My Innovation Plan aims to increase student learning by giving them choice, voice, and ownership over their learning with interactive lessons. I plan to use an action research plan to see how my innovation plan is affecting student learning. Below is an outline of the action research plan. 

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• What is the topic of your action research?

  • How does the use of self-paced, interactive lessons for first-time instruction in a blended learning classroom affect student learning?

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• What is the purpose of your study?

  • I would like to see the impact these interactive lessons have on student learning, vs standard teacher-led lectures. Will these lessons increase motivation by giving students control over when and where they learn? And will students prefer reviewing the lesson prior to class time, or will they prefer to complete independent practice at home?

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• What is your fundamental research question?

  • How is student learning affected using interactive lessons for first-time instruction vs. teacher-delivered lectures for first-time instruction?

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• What is your research design? Qualitative, quantitative both (mixed-methods) Why?

  • I am planning to use quantitative data to answer my question.

  • I initially considered comparing student data from this coming school year to student data from two years ago, prior to any use of interactive lessons in my classroom. I decided that might not work well, though, because the learning gaps from the pandemic may affect the outcome. Given that I cannot compare students from two years ago to students next year, I have opted to use a pretest-posttest control group design.

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• What is the most appropriate type of data to collect?

  • Since I am investigating the effect on student learning, I can use data sources that are part of our routine grading process to assess mastery of instructional objectives.

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• What types of measurement instruments will you use?

  • I plan to use student test scores, relevant applications (projects), and one-on-one, oral questions to check for understanding.

  • I will conclude each learning unit with a survey of student learning perception using a Likert scale.

  • I will start the school year with a pretest for each class to identify which classes of students are most similar in prior knowledge. Then use one class as the control group and another class as the experimental group to try the interactive lesson delivery. At the end of each unit, I will evaluate the post-test data to see the effects of the independent variable (interactive lesson use) on the dependent variable (overall learning).

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• What is the focus of your innovation topic (and literature review, if applicable)?

  • My innovation is to implement interactive lessons and class discourse in my classroom to engage students by giving them choice, voice, and ownership over their learning in an authentic environment (COVA). See also:  Literature Review and Innovation Plan

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Please see my blog post “How do I know If my plan is working?”

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References:

Mertler, C. A. (2020). Action research: improving schools and empowering educators. SAGE Publications, Inc.

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