Inquiry Project (Overview)
Overview
Problem: Many students do not know how to study for math and fully prepare for an assessment, students perform poorly on quizzes and tests
Strategy: Develop different types of study guides to give to students before an assessment
Goals: Discover which types of study guides are most beneficial, teach students how to study, increase student understanding of material, help students to improve their grades, become a more effective teacher
4-week study
Students
Chose 2 students from one of my Functions, Statistics, and Trigonometry classes (on-level math class)
"Oscar"- Junior, average student, sits towards the front of the classroom, generally on task, popular, frequently raises his hand to answer questions in class, occasionally comes for extra help
"Evan" - Junior, average student, sits towards the front of the classroom, always on task, prefers to work alone when given the opportunity to work with a partner or small group, never volunteers to answer questions, quiet and shy
Baseline Assessment
30 minute quiz on sections 2-1 to 2-3 in textbook
Students were not given a study guide
"Oscar"- earned a 39/50 on quiz, showed his work for some questions, left 1 question blank that had to do with vocabulary, earned 1 point out of 2 on extra credit
"Evan"- earned a 39/50 on quiz, showed his work for some questions, left 1 question blank, earned 2 points out of 2 on extra credit
What I Learned- both students have potential to do better, need to stress the importance of understanding vocabulary
First Assessment
Students were given a study guide that contained a list of important vocabulary terms, formulas, page numbers in textbook to reference, and class worksheets to review
30 minute quiz on sections 2-4 to 2-7 in textbook
After the quiz, students were asked to answer the following questions on a sheet of paper:
(1) Did you use the study guide to help prepare for the quiz?
(2) Do you think this study guide was helpful?
(3) List any comments / suggestions.
"Oscar" and "Evan" both said that the study guide was helpful
"Oscar" received a 46/50 and "Evan" received a 41/50 (there was improvement)
For some questions, the students did not show any work and lost several points
What I Learned: Important to stress to students that they should always show their work when answering a problem
Next study guide: Have students more involved in creating/ completing the study guide
Second Assessment
Study guide consisted of 10 short answer questions (students were asked to complete the study guide and it was collected and graded as a homework assignment)
42 minute test on chapter 2 in textbook
"Oscar" was absent on the day of the test (he had to be given another version of the test)
"Oscar" earned a 94/100 and "Evan" earned a 82/100
There was improvement, study guide was effective
Generally, the more students put into the study guide, the better they did on the assessment
Third Assessment
Study guide contained a variety of different types of questions as well as example problems (it was also collected and counted as a homework assignment)
30 minute quiz on sections 3-1 to 3-3 in textbook
"Oscar"- answered every question on the study guide (and had answered almost all of them correctly), he received a 43/50 on the quiz
"Evan" did not answer several questions on the study guide (he left about 25% of the questions blank), he received a 34/50 on the quiz
Conclusion
This study was very valuable for me as a new teacher
- Study guides are beneficial for students to use
- Learned how to analyze student work and use it to improve my own teaching methods
In general, I was very pleased with the outcome of this study
I felt "Oscar" put a little more effort into completing the study guides
The incomplete study guides (the 2nd and 3rd study guides) were the most beneficial because students had to gather the information and had more responsibility
Follow up activity: Have students create their own study guide for an assessment