Running Head: THE PRINCIPALS ROLE AS A LEADER OF CHANGE The Principals Role as a Leader of Change -Critical Element Paper

#3 Presented to the Department of Educational Leadership and Postsecondary Education University of Northern Iowa -In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Master of Arts in Education -by Jakob J. Schroeder Waterloo West High School Waterloo, IA (May 2013) -Dr. Nicholas Pace

THE PRINCIPALS ROLE AS A LEADER OF CHANGE Effect of Bell-ringer Activities on High School Student Engagement Introduction High school teachers are required to teach bell-to-bell which necessitates engaging

students immediately at the beginning of class. This is often a difficult task to accomplish when a teacher is also required to monitor the hallways during passing, take attendance at the beginning of the hour, and help previously absent students catch up with materials and information from missing class. Sometimes this can be done quickly and effectively with very little time lost before engaging students at the start of a lesson. The reality for most teachers has become a loss of valuable time in which many students become disengaged and off task. This results in even more time and effort being spent to reengage students to begin a lesson after already getting a late start on class. The purpose of this study is to examine whether bell ringer activities improve student engagement at the beginning of the class period and maximize the amount of time available for instruction. In order to accomplish this goal the researcher chose to use a formal system of bellringer activities (for purposes of common language, others may refer to this as a do-now or warm-up activity). A typical bell-ringer involves an activity students can complete as soon as they arrive in class, and typically requires little or no instruction. This type of activity may include a daily focus question, a riddle, a logic puzzle, a reflection question, or even a content related question from a previous lesson. The research question: Will the implementation of a structured bell-ringer activity (stated daily on the (white) board for students to complete as soon as they arrive in class, and typically requires no instruction) improve attentiveness and engagement for high school students at the beginning of class? Hypothesis: The structure of the activity will allow students to take control

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of learning at the beginning of class as the responsibility of engagement shifts from the teacher to students. This structured time period will engage more students and help prime the brain before a formal daily lesson begins. Literature Review Author Ernema Boettner (2011) writes the purpose of a bell-ringer is to productively engage students as soon as they enter the classroom (p. 8). She further reinforces the use of a bell-ringer as a classroom management tool and an educational strategy to get students on task and ready to learn from the minute they walk into the room (p. 8). These statements are a key element in what the researcher is looking to find as an outcome of implementation; perhaps the reason for choosing bell-ringers for an action research plan. A portion of the related literature helps to reinforce how valuable time is often wasted at the beginning of class. Romano (2011) writes, By the time housekeeping issues are addressed and homework is collected, 10 minutes have passed. Only half of the class has taken out their notebooks. Time is slipping by (p. 14). Romano (2011) continues by providing teachers with tips to make better use of the first minutes of class by using bell-ringers to capture attention, prep their brains, establish consistent routines, and to embrace and adapt (p. 14). Heitzmann (2010) provides teachers with several suggestions for grabbers such as, projecting a chart, a short reading, a problem, or a political cartoon and asking thoughtprovoking questions (p. 50). This type of activity permits, encourages, perhaps even forces students to focus and react mentally (Heitzmann, 2010, p. 50). The essence of what makes a bell-ringer a power tool at the beginning of the class period is time can be spent improving interpretation skills to enable students to operate at high cognitive level (Heitzmann, 2010, p. 50). Taking this idea further, Gullen and Zimmerman (2013) write how a teacher uses bell-

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ringers to immediately clarify misconceptions about a content related question if students appear to misunderstand a reading or assignment (p. 64). No studies were found differentiating the use of bell-ringer activities between elementary, middle school, and high school. Some high school teachers might consider a bell-ring activity as an elementary tool of instruction. However, one study followed and displayed the characteristics of a highly effective high school science teacher. A noted effective strategy of this teacher included the use of a daily bell-ringer (Pickens & Eick, 2009, p. 352). Methodology The research participants are made up of 50 students from two 10th grade World History classes at Waterloo West High School, Waterloo, IA. The bell-ringer activities will be used during the period of study for the duration of three weeks at the beginning of every class during the spring semester of 2013. The regular classroom teacher will act as an observer while a student teacher will facilitate the implementation of the bell-ringers. Collecting data to measure the success of the program will be done through a Likert-type survey taken by all participants before and after the implementation of the program and through observations made by the researcher, a collaborating teacher, and a student teacher present for the duration of the study. The purpose of the survey is to allow students to self-assess their engagement and participation in class. Issuing the same survey at the end of the three week trial period will allow the researcher to compare student self-assessment. The researcher will examine the results for changes in how students felt about their level of engagement at the beginning of class before having bell-ringer activities in place, and after they have been in place for three weeks. The survey reads:

THE PRINCIPALS ROLE AS A LEADER OF CHANGE Using a scale from 1-5 (1 strongly disagree, 2 - disagree, 3 - neutral, 4 - agree, 5 strongly agree), rate yourself on the following: 1. I am always prepared for class when the bell rings (notebook and book out and waiting for teacher to begin) 2. I am always on time for class (1 = tardy most days, 5 = never tardy) 3. I am engaged at the beginning of class (paying attention, listening to the teacher) 4. I always bring my proper supplies to class (bring book, pen / pencil, notebook) 5. It often takes me several minutes to get mentally prepared for class (Sometimes I am talking to others, or I tune-out the teacher until I am given something to do) 6. The beginning of class is exciting (I am involved and I learn something every day) 7. I feel I could be doing more at the beginning of class (being mentally prepared and ready) 8. I enjoy coming to class every day and I am always ready to learn 9. I really pay attention in class 10. I am sometimes confused about whats going on in this class Observations made by the researcher, collaborating teacher, and student teacher will provide for qualitative results in how they viewed the level of engagement (at the beginning of class) change, stay the same, or decrease as a result of the implementation of bell-ringer

activities over the three week trial period. The researcher understands engagement is difficult to measure numerically and can only be measured through observation of classroom behaviors. The engagement observers will be looking to see includes having students who are seated, quiet, writing in the journal, and participating in discussion of the activity. Now that arrangements have been made to collect data, the implementation of the bellringer activity can begin. Students are first provided with instructions for expectations of how to handle the activity that will be posted daily. Students are to keep a journal to record the date, question, and their response or reflection each day. Students will be responsible for reading and recording each question / activity on their own and without verbal teacher instruction or reminders. Student journals will be collected at the end of each week to check for understanding, provide feedback, and ensure completion of the activity.

THE PRINCIPALS ROLE AS A LEADER OF CHANGE Some examples of a bell-ringer activity that would be posted on the (white) board at the beginning of class would look like the following (if the question or statement has an answer it is revealed after allowing students to provide an answer or take part in a discussion):

1. Question: Your last good Ping-Pong ball fell down into a narrow metal pipe imbedded in concrete one foot deep. How can you get it out undamaged, if all the tools you have are your tennis paddle, your shoe-laces, and your plastic water bottle, which does not fit into the pipe? Answer: All the tools are random things that are not going to help you. All you have to do is pour some water into the pipe so that the ball swims up on the surface. 2. Question: A man who lives on the tenth floor takes the elevator down to the first floor every morning and goes to work. In the evening, when he comes back; on a rainy day, or if there are other people in the elevator, he goes to his floor directly. Otherwise, he goes to the seventh floor and walks up three flights of stairs to his apartment. Can you explain why? Answer: The man is of short stature. He can't reach the upper elevator buttons, but he can ask people to push them for him. He can also push them with his umbrella. 3. Question: Who makes it, has no need of it. Who buys it, has no use for it. Who uses it can neither see nor feel it. What is it? Answer: A coffin 4. What does this quote mean: "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it" Aristotle 5. Reflect on the following saying: One mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter. 6. After a lesson on the industrial revolution, list three inventions discussed on the previous day and their influence on history. Results The survey given to students was designed show how they felt about their engagement in class. Giving the same survey before the implementation period and immediately after allows the researcher to see changes in student perception of engagement. The method chosen to see this change was to calculate a weighted average for the responses of each survey question. From

THE PRINCIPALS ROLE AS A LEADER OF CHANGE here the researcher can see even the slightest change in student responses when comparing the first survey (before implementation) to the final survey (after the period of study). To calculate the weighted average the researcher assigned a numerical value to each response (Strongly disagree = 1, strongly agree = 5, etc.). Each value is multiplied by the number of times each response was chosen for each question. For example, if strongly agree was chosen by 5 participants then the total value would be 25 (5x5=25). All of the values are

then added together and divided by the total number of participants from each survey. When this process is completed for both sets of surveys the weighted average of each response can be compared to show the change in responses. The researcher chose to find difference in weighted average by subtracting survey one from survey two. Two charts are provided to show the weighted mean for each question on survey 1 and survey 2 and the change in weighted mean for each question:
Question Survey 1 Survey 2 Change 1 3.27 3.84 0.57 2 4.45 4.45 -0.01 3 3.90 3.89 -0.01 4 4.36 4.34 -0.02 5 2.81 2.76 -0.05 6 3.05 2.95 -0.10 7 2.95 2.54 -0.41 8 3.31 3.11 -0.20 9 3.67 3.61 -0.06 10 2.50 2.66 0.16

5.00 4.50 4.00 3.50 3.00 2.50 2.00 1.50 1.00 0.50 0.00 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Results 1 Results 2

THE PRINCIPALS ROLE AS A LEADER OF CHANGE To decipher these numbers it is important to understand that a higher weighted mean would show a greater number of higher value response, such as agree or strongly agree. Inversely, a lower weighted mean shows more response toward strongly disagree and disagree. A positive number in the change category tell us higher values response were chosen more often than lower during the final survey, where negative number tells us less of these were chosen during the final survey. It is important to note that a positive number is a good result for most questions, such as question one, while a negative number shows growth for others, such as questions six and seven. Each one needs to be considered individual with the corresponding question.

The researcher is most interested in the change of the weighed mean between the first and second survey. With this method it should not take many responses changing to see a difference in the perception of engagement. But, most of the results do not show a significant change in student perception of engagement. As you can see, we do not have much change to report as a result of implementing the bell-ringer activities for having an impact on students perception of engagement. Only two questions stand out as worth exploring in more depth. Question 1, which reads I am always prepared for class when the bell rings, showed the most significant change in responses. This is a very positive result of the implementing the bell-ringer activity. This tells us, as a result of the bell-ringer activity, more students are better prepared for the beginning of class. Question 7, which reads I feel I could be doing more at the beginning of class (being mentally prepared and ready), also showed us a positive result. In this question the researcher is looking for the change to be a negative number which would indicate more students strongly

THE PRINCIPALS ROLE AS A LEADER OF CHANGE disagree or disagree with the statement. This means that more students feel they are better mentally prepared for class as a result of implementing the bell-ringer activities. Observations made during the implementation period by the researcher, collaborating teacher, and student teacher provide us with more qualitative, although subjective, results. Interestingly, in aligning with the survey results, these observers do not report a change in

the level of engagement by students at the beginning of class. It was reported that a few more students participated than normal at the beginning of class, but overall the effort may not have garnered a significant amount of engagement to warrant implementing the bell-ringer strategy. Conclusion and Recommendations Although the survey and observations did not show a significant change in engagement as a result of the bell-ringer activities, many variables and other observations should be noted before completely ignoring the use of bell-ringer activities as an engagement strategy. One major variable to consider in this situation is the person facilitating the activity. For the three week study period a student teacher was responsible for the implementation of the bell-ringers. Although this activity does not require much instruction, the students may have failed to understand the expectation set forward by the student teacher. A student teacher also brings a new pedagogy and approach to teaching that may have had an impact on how students perceived engagement at the beginning of class. The timing of the study might have also had an impact on the results. The implementation period occurred late in the school year after students have already become accustomed to the norms of the classroom. Although a bell-ringer is not a significant change in routine it does cause a change in the structure of the established classroom routines. Perhaps one

THE PRINCIPALS ROLE AS A LEADER OF CHANGE routine that may be necessary, as one observer reported, is more accountability. We would recommend more checking for completion or perhaps a peer-sharing evaluation. Other considerations for future implementation include using more content-related questions as the focus of the bell-ringer activity. One observer reported that some of the bellringers were too complex, and others over-engaged the students. While the bell-ringers were designed to get students mentally prepared, they may have actually turned away students when the problem was too complex. At this time we must also consider the effectiveness of the measurements used to study engagement. Engagement is very difficult to study and is very subjective. The survey was designed as a self-assessment for participants to gauge their level of engagement while the observations from three teachers could fill in the more qualitative details of the research. If research on this subject were to be completed again the researcher would look into more extensive methods of attempting to measure engagement. After a full analysis of all data and observations of the bell-ringer activities as a method

to increase engagement at the beginning of class, the research failed to show a significant change in engagement. While the implementation did not hinder engagement, the question to consider for future implementation would be the value of the time needed to prepare bell-ringer activities on a daily basis. The researcher would recommend for further analysis that a longer period of study may be necessary, at a different time during the school year, and using an improved method to measure engagement.

THE PRINCIPALS ROLE AS A LEADER OF CHANGE References Boettner, E. T. (2011). Using bell ringers in the CTE classroom. Techniques (Association for Career and Technical Education), 86(6), 8-9. Buck, F. (2007). Saving time and paper with basic technology. Principal, 86(3), 18-21 Galbraith, J. (2013, April 22. Interviewed by J. Schroeder. Collaborating teacher Heitzman, R (2010). 10 suggestions for enhancing lecturing. Education Digest, 79(9), 50-54. Hopper, T. (2013, April 22). Interview by J. Schroeder. Student teacher. Pickens, M., Eick C. J. (2009) Studying motivational strategies used by two teachers in differently tracked science courses. Journal of Educational Research, 102(5), 349-362. Romano, M. (2011). The beauty of bell ringers. Science Teacher, 78(8), 14-14.

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