The Alti Spike

Jenny Hughes

301242287

EDUC 866

November 28th, 201

“You can’t teach the mind until you have the heart” - Gordon Neufeld

Alti Spike (Verb)

1. a predictable reaction or spell of behaviour involving the loss of physical or emotional control when confronted with a situation that exceeds one’s perceived abilities. “Joe didn’t like how his art project was turning out. He alti spiked his project on the floor and stormed out of the room.”

synonyms: to become enraged, to lose one’s temper, a loss of composure.

Abstract:

The “Alti Spike” is a term commonly used my classroom, and is the metaphor that I will be using to help crystallize my learning throughout this inquiry. I noticed that the term “Alti Spike” has helped take away the stigma of having a “blow-out” in class, and has allowed students to have an open conversation around an incident. When reflecting on my graduate diploma inquiry projects, I found a pattern of using the relationships and attachments to purposefully work with students to identify and develop their lagging skills. A common assumption is that academic or intellectual engagement is the primary roadblock for at-risk student learning, but typically these students struggle most with feeling like they belong in school, navigating relationships, and regulating their emotional and behavioural responses in various settings. Until a young person is socially engaged in an adaptive fashion, it is quite difficult to then extended a more ambitious goal of promoting deep cognitive engagement that results in learning. Navigating friendships and social networks, having a sense of belonging, and strategies around self-regulation are what my student’s struggle with on a daily basis and will be the theme that guides my inquiry.

Context: I changed the original order and decided to put the context/conditions and background sections at the beginning of my proposal. Understanding my background and C2is a vital part to understanding my inquiry.

I teach at Sea to Sky Alternative School in Squamish. Historically, alternative schools have been dumping grounds for disciplinary “frequent-flyers” and thought of as a last resort. Our school consists of students who are sent to us after multiple suspensions from the mainstream high school, but we also have an equal number of students who choose to attend our school because of the support that we offer. The staff at our school has been focused on challenging/changing school district staff and community members’ perceptions about “alternative school” and the “type of student” who would attend our school.

If you can explicitly communicate your values, then you can influence a specific change in school culture. I believe that when individuals have equitable and just access to opportunities and their basic needs are satisfied; they will be able to reach their potential and contribute to their communities. Our school culture has emerged from the emphasis that being attached and a part of a community is necessary for growth, change, and is an essential human need. In my classroom, I believe in creating trusting relationships and that all classroom members should aim to be accepting; treating each other with dignity, respect, compassion and integrity.

Our school is family and our actions are representative of this as we don’t exclude or suspend when things go awry. Interventions like detentions, suspensions, or losing privileges simply do not teach the student the skills that they lack, and therefore the student will continue to look bad. Instead we engage in restorative practices because doing things with people rather than to them involves stakeholders in decision-making, which leads to better outcomes.

Our school has students from grade eight through to grade twelve, as well as adult dogwood students. This year I am with the junior group all day, with the exception of my 10% educational leave, 10% prep, and 10% administration blocks. I team-teach grade 8-10 english, social studies, planning, art, foods & nutrition, physical education, math and science courses. I don’t mean “team-teach” in the sense that we share the classroom on different days, but that there are two teachers in the same classroom at the same time. The “Humanities” courses together for half of the day, and the “Math and Science” courses the other half.

My days are spent with the most sensitive young people who have lived through diverse and often multiple traumatic experiences. The junior group is a mix of grade eight through grade 10 students, and there couldn’t be more of a gap between their academic skill levels, mental health, maturity, time away from school, economic status, or family/community support. We have students move or join our class many times throughout the year, but currently there are 9 boys and 4 girls in this multi-grade, multi-curriculum classroom. The junior group consists of 5 Intensive Behaviour, 1 Moderate Behaviour, 7 Learning Disabled, 2 Chronic Health/Intensive Behaviour. There four students who are multi-diagnosis and four students without any special education designation, but whom have significant social-emotional disorders.

Trying to compare my students and their diverse needs is near impossible. Drawing on the insights from Meyer, I challenged myself to examine my classroom context through the four suggested lenses: place, language, time and self in relation to other. I was able to notice that they all struggle, at different degrees, successfully implementing self regulation strategies.

Background:

I have spent countless hours, in countless meetings, and the Ross Greene’s notion of “actionable information” challenged my assumptions about how our school based team runs our meetings. Many of our “frequent flyers” come from “that” neighbourhood, have “those” parents or “that” diagnostic label. It is easy to become overwhelmed with all of the reports, evaluations, behaviour placements, functional assessments and so on.

These factors aren’t completely irrelevant, of course, but if you spend a lot of time in meetings talking about things about which you can do nothing, then staff members may come to the conclusion that they cannot or are unqualified to help. My tensions and frustrations stem from knowing that if our education system is left unchanged and unchecked, then it will continue to struggle and fail to meet the needs and rights of all children.

As a teacher, there is distinct difference between “being told” and “actually knowing” what strategies are best suited for the situation at hand. Students with reading inefficiencies lack the skills required for being a proficient readers. Kids with social, emotional, and behavioural challenges lack the skills required for proficiently handling life’s social, emotional and behavioural challenges. Some children will just learn to read or self-regulate on their own, some receive extra reading support at home, some need direct instruction, and some will still need intensive interventions.

I truly believe that challenging students are not challenging all of the time, but rather they struggle when they are confronted with something that they lack the skills for. For most frequent flyers, the skills they lack include crucial cognitive skills, especially in the domains of flexibility, adaptability, frustration tolerance, and self regulation. If they had these skills, then they would use them. I feel confident in saying that no teacher would continue to give a struggling reader a novel that was far above their ability, and then simply expect that they would miraculously become a proficient reader. This is what has brought me to my inquiry questions of self regulation.

Your Inquiry Question and Sub-questions: Where am I going?

My inquiry topic is grounded in the domain of self-regulation, within an alternative high school setting. The ability to control thoughts and actions to achieve personal goals and respond to environmental demands is the definition of self-regulated learning and is the lagging skill that my students struggle with most on a daily basis.

How does the co-creation of a self-regulation specific “common language” affect the use of self-regulation strategies within the context and conditions of my alternative high school classroom?

Subquestions:

I question if the use of common language for self-regulation techniques will be a skill that transfers from the classroom into other aspects of my student's lives?
I have read research that suggests when a student is operating within the “survival” part of their brain that the full power of their cognitive skills are inhibited. This leads me to question if I will even be able to notice any self-regulation techniques being used by these students who experience intense trauma and live in chronic stress?
Will I be able to recognize my paradigmatic and prescriptive assumptions about self-regulation? Do I need to adapt parts of The Zones of Regulation and Mindup to fit my C² or do I have an assumption that my students will not be able to follow those guides?

I want to follow my gut-feeling and set goals for myself that allow space so I may center myself as a teacher-learner and use this time to discover, evaluate, co-create common language, and implement SRL into my practice. My “big-picture” link is that I want to give my students power and knowledge over their trauma-directed instincts and emotional responses. I feel that my proposed inquiry connects to current educational research that SRL skills directly affect the ability to successfully navigate life’s many challenges.

Theoretical/Conceptual Frameworks:

The list of theoretical, philosophical, and experiential guides that I will rely on to guide my inquiry is emerging, but my foundation of my practice is grounded in The Attachment Theory. I have gathered resources and scholarly articles, and read broadly to support this inquiry of self-regulation within my practice. Thinkers like Gordon Neufeld, John Bowlby, Mary Ainsworth Ross Greene, and Martin Brokenleg have and will continue to influence my practice, classroom culture, and the way I work with youth.

Methodology and Methods:

As a teacher, I need to make something of what my students say and do. During my graduate diploma and M.Ed. program, all of my field studies fell under the broad methodological umbrella of ‘self-study’ or ‘teacher inquiry’ as the framework for my research. The methodological position of self study is where the desire of the teacher is to better align their teaching intents with their teaching actions. I am hoping that this inquiry will help strengthen and better align my daily practice with my philosophy/beliefs concerning “best practice.”

If I were to rely on the scientific method, during this inquiry, then I would need to limit and control the variables to prove my hypothesis. When studying humans, especially in an educational setting, it is apparent why this method is not a “best fit” for my methodology of self-study and teacher inquiry. The methods that I am planning on exploring will be surveys, interviews, photo/work sample documentation, and observation notes. These methods support my methodology, my strengths as a teacher, and will hopefully provide a diverse set of data.

Ethical Considerations:

This students who attend my school have struggled within the school system from the very beginning. Most of the students in my classroom have been identified through an IEP, assessed and labeled as Intensive behaviour, have a clinical diagnosis, and/or have attended The Maples Adolescent Treatment Center. There are many students and parents who will be very resistant to anything presented from a public school that could be perceived as invasive. I will need to be very explicit that I am not going to be labeling children, or trying to dig up and address past trauma.

I need to ensure that I present my inquiry into self-regulation as a teachable tool that will provide these youth with transferable strategies to become more mindful and successful. Below I have included a sample letter and permission/consent form that I am hoping will be able to communicate what I am doing without alarming any of the families that I work with. I am going to talk with my students to explain and ensure that they understand what I am doing before sending the letter and form home. I am hoping that this will ease any alarm a student or parent might have.

Sample of permission/consent form:

Hello,

As part of the work toward my Master of Education degree, which I am currently undertaking through the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University this year (2015-2016), I am inquiring into my teaching practice and all that I do in my classroom. In general terms, what I will be examining in this inquiry is how I teach, how I shape my classroom environment, and how I work with students, in order to investigate and clarify my own teaching, with an eye toward developing my own ‘best practices.’

The particular focus of my inquiry is self-regulation. Self-regulation is a term that describes the ability to control thoughts and actions to achieve personal goals, and respond to environmental demands. My primary source of ‘data’ for this inquiry will be my own reflective journal. But from time to time I may also collect: work samples, class reflections, photos, surveys, audio and video recordings, and interviews with students and colleagues, that inform the study of my educational practice. This inquiry in no way is intended to assess, place, or evaluate a student or colleague in any way, but serves solely to strengthen my teaching practice.

Ethical responsibilities to students, parents, and colleagues are a central part of my practice as an educator (see: British Columbia Ministry of Education Teacher Regulation Branch). They include confidentiality, respect towards students, and colleagues, and maintaining the integrity of the student-teacher relationship, and my professional relationships. These and other responsibilities will be honoured throughout my inquiry process.

My inquiry and the related fieldwork activities are reviewed, approved, and supervised by the course instructors of the Faculty of Education at SFU.

I am writing you this letter to inform you of this project, [and/or] to ask for your consent to perhaps use images of work done, interview transcripts, and possible audio or video and photography. No participants to this inquiry will be identified by name unless agreed to, and pseudonyms will be used wherever it is preferred.

Please see attached, the informed consent letter(s) that confirm my aims to adhere to all ethical considerations, and kindly fill it out and sign it as you see fit.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me as per the information below.

jhughes@sd48.bc.ca

Office Phone: 604-892-5904

Fax: 604-892-5510

Dear parents or guardians,

This letter of informed consent is part of my ethical responsibilities as a teacher-inquirer. I am asking your permission to use your child’s contributions from work done in our class to present to members of my graduate cohort and my instructors in order to demonstrate my own learning from my inquiry. I may also draw on class-created work or projects, photos, surveys, interviews, or video and audio recordings. This work will not be made public, nor shared beyond that group. As part of my responsibility as an educator, I want to ensure that confidentiality and proper discretion is observed. I am asking your permission to use your child’s contributions in my inquiry and presentation. When presenting your child’s contributions, with your permission, I can (a) use their first name only, or, (b) use a pseudonym. Please indicate below what you would prefer.

Please be assured that if you choose not to have your child’s work used or represented, the integrity of the relationship and responsibilities I have to your child will not be affected. My primary responsibility is to them, their learning, and their well-being in the classroom.

If you agree to give your permission, please sign below. Return one signed copy and keep the other for your own records.

If you have any questions about any of this, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Thank you for your consideration.

Jenny Hughes

__________________________ I give permission for my child to be included in Jenny Hughes‘s inquiry and for the collection and presentation of work samples, artifacts, pictures, video and audio recordings as described above.

YES NO I would like a pseudonym to be used in place of my child’s first name.

____________________________________Child’s/Student’s Name

___________________________________ Parent’s/Guardian’s Name

____________________________________Date

Representation:

I will use the narrative that I will be typing up in the summer of 2016 and I plan on adding it to my website. I created a website during my graduate diploma and I will continue to use it as a visual representation of my inquiry, but also as a way to share my research with a global educational community. When reflecting on my commonplace book and after the poster presentations, I am considering using an alternative form to communicate my findings and present my inquiry. I am always doodling and I am interested in challenging myself by using a more artistic method of representation. I am not entirely sure at this moment exactly what or how I will achieve this. My simple idea is I want to experiment with videotaping the process of my drawings/doodles and adding a voice recording that speaks to what I am doodling. This will be something that I can add to my blog on my website, and reflect on in the upcoming years.

Implications:

If we as teachers hope that students leave our classrooms understanding abstract concepts such as judgment, patience, social responsibility, flexibility and adaptability, then we must examine our practice to ensure that we have made space for this type of learning. Treating equity and excellence as two separate concepts reinforces the age-old idea that deep conceptual learning...is only for some students. This way of thinking has its roots in the public education systems, and when examining the students who are falling through the cracks, it is glaringly obvious that these children are disproportionately living in poverty or struggling with mental health concerns.

Our educational institutions were created during a time when only the privileged had access to an education, and didn’t need to consider if this system could or would work for the masses. I want to work towards creating a teaching practice that makes space to teach the heart and soul of the child. I have come to understand the importance of connecting and participating in educational communities, and I hope that this inquiry will change my attitude towards collaborating with educators within a larger context than Sea to Sky.

I plan to collaborate with other educators who are doing similar inquiries in their classrooms by going online. Other ways I might connect with educators already doing research might include finding online message boards related to self-regulation and contributing my own ideas while looking for others who may want to work with me.

Statement of Credibility and Trustworthiness:

Quality in self-study is provided when your research is grounded in theoretical studies, and when it provokes or challenges rather than confirming or settling. The reader will create their own meaning from the text, but the connection to theory needs to be apparent, the issues need to be relatable, and a scholarly voice should be present.

Qualitative researchers recommend that clear and detailed descriptions of what counts as data, how it was collected, how meaning was made from it, and using multiple forms of representation are ways to ensure credibility or trustworthiness. One of the elements of trustworthiness is transferability, which refers to the degree to which the findings of my inquiry can apply beyond my own specific context and conditions. I need to really unpack and dissect this element of credibility. Although self-regulation is a universal theme, I do not want my C² to impede a reader from being able to connect and relate with my research.

The ways I plan to keep an eye on myself:

Open communication and collaboration with students, co-teachers, and cohort. I have identified Josie Moore (co-teacher) and Brent McMurtry (third year engineering student and “devil’s advocate”) as my two critical friends that I will rely on through my inquiry.
Exit slips
Surveys- I will give this survey four different times: at the beginning of the study, at two different points during the study, and at the end of the study. The survey will employ a likert scale of strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, and strongly disagree with questions related to student perception of their ability to self-regulate, as well as questioning if they value or notice a difference in themselves.
Collecting student work.
Take photo or video observations.
Use post-it notes to write and record real-time observations, and then reflect when rereading them at a later date.

Timeline:

This study will take place in the winter/spring of 2016 and will be completed near the end of April 2016. Data analysis will be completed during the months of May and June. This will allow for time to prepare my presentation about my findings with our cohort and a wider educational community during July 2016.

Annotated Bibliography

Brendtro, Larry K. The Vision of Urie Bronfenbrenner: adults who are crazy about kids.

Reclaiming Children and Youth Vol/Issue: 15 (3), Date: Sep 22, 2006, Page: 162

Bronfenbrenner was dedicated to helping children and his ideas about circles of influence are still relevant today. The foundation for all of his work is his belief that in order to develop intellectually, emotionally, socially, and morally that a child requires participation, on a regular basis over an extended period in the child's life, with one or more persons with whom the child develops a strong, mutual, irrational, emotional attachment and who is committed to the child's well-being and development, preferably for life. Larry Brendtro is a co-author, with Martin Brokenleg, of the book Reclaiming Youth At Risk: Our Hope for the Future and also a founding member of Life Space Crisis Intervention.

Brooks, J. S., & Normore, A. H. (2015). Qualitative research and educational leadership.

International Journal of Educational Management,29(7), 798-806. doi:10.1108/IJEM-06-2015-0083

This paper highlighted some key issues with concerns to appropriate design and conduct of qualitative studies. There were a few ideas sparked about data collection strategies. I was also challenged to examine who the intended audience of my research is.

Butler, D.L. (2003) Structuring Instruction to Promote Self-Regulated Learning by

Adolescents and Adults With Learning Disabilities, Exceptionality, 11:1, 39-60, DOI: 10.1207/S15327035EX1101

Sometime in the early 1980’s, an idea emerged when researchers recognized that explicit explanation and modeling of strategy steps alone were insufficient, and that it is much more impactful if educators embed strategy instruction in the context of meaningful work. Butler states that to students with learning disabilities need the cognitive task to be broken down into a series of steps and that instructors construct a scaffold by guiding students’ learning activities. There is some disputes, among researchers, about how effective self-regulation develops. One perspective is that students need to be taught how to self-regulate, (i.e., through direct instruction, modeling, or procedural facilitators) and then gradually release control as students independently start to self-direct learning. Another view, is that students do not enter school as self-regulating blank slates and that educators only need to help develop individual strategies.

Butler, D. L., & Schnellert, L. (2015). Success for students with learning disabilities: What does

self-regulation have to do with it?. In T. Cleary, T. Cleary (Eds.) , Self-regulated learning

interventions with at-risk youth: Enhancing adaptability, performance, and well-being

(pp. 89-111). Washington, DC, US: American Psychological Association.

doi:10.1037/14641-005

Butler discusses classroom practices that foster self-regulated learning. She looks specifically at metacognition, motivation, and strategic action techniques that are essential for success within and beyond the classroom. The ability to control thoughts and actions to achieve personal goals and respond to environmental demands is the definition of self-regulated learning (SRL) and is consistent lagging skill for the majority of my students. Self regulation deficiencies arise across so many subject areas and tasks. This article argues that unless activities require planning, time management, or higher order thinking that learners do not have opportunities to build capacity in these important processes. Butler also explores her idea that feedback is only powerful when it is supports learners to answer three questions: Where and I going ? How am I going? Where to next?

Cleary, T. J. and Zimmerman, B. J. (2004), Self-regulation empowerment program: A

school-based program to enhance self-regulated and self-motivated cycles of student

learning. Psychol. Schs., 41: 537–550. doi: 10.1002/pits.10177

This article describes a program that was developed to be used within the middle school system. The Self-Regulation Empowerment Program (SREP) uses micro analytic assessment procedures to assess students’ self-regulation beliefs and strategies and then goes on to document different techniques when directly teaching strategies within a cyclical, self-regulatory feedback loop. The SREP is designed to explicitly define problem areas, combat self-defeating cycles of self-motivational beliefs by developing and implementing interventions, assessing the intervention's efficacy, and empowering students by cultivating positive self-motivational beliefs, increasing their base knowledge of learning strategies, and helping them to apply these strategies. This article suggests that are three cyclical phases that learners use to regulate their academic behaviours. These are described as forethought, performance control, and self-reflection. Paul (1967) describes the ultimate research question as “what treatment, by whom, is most effective for this individual with that specific problem, under which set of circumstances?”

Dunleavy, J., & Milton, P. (2008). Student Engagement for Effective Teaching and Deep

Learning. Education Canada,48(5), 4-8.

There are three types of engagement laid out in this article: Social Engagement, Academic Engagement, and Intellectual Engagement. They are listed in sequential order and are all needed to develop the whole child. Social engagement outcomes are friendships, social networks, sense of belonging, and “liking” school. These are the exact issues that my student’s struggle with the most on a daily basis. Many of the education based articles that I have come across are written by Americans, who have certain cultural biases, and their articles are based on research and data collected from American schools. Refreshingly, this article is written by Canadian scholars and based on observations and study of Canadian schools.

Ennis, R. P., Harris, K. R., Lane, K. L., & Mason, L. H. (2014). Lessons Learned from

Implementing Self-Regulated Strategy Development with Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders in Alternative Educational Settings.Behavioral Disorders, 40(1), 68-77.

Self-regulated strategy development or (SRSD) is an intervention used with youth who have emotional behavioral disorders (EBD). This study implements and analyzes class-wide and single-case observation methods. Barriers for implementing SRSD in alternative educational settings are discussed and the results or lessons learned are included to inform both practitioners and researchers.

Gee, J. P. (2011). Stories, probes, and games. Narrative Inquiry, 21(2), 353-357.

Gee writes about the potential of gaming narratives to help human in sense making, p

perspective taking, and with cycles of reflective action. One’s ability to appreciate whether the results of their actions are good or bad, and to assess the outcomes of a previous action in order to modify and further their future actions are both skills that are needed in the gaming world. That same gaming skill describes the actions of successful self-regulation learners. This article argues that there is potential for players to learn and apply these skills to their real selves in real life.

Golding, C. (2013). The teacher as guide: A conception of the inquiry teacher. Educational

Philosophy and Theory, 45(1), 91.

This article talks about how a teacher can portray themselves as a guide, and concept of working with students, not for them. I will consult this article when planning my inquiry and particularly liked the explicit examples about actions to take, and when, and how they are likely to help students.

Greene, R.. (2008). Kids Do Well If They Can. The Phi Delta Kappan, 90(3), 160–167.Retrieved

from http://www.jstor.org.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/stable/20493584

The ALSUP (Assessment for lagging skills and Unsolved Problems) is the documentation piece of Plan B. This ALSUP is used as a discussion guide, and not just a checklist. Children with behavioral difficulties are not attention-seeking, manipulative, limit-testing, coercive, or unmotivated, but they lack the skills to behave in an appropriate manner. Challenging students are not challenging all of the time, but will routinely struggle when they are confronted with something that they lack the skills for.

Johnson, Susan, Donaldson, Morgaen. (2007) Overcoming to Leadership. Association for

Supervision and Curriculum Development; September 2007, p8-13, 6p

This article talks frankly about the barriers, created by the norms of school culture, that teacher leaders encounter and then discusses various ways to cope and overcome these obstacles. The dominant culture, in the mainstream public school system, is one based on autonomy, egalitarianism and defence to seniority. I do think it’s quite common for teacher leadership roles to be implemented without formal support or building leadership roles into the structures of the school. This article explores some of the reasons for why colleagues often resist and view teacher leaders’ work as an inappropriate intrusion into their instructional space or an unwarranted claim that the teacher leader is more expert that they are.

Johnston, P. (2004). The Language of Influence in Teaching. In Choice words how our language

affects children's learning (p. Xii, 106). Portland, Maine: Stenhouse.

This book goes into great detail and provides concrete examples that help illustrate the power of language. He reminds teachers that it is important to be explicit with your teaching, helps unpack the implications of common teacher words/language/responses, and discussed how the power of what we say (don’t say) moulds young minds.

Lagana-Riordan, C., Aguilar, J., Franklin, C., Streeter, C., Kim, J., Tripodi, S., & Hopson, L.

(2011). At-Risk Students’ Perceptions of Traditional Schools and a Solution-Focused Public Alternative School.Preventing School Failure: Alternative Education for Children and Youth, 55(3), 105-114. doi:10.1080/10459880903472843

This article describes the findings from a study that used qualitative research methods to explore at-risk students’ perspectives about their current alternative school and their former traditional schools. Results from the interviews highlighted the shortcomings of traditional schools and revealed mostly positive perceptions about their experience at their alternative school. Poor teacher relationships, lack of safety, overly rigid authority and problems with peer relationships were noted as the most common traditional school shortcoming.The commonalities between the interviewees were that students felt labeled, judged, or sensed a general lack of respect for kids. Positive teacher relationships, improving maturity and responsibility, understanding about social issues, better peer relationship and supportive atmosphere are what students value in their alternative school setting.This article helped concrete my beliefs about the importance of focusing on a supportive and nonjudgmental teacher-student relationships, making home-school connections a priority, honouring the whole person, including the obstacles that the student faces at home, being flexible with school rules and offer choices when consequences are given.

Marshall, C. (1985). Appropriate criteria of trustworthiness and goodness for qualitative research

on education organizations. Quality and Quantity, 19(4), 353-373. doi:10.1007/BF00146613

This article discusses if this is the correct timing to rethink, explored “goodness” within two different qualitative studies, and lays out different criteria needed for data to be trustworthy.

Ness, B. M., & Sohlberg, M. M. (2013). Self-Regulated Assignment Attack Strategy:

Evaluating the Effects of a Classroom-level Intervention on Student Management

of Curricular Activities in a Resource Context. Learning Disabilities -- A Contemporary Journal, 11(1), 35-52.

This article is a qualitative study examining self-regulation interventions, with-in a sixth grade resource classroom, and evaluates changes in student self-efficacy and task completion. This study was also concerned with gathering data, by observation and questionnaires, to help determine if the effects were “maintained once the key intervention supports” were faded. The research design consisted of four phases: Baseline, Intervention, Fade, and Maintenance. The specific behaviours that the interventions were targeting were “recalling assignment details, gathering necessary materials, initiating work, and task engagement.” The students who were part of this study are described as having “lower perceived ability to self-regulate their learning compared to peers”, and “difficulty organizing, initiating, and remaining engaged in academic work”. This is a very accurate description of the students in my classroom and it has given me some new ideas about how I might design my field study.

Nirbhay N. Singh, Giulio E. Lancioni, Subhashni D. Singh Joy, Alan S.W. Winton, Mohamed

Sabaawi, Robert G. Wahler, and Judy Singh. Adolescents With Conduct Disorder Can Be Mindful of Their Aggressive Behavior. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders Spring 2007 15: 56-63, doi:10.1177/10634266070150010601

This article is a study that looks at the short and long term effectiveness of a self-regulation technique taught to aggressive youth. The main learning outcome when teaching Meditation on the Soles of the Feet is to students to engage in and take control of their own behaviour which is a key for mental health recovery. Behavioural challenges are a repetitive and persistent pattern of behaviour in which the basic rights of others or major age-appropriate societal norms or rules are violated. There are many strategies and interventions methods that have been developed but little in the research literature enables the therapists to predict which interventions will work with a specific adolescent.

Nordby, C. J. (2002). Investigating Teacher-Student Interactions That Foster Self-Regulated

Learning. Educational Psychologist, 37(1), 5.

This article summarizes an experiment that looks at self-regulated learning in real contexts and in real time.Some of the common issues for students who demonstrated motivational vulnerabilities included negative affect when offered feedback that pinpointed errors in their work, and they chose easy tasks over challenging tasks. This study identified classrooms that ranked as high or low for self-regulation learning opportunities provided. High-SRL classrooms provided activities that were open-ended and complex, offered student choice, and nonthreatening evaluation practices that emphasized personal progress. Classrooms that lacked evidence for self-regulation practices had students who were engaged in simple, closed activities and limited student choice.

Perry, N. E., Brenner, C. A., & MacPherson, N. (2015). Using teacher learning teams as a

framework for bridging theory and practice in self-regulated learning. In T. Cleary, T.

Cleary (Eds.) , Self-regulated learning interventions with at-risk youth: Enhancing

adaptability, performance, and well-being (pp. 229-250). Washington, DC, US:

American Psychological Association. doi:10.1037/14641-011

This article, using teacher learning teams as a framework for bridging theory and practice in self-regulated learning, discusses the theoretical foundations of self-regulated learning and why practices that promote SRL have been successful in improving social and academic outcomes for students who struggle in school- even student with exceptional learning needs. Researchers expanded their behavioural views during the 1990s and designed instructional methods that emphasized direct teaching of specific...strategies, such as goal setting, self-monitoring, and selection of strategies to meet the demands of specific tasks. Action research is the label attached to the idea that teachers’ practices benefit greatly when they act as a primary researcher in teacher study groups. This is the reason behind self-directed professional development days, why local contexts and knowledge cannot be underestimated, and is the foundation for the SFU M.Ed program.

Perry, N. E., Hutchinson, L., & Thauberger, C. (2008). Talking about teaching self-regulated

learning: Scaffolding student teachers’ development and use of practices that promote self-regulated learning.International Journal of Educational Research, 47(2), 97-108. doi:10.1016/j.ijer.2007.11.010

Self-regulated learning (SRL) involves metacognition, motivation, and strategic action, and self-regulated learners are successful in and beyond school. Therefore, studies of how SRL develops and, perhaps, how it can be taught, are needed. Implications for making SRL in classrooms as prominent as research suggests it should be are discussed along with recommendations for more research to understand how to help teachers develop practices that support SRL.

Perry, N. E., & VandeKamp, K. J. O. (2000). Creating classroom contexts that support young

children's development of self-regulated learning. International Journal of Educational Research, 33(7), 821-843. doi:10.1016/S0883-0355(00)00052-5

The purpose of this research to help teachers identify features of their classroom environments that promote self-regulation. Non-threatening evaluation practices are essential for the development of self- regulation. I will use this as a resource for looking at data collection and assessment of self-regulated learning.

Samaras, A. a., Karczmarczyk, D., Smith, L., Woodville, L., Harmon, L., Nasser, I., & ...

Swanson, R. (2014). A pedagogy changer: Transdisciplinary faculty self-study. Perspectives In Education, 32(2), 117-135

In this article, a teacher/facilitator/participant joins a group with 11 others engaged in self- study and pedagogical shifts. This group experiments with exit interviews, mid-project and end-of-project exit slips, and individual narratives and uses these a sources of data. I will be consulting this article for guidance about how to learn with critical friends, draw on their methods of sorting data, and re-imagining imagine my practice.

Savenye, W. C., & Robinson, R. S. (2005). Using qualitative research methods in higher

education. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 16(2), 65-95. doi:10.1007/BF02961475

Qualitative research methods are now being used more commonly in self-study inquiries, but many researchers have little experience in qualitative research. The article is for a beginner, like myself, and it clearly outlines key characteristics of qualitative research and when each method is appropriate to use. This article is going to be a great resource for planning my research, selecting data collection methods, analyzing data, and reporting my findings.

Siwatu, K. O. (2011). Preservice teachers' culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy-forming

experiences: A mixed methods study. The Journal of Educational Research, 104(5), 360-369. doi:10.1080/00220671.2010.487081

This article was excellent for the beginner qualitative researcher. The mixed methods research design is discussed, modeled, and practiced within the domain of self-efficacy. I feel that I will be able to create my inquiry of self-regulation and use some of the methods from this study.

Stefanou, C., Stolk, J., Prince, M., Chen, J., & Lord, S. (2013). Self-regulation and autonomy in

problem- and project-based learning environments. Active Learning in Higher Education, 14(2), 109-122. doi:doi:10.1177/1469787413481132

This article takes into consideration the context and conditions of the learning and looks specifically how instruction can affect behavior and a student's ability to self-regulate. I will draw on the methods section of this article to help inform my own inquiry. This study looked specifically at project-based learning environments and found some compelling evidence that non-traditional learning environments may support self-regulated learning.

Zimmerman, Barry J. (2008) Investigating Self-Regulation and Motivation: Historical

Background, Methodological Developments, and Future Prospects. American

Educational Research Journal Vol. 45, No. 1 (Mar., 2008), pp. 166-183

Barry Zimmerman discusses the history and how initial attempts to measure self-regulated learning using questionnaires and interview were successful in demonstrating significant predictions of students’ academic outcome and he discusses more recent development of online measures which include computer traces, think-aloud protocols, diaries of studying, direct observation and microanalysis. Zimmerman goes on to suggest that self-regulated learning is viewed as especially important during personally directed forms of learning but he also makes note that SRL is crucial in social forms of learning, such as seeking help from peers, parents, and teacher. During the 1980’s, a number of different SRL assessment tools were developed and the specific assessments that Zimmerman discussed were: the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory, the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire, and the Self-Regulated Learning Interview.