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ED IMPACT ON PROBLEM OF PRACTICE 1

M.Ed. Impact on Problem of Practice

Jerrold R Warren
Education 5990 – Masters Completion Capstone
Nebraska Wesleyan University
May 11, 2019
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As a teacher in a 7th grade classroom, I feel as if I am making thousands of decisions each

day. Everything from what to do about the student that hasn’t brought a pencil for what feels like

the thousandth time to simple things like deciding what to have for lunch. While most decisions

can be made in a split second, other decisions are more complex and require more time and

preparation. Throughout this graduate program my problem of practice has morphed as each

class taught me to look at my classroom decisions in different ways.

During the very first class, Positive Psychology (Ed.5110), Dr. Ernst and Dr. Gudgel had

each of the cohort come up with their top three “problems” in our classrooms. Looking at my

notes from almost two years ago, I was apparently struggling with my students blurting in class,

7th grade student angsty negativity, and students engaging with history. We workshopped and

brainstormed solutions to these problems but found that each were more complex than simple

solutions. We were told that throughout this program our program, as we started to critically look

at our classrooms, that our problems would become more complex, and that they did.

For the Reflective Practitioner (Ed. 5130) course we were encouraged to find books

related to our content areas and problems of practice. I had a professor in undergrad give me a

book as a graduation gift with a note saying, “read this when you are bored with your textbook”.

The book was called Teaching What Really Happened: How to Avoid the Tyranny of Textbooks

and Get Students excited about Doing History by James W. Loewen. This text largely focuses on

teaching outside of the standard history textbooks that most school districts use as well as

encouraging students to engage with history rather than consuming it. Furthermore, this book

encouraged me my research and to continue my professional growth. In Teaching what Really

Happened, Loewen discusses and urges history teachers to critically examine what is being

taught in their classrooms and to engage students.

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I decided that student engagement with history was the most unique and important

problem to my 7th grade classroom. While the other problems were standard 7th grade fair,

student engagement with history has been a hot topic item for decades and not just for 7th grade

classrooms as my research would soon reveal. In our fall class Instructional Technology Ed.

5150) we were tasked with analyzing our classrooms and the needs that existed. It was during

this stage that my problem of practice adapted to focus on current events and getting students to

understand and engage with people living in different places than them. While researching for

solutions to this problem of practice, I was introduced to the concept of historical empathy and

how this instructional method helped students understand and engage with people and events that

were different from their own.

I spent my winter break between semesters researching further into what historical

empathy was and its applications. Through this research I realized that this would be a practical

fit into my curriculum. This transitioned well into our spring semester where we began our

annotated literature review for Content Area Strategies (Ed. 5160). This semester had the largest

impact on my profession of any of the classes that are a part of this program. Completing this

annotated literature review gave me the opportunity to examine my classroom and refine my

problem from being broad concepts of engagement in social studies and empathy. This project

was applicable as this research was for my classroom and I was able to reflect on what I truly

wanted to do. This research refined my problem of practice to be what the final product was:

“Why do we need to learn this; this person died two thousand years ago” Historical Empathy and

Secondary Social Studies Engagement.

My problem of practice went through multiple revisions and adaptations throughout the

rest of the program but during the final summer during Diversity in Education (Ed. 5210) and
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Trauma informed Classrooms (Ed. 5220), during the IRB approval stage, I looked at how I

would apply and research the historical empathy and engagement strategies into my actual

classroom. I designed my personal research and examined methods of measurement to gauge the

effectiveness of my research. It was also during these classes that I reflected at the diverse

makeup of my school and classroom populations and how the intervention may affect their

engagement and learning.

While I have not implemented the proposed historical empathy study in my classroom, I

have applied the research and lessons from my annotated literature review. Some of my students

still struggle with engagement periodically but I have noticed that since implementing role

playing simulations into my classroom and attempting to stay away from the textbook that my

students are more engaged in my lessons. My goal from the first class was to get my students

more engaged in learning history and to lessen the number of “This is boring” and “Why do we

need to learn this” comments. My classroom has been changing over the years and in the digital

age, I am continually looking for ways to engage my students. Through implementing historical

empathy into my classroom, “Why do I need to learn this; this person died two-thousand years

ago” has turned into laughter, understanding, and debate over “that dude that died two-thousand

years ago”.
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Areas of Further Research

Historical Empathy and Engagement using Primary Source Documents

Primary source documents are documents (journals, books, diaries, photographs, etc.)

that are first-hand accounts of an event that occurred in the past. For further research, I would

like to see if using primary source documents as a base could allow for students to engage with

historical empathy. There has been a large push in Millard Public Schools to integrate primary

source documents at least bi-weekly into middle school social studies classrooms and I am

wondering if these documents could be integrated into engagement strategies in my classroom.

Historical Empathy and Engagement using Reader’s Theater

Reader’s Theater is an active learning instructional method in which students “act” out

historical events using a play-like script. Students assume the roles of their characters and then

read off and act off of a pre-written script. Reader’s Theater lessons are a staple in middle school

social studies classrooms, but how effective are they really? Students enjoy doing them and are

usually engaged, but how much learning and historical understanding actually comes from these

activities.

Historical Empathy using Multimedia (Photographs, Music, and Movies)

Similar to the Primary Source Documents theory above, I would like to further examine

the use of photographs, music, and movies and their applicable uses in engaging students in my

classroom. For further research, I would like to see if by using primary source multimedia in my

classroom, if students’ engagement and learning would increase. Instead of just reading about a

historical event or person, what would engagement levels look like if students had access to

photographs, film, and or music from the period.

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Social Studies Engagement using Debates / Discussion Circles

Debates and discussion circles have been used in social studies classrooms, but how can

these strategies be adapted to utilize historical empathy? To what extent can debates and

discussion circles be used to increase student engagement? Could students assume the role of a

historical figure and then participate in a debate? There are many possibilities to merge these two

strategies together.

Social Studies Engagement using Research Projects

Google has utilized a process called The Genius Hour to encourage employees to engage

in personal research projects to better themselves and the company. Social Studies circles have

started to adopt this practice into classrooms, where students choose a historical topic, event, or

person to research and complete a project of their choice. History instruction could be revitalized

if students are able to research topics of their choosing, while under the parameters of standards.