It seems to me that the inclination to avoid research, of any sort, is shortsighted, provincial, and possibly deleterious (Glanz, 2003).
Really? Ok, lets see here:
Provincial- belonging or peculiar to some particular province; local: the provincial newspaper; of or pertaining to the provinces: provincial customs; provincial dress; Having or showing the manners, viewpoints, etc., considered characteristic of unsophisticated inhabitants of a province; rustic; narrow or illiberal; parochial: a provincial point of view; Of or pertaining to any of the American provinces of Great Britain (dictionary.com)
Deleterious- Having a harmful effect; injurious (dictionary.com)
So, within the first page, this guide to school improvement has successfully and irrevocably turned me off! Why did Glanz insist on puffing his chest up with million dollar words that we have to look up to understand? There is no question that the research he conducted is important and useful to the general practitioner. It just proves that you may be able to conduct superior research; it doesn’t mean you can write! I am sorry Mr.Glanz you effectively encouraged me to avoid research based on your deleterious writing!
EDU-590 has opened my eyes to a world I would have never been shown. As a “Training Officer” for a police agency you are expected to teach almost every subject related to the job. However you are never given the “training” to really teach. Every subject has an instructor’s course that is normally 2-3 days that really only makes you a subject matter expert, as opposed to teaching you how to teach adult learners, much less self sufficient police officers.
While Mr.Glanz’s writing style made me sick, the content was still valid and enlightened me on exciting concepts that I want to use. I have been using Program, Product, and Procedural Evaluation Research for years, but didn’t know it, nor did I understand how to effectively use it. One of the most powerful examples Glanz suggested was empowering students by allowing them to be part of collaborative research. I have hundreds of power points that I teach from. Very few suggest any student interaction. Basically, its drill and kill. (No pun intended of course!)
After reading and researching for this assignment I identified that the most common complaint that I receive from the police officers I teach is they are not comfortable with the AR-15 rifle. Primarily because they do not understand how it works, functions, or comes apart to be cleaned and serviced. They are only taught extensively how to shoot it.
My Action Research will be conducted using two groups of police officers who through Identifying Similarities and Differences, Homework and Practice, and Cooperative Learning will each be assigned to disassemble and reassemble an AR-15 rifle. This test will help me collect data on what level of functional understanding each group has about the weapon. During the test I will be able to observe, analyze, and interpret the data based on their performance. Taking action by distributing printed schematics to one group and allowing the other to access an interactive operational model of the weapon online will allow the groups to expand their knowledge base. Finally, a second disassembly/ reassembly test will be conducted to reflect on the effectiveness of the process for each group. Based on the result I intend to modify the current method used to teach this subject.
Works Cited:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/provincial
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/deleterious
Wow! What an interesting way of using the strategies. I think it is going to be very interesting to see which group does better with the rifle assembly/ disassembly. Sometimes I forget that teaching is not something just in the classroom. You have reminded me that so many people use and need it throughout life. I wish everyone had the opportunity to take a few classes in how to instruct. How many people are you going to be training? Are these people new to the unit or have they been there awhile? Way to go- I am excited to see how this turns out!
ReplyDeleteInteresting point about empowering students. I have difficulty doing this at the high school level because we have so much content to cover. We have almost everyday planned for an entire trimester. The little bit of empowering I do is ask students whether they want a worksheet or book work. Math is very sequential and it really builds on itself. I guess I could let the students decide how they want me to teach them. Another problem is how to get 33 students to all agree on one method of instruction.
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