Professional Inquiry Project Proposal

Breanna Gray

Dani Peters &

1. Statement of Purpose
Rationale
i. Why is this PIP important/relevant to your placement?
FOCUS is a new program to HHHS built upon a flex program that was used the
previous year. Approximately 90 schools in Alberta are implanting some type of
flexible program. Each school implements their flex program in a different way.
HHHS is very excited about FOCUS and is hoping to see major results from it. It has a
high priority in the school for this semester. We believe that this PIP will help make
FOCUS more effective and benefit the school.
ii. What is the purpose of this PIP within your practicum?
The purpose of our PIP is to determine whether students perceive FOCUS as being
effective and what parts they find most effective. Along with the main purpose, we
want to find out what teaching strategies are most effective for the students within
these 30 minute time slots.
iii. How does this PIP address your professional needs?
FOCUS or related programs are being implemented in school across Alberta. To be
able to assess perceived effectiveness of these programs through the students point
of view will allow us to tackle the task of getting students on board with bettering
their education experience. We believe that FOCUS and related programs are
beneficial to students allowing them extra opportunities for learning as well as
specific help in certain areas. As with every new teaching approach getting children
to understand the value can be difficult and this project will allow us to ask for
student input and learn from the students what they feel FOCUS is most beneficial
for and how we can tailor it to meet a majority of needs that may not have been
realized previously by staff and administration. We will also be able to grow as
professionals through implementing new techniques in our classroom, again based
on student feedback.
iv. How does it reflect the needs of others?
Our PIP is mainly intended to reflect the needs of the students, but in doing so will
also reflect the need of the teachers. The central research will be based around what
the students need to have an effective FOCUS period.
v. How does it reflect contemporary educational research
literature?
As stated above, this directly linked to a current project entitled High School
Flexibility Enhancement Pilot. This project focuses on creating flexible, studentcentered approaches to 21st century learning. The flexibility project is doing this by
increasing student engagement, improving student achievement, and enhancing
teacher practice.

Description

i. What are the current conditions informing the direction of

this PIP?
FOCUS being newly implemented within our school allows us a
great opportunity for researching effective strategies for how to
improve it, while it is still new. FOCUS is also important to our
schools goal of striving towards all students reaching graduation.

FOCUS will help give extra learning time, and allow for additional
teaching strategies to fit the needs of all students.
1. Who is being impacted?
All participants within the school are involved in FOCUS. This is a
school wide initiative and the research and information that we will
collect will potentially impact the whole school. We will be focusing
on the Math and Science departments for survey collection and
teaching strategy implementation, but there is no reason that the
results and strategies we find cannot be altered and then
implemented in other streams.
2. What are those impacts?
Students will be positively impacted because their input towards
how FOCUS runs, notifications, and strategies used in it will be
because of their views and opinions. Staff will be impacted due to
the increased understanding of how FOCUS can meet the needs of
students and teachers so that we as a whole can move forward
towards our other academic goals.
ii. What evidence are you using to inform/support your
observations?
We will be administering and collecting a survey for students in
the beginning stages of FOCUS and after a month of FOCUS that is
going to give us information on students perceived effectiveness
of FOCUS, how they choose to use FOCUS and ideas that we can
implement moving forward to help FOCUS reach its main goal of
helping every child succeed.
iii. What does related educational research literature
indicate?
Flexible scheduling increases students engagement improves
student achievement and enhances teacher teaching practices.
2. Intended Learning Goals
What are you seeking to learn/discover?
We are seeking to discover whether students find FOCUS effective and what
teaching strategies are most effective for re-teaching.
3. Inquiry Questions
What is the essential question of this inquiry project?
How effective do students find FOCUS?
What subsets of questions will help address your essential question?
What strategies can be used to increase student perceptiveness of the effectiveness
of FOCUS?
4. Inquiry Activities
What actions will I take to implement this inquiry?
We will do preliminary research to determine what the goal of FOCUS is and what
the best teaching strategies are. We will give student surveys in a minimum of 4
different classes within the Math & Science department.
What evidence/data will I gather?
We will be conducting the surveys through Google Doc forms so that confidentiality
will remain. We will also be observing students, continually asking questions to
students within our study groups, and watching for grade improvements that we can
correlate to strategies used during FOCUS.
How will I organize this evidence/data?

Google Docs will hold the survey information, and we will compile data into Excel
Charts for analyzing.
How will this evidence/data be shared/distributed with/to
others?
The student surveys will only be looked at by us and administration should any
concerns arise. For strategies to implement in the class room, administration may be
privy to looking at data. At the conclusion of our project we will share final results
and recommendations with staff.
How will this evidence/data inform future actions?
We will consult with our administration after our initial surveys are completed and
compiled to assure that any suggested teaching strategies can be implemented
during FOCUS. If students provide no appropriate or specific strategies we will
implement a new teaching strategy within our individual classrooms so that we may
assess its effectiveness with our final survey.
5. Timeframes for Completion
What are the developmental stages associated with this PIP?
In the first week of October we will administer student surveys during a class period.
We will take a week to compile the data and come up with suggestions and
strategies to implement in FOCUS. We will then meet with administration to get any
changes approved or voice suggestions and concerns. Over the month we will work
through our outlined strategies. After the implemented time we will collect follow-up
surveys and compile the data to inform us on whether our strategies were perceived
as effective or further suggestions that may need be addressed.
What are the intended dates of completion within my practicum
placement?
Overall the project will be completed by the first week of December 2015.
6. Bibliography
High School Redesign Literature Review
https://ideas.education.alberta.ca/media/4299/hsflexiblityenhancementaliteraturereview.pdf
provide evidence of research-informed practice and reflection
Klevgaard, J., Baharally, N., Shepherd, M., & Thibeau, J. (2013). Imagine There's No
Carnegie Unit. Principal Leadership, 14(1), 30-35.
Sparks, S. D. (2008). Extended grad rate may allow high schools flexibility. Education
Daily, 41(230), 1-4.
Tollefson, N. (1973). Selected student variables and perceived teacher effectiveness.
Education, 94(1), 30.