Classroom Action Research II

Classroom Action Research

(Keynote Speech in LIA’s 3^rd Research Colloquium)

By: Conny R. Semiawan

1. I. Prologue

Today, according to professional educators, the value of research lies in making it an integrated professional aspect of the job. This is the reason why the practitioner’s educational research is considered a part of our professionalism as teachers, not just an addition, but an extension of the job which will produce a valuable outcome because of the professional experience. This also explains the involvement which should be based on an intrinsic educational performance.
The concept of practical innovations is not anymore the prerogative of academic researchers but also the responsibility of the professional workers.

1. II. Concept

Classroom Action Research (CAR), therefore, as an integral part of action research (AR), deals with educational research as a social practice because as Elliot (1982 in Mc Niff, 1992) said: AR deals with a social situation to improve the quality of an action, the whole procedure of review, diagnosis, design, implementation, effect of the monitoring and the link between professional development and self evaluation. That is the reason why it is impossible for professional workers to become the object of research unless there is collaboration between the two parties. The value of AR lies in the fact that there is no split between the educational practice and the educational theory. It also reflects the changing culture in the investigation and the technological context that goes with it.
A very specific characteristic of CAR is that it is conducted in the classroom, that the focus of the study is the interaction between the researcher and the participants, and the researcher is involved as much as possible in the process and experience of the participants. An essential part of AR as well as CAR is the collaboration with the research participants in each stage of the research project, including identifying research questions, developing data collection procedures, analyzing the information and sharing the results.
Action Research implies a long term commitment to interact with the research participants. So the idea of just working with a group and/or going into a   classroom, collecting data on learning is not consistent with the ideal of action research.
AR as well as CAR is a straight forward practical approach to tackling issues of substance (Kember, 2000). The following four conditions are necessary:
-          it should be a form of strategic action susceptible to improvement
-          it should proceed through a spiral of circles: planning, actions, observing and reflecting which are all interrelated.
-          it includes other parties (colleagues, parents, etc)
-          it maintains collaboration in the context of research.

1. III. LIA’s English Teachers and Students

Since this research colloquium has been conducted twice, improvement of the research skill has been achieved. However, not much has been achieved in terms of acceleration of language development instruction because it is a new area of research.
Based on the current behavior research, a new linguistic program introducing accelerated learning can give us a small overview of what could happen, if we knew more about the latest information on neuroscience and its impacts on learning and on students with language talent.
By the time children reach school years most of them have mastered the basic rules of form and meaning. They pass the egocentric stage and are able to look at something with another person’s viewpoint. They are also engaged in social take and give. Mental development is also a major area of linguistic development, called pragmatics: the practical use of language to communicate. This includes both conversational and narrative skills.
Good conversationalists probe by asking questions before introducing a topic with which the other person may not be familiar. They quickly recognize a breakdown in communication and do something about it. However, there are significant individual differences in such conversational skills. Yet, in the majority of cases, when children aged 6 to 7 tell stories, they usually do not make them up. Stories that these children tell are more likely related to their personal experiences. The stories become longer and complex as children begin to describe motives and causal links. Consequently, those children construct more complex episodes than younger children, but with less unnecessary details.
Students with superior ability in language tend to display common characteristics, especially by the time they reach junior high school where language fluency rapidly develops. This is the background of how the brain works where rapid development of such language growth occurs (and how it could be accelerated) and we hope that input from recent research can give us new insights into accelerated language learning.
As Barbara Clark explains in her book “Growing up Gifted”:
The nerve cell, or neuron, is the basic unit of the brain. It is composed of the cell body, dendrites, and an axon. Inside the cell body are the nucleus and the biochemical processes that maintain the life of the cell. The neuron is a tiny system for information processing that receives and sends thousands of signals. No two cells are exactly alike nor are any two brains alike. We are as different from one another as snowflakes. The dendrites are short fibers that extend from the cell body, branching out to form the pathways for receiving information from nearby nerve cells. The axon is one long nerve fiber that extends from the cell body and serves as a transmitter, sending signals that are picked up by the branches of the neighboring dendrites. The activity between neurons is carried out by the dendrites of one cell in contact with the axon of another. The end of the axon does not actually touch the dendrite of the other cell but transmits the information chemically across a region where the cells are particularly close. This junction across which impulses travel from one nerve cell to another is called the synapse. The transmission of a nerve impulse is an electrochemical process. At the synapse, the electrical impulses that travel through the cell convert into chemical signals, then back to electrical impulses. It is this synapse that is thought to be the most likely site for neural mechanisms of learning and memory (Thompson, Berger, and Berry, 1980).
Surrounding the neurons are special cells known as glia. These cells outnumber the neural cells ten to one and can be increased by stimulation from the environment (Rosenzweig, 1966). The glial cells provide the brain with nourishment, consume waste products, and serve as packing material actually gluing the brain together. They also insulate the nerve cell, creating myelin, a special coating that protects the axon and amplifies the signal leaving the cell. Myelin has an important function, in that it allows the coated axon to conduct information away from the neuron at a much faster rate than unmyelinated axons (Thompson et al., 1980). As we increase the glial cells in the brain, we accelerate the speed of learning. It is rather like the difference that can be seen between electrical conduction through insulated and noninsulated wiring: the speed and power of the charge increase by the use of insulation.
We influence the rate of glial cell production by the richness of the environment we provide (Rosenzweig, 1966). The more glia, the more accelerated will be the synaptic activity and the more powerful will be the impulse exchange from one cell to the next, allowing for faster and more complex patterns of thinking, two characteristics we find in gifted children. The speed of thought is amazing. If a nerve pathway is used often, the threshold of the synapse falls, so that the pathway operates more readily. A wave front is started that may sweep over at least 100,000 neurons a second (Brierly, 1976).
Another way of increasing synaptic activity is by strengthening the neuron’s cell body. While we cannot increase the quantity of neural cells, we can increase the quality (Rosenzweigh, 1966: Krech, 1969, 1970). This quality enhancement allows again for information to be processed more quickly and for more power to be conducted, resulting in the availability of more complex neural networks. Interaction in an enriched environment changes the chemical structure of the neural cell, thereby strengthening the cell body.
It is by increasing the strength and the speed of transmission or synaptic activity that we can affect the process of learning. We can through changes in teaching and learning procedures affect the growth of dendritic branching, increase the complexity of the network of connections among neurons, and the quantity of glial cells. These are the differences we see in brains that show advanced and accelerated development. By the environment we provide, we change not just the behavior of children, we change them at the cellular level. In this way gifted children become biologically different from average learners, not at birth, but as a result of using and developing the wondrous, complex structure with which they were born. At birth nearly everyone is programmed to be phenomenal (Clark, B, 1983).
With this explanation, I would like to express a message that we can through CAR as a vehicle could change the teaching procedures to enhance learning, by providing an environment which could stimulate the talents of an individual, especially an individual with language talents.
Students with high ability in language do tend to display common characteristics, especially by the time they reach middle school where language fluency rapidly develops. Use the scale below to help decide if a particular student is gifted in language arts. If you rate the student with scores of 4 or 5 on more than half of the characteristics, then further assessment is warranted.

The student ….

A little       Some       A lot

Writes or talks in imaginative and coherent ways. Organizes text in a manner that is exceptional for the student’s age. Expresses ideas succinctly and elegantly. Writes with a flair for metaphorical and poetic expression. Takes the lead in helping a group reach its writing goal. Easily grasps the essence of a writing style and adapts it for personal use. Can capture and maintain the attention of an audience by using drama and humor in imaginative ways. Engages creatively and seriously with social and moral issues expressed in literature. Justifies opinions convincingly. Shows special awareness of language features, such as intonation, rhyme, accents in spoken language, and grammatical organization in written texts. Presents reason arguments at the hypothetical or abstract level in both spoken and written language.

1 —-  2 —- 3 —- 4 —-  5 1 —-  2 —- 3 —- 4 —-  5 1 —-  2 —- 3 —- 4 —-  5 1 —-  2 —- 3 —- 4 —-  5 1 —-  2 —- 3 —- 4 —-  5 1 —-  2 —- 3 —- 4 —-  5 1 —-  2 —- 3 —- 4 —-  5 1 —-  2 —- 3 —- 4 —-  5 1 —-  2 —- 3 —- 4 —-  5 1 —-  2 —- 3 —- 4 —-  5 1 —-  2 —- 3 —- 4 —-  5

Sousa, 2003

Reference

Clark, B. R. 1983. Growing up Gifted. USA: Merril Publishing Co.
Kember, D. 2000. Action Learning and Action Research. London: Kogan Page Limited.
Sousa, D.A. 2003. How the Gifted Brain Learns. USA: Convin Press Inc, ASa Publ. Co.
Thompson, e.a. in Clark, B. R. 1983. Growing up Gifted. USA: Merril Publishing Co.
Brierly in Clark, B. R. 1983. Growing up Gifted. USA: Merril Publishing Co.