Observations in Action Research

I was very fortunate to work in a Year 2 class yesterday alongside Belinda Johnston who was doing some observations on the effect of Digikid support on children's confidence and engagement in their learning.

The WALT was: create a Kiwiana picture in Kid Pix.  I was working with the class Digikidz, GV and KCS, and four other children.  We co-constructed the WILF together: one Kiwiana item, correct colours, one or two colours for the background, large picture and while working we added typed label and the child's name.  I re-visited the Kid Pix rules with the group and I was pleased they remembered that they only use the large eraser/dynamite stick once and that when creating our own content we don't use the pre-prepared backgrounds, stickers or stamps.  They were easily prompted to use the fill bucket correctly and I reinforced the need to stick to plain colours so they could be easily changed. 

Of the four children, two were paired with a Digikid for one-to-one support and two were working independently.  The idea behind the observation session was to see if the children with support would show increased confidence or engagement or both in their learning. 

The results showed that the children with Digikid support were continually conferencing with each other and were very focused on their learning.  The children who were working independently were on-task for the first five out of ten minutes.  However, in the last five minutes there were many more instances of off-task behaviours.  The full observation can be viewed at - http:fairvresearch.wikispaces.com/ under Project Findings.  I would definately like to repeat this observation using the same children to see if the results are consistent.  Belinda and I discussed that next time she would wait five minutes and then begin the observation and see if there is any difference.

I would like to acknowledge and thank Jo Lynn the teacher and the room 5 children for allowing us to work together.