I might officially be a researcher now. I began this summer focused on continuing my redefinition of mathematics education. Math is art. Math is a language. Math can be culturally responsive. I read a number of articles - maybe going down a few rabbit holes in the process. I wrote a literature review and I designed a methodology all about how I was going to design a new student-centered math curriculum. The process was intense and at least a little frustrating. I seemed to be spending all my time reading. When I tried to start writing, I felt like I still hadn't read enough. Then there was the whole process of crafting my methodology. In the beginning, qualitative data seemed farcical to me. What do you mean "I can keep a journal and that counts as data"? I am still learning how to validate qualitative data, at least to myself. However, teaching is a reflective practice. We get better at teaching by looking back at our experiences and deciding how to improve those experiences according to what others have done. So... Surveys, journals, observations are in fact valid data. Ensuring that there are check and balances to our own biases - aka triangulating the data - is the key. Qualitative data has to be matched with quantitative data. Suppose I'm reviewing some test scores and I notice that students who usually do well on tests are performing at lower rates. I refer to my journal and realize that the week before the test I had been worried about some life things and didn't have my best days of teaching. There is probably some relationship between my feelings and student performance. Qualitative data adds some flavor to the numbers.
Back to me being an official researcher: I will be changing my topic. Which means I need to begin my reading, writing, and research process (almost) all over again. I'm going to focus my energy on Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports. I'm already gathering information. I'm hoping to be less worried about reading everything. I want to just go with the flow of the process.
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AuthorI'm just a math teacher, trying to figure it out. Archives
December 2019
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