ACUE Banner

EDMS 241: Action Research

Participatory, Qualitative, Inquiry-Driven

Reflection on Instructional Change:

The practice I implemented was Create Opportunities for Interaction and Relationship Building Between Students. I had a new summer course with over 20 students. The course is hybrid and the first session was over zoom. I wanted students to be motivated and engaged with each other. So, I created opportunities for them to interact in breakout rooms.

I placed students in small groups of 4. I instructed them to introduce themselves, share their names, and describe their hometowns. They had to come up with a secret handshake that represented each of their hometowns and a lyric or quote that described them as a group. When we came back to the main zoom room each group presented their handshakes and shared their lyrics. I think I will continue this practice because it is a nice icebreaker and students enjoyed it. At the end of class, a couple of students thanked me for making the class interactive.

Of all the ACUE course activities and resources available, I most valued the downloadable implementation resources. I used them when teaching the course as I practiced implementing new strategies. I plan to use them as a guide for future teaching. I also appreciate the practice and reflect assignment because it is a written record of the practices and how they were received by my students. I enjoyed the CTL Observe and Analyze sessions because it was a means to give and receive thoughtful feedback to and from colleagues.

The biggest takeaway I had from my observe and analyze session is the importance of recording students' responses to the strategies. The goal of this is to include students' perceptions as I consider making changes or implementing strategies.

**Evidence of Instructional Change**
Dr. Aaminah Norris, explaining a practice to students. Wearing a gray head scarf, purple striped blouse, and a grey cardigan.	Dear Eric, Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us. Something that may help you is to think what type of information you need. If you need to know specific information (what, when, which) then quantitative is the best. You can collect data using surveys, for example. If you need more in deep information (how, why) then qualitative is the best. You can use interviews, focus groups and many others (photo voice, art). And I heard that many people in this program opt for using a mixed methodology where they combine the methods. My best regards, Mijail Reply to Comment Collapse Subdiscussion Aaminah Norris Aaminah Norris (She/Her/Hers) Jun 4 at 9:01pm Manage Discussion Entry Mijail, This response is a great one! You are right a lot of our students use mixed methods. Dr. Norris Student's reply and my feedback on a discussion board post.	Learning Objectives: Define and explain Action Research models, including Teacher Action Research Demonstrate an understanding of the history of how research methods have been used in diverse educational settings Learning Objectives for Week 3.

Changes in Course Syllabus and Schedules:

Pre FLC - Syllabus and Schedule

Post FLC - Syllabus and Schedule

**Faculty Bio**
	Dr. Aaminah Norris is the Founder and CEO of UhHidden Voices a Black woman-owned educational consultancy based in San Francisco, California that develops diversity, equity, and inclusion-focused strategies for organizations. She has more than 20 years of experience supporting schools and not-for-profit organizations in addressing issues of educational equity for low-income students from historically marginalized communities. Her background in education includes teaching, administration, and curriculum development for thousands of students in grades K-16. She researches, teaches, and advocates the digital literacies of girls and women from nondominant communities, with a particular interest in their STEM practices, Culturally Responsive Pedagogies particularly as they connect to maker education, and the pedagogies of Black women teachers. Dr. Norris authored curricula for the films "Miss Representation" and "The Mask You Live In." Currently, she is an interim Associate Dean in the College of Education at Sacramento State.

**Program Sponsors**
	This work was supported by: US Department of Education Developing Hispanic Serving Institutions Project Degree with a Purpose P031S210061 US Department of Education Hispanic Serving Institution STEM Project STEM4Equity: P031C210012 National Science Foundation Hispanic Serving Institution Project STEMZone 1832335 *Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the US Department of Education or the National Science Foundation.