This afternoon, four of our Eastern High School students — Brooklyn Barkey, Clay Buckley, Braelyn Simpson, and Kinslie Well — presented their year-long action research project over incorporating Active Learning in the classroom.
Over the course of the year, they learned about the Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) process. First, they began by brainstorming a problem within our school. From there, they crafted a research question and began a literature review to see what other, previously released, research projects had found as their conclusions. They learned about qualitative and quantitative research and began crafting research questions via a survey to test their hypothesis against the perceptions of students in grades 9-12. They also crafted qualitative teacher interviews. Subsequently, they began analyzing and compiling their data. What they found was that teachers solely relying on textbook learning was having a negative impact on student participation. They also found that teachers are uncomfortable with active learning methods because of unfamiliarity. Lastly, they found that students are willing to participate in new, active styles of learning when given the opportunity.
As a result of their conclusions, they decided on three recommendations as solutions: raise awareness among faculty by sharing data, talk with district leadership team about training opportunities for staff regarding active learning pedagogy, and encourage student participation and awareness.
In addition to our students’ presentation, Mrs. Katie Williams was one of four staff advisory members to present on the benefits of the Student Leadership Research Collaborative (SLRC) on our students and the positive impacts it has had on our students’ critical thinking capacity, creativity, collaboration, communication, and compassion. She highlighted how this program bolsters student confidence and molds them into strong young citizens that will one day lead our community.
This amazing group of young adults will be presenting their research to the school board this Thursday. They will also present to the staff at the conclusion of the school year.
This group of students has worked extremely hard to complete this year-long research project and they have practiced countless hours on their presentation to represent themselves, our school, and this community with pride.