Classroom Action Research Art and Improve on General Academic Performance

The purpose of this report is to conduct classroom action research art and photography students’ efforts to ascertain how to improve upon their general academic performance through their literacy and functional skills. The report looks to investigate and differentiate between the two groups in order to compare and contrast opinions about the importance of literacy in their learning journey. With the hypothesis that creative A-Level students would improve upon students’ literacy skills if they attend additional grammatical lessons, the paper however, recognises the level of uneasiness most of these students feel during their attendance in such sessions. Focusing on different methods and models of action research, the report concludes with results showing diagrams and charts whilst encouraging the importance of conducting action research in classroom learning.

A.) Position statement

Having experienced practice teaching and lecturing Higher National Certificate (HNC) and Higher National Diploma (HND), in Fashion and Textiles last year at Bedford College, my new encounter with younger students (16-18 years old) at the Bedford Sixth Form this year as an Art and Photography lecturer, has given me the opportunity to observe A- level art students behaviour and the general lack of literacy competence among students. Most worrying is the overall feeling of students discomfort in attending additional literacy classes for their academic improvement. (See appendix 1,2 and 3)

II. Action research

According to Hopkins (1985), action research and classroom research by teachers are synonymous. Brown (1994) and Robinson (1991) on the other hand, believe that any action undertaken by teachers to collect data and evaluate their own teaching can ...

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...tions to make embedded literacy sessions more fun and more inclusive for art learners in classrooms activities:

 Formative tests and quizzes

 Art Learners giving presentations

 Using interactive whiteboards in literacy activities

 Giving art student time to gather their thoughts

 Group Work and Interactive tasks using Powerpoint or mini- white boards

 Setting challenging goals and targets

 Using a differentiation (Bloom’s Taxonomy)

 Graduating Tasks to art students (i.e from easy to hard on a worksheet)

 Art Learners creating a leaflet, poster or handout

However some of the literacy sessions did not differentiate well because :

 The researcher was questioning art students , the art students answering

 Teacher demonstration methods were used during the session

 Art students had to read an evaluation example to spot the literacy mistakes and then discuss