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Standard

A teacher participates in and contributes to the teaching profession.

Candidates are aware of and reflect on their practice in light of research on teaching,

professional ethics and resources available for professional learning; they continually evaluate

the effects of their professional decisions and actions on students, families and other

professionals in the learning community and actively seek out opportunities to grow

professionally.

Professionalism Framing Statement

During the process of obtaining my certification as an elementary teacher I have

participated in a wide variety of professional development activities; I have read textbooks and

research studies, written papers, participated in discussions, collaborated with classmates on a

variety of projects, designed multidisciplinary units and assessments, practiced my classroom

management skills and analyzed observations of student behavior, and learned from the feedback

provided by all of the host teachers who generously shared their students and knowledge with me

in practicum and student teaching experiences. All of these activities have expanded my

knowledge and helped me to develop new perspectives and teaching strategies. One valuable

lesson I’ve learned is that finishing my degree is only the beginning of my professional

development. In addition to classes and trainings offered by my district, once I have my own

classroom it will be important that I think of myself as a teacher-researcher who continues to ask

questions and look for solutions that result in improved student learning. Conducting research

isn’t limited to wide scale studies done by universities; instead, “… research is simply

investigation, exploration, inquiry. In the context of teaching it is the ability to reflect on one’s

own actions (e.g. lesson planning, interacting with students, explaining a concept) with
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intention...” (Echevarria & Graves, 2015, p. 147). My research project examining the

effectiveness of the visualization strategy to improve reading comprehension is an example of

my ability to design and conduct a qualitative study.

Designing my research project began with identifying a problem to solve. Research “…

questions come from real-world observations and dilemmas” and “… those questions are a

natural - and vital – part of the way we make sense of the teaching and learning in our

classrooms” (Hubbard & Power, 2003, p. 2). I collaborated with my host teacher and together we

decided that helping one student address his difficulty with comprehension of social studies

reading passages would be a valuable and timely endeavor. My next step was to develop my

background knowledge through a review and analysis of the research literature and theoretical

foundations related to my topic. This is considered essential because “… the production of new

knowledge is fundamentally dependent on past knowledge” (O’Leary, 2017, p. 94). My review

included articles from academic journals and books related to literacy strategies and their

effectiveness. Once I completed this step, I was able to refine my research question and begin

the process of designing the research method, assessments, and instructional activities. One

valuable lesson I realized during this phase was that as I learned more, I was constantly evolving

in my understanding of the topic and my ideas for carrying out the research. My experience was

reflective of the qualitative research process, which is “… emergent and flexible, responsive to

changing conditions of the study in progress” (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016, p. 16). For instance, I

initially envisioned that one of my assessments to get feedback from the student would be a

checklist; I ultimately decided to use an interview instead since it would allow for more

opportunities to gather clarifying comments from the student. This was in part influenced by my

research about the benefits of conducting student interviews, which noted that when questioning
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a child, “if the child looks puzzled by your question, rephrase it or ask another. Don’t be

restricted by questions you may have planned to ask” (Hubbard & Power, 2003, p. 63). In my

classroom observations, my student had frequently had that puzzled look when struggling with

his reading comprehension; I realized a checklist might not offer him an opportunity to

accurately share his feedback with me, which would ultimately impact the validity of my

assessment tool. Another influence was the weekly feedback I received from my fellow

classmates, university professor, and host teacher. They created “ … a supportive research

culture …” which helped me to build my own confidence as I learned how to conduct my

research (O’Leary, 2017, p. 29).

Evaluating the effectiveness of my research was accomplished through learning how to

analyze qualitative data. Data analysis has been described as looking for explanations, which

results in entering “ … into a dialogue with it, questioning it further, finding newer meanings and

different rhythms” (Hubbard & Power, 2003, p. 88). The results of my study showed that my

student did improve his ability to comprehend social studies passages, and his perception of his

abilities also increased. However, further analysis of his interview also revealed that his

perspective of effective comprehension was based on the speed with which he could read and

understand, rather than the quality of the summaries he was able to write. In my conclusion I

noted that these insights taught me that I should have designed and shared a rubric for evaluating

comprehension with the student, since mutually understood guidelines might also have an effect

on his ability to demonstrate his comprehension. It has been noted that the research process

often results in ideas and issues that teachers want to explore further as they continue to pursue

ways to improve instruction (Burnaford et al., 2001).

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One aspect of professionalism is continuously looking for ways to help students reach

their full potential. Conducting qualitative research in my classroom that builds on the

professional research literature and being open to exploring new methods for improving my

classroom practices will help me to become a more reflective and intentional teacher. Learning

how to conduct research is a teacher driven form of professional development that is valuable

because it focuses on finding meaningful solutions for the context of an individual classroom. It

also opens up the door for collaboration with other teachers as I seek advice and support from

my colleagues.
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References

Echevarría, J., & Graves, A. W. (2015). Sheltered content instruction: Teaching English

learners with diverse abilities (Fifth edition.). Pearson.

Burnaford, G, Fischer, J., & Hobson, D. (2001). Teachers doing research: The power of action

through inquiry. Second Edition. Routeledge, Taylor & Francis Group 2. New York, NY.

Hubbard, R & Power, B. (2003). The art of classroom inquiry. Revised Edition. Heinemann.

Portsmouth, NH.

Merriam, S. & Tisdell, E. (2016). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation.

Fourth Edition. Jossey-Bass. San Francisco, CA.

O’Leary, Z. (2017). The essential guide to doing your research project. 3rd Edition. SAGE

Publishing. Thousand Oaks, CA