1. Using Action Research To Empower North Carolina Educators A Race to the Top Initiative NC Department of Public Instruction Educator Effectiveness Division

2. Bridging the Curriculum Islands Mark Townley Wake County Schools Holly Springs High School

3. What is Action Research? Systematic inquiry conducted by teachers and other educators to find solutions for critical, challenging, relevant issues in their classrooms and schools. Mills, Geoffrey E, Action Research: A Guide for the Teacher Researcher, 2014

4. What is Action Research? Main Goals Include: Positively impact student outcomes Identify and promote effective instructional practices Create opportunities for teachers to become reflective practitioners Share research results with other educators Mills, Geoffrey E, Action Research: A Guide for the Teacher Researcher, 2014

5. What is Action Research? A systematic research process to: ● Identify an area of focus (critical, challenging issue) ● Develop an action research plan ● Implement action research plan in classroom/school ● Collect, analyze, and interpret data ● Share findings to inform practice Mills, Geoffrey E, Action Research: A Guide for the Teacher Researcher, 2014

6. Bridging the Curriculum Islands: A Whole-School Approach to Teaching The instructional issue is that many high school science teachers are uncomfortable with teaching classes that are outside their field of expertise, and students are jumping from one science island to the next without connecting the sciences in a way that builds upon prior knowledge. Teachers must be given the opportunity to show how all of the courses that students take are connected to each other in real and meaningful ways. High School Science Teachers will benefit the most from this professional development, but there are clear applications to the entire school community. Students will be able to answer the question “Why do I need to know this?” through multiple connections between every class they take and will be able to build on prior knowledge throughout the year.

7. Problems of Practice Choose a specific topic that you would like to address in your curriculum based on quantitative data from formative or summative assessments. Meet with other members from the same department to see how you could teach that topic through vertical alignment. Meet with small diverse groups from multiple subject areas to see what expertise might be available throughout the school to address your area of need.

8. What Does Peer-Reviewed Research say about my focus area? Incorporating multi-disciplined, authentic instruction is a very effective way to provide students with career relevance and a much deeper understanding of their world. Differentiation through collaborative efforts have proven to be more effective than differentiation from a single teacher. Limiting factors for a whole school approach include time and subject specific standardized tests. Research suggests the following as well: –A textbook can be a hindrance to working with other professionals due to the fact that students might learn two different definitions of the same word in two different classes from two different books. –The training teachers received in college to protect their professional data might be part of the reason why we are so protective of our lesson plans and methodology.

9. Make Knowledge Public Analyze/Interpret Data Collect Data Innovation/Intervention Action Research Plan Focus Statement The purpose of this study is to research the limiting factors and the effectiveness of a whole- school, multi-discipline pathway approach to education for the science classroom.

10. Make Knowledge Public Analyze/Interpret Data Collect Data Innovation/Intervention Action Research Plan Purpose of the Study My goal is to create a community model that helps teachers to break down the barriers that have forced us to focus on our own curriculum "islands", and to gather data that shows how effective a whole-school approach could be when we allow communities to fully collaborate.

11. Make Knowledge Public Analyze/Interpret Data Collect Data Innovation/Intervention Action Research Plan Study Participants At the beginning of the 2014-15 school year, I held a 90 minute professional development session with the staff at Holly Springs High School. Before this session, teachers and PLT's were asked to identify an area of need or improvement in their subject area and to bring that topic to the PD. During the session, teachers were given time to meet in their departments and have conversations about how their topic could be vertically aligned, to determine how other subjects within the department taught similar topics, or to provide their expertise to help department members come up with ideas on how to address their need. Several ideas were shared out with the whole staff, and then teachers were given time to meet in mixed, whole staff groups to see what expertise could be found to assist them throughout the school. At the end of the PD session, our staff was challenged to create a collaborative lesson plan with another stakeholder at the school or in the community and to collect qualitative and quantitative data on the effectiveness of their lesson plan.

12. Make Knowledge Public Analyze/Interpret Data Collect Data Innovation/Intervention Action Research Plan Study Variables The independent variable was the whole-school, multi- disciplined pathway approach to education in High School Science. The dependent variables were student proficiency and the qualitative and quantitative effectiveness of collaborative, authentic instruction.

13. Make Knowledge Public Analyze/Interpret Data Collect Data Innovation/Intervention Action Research Plan Research Questions What is the qualitative and quantitative impact of whole-school collaboration among teachers on the effectiveness of their lessons? What are the limiting factors that have the greatest impact on the ability of teachers to incorporate a whole-school approach? What specific resources were most effective with assisting teachers in their curriculum development? What specific types of lesson plans were the most effective for the teachers involved?

14. Make Knowledge Public Analyze/Interpret Data Collect Data Innovation/Intervention Action Research Plan Innovation/Intervention This professional development will engage, empower, and energize teachers with multiple ways they can fill instructional voids in their curriculum by utilizing expertise found throughout the school/community/state. Teachers will reflect on their classes using formal and informal assessment data from the previous year to identify those voids. I will show them examples of innovative, personal, and relevant cross-curricular lesson plans that have been successfully implemented in our school and in schools across the state. Teachers will use these ideas to create one collaborative, cross-curricular, and authentic lesson plan that will attempt to fill that void in their classroom. We will assess the success of the implementation by comparing data from this year to the past year.

15. Make Knowledge Public Analyze/Interpret Data Collect Data Innovation/Intervention Action Research Plan Implementation in the Classroom Students in construction class building a 1/4 th scale passive solar home designed in an AP Environmental class.

16. Make Knowledge Public Analyze/Interpret Data Collect Data Innovation/Intervention Action Research Plan Implementation in the Classroom Students in biology growing algae in a media that chemistry classes made.

17. Make Knowledge Public Analyze/Interpret Data Collect Data Innovation/Intervention Action Research Plan Implementation in the Classroom Community volunteers helping to create experiential learning outdoors.

18. Make Knowledge Public Analyze/Interpret Data Innovation/Intervention Action Research Plan Data Collected Each staff member at HSHS identified a specific area of need in their curriculum and brought that topic to the staff Professional Development session in October. Teachers were given time to collaborate with stakeholders throughout the school and community. Teachers were tasked with creating a lesson plan through these collaborations that addressed their area of need. 102 survey responses were gathered with qualitative and quantitative data from teachers that implemented the collaborative lesson plan.

19. Make Knowledge Public Analyze/Interpret Data Innovation/Intervention Action Research Plan Collect Data Findings The data shows that literacy-based lesson plans were the easiest and most effective to collaborate and create. A basic visual aid was the least effective type of lesson plan. Lesson plans that utilized technology and were taught across subjects were the most effective. The average qualitative score was 7.6 out of 10 for a positive effect The least effective collaborations took place within the same subject area, and the most effective lesson plans were ones that were either vertically aligned within the department or ones that were created through a collaboration with stakeholders or from expertise outside of the traditional school setting.

20. Make Knowledge Public Analyze/Interpret Data Innovation/Intervention Action Research Plan Collect Data Recommendations Teachers must be given time to collaborate as whole-school communities, not just with same subject teachers. Professional Development and social gatherings must be facilitated in a way that allows time for teachers to get to know the rest of the staff and stakeholders at a particular school. Individual schools should create community models that incorporate all of the resources and expertise that the school and the surrounding areas of their community can offer. Further research must be done to define what types of lesson plans and collaborations are most effective. Specific platforms should be created that would give schools an opportunity to share best practices and community models across the state.

21. References Santamaria, L., & Thousand, J. (2004). Collaboration, co-teaching, and differentiated instruction: A process-oriented approach to whole schooling. International Journal of Home-Schooling, 1(1), 13-27. Tenopir, C., Allard, S., Douglass, K., Aydinoglu, A., Wu, L., Read, E.,... Neylon, C. (2011). Data Sharing by Scientists: Practices and Perceptions. PLoS ONE, E21101-E21101. Moraiti, T. School knowledge, cross-curricularity and teamwork teaching in the Greek primary school: mathematics education as discursive practice. Curriculum Journal, 23, 247-260. Wilson, C. H., & Winston, M. S. “Instructional Strategies Drive Student Achievement: Methods to Improve Student Understanding of Topics in Earth Science”. Dennis, J., & O'Hair, M. (2010). Overcoming Obstacles in Using Authentic Instruction: A Comparative Case Study of High School Math & Science Teachers.American Secondary Education, 38(2).

22. Conclusion of Presentation Thank you for your participation. Contact Information: Name:Mark Townley School/District:Holly Springs High School/Wake Phone:(919) 577-1444 Email:mtownley@wcpss.net Website:www.wcpss.net/hollyspringshs

23. Discussion What do you think are the limiting factors that inhibit a whole school approach in your school? What are some solutions for providing your teachers more time and resources to collaborate with members outside of their department? What types of lesson plans do you find are the most successful with your students?

24. Questions

25. Activity My activity