Student Voice, Teacher Action Research and Classroom Improvement ADVANCES IN LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS RESEARCH Volume 6 Series Editors Barry J. Fraser Curtin University of Technology Editorial Board Perry den Brok, Eindoven University of Technology, the Netherlands Shwu-yong Huang, National Taiwan University, Taiwan Bruce Johnson, University of Arizona, USA Celia Johnson, Bradley University, USA Rosalyn Anstine Templeton, Marshall University, USA Bruce Waldrip, University of Southern Queensland, Australia Scope The historical beginnings of the field of learning environments go back approximately 40 years. A milestone in the development of this field was the establishment in 1984 of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Special Interest Group (SIG) on Learning Environments, which continues to thrive today as one of AERA’s most international and successful SIGs. A second milestone in the learning environments field was the birth in 1998 of Learning Environments Research: An International Journal (LER), which fills an important and unique niche. The next logical step in the evolution of the field of learning environments is the initiation of this book series, Advances in Learning Environments Research, to complement the work of the AERA SIG and LER. This book series provides a forum for the publication of book-length manuscripts that enable topics to be covered at a depth and breadth not permitted within the scope of either a conference paper or a journal article. The Advances in Learning Environments Research series is intended to be broad, covering either authored books or edited volumes, and either original research reports or reviews of bodies of past research. A diversity of theoretical frameworks and research methods, including use of multimethods, is encouraged. In addition to school and university learning environments, the scope of this book series encompasses lifelong learning environments, information technology learning environments, and various out-of-school ‘informal’ learning environments (museums, environmental centres, etc.) Student Voice, Teacher Action Research and Classroom Improvement Lisa M. Bell University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia and Jill M. Aldridge Curtin University, Perth, Australia A C.I.P. record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN: 978-94-6209-774-2 (paperback) ISBN: 978-94-6209-775-9 (hardback) ISBN: 978-94-6209-776-6 (e-book) Published by: Sense Publishers, P.O. Box 21858, 3001 AW Rotterdam, The Netherlands https://www.sensepublishers.com/ Printed on acid-free paper All Rights Reserved © 2014 Sense Publishers No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures ix List of Tables xi Chapter 1: Introduction 1 The Issue of Teacher Quality 2 School and Teacher Effectiveness 4 Teacher Professional Development and Professional Growth 8 Teacher Action Research 13 Teacher Reflection 15 Learning Environments Research 18 History of the Field of Learning Environments 20 Students’ Attitudes and Self-Beliefs 24 Assessing Students’ Attitudes 25 Assessing Students’ Self-Efficacy Beliefs 26 Design and Methods 28 Research Design 29 Sample 30 Phases of Data Collection 36 Instruments Used for Data Collection 38 Assessing Students’ Perceptions of the Learning Environment 38 Assessing Students’ Attitudes and Self-Efficacy Beliefs 41 Qualitative Data Collection 44 Structure of the Book 45 Chapter 2: Students’ Voices: Assessing the Learning Environment, Students’ Attitudes and Self-Beliefs 47 Assessing the Learning Environment 47 The Relationship Dimension 48 The Assessment Dimension 51 The Delivery Dimension 52 Assessing Students’ Attitudes and Academic Self-Beliefs 55 Attitude to Subject 55 Academic Efficacy 55 Validation of the Instruments 56 v TABLE OF CONTENTS Translation Validity of the COLES and ASBS 56 Criterion-Related Validity 58 Reliability and Validity of the ASBS 67 Chapter Summary 71 Chapter 3: Using Student Perception Data to Guide Teacher Action Research 73 Overview of the Teacher Development Activity 74 Step One: Assessing the Learning Environment 74 Step Two: Providing Feedback 75 Step Three: Reflection and Discussion 76 Step Four: Intervention 76 Step Five: Re-assessment 78 Pre–Post Changes in Students’ Perceptions of Their Classroom Learning Environments 81 Pre–Post Changes: Whole Sample 81 Pre–Post Changes: Comparing Reflection-Only and Focus Teachers 83 Using Student Perception Data to Guide Improvements to the Classroom Learning Environment 85 Teacher Action Research 87 Interpretative Discussion 95 Teacher Action Research Based on Students’ Perceptions as Professional Development 99 Chapter Summary 100 Chapter 4: Student Perception Data, Teacher Action Research and School Improvement 103 Using Teacher Action Research as Part of Initiatives for School Improvement 103 Maggie’s Story 106 Monitoring the Success of School-Level Initiatives 110 Chapter Summary 115 Chapter 5: Discussion, Limitations and Future Directions 117 Development, Validity and Reliability of the Coles and the ASBS 118 Pre–Post Changes in Students’ Perceptions of the Learning Environment 119 Using Student Perception Data as the Basis for Teacher Action Research 121 Teacher Action Research Based on Student Perception Data as Professional Learning 123 vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Teacher Action Research and School Improvement 125 Limitations of the Study 127 Contributions of the Study 128 Future Research 130 Concluding Comments 130 Appendix 1 – Constructivist-Oriented Learning Environment Survey (COLES) 133 Appendix 2 – Attitudes and Self-Belief Survey (ASBS) 139 Appendix 3 – Teacher Evaluation Form 141 Appendix 4 – Guide to Using the Data as Part of Action Research 143 Appendix 5 – Teacher Planning Sheet (Example) 145 Appendix 6 – Written Report Template 147 References 149 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Overview of the research program showing areas of interrelatedness. 31 Figure 2. The different ‘grain sizes’ used in the research program. 32 Figure 3. Phases of data collection undertaken each year of the three-year period. 39 Figure 4. Side-by-side response format for actual and preferred responses used in the COLES. 41 Figure 5. Illustration of the response format for items in the ASBS. 42 Figure 6. Example of a circular profile and column graph used in the teacher feedback package for the pre-test. 75 Figure 7. Example of the box plots used in the teacher feedback package for the pre-test. 76 Figure 8. Example of the data for one scale for the learning environment in the teacher feedback package for the pre-test. 77 Figure 9. The model for action research adapted from Kemmis (Carr & Kemmis, 1983). 78 Figure 10. Example of the circular profile and column graphs used in the teacher feedback package for the post-test. 79 Figure 11. Example of the box plots used in the teacher feedback package for the post-test. 79 Figure 12. Example of the teacher feedback for one scale of the learning environment instrument for the post-test. 80 Figure 13. Actual and preferred scores for students’ perceptions of the learning environment for Anne’s class for the post-test. 89 Figure 14. Mean actual and preferred scores for students’ perceptions of the learning environment for Michael’s class for the post-test. 91 Figure 15. Mean actual and preferred scores for students’ perceptions of the learning environment for Peta’s class for the post-test. 95 Figure 16. Mean actual and preferred scores for students’ perceptions of the learning environment for Maggie’s class for the post-test. 109 ix