The Context of the Classroom Setting

Master of Science in Education, Walden University

EDUC 6733: Action Research for Educators

September 20, 2020

The Context of the Classroom Setting

On March 16, 2020, an unprecedented event happened; all of Maryland public school buildings were closed, and the entire public school system was forced into distance learning, where it remains today (Distance Learning, n.d_._). Teachers now have to research every technique to enable them to reach their students through a distance learning-based platform. Teachers are wondering if the practices that worked in the building will still work in the virtual classroom. When creating my action research question, the question has to be specific because Mertler (2020) mentions that research topics can be too broad and revised to be more concise. To create a more effective virtual classroom and my specialization is elementary mathematics education, I would like to know during distance learning what impact will Prodigy math has on cognitive growth when practicing for a minimum of two times a week for thirty minutes for three weeks. The Litmus test (Laureate Education, producer, 2017) asks questions at the end of the test game about the research questions, similar to is it a yes or no answer and is it measurable. My research question does not have a yes or no answer, and with a builtin placement test that can be administered as many times as needed, I believe it is also measurable. The goal is to have students grow cognitively as much as they can during these times. The whole staff is distraught that the students will be forever educationally delayed because of this time away from the school building environment, and as this can not be avoided, as teachers are mission is for the negative impact to be reduced as much as possible. Prodigy claims to “Guaranteed to Increase Learning Confidence And Promotes Mental Fortitude” (Game, n.d.), but is that true with students who are in distance learning?

While in the school building, students could use computer-based mathematics instruction as a supplement to their teacher-led instruction. These types of supplemental aids have been shown to be successful in many different studies. Afzal, Gondal, and Fatima (2014) have seen more significant achievement with teacher-facilitated software instruction when compared to traditional instructional methods. Students who were instructed through the software outperformed their peers who were receiving just traditional teaching methods. Afzal, Gondal, and Fatima (2014) found that mathematics software was shown effective in both the low achievers and the average achievers. Regarding the low achievers, there was a significant difference in scores from the students who were just instructed by the traditional teaching method. However, there was little to no difference in achievement with the high achievers in the traditional or computer-based methods.

When using computer-based mathematics programs, the students will have to use visual representations of the tasks they are attempting to solve. This type of visual representation has been proven by Yun and Pass (2015) to aid in understanding. The results of the study have shown that learning performance has increased, and the cognitive load has decreased when using visual representations. This helped the students focus on the task and its essential parts. Having the students focused on the important elements reduced the irrelevant cognitive load and helped them create a coherent mental image of what was being asked of them. The precision of the task leads to students being able to turn mathematical ideas that are abstract into more concrete concepts, which then enables students to show multiple representations of the task. It was also noted in the study that students were more engaged with the computerbased visuals and more motivated to use these visuals. Both Yun and Pass (2015) and Afzal, Gondal, and Fatima (2014) noted that more research needs to be done to explore computer-based learning fully, and the small sample size in each study needs to be considered with the conclusions.

The learning platform that Prince George’s County Public Schools is using is Google Classroom. I have forty-eight students in fourth grade currently enrolled in my mathematics class. My students’ ages range between nine and eleven; some students have been retained a grade, which creates a larger age range. The school that I work in is a title one school, which means that there is a large population of students that part of low-income families and are enrolled in the free or reduced lunch program (Title I, Part A Program, 2018). The majority of my students are Hispanic or African American. I have twenty-two English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL). The ESOL program provides English language instruction for students whose first language is not English, and speak a language that is not English at home for kindergarten through grade twelve (PGCPS, n.d.). I have six students who qualify for an induvial Education Plan (IEP) through the Special Education Department. An IEP is “A written description of the special education and related services for a student with a disability” (The Maryland State Department of Education, 2019). From my observations from the first three weeks of classes, the vast majority of my class is below grade level, with a few on grade level.

References

Afzal, M. T., Gondal, B., & Fatima, N. (2014). The Effect of Computer Based

Instructional Technique for the Learning of Elementary Level Mathematics among

High, Average and Low Achievers. International Journal of Education and

Development Using Information and Communication Technology, 10(4) , 47–59.

Distance Learning. (n.d.) https://www.pgcps.org/reopen/distance-learning/ .

Title I, Part A Program. (2018). https://www2.ed.gov/programs/titleiparta/index.html .

The Maryland State Department of Education. (2019). MARYLAND STATEWIDE

INDIVIDUALIZED EDUCATION PROGRAM (IEP) PROCESS GUIDE.

http://marylandpublicschools.org/programs/Documents/Special-

Ed/IEP/MarylandIEPProcessGuide.pdf.

Laureate Education (Producer). (2017). Litmus test game [Interactive media]. Baltimore,

MD: Author.

Mertler, C. A. (2020). Action research: Improving schools and empowering educators (6 th ed.). Sage.

PGCPS. (n.d.) https://www1.pgcps.org/esol/ .

Yung, H. I., & Paas, F. (2015). Effects of computer-based visual representation on mathematics learning and cognitive load. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 18(4) , 70–77.

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