Ethics!

Ethics is a very difficult aspect to determine.  Are you completing your research in an ethical manner?  Are you staying true to your research? These are difficult questions to answer while attempting to complete research.  Ethics have become an essential portion in the view of research.  From watching the two videos on MyEducationLab, you see two very different points of view in the importance of ethics in research.  I believe that Doug had the correct idea on how to stay ethically sound when completing his research.  He not only got permission from the parents but he also gained permission from the students that he would be researching.  This allowed for the students and the parents to be knowledgeable about both the research and any data results that will be found because of it.  This tells me that Doug was conscience about any ethical considerations concerning his research.  Jeanette on the other hand seemed to be more concerned about keeping her research a secret then allowing the principal to gain information about the research.  If you are going to complete action research on a set of students, gaining permission is essential to completing the research.  You not only allow the administration, parents and students to understand what your research is about but you might be able to gain insight into your research that you might not have considered yet.  Jeanette did not want to disclose any information regarding her research to the principal or her fellow colleagues.  This gave the wrong impression of her research.  It lead others to believe that she was attacking them and their materials, when she was only attempting to gain insight into the materials available to the students.  If she would have gained permission from the principal regarding her research the feelings toward her research would have been more positive. 

Curtis Elementary

I enjoyed the cased study regarding Curtis Elementary, I felt that there was not only excitment about completing the research project there was also support from the staff. In regards to completing the criteria for Evaulating Action Research my analysis is as follows:

Area of focus: I believe that there was an area of focus related to teaching and learning.  The teacher attempted to create an "altered curriculum" relating to the improving test scores through understanding of material.  The case study did not go into detail  on how "understanding" was accomplished but it seems that the teacher learned quite a bit from the action research.

Research Question:  The teacher does provide one research question regarding the action research but it is nondeterminate of the teacher's ability, but more in line with the curriculum.

Locus of Control:  This was done very well, he only attempted to study his classroom and not include information from the rest of the school.

Data Collection:  This was also done well, the data was varied but also able to be discussed and anaylzed.  The data include one aspec that I liked, and it was the retelling of a story about the Bermuda Triangle.  This allowed the students to explore the story on their own but it also allowed the teacher to provide a unique analysis of the story and demonstrate the abilities of each child based on the same story.

Ethics:  I did not see any ethical problems that arised from this research.

Reflective Stance: The teacher did reference a reflective section in his case study. He stated several finding on the development of the students understanding and the impact of the "literal word" on understanding. This reflection seemed appropriate to the teacher and his conclusions of his teaching style.

Action: The teacher has taken his data results and applied significant changes to his classroom curriculum and has already set up several intervention strategies that will be applied to his classroom.

Action-data connection: These intervention strategies are based on the data provided by the research.  It seems that his "altered curriculum" has had a significant effect on the students understanding of specific materials. He does understand how he needs to "construct meaning" of how his students in turn construct meaning of literature.

Research Bias

Research bias is a major issue relating to any particular research plan.  In relation to an action research plan, I feel that the researcher should have a complete idea of all issues and sides pertaining to the issue at hand.  In middle grade sciences, you learn early to always have in mind a hypothesis relating to your experiment.  Although as I have gotten older I have come to realize my lack of creating that particular hypothesis in relation to any kind of research.  When I began my research into the issue of self-esteem improvement, I was unclear as to where the data would lead me.  During the literature review, I was able to consolidate my vision into one question:

Does exercise have a indirect or direct influence on the improvement of self-esteem?

After reading about research biases I have looked further into the idea, and realized, through data collection, the biases related to this subject. Through my research I have developed two proposition statements related to this question.

1. Exercise does have a indirect effect on the improvement of self-esteem in students.
2. Exercise will have a greater effect on the self-esteem of males over females.

I feel that in order to complete a well-rounded research action study, the researcher needs to explore all sides of the issue at state. In my research study I will consider information from both sides of the effects of exercise on the improvement of self-esteem, but I hope to find my hypothesis to be correct.