Curtis Elementary School Case Study Critique

1. Area of focus: The area of focus for the study is the effect of an “altered curriculum” on student achievement in reading.  An “altered curriculum” refers to the changes that an individual teacher institutes in the way that reading is taught “based on professional development activities focused on constructing meaning in reading”.  The area of focus of the study involves both teaching and learning.

2. Research questions: “What is the effect of an altered curriculum on student performance?”  This research question is answerable based upon the researcher’s expertise, time, and resources.  He clearly defined the intervention and laid-out the data collection methods that he would use to measure the impact of the program on student academic performance.

3. Locus of control:  The teacher in this case study focused on the performance of the students in his own classroom.  As such, the study was within his locus of control.

4. Data collection: The teacher in this case study used several different, and appropriate, methods of data collection for his action research study.  He used some qualitative and some quantitative forms of data collection.  The data collection methods he used in this study were interviews with students, observations during reading activities, statewide assessment scores, and regular collection of student work.

5. Ethics: There did not seem to be any overriding ethical issues involved in this action research study.

6. Reflective stance:  The teacher’s research in this case caused him to have a more reflective stance in the classroom.  He viewed action research is a process, where data needs to be collected and analyzed.  The reflections regarding the outcome of an intervention are then used to tailor classroom instruction in the future in order to become a more effective educator.

7. Action: The outcome of the study led to immediate action in the classroom.  As the teacher notes, he plans to use “observations of student learning, reflections with students (oral, written, individual, and group), and continued assessment using… multiple-choice activities, cloze activities, and oral storytelling activities.”  He also states that he will continue to emphasize vocabulary by focusing on “group novels, published poetry, current events magazines, storytelling collections, student-created stories, narratives, opinion papers, descriptions, research papers, and oral presentations.”

8. Action-data connection: The teacher’s actions in this case are a result of his data collection and analysis. He used the data he collected over the course of the study to create new classroom activities that would help to increase student achievement in reading.