groups in order to determine the effectiveness of the design solution iterations.
 * Case Studies**

__ Issues/Assumptions __


 * Create a matrix of how the research question aligns with your data collection methods.**

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Research Begin with interprevist goal using qualitative methods Interview a wide range of students, teachers, school execs, govt authorities, employers: - What study skills do you think are most important? - How do you think students develop these skills? - What role do you think schools play in this? - Do you perceive any gaps between what students need and what is provided to develop these skills? Use this as stimulus material for groups Teams of students and teachers (and parents?) in schools working in parallel n the same design outcome. <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; msobidifontfamily: Arial; msofareastfontfamily: Arial; msolist: Ignore;">- Selective co-ed high school in western Sydney (high achievers) <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; msobidifontfamily: Arial; msofareastfontfamily: Arial; msolist: Ignore;">- ‘Difficult’ co-ed govt school <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; msobidifontfamily: Arial; msofareastfontfamily: Arial; msolist: Ignore;">- Private girls school lots of resources Eastern Suburbs <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; msobidifontfamily: Arial; msofareastfontfamily: Arial; msolist: Ignore;">- Average girls catholic? <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; msobidifontfamily: Arial; msofareastfontfamily: Arial; msolist: Ignore;">- Private boys school lots of resources North Shore <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; msobidifontfamily: Arial; msofareastfontfamily: Arial; msolist: Ignore;">- Average boys catholic? <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; msobidifontfamily: Arial; msofareastfontfamily: Arial; msolist: Ignore;">- Average co-ed school?

Towards end bring all together?

deMarrais, K. and Lapan, S. ed. (2004). //Foundations for Research//. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc., USA.*

Gorard, S. (2001). //Quantitative Methods in Educational Research//. Continuum, London.*

Reeves, T. C., Herrington, J., & Oliver, R. (2005). Design research: A socially responsible approach to instructional technology research in higher education. //Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 16//(2), 97-116.*

Wang, F., & Hannafin, M. J. (2005). Design-based research and technology-enhanced learning environments. //Educational Technology Research and Development, 53//(4), 5-23.

Great site on design-based research []