WHY MEDICAL STUDENTS TURNING TO DIGITAL LEARNING? THINK ABOUT FLIP CLASSES
Action Research Plan
1. Maintaining Motivation & Retention 1
How to Increase Motivation & Information Retention in a Millennial Classroom
Erica Zengerling
North Carolina A&T State University
2. Maintaining Motivation & Retention 2
Table of Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................5
Purpose of Study......................................................................................................5
Justification of the Study .........................................................................................8
Research Question and Hypothesis........................................................................12
Definition of Terms................................................................................................13
Brief Overview of Study........................................................................................14
Background and Review of Related Literature..................................................................15
Procedures..........................................................................................................................21
Description of the Research Design.......................................................................21
Description of the Sample......................................................................................23
Description of Instruments Used ...........................................................................25
Explanation of the Procedures Followed ...............................................................26
Description and Justification of the Statistical Techniques/Methods of Analysis Used
....................................................................................................................27
Findings..............................................................................................................................28
Summary and Conclusion..................................................................................................30
4. Maintaining Motivation & Retention 4
List of Tables
Table 1................................................................................................................................40
Table 2................................................................................................................................41
Table 3................................................................................................................................42
Table 4................................................................................................................................43
5. Maintaining Motivation & Retention 5
Introduction
The purpose and focus of my action research plan is to find out how I can keep my
students excited to come into my classroom every day to learn. The ideal teacher should be able
to maintain a positive classroom environment that will keep her students motivated, along with
being able to execute lessons in a manner that ensures their students are actually retaining
information over temporarily memorizing it. Due to the type of student filling the desks in the
present day, this is a task that requires maximum effort and may be harder for teachers of past
generations to realize and meet the full needs of these students. The objective of this research
paper is to not only figure out what I can do as an educator to better my classroom, specifically
where student motivation and information retention is concerned; but it also takes a more in-
depth look at the Millennial generation and todays education system.
Purpose of Study
Those of us who make the conscious decision to become educators in this day and age,
along with teachers who are part of past generations, are dealing with a type of student that is a
whole new ‘species’ from students of the past. This new breed of students is known as the
Millennial. This generation of student has many negative and positive stigmas attached to them.
They can be more difficult to keep motivated and learning in the classroom, because they require
specialized teaching strategies to maintain their focus. I have noticed many teachers are quick to
blame these students’ attitudes on their up-bringing, when the real issue may actually lie within
the education system itself and its priorities. Before looking into the education system, I wanted
to make sure both myself and the reader fully understand what a Millennial is.
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Millennials were born into the age of technology; in many cases children learned how to
utilize technology for their entertainment before they even knew how to talk. Massive varieties
of video gaming systems, smart phones, and other computer technologies keep children locked
away from the real world and focused on the tiny screen in front of them. The Millennials are
also parented in an entirely different way as a whole. For the most part parents today feel the
need to hover over every little aspect of their child’s life and try to control and guide them in a
manner that is not necessarily healthy; this particular style of parenting has aptly been dubbed as
“helicopter parenting”. Millennials were raised in a way so that they were made to feel good
about themselves at all times; even if the occasion did not necessarily call for it. A prime
example of this would be when most child sporting leagues began awarding trophies to
everyone, not just the winners. That may not seem like a big deal, but when children grow up to
be taught that everyone is a winner and they can do no wrong they do not know how to handle
rejection or negative criticism when the harsh realities of life begin to rear their ugly face. One
more major aspect that separates Millennial generation students from those in ‘the good old
days’ is that these children are being brought up in an age of over medication. Parents, teachers,
and doctors these days are way too quick to diagnose children with learning disorders and begin
pumping them full of medications. Children that act out and are hyper are treated like patients
with a mental illness; same goes for those children that do not catch on to things as quickly as the
others. In most cases these children are being put on medications that have only gone through
adult testing trials, and when the medications are introduced to the growing and changing body
of a child the effects can be dramatically different. The unnecessary act of over medicating
children has had tragic results in several cases. From the outside looking in, I believe that many
parents look for “quick fixes” such as medications and giving into their children’s wants to avoid
7. Maintaining Motivation & Retention 7
any conflicts or issues. While these fixes may immediately remedy a negative situation, it seems
that parents and guardians do not take a step back and look at the damage it can do on their child
long term.
All of these factors are molded together into one being, the Millennial. Educators today
need to be familiar with what makes this generation tick and what helps them succeed in the
classroom. Many educators used to the old ways of teaching were in for quite a shock if they
happened to reenter the classroom after taking a period of time off, only to come back to a class
full of Millennials. There is a reason behind this in-depth look into this particular generation; I
am currently in the process of earning an agricultural education degree so that I will one day be
able to run my own classroom full of them, and I would like be as efficient and successful as
possible. I, along with a multitude of colleagues, have noticed a major issue within the
classroom; and that issue is maintaining the attention of these students and teaching in a manner
that keeps them motivated and wanting to learn. Not only learn, but retain the information as
well. The students in the classroom that I am currently assisting in seem to have the attention
span of a hummingbird. They feel the need to constantly check their phones, tell completely off
topic stories to their classmates during lesson periods, sleep, and basically anything else but pay
actual attention to what is being taught on an almost daily basis. If they are not interested in what
is being taught to them they have no qualms about showing it. The purpose of my paper is to
research a variety of different teaching methods and strategies in-depth, narrow my findings
down to two specific methods, and carry them out with my students to see which method has a
higher rate of success. I want to find out if these behaviors currently being displayed by my
Millennial students are due to their unique upbringing or due to the way lessons are being carried
out by teachers. Basically through research and experimentation with my own students I want to
8. Maintaining Motivation & Retention 8
see if I can create the perfect unit plan. A plan that caters to all or most of my students individual
learning needs, one that ends in a final assessment where every student passes with flying colors.
I also want to see how my students function when given full reign or technology use as opposed
to having strict limitations on it. As we have all learned technology can have both positive and
negative facts in the classroom, I hope to find out truly how much personal technology usage
makes an impact on the student’s quality of work to some degree.
Justification of the Study
Maintaining a classroom that has a continual positive atmosphere, as well as a student
body that comes to school every day motivated and ready to learn is something that every
educator worldwide should strive for. Unfortunately that is not the case, especially where
America’s education system is concerned. It is no secret that our country has been suffering
economically on a major scale lately, and when it comes down to making budget cuts schools
have been getting hit hard. Teachers and school staff are being laid off in large quantities and the
extracurricular programs and courses that give students something to look forward to and come
together for are being completely shut down. This is resulting in the major increase of student to
teacher ratios, which leads to frustrated students not receiving the proper education they deserve
and overwhelmed teachers and school staff. That result continues to spiral down leading to a
huge burn out rate amongst educators; those burn out teachers who do not quit, come in on a
daily basis and perform at the bare minimum level. On top of all this one must take into account
that the generation in the education system is the Millennials, a group of people unlike any other
that have their pros and cons which have been previously discussed. When you take a step back
and look at all these problems you have to wonder which end is the cause for these problems. Is
our education system failing due to schools full of lack luster teachers and staff, districts that
9. Maintaining Motivation & Retention 9
care more about higher assessment scores in order to receive funding over student information
retention, or due to teachers trying to reach though to a generation that thinks they already know
it all?
The purpose of my study is to try and answer this question in regards to my own personal
classroom and their issue of getting so off task so easily and not retaining information the way I
expect them to. In my opinion technology is very much a double edged sword; it can have great
benefits in the classroom and equally detrimental downfalls as well. Technology advancements
are what set apart teaching methods and educators from the past to the present. In the past
teachers had a classroom full of students and limited technologies to help teach them; their most
advanced piece of equipment was a projector that could display images onto a board, and maybe
a television or computer. Teachers had to create lesson plans that would teach their students to
the best of their abilities with what they had made available to them. The most prominent
teaching method of the past was the basic lecture and note taking method; the teacher stood at a
podium in front of their class and lectured on the subject at hand, students were expected to take
notes on what they thought were important, key parts of the lecture. From there students were
expected to study on their own time from the notes they took during class. For the most part this
method yielded satisfactory assessment results and students were excelling in their studies
without any of the technological advancements made available in most classrooms today. In
today’s classroom this very same method has proven to be incredibly unsuccessful, this is mainly
due to two changes between the past and the present. The two major differences between
students of the past and students of the present are the differences in the advancements in
technology and the difference in the upbringing of children in the different generations.
10. Maintaining Motivation & Retention 10
In the past families did not have cell phones, video games, high definition LED
televisions, and any other electronic device used for personal entertainment. Children of the past
were raised to spend their time outdoors, play board games, read books, and help with chores
around the house; their typical day did not involve any use of technology at all. Now we fast
forward to the present, where Millennial generation students are filling the classrooms. Many of
these children have been born into homes filled with computers, tablets, mp3 players, cell
phones, a huge array of video gaming consoles, giant televisions, and more. Parents have grown
accustomed to sitting their children in front of a television set or a tablet and allowing them to be
“babysat” by technology while they did things around the house. Thanks to a huge leap in the
numbers of child abductions, the days of allowing your children to play outside all day and come
home when the street lamps turn on have long since passed. So in most cases if a parent cannot
be outside to watch over their kids playing, then they would be stuck inside typically playing
with some kind of device. To be quite frank, from what I have personally observed most kids in
the Millennial generation seem like they would choose playing on video games inside over going
outside and entertaining themselves in the fresh air anyways. Members of the Millennial
generation were brought up watching movies and playing games filled with bright colors and fun
noises. They are a generation that needs to have visual stimulation to stay focused on something.
That right there is exactly the reason that students largely fail when the lecture method is being
carried out in a classroom today. For a student to be expected to sit in a chair and just listen to
their teacher speak on a subject, as well as take their own notes from what they are hearing, is
not going to cut it anymore. Many teachers who took a long break from teaching and came back
to classrooms with Millennial students were shell shocked when they went right into teaching
their old tried and true methods only to be met with failing grades and students blaming their
11. Maintaining Motivation & Retention 11
teacher for their low assessments; as that is another less than appealing quality of Millennials,
nothing is ever their fault. In my classroom we use power point presentations, a multitude of
educational videos, laptops with internet access, and more. We have all the technology available
to teach our students by incorporating as much visual stimulation as possible, yet I notice it is
incredibly hard to keep their attention on one thing for more than twenty minutes at a time. This
generation gets bored and preoccupied extremely easily and either complain about it or get off
task by talking or using their cell phones. Allowing students to bring their personal cell phones to
school and then making the confiscation of the phones by teachers a difficult and touchy process
is where technology begins to ruin the education system. Today’s teachers need to realize it is
their job to battle classroom appropriate technologies against inappropriate use of personal
technological devices. They need to do thorough research on the Millennials in order to fully
understand what strategies and methods they can utilize to give their students the best education
as possible. By experimenting with assignments and lesson plans where different methods are
carried out, along with specific technology restrictions I hope to learn exactly what I can do as an
educator to understand this generation and make sure I teach them everything I can in a manner
that leaves them motivated and wanting to learn more. I never want to be the type of teacher that
comes into her classroom and specifically teaches to ensure her students make passing grades.
That is an example of a very poor instructor who is teaching to tests to ensure her class and
herself look good, teachers like that are helping crumble the education system faster. I want
students who will retain what they learn and be able to use that information later down the road
in life. My action research plan is fully justified in that I am creating it in order to fully
understand the generation in my classroom, fine tune my methods and hopefully have
12. Maintaining Motivation & Retention 12
increasingly more motivated students who will benefit from it in the long run; not to mention
work towards gaining a better understanding of the education system and its issues.
ResearchQuestion and Hypothesis
When it comes down to formulating research questions that are relevant to my study, I
find my questions to be simple and straightforward. Is there something that I, as well as
educators in general, can be doing to significantly increase the amount of data retained by my
students, raise assessment scores, and keep my students overall motivated to come to class and
learn every day? Are today’s teachers and school staff the ones to blame for the major downfalls
in the education system, or is it the fault of the Millennial generation and their egotistical,
technology obsessed upbringing? It is no big secret that the United States’ educational system
has really crumbled within the last decade. We are a country that likes to flaunt our power and be
in the spot light, yet we cannot seem get our act together to give our country’s children the best
education possible. Obviously my study will not be able to shed much light on an issue of that
magnitude; as each school is ran differently in one way or another, and the ones to blame for
each particular school and their downfalls can widely vary. My overall goal of this study is to
acknowledge a problem that I have personally observed in both my colleagues and my own
classrooms that I notice daily, and try to make adjustments in order to see positive results.
Once the research questions were formulated and stated for my action plan, I was able to
quickly come up with two hypotheses to help clarify my plan and my implementation strategies.
Both of these hypotheses fit in with the issues I am outlining in my action plan, as well as what I
believe will happen once I implement my study strategies. My first hypothesis is, if I execute two
lesson plans by using completely different teaching methods chosen with help from my students,
then one of these methods will result in significantly higher assessment scores and prove to be
13. Maintaining Motivation & Retention 13
more successful in motivating my students to retain and learn more information. My second
action plan hypothesis is, if I give my students the same assignment at two different times, one
where they are allowed to have their phones and laptops with them and one where they must turn
in all technology to me, then once their work is completed and scored the assignments with no
personal technology available for distraction will have significantly higher scores. These
statements are educated guesses as to the outcomes I believe will occur from my action plan.
Each hypothesis was consciously thought out and formulated to correlate with the specific issues
I have noticed within my classroom.
Definition of Terms
The dictionary defines the term Millennial as a person born in either the 1980’s or 1990’s
(merriam-webster.com). In regards to this paper Millennials, their characteristics, and their
classroom habits are the main focus. The term Millennial is used in reference to the type of
student filling today’s classrooms.
The dictionary definition of the term technology is “the use of science in industry,
engineering, etc., to invent useful things or to solve problems…a machine, piece of equipment,
method, etc., that is created by technology” (merriam-webster.com). The term technology is used
in this paper to highlight both its negative and positive uses in the classroom. The phrase
‘personal technology’ is used throughout the paper in reference to a student’s own cell phone,
tablet, lap top, or any other piece of equipment that can be used to access personal information
and cause a distraction.
The Glossary of Education Reform defines the education system as “public schooling,
not private schooling, and more commonly to kindergarten through high school programs.
14. Maintaining Motivation & Retention 14
Schools or school districts are typically the smallest recognized form of “education system” and
countries are the largest. States are also considered to have education systems” (edglossary.org).
The term education system is used in my paper to describe the system as a whole throughout the
United States, rather than a specific school or district. More specifically I am focusing on the
people within the education system that regulate laws and control the funding.
Brief Overview of Study
I plan to execute my study by splitting it into two different sections, with the ultimate
goal of figuring out exactly what needs to be done to increase overall class motivation and data
retention. For the first part of my study I plan to create and organize two different unit plans, all
of similar skill and difficulty level. While creating and executing these units I plan to deliver
each one using a specific teaching method I believe will benefit my students the most. After
researching a multitude of teaching methods I will narrow them down to the two that I find the
most appropriate for my students and program, in hopes that one will rise above the other as the
most effective with my class. I have decided to choose which two teaching methods I plan to use
by creating a survey to give to my students as to which methods they find the most effective.
Each student will be asked to circle the top two methods they believe will motivate them the
most and hold their attention, as well as be asked if there was anything they would do differently
if they were the teacher. The goal of this first part of my study is to hone my teaching methods to
best benefit my students through a trial and error execution of my unit plans and methods that
have been chosen by the students themselves.
The second part of my study plan will be carried out within one of the unit plans I create.
I will be designating two activities of similar level of difficulty within the unit that will be
15. Maintaining Motivation & Retention 15
immediately graded. The unit will take roughly a week and a half to fully execute; these
particular assignments will be given on the first and second to last day of the unit plan. For the
first day I will thoroughly explain the assignment directions and leave students to work
independently, they will not be informed of a time limit I will have set that should give them
more than enough time to complete the work. Being familiar with my class full of Millennials I
fully believe that when left to their own devices they are sneaking cell phone usage, whispering
off topic conversations to classmates, and an array of other activities distracting them from their
given assignment. I will not correct this behavior, unless it is out of control, and I will collect
their assignment when my timer goes off. From there I will grade everyone’s assignments and
record their scores. I will do the same exact thing with the other assignment on the second to last
day of the unit plan, since the final assessment will be executed on the last day I do not want to
overwhelm my students. This time I will be taking away their cell phones and request that
everyone stay quiet and focus on their work. They will be given the exact same amount of time
to complete this assignment, in which I will collect, grade, and record scores of the papers as I
did previously. The point of this part of my study is to try and prove how personal technology
use in the classroom can have a substantial impact on a student’s grades. I fully expect to see a
significant difference in scores between the first the assignment that is given and the second.
Background and Review of Related Literature
I have personally been interested in the Millennial generation long before I knew about the
action research plan I would have to create and execute. Seeing as the student body filling my
desks are the from this generation I have researched a decent amount into exactly what makes
them tick, and what I can do to reach them and teach them the best I can. I have been in the
classroom for seven years now and have personally watched the work ethic of my students
16. Maintaining Motivation & Retention 16
decrease with every passing year. I get students in their junior year of high school; my veterinary
assistant program is a two year program where I have my students for half a day during their
junior and senior years. By the time my students get to me I expect them to have a solid
understanding of how to write a paper, how to properly utilize their time and follow directions in
the classroom, and have an idea of what study habits they need implement to personally learn
and prepare themselves for assessments. Unfortunately, what I typically get are students that do
not know the first thing about writing a paper, specifically how to cite sources and include a
proper works cited page. They seem to have a very difficult time following our dress code of
scrub pants, a class shirt, and tennis shoes; they seem more preoccupied in looking “good’ over
being professional. Not to mention how easily the majority of my students become distracted by
their personal technologies and social media outlets. When I help my students study for a test I
have realized that if I do not force them to study in class and quiz them over test questions, they
are highly likely to fail the test. Even worse is that we typically receive emails from some parents
complaining that their child should get to take the test over again since they did so terribly. It has
gotten to the point where I now give an MLA paper writing presentation to my students so they
do not end up going to college turning in plagiarized work. I want so badly for my students to
succeed, and it is absolutely appalling that the type of student I typically has become accustomed
to being spoon fed test answers and given A’s on plagiarized and horrifically mediocre papers
they turn into their English class. It took me a couple years into my teaching career to notice this
trend and it has always made me wonder who is truly to blame here; the Millennial kids raised by
over sheltering parents who have mommy and daddy stick up for them any time they fail, or a
large amount of lack luster teachers filling the education system that teach their students to
basically get good grades and that is it. Unfortunately schools these days have their attendance
17. Maintaining Motivation & Retention 17
and assessment numbers reviewed and judged when it comes to determining whether or not they
receive funding. Are the teachers being told to ‘teach to tests’ or to simplify their lessons so
students get good grades they do not deserve by people higher up in the districts so they can
ensure they receive funding? For years I have been asking myself who is to blame for the poor
quality of students I receive every year. I have been making it my personal mission to try and
make up for what my students have been lacking in and guide them and prepare them for college
the best I can. Over the years I have had several students come back and see me and thank me for
being harder on them and pushing them to better themselves. Because of my personal
background with the education field it did not take me long to come up with my topic and
pinpoint my problem in the classroom. My problem is trying to figure out the methods and
strategies I need to be implementing in my classroom for higher success in retention and
assessments amongst my students, all while trying to truly understand the generation I deal with
on a daily basis.
The methodology I chose when it came to writing and researching my action research plan
has helped me further my personal education on this generation by not only reading more about
the generation and what teaching methods and strategies are best used with them, but by utilizing
what I have learned with my own students to and bring my research to life. I also felt
comfortable enough to talk to my class about my research and see what their thoughts on the
stigmas behind their generation were, which not surprisingly they were quick to blame others on
their failures rather than take any responsibility. I still enjoyed having an open conversation with
them about the topic of my paper, and my students enjoyed putting in their two cents as well.
Being able to talk to my students openly was one of the reasons behind the creation of my survey
I handed out to get their opinions on what teaching methods I should look more into. When it
18. Maintaining Motivation & Retention 18
came to learning more about my topic I sought out articles that revolved around motivating
students, the Millennial generation, and different teaching methods found to be successful. My
goal was to look into research that had already been done on my topic to help me write my paper
and answer any questions I may have had, along with trying to take work that has already been
done and personally improve upon it.
I found several great articles based specifically on how to teach Millennial generation
student, these articles have greatly helped me with the justification and creation of my action
research plan. While every article categorized Millennials into different age groups, they were all
similar in saying that this is a generation raised around technologies and the ideals that they can
do no wrong; they need to be taught in a completely different way than students of the past to
succeed. “Differences in learning based on age is one of many variables, certainly along with
learning styles, that teaching faculty need to understand in order for those faculty to be effective”
(McGlynn, 2005). Many teachers in the education system today are part of past generations
(baby boomer and the X generation); they were brought up with no major technology in both
their personal or professional lives. Educators of these generations came into the classroom and
utilized the methods that had worked great when they were students, the lecture and note taking
method being the most popular. Once the Millennial generation students began entering their
classrooms, the tried and true methods of the past began to fail. What these teachers needed to
learn is “this is the generation who have always had technology integrated into their lives – they
are connected 24/7. Their experience contrasts greatly with that of adults 35 and older, for whom
technology is typically an add-on to life” (Nikirk, 2012). These articles stress the differences in
the strategies that once worked with older generations compared to what truly works for a
generation brought up in such a drastically different manner. Millennial students thrive in
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classrooms with teachers that integrate visual stimulation, group project and team work
approaches, technology, and an overall high energy, positive learning environment into every
unit plan (Nicoletti & Merriman, 2007). Millennials like to feel included, and teachers can easily
construct lesson plans with their students and do simple exercises to make students feel like their
opinions are valued and that they played a part in choosing what they are learning. Teachers can
give their students simple choices to make, such as what they would like to learn next, and have
them pick the next unit out of the curriculum for you to teach. Or they can conduct a survey such
as the one I did where I asked my students which teaching methods they prefer when it came to
the creation of a new lesson plan. “Teachers should use motivational strategies that enable
students to gain a sense of control in the classroom- to make choices or take some control in their
learning program” (Hootstein, 1994). By making small tweaks to the curriculum and
maximizing student inclusion, there is likely to be a huge leap in student motivation and
information retention.
This new generation’s required teaching strategies typically mean more effort on the
educators part when it comes to the preparation and execution of a solid unit plan, which could
explain the increase in teacher burnout rates. As of 2014 studies show that, “40 to 50 percent of
new teachers leave within their first five years on the job” (Seidel, 2014). There are other factors
that play into this high rate other than the extra effort and time it takes to be successful with this
generation, such as low salaries and not wanting to work for a school that forces teachers to
squash their creative ways and conform to “what works”. No matter what the reasons are we are
still looking at an average of nearly half a million educators that either completely leaves the
education system all together or moves around within it; this all comes at a price of roughly $2.2
billion dollars for the school districts; money that could be going into the schools for
20. Maintaining Motivation & Retention 20
extracurricular programs and activities. Not to mention the major effect it has on the quality of
the students’ education; it is hard to give a student the proper education they all deserve when
they are being juggled amongst a variety of teachers all with their own methods and
philosophies, or lack thereof (Seidel, 2014). These articles all give great information as to what
efforts need to be put into lesson plans in order to be successful and all stress that “for teachers to
be professionals… they need to know both what is effective and why it is effective” (Hootstein,
1994).
What I have learned through my literary research is that not only can anybody seem to
agree on what years define the Millennial generation, but also who is at fault when it comes to
the downfall in today’s education system. Some literature I’ve reviewed blames the Millennial
generation, aka Generation Me, and the way they have been raised. While other articles and case
studies blame the teacher-student education gap. And still others blame schools that force their
teachers to conform and teach students specifically to make high assessment grades and receive
the funding they need to survive. Between my personal experiences and the experiences of others
that I have read about, this is a controversial topic that may never have an actual answer. What is
agreed upon is that Millennial students have specific needs in the classroom and that teachers are
responsible for learning those needs and successfully executing them. A teacher who has chosen
this career for the right reasons needs to build up their own personal teaching philosophy. They
need to have a strong philosophy that reminds them why they chose to be an educator, one that
they can look back upon when the times get tough and they need guidance. A good teaching
philosophy should serve four distinct purposes; a personal purpose, a political purpose, a
professional purpose, and a pedagogical purpose (Chonko, 2007). Each teacher as an individual
has to decide which of these purposes are more important to them, but every strong philosophy
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should emphasize each of these purposes to an extent. Throughout my time in the classroom both
teaching and as a student I have begun creating my own teaching philosophy that focuses around
my continual growth as an educator in order to stay relevant with the ever changing technologies
and classroom strategies in order to give my students the education they deserve. I never want to
be the kind of teacher that simply skates by doing the bare minimum and have my students suffer
because of it. As teachers we truly have the power to make a difference with young minds that
may affect the way they learn and the life path they decide to take in the future. My education
background, combined with reading as much literature as I can regarding the topic of my action
research plan have only strengthened my personal philosophy further.
Procedures
Description of the ResearchDesign
I have set up my research design using the quasi-experimental method, specifically the
pre-test, post-test method. “Quasi-experiments are like true experiments in that they employ the
same units of analysis, i.e. they involve one or more manipulated compared by considering
subjects on one or more dependent variables. The main difference quasi-experiments and true
experiments is that the scores compared in a quasi-experiment are not based on the performance
of groups formed by random assignment” (Behi & Nolan, 1996).What sets the quasi-
experimental method apart from other research methods is the fact that its test subjects are not
randomly selected. My action plan is focused on the students in my classroom, more specifically
the twenty four students that make up my senior class, and they are regarded as my test subjects.
They have been my students since the beginning of their junior year and therefore no random
pre-selection processes have been carried out. I have designed my research plan to begin with a
22. Maintaining Motivation & Retention 22
survey I am requiring the students to fill out. This survey will list several different teaching
methods and their explanations and ask students to circle the two they think will be the most
effective, as well as personally ask the students if there is a different method they think would
work better to help better motivate them. The idea behind the survey is to not only help me select
the two research methods I want to use in the creation of my unit plans, but also make the
students feel included; as research has proven that this generation is likely to learn better when
they feel like they have control of the curriculum to some extent. Once the results of this survey
have been tallied I will create my lessons using the top two most popular strategies pick by the
students, as well as relevant pre-tests and post-tests to go along with them. This pre-test and post-
test strategy is also known as the nonequivalent groups design, which is one of the more
common designs used that falls under the quasi-experimental method design. The purpose of this
design is to test the knowledge of the specific group, my students, before and after my action
research plan is carried out. My students were not randomly selected, and these tests and unit
plans are not random assignments. I want to be able to use this design to see if there are
significant increases in assessment scores between the pre-tests and post-tests of my two
different unit plans. My hopes, as well as my research hypothesis, is that one of these
assessments will yield significantly higher results and I will have clear proof as to which
teaching method is the most successful with my students.
The second part of my action plan is set up essentially in the same format. Rather than
doing a pre-test and post-test of all the information in the unit plan, students will get an
assignment at the beginning of the unit where they are allowed to have out their laptops and I
will not reprimand them when they try and sneak their cell phones to get off task. They will have
a specific allotted amount of time to do this assignment and then they will be asked to turn it in,
23. Maintaining Motivation & Retention 23
finished or not. At the end of the unit I will hand out a similar assignment, except this time I will
be taking away their cell phones and other technologies. Students will have the same amount of
time to work on the assignment before I collect it. I will grade both assignments and compare the
results to one another. The idea behind this research is to see the impact that access to personal
and distracting technologies has on the student’s work. As I have learned in my research
Millennial students easily become bored and distracted where school is concerned, or any topic
that does not interest them. Allowing students to have cell phones in the classroom has been a
largely controversial topic in my school, as well as others. Including this exercise into my
research design will allow me to see how much, if any, difference there will be in assessment
scores when phones are removed from the picture.
Description of the Sample
The first step to carrying out my action research plan was creating a survey for my
students to take. They were given six different strategies to choose from that I could incorporate
into my lesson plans. I asked the students to circle the top two strategies they felt would help
them retain the most information and keep them motivated; they were also asked to provide a
written response as to whether or not they would make any changes to the teaching methods if
they were in my shoes. (See Appendix A for the student survey that was given).
The two strategies that came out at the top were the inclusion of more hands-on activities
and assigning more group projects. So I built two lesson plans; a radiology lesson plan that
involved group work and a dental lesson plan that involved several hands-on activities. With my
radiology unit I created six different case studies. Each case study included a specific patient,
their history, and their symptoms; along with a radiograph that had been taken to diagnose their
24. Maintaining Motivation & Retention 24
issue. I divided my students up into six groups of four and had them work as a team to put
together the clues and diagnose their animal’s issue (See Appendix B for an example of the
radiology diagnostic group project). For the dental unit I was able to gather dentistry tools,
models of animal mouths, and examples of healthy and unhealthy teeth for my students to handle
and become familiar with. I set up an activity that allowed each student to handle the dentistry
tools and perform a mock dental. Each of these units were accompanied with appropriate
worksheets and a brightly colored power point presentation.
The final part of my action research plan consisted of an exercise I created in hopes to
figure out exactly how much technology poses as a distraction in the classroom. Throughout our
classes we have learned that major technology advancements have both positive and negative
effects in the classroom. I have a classroom full of Millennial students that seem to have their
cell phones permanently attached to their palms. I am constantly catching them texting, checking
their Facebook profiles, snapchatting, and more, to the point that some days I feel like all I do is
correct my students and create a negative atmosphere as a result. So when contemplating what I
wanted to focus on for this paper I instantly knew I wanted to create some kind of exercise to
measure if there is a significant increase in work scores when the students are not allowed to
have anything on their desks but their given assignment and a writing utensil. I carried this
exercise out by finding two similar assignments that involved reading an article and filling out a
worksheet. My supervising teacher and I discussed how long we thought it should take every
student to complete the task and even added a few extra minutes. I made sure everybody was in
their seats and announced that they had an assignment to do that should be completed that day.
The first time I did this; I went back to my desk after announcing the assignment and secretly set
a timer. I allowed my students to have their laptops out, talk to classmates, and did not correct
25. Maintaining Motivation & Retention 25
them when I saw them sneaking their phones. When the timer went off I asked everyone to stop
what they were doing and turn their worksheet in, completed or not. I did the same exact thing
with the second assignment, but this time I made my students clear their purses and book bags
off of their desks, close their lap tops, and corrected them the second I saw a cell phone out.
When the timer went off I collected the assignment. I graded both assignments and logged them
into a table I created in order to easily analyze the side by side scores for each student. This
analysis method allowed me to easily see if there was a significant pattern or trend in the scores
of the assignments with and without technology available as a distraction.
Description of the Instruments Used
When it came to the instruments I used to carry out my action research plan I used what
was available to me in my classroom currently for the most part. I used my work laptop and
software to create my survey, lesson plans, power point presentations, tests, and projects. Some
of the activities I used in my lesson plans such as worksheets and book work were already
created and available to utilize at will. My two lessons I created for this research plan were our
radiology and dental units. I used Word to create projects and study guides to help teach my
students. Also I used Power Point to create colorful and informative presentations for each unit
plan. These presentations along with supplemental videos were shown to my students on our
Smart Board. I included as many visuals as I could in each unit plan and that entailed borrowing
radiographs from a local veterinary clinic I contacted. As well as using the animal mouth models,
dental tools, and radiograph equipment that we already had in our classroom or borrowed from
the dental program our school has. As far as the assessments I used for each unit plan, I created
the pre and post-tests with Word and scored them with a red pen when they were turned in.
26. Maintaining Motivation & Retention 26
Explanation of the Procedures Followed
My action research plan was created for the purpose of figuring out what strategy or
teaching method works the best with my students. I want to figure out which method not only
yields higher assessment scores, but also seems to keep my students the most motivated and
having fun while learning. My action plan was also created to learn whether or not access to
personal technologies and social media outlets have an effect on a students’ performance. I
began working on my action plan within the first couple of weeks of our spring 2016 semester.
Once I decided on my topic I began working on my plan in order to fit in as much research and
work on my unit plans as I could before the due date.
My action plan is being carried out in the program I help teach; the veterinary assistant
program at South Tech High School. My school and program are unique in that it is a half day
career and technical education based high school. We have students who are bused in from over
twenty different area high schools; juniors come in the morning and seniors come in the
afternoon. My program has its’ own building that is made up of a classroom, a lab area, a kennel
area, and a grooming/receptionist area. We work in partnership with an animal rescue group and
our cat and dog fosters live on the premises during the week, we also have a large array of small
animals as class pets. Needless to say my program is incredibly unique and it is something that
makes me really love coming to work every day.
I decided how to carry out the first part of my action plan by conducting a simple survey
with my students. Millennials like to feel included, so creating a survey that allowed them to
choose the teaching methods they preferred most not only made them feel like they were taking
part in choosing how they were to be taught, but it also was an easy way for me to determine
27. Maintaining Motivation & Retention 27
how I needed to carry out my action plan and successfully answer my research questions. When
it came to implementing the portion of my action research plan that measured the students’
assessment of how well they could complete an assignment with full access to their personal
technology devices compared to how well they did without them, I chose to not disclose any
information to them. I felt that if I told them the details and reasoning behind this specific part of
the study the students would put extra effort into getting the assignment done quickly and
efficiently with full access to their cell phones, tablets, or laptops to try and prove these devices
are not a distraction, when I personally think otherwise. I knew the data would be skewed if the
details of this study portion were disclosed beforehand.
Description and Justification of the Statistical Techniques/Methods of Analysis Used
In order to carry out my action research plan I needed to determine which teaching
techniques and methods I wanted to utilize. I did this by conducting a survey with my students.
This allowed me to narrow my research down to two methods, as well as learn which two
methods my students preferred. Since the two teaching strategies, hands-on skill training and
group projects, were handpicked by the group of students I carried out my action research plan
with I expected my findings and assessment scores to be higher than they would if I chose which
two methods I personally preferred. I created this survey as a method of justifying the teaching
strategies described in this paper and implemented in my classroom. The analysis technique I
used to collect my findings is the simple, yet efficient pre-test and post-test method. This is a
quasi-experimental technique that has proven to be a successful analysis of studies similar to my
own. I created this plan with the end goal of determining which teaching method yielded the
28. Maintaining Motivation & Retention 28
highest assessment scores in my classroom. As well as try and determine how much of a
distraction personal technology is or is not when allowed in the classroom.
Findings
I have a total of twenty four students and each student was asked to pick the top two
teaching methods they believed would help keep them motivated the most in class in a survey
they all recieved. The two methods that received the most votes were the inclusion of more
hands-on activities and more group projects. Once I tallied the results and determined the top two
methods I immediately went to work and created one lesson plan with a big group project and
one plan with the inclusion of several hands-on learning activities. It was not surprising to find
that the two methods with the highest votes, inclusion of more hands on work and more group
work, were the two strategies I read and learned about the most in my literature review (See
Table 1).
The first lesson I created and executed with my students was the radiology lesson. With
this lesson plan I included a large activity where I had my students break into groups and work
together. This goal behind this was to have my students work together and help teach each other
the basics of radiology. I was really impressed with how excited my students were about this
case study project, despite the fact I had them randomly choose their teammates. They stayed on
task until they solved the problem and surprising enough they all correctly diagnosed their
‘patient’ with little to no instructor guidance. They had fun with this teamwork project and that
attitude carried over into their other radiology activities and when it came time to study and take
their final assessment of the unit. I believe this greatly shows in the increase of most of my
student’s pre-assessment and post-assessment scores (See Table 2). When it came to the
29. Maintaining Motivation & Retention 29
radiology pre-test assessment the lowest score was a 46% and the highest was 71%, the average
pre-test score was 59%. The post-test assessment of the unit yielded over all high scores with the
lowest being 57% and the highest being 100%, the average score was 84%. Between the pre and
post-test assessment my student’s scores increased by an average of 25%.
The next lesson I created and carried out with my students was our unit on dentistry. This
unit revolved around multiple hands-on activities I created. We are lucky enough to have a dental
program at our school and I was able to borrow instruments from them for my students to handle
and work with, as they are the same instruments that are used on animals. In my program we
typically try and work in hands-on activities where ever we are able in order for our students to
learn a variety of skill sets and feel comfortable in the job field. For this particular lesson I
included more activities, including ones we have never done since we typically do not include
hands-on tasks in our dentistry unit. The lesson was successful in that I observed my students
enjoying the hands-on work. However, their pre and post-test assessment scores were not quite
as high as they were with the radiology unit (See Table 3). With the pre-test assessment for the
dental unit the lowest score was 19% and the highest score was 69%, the average score was 42%.
When I scored the post-test assessment the lowest score was 74% and the highest was 98%, with
the average score being 86%. Between the pre and post-test assessments the average increase in
score was 44%, making the hands-on lesson more successful with almost double the average
increase between pre and post-test assessment scores.
The final portion of my action research plan was executed in order to answer my research
question as to whether or not personal technologies such as cell phones, tablets, and laptops truly
affect student’s performance levels. I carried this out by giving my students a simple worksheet
30. Maintaining Motivation & Retention 30
assignment. The first time I gave out the assignment I allowed them to have out their laptops or
tablets, did not correct them when I saw them sneaking their phones under the desk, and allowed
them to talk to their peers. The second time I made them sit in their assigned seats and have
nothing on their desks but the assignment and a writing utensil. After an appropriate amount of
time I collected their assignments; finished or not. While there were increases in the scores of the
assignments without technology access, they were not as significant as I thought they would
have been (See Table 4). The lowest assessment score with technology use was 67% and the
highest was 100%, with the average score being 93%. With the assignment given without any
technology available as distraction the lowest score was 88% and the highest score was 100%,
the average score was 98%. While the average score increase was only 5%, it is still an increase
and proves that technology can pose as a distraction, even if it is only minor.
Summary and Conclusion
When it came to the creation and execution of my action research plan from start to finish
there were some findings that surprised me, while others did not. I was well versed to a certain
degree on the Millennial generation beforehand. However, my focus had been more on this
generation’s negative characteristics, than the positive. Doing further research into the generation
and their needs for this paper has brought to light how much potential this generation can have
when correctly guided. This is a generation that loves to work together, be included as much as
possible, and can do amazing things with new technologies; in fact my students have taught me
several things regarding new technology programs over the years. Upon the completion of my
research I fully believe the education system is failing this generation, if funding did not directly
correlate to assessment numbers and teachers were allowed to have more freedom over their
curriculum I fully believe the wrongs associated with these students could easily be righted.
31. Maintaining Motivation & Retention 31
Teaching to tests and doing everything possible to not have a student fail because the teacher is
afraid of backlash from either the students’ parents or their supervisors is just not right. I firmly
believe that this is the reason for the downfall in America’s education system. It is not the
Millennial student’s fault that they have been raised in this particular way; being shielded from
failure for as long as possible. One would imagine that the idea behind attending school is to
ultimately prepare the student to continue their education and go onto college, or have the skills
necessary to move straight into the workforce. This is not the case from what I have personally
observed; there are many teachers who care more about their numbers than their student’s
futures. Students should be taught early on that the kind of education they want to receive is not
just the teacher’s responsibility, but theirs as well. A teacher should be able to execute a lesson,
set a test date, and have the students study on their own time. If the student chooses to skip
studying and forego other ventures in their personal life their failing test grade should not be the
teachers fault at all, but it is. Teachers are the ones being blamed for poor grades, which is why
so many go above and beyond to teach for good assessments over information retention. This
action research paper has become so much more than I originally believed it to be. It has made
me want to speak out on my beliefs and try to make much needed changes. The Millennial
generation children are what they are because of the adults that raised them and molded them
into this egotistical being that cannot handle failure.
The portion of my action research plan that involved using different teaching methods to
measure assessment levels in my students ended up with findings that did not surprise me. I
allowed my students to pick the methods they found the most useful for them; which involved
including them in the creation of the curriculum, a method Millennials appreciate. The two
winning strategies, more hands-on skills and teamwork exercises, went along exactly with the
32. Maintaining Motivation & Retention 32
research I had done on how to successfully teach Millennial students. This means that the several
articles I have focused on for the duration of my action plan were accurate in their findings,
which in turn made my personal findings and hypothesis accurate. The two lessons I created and
executed for this project was my first time truly having free reign in the classroom. I was very
excited about it and I think that really showed, ultimately effecting how much my students
retained. Part of me wonders if this could be considered a weakness. I put my all into these
lessons knowing how I would be scrutinizing the entire process from the beginning to the end.
Have I subconsciously put extra effort into these units to try and get the best assessments I could,
when down the line I may not? I hope the answer to that question is no, I hope I do not begin to
get burnt out over time and my effort begins lacking. That would be my greatest concern
regarding this exercise. The fact is I enjoyed taking control of the classroom and doing lessons
my way, and I believe that my students picked up on that. I had several students come up to me
after the radiology case study exercise that focused on team work and asked if we could do more
projects like that. I thought I would have had some complaints, as I decided to make them pick
numbers and created the teams randomly; I was pleasantly surprised to see how well everyone
worked together. I have always been the type of student who preferred to work alone, so I was
not positive how successful this strategy would be compared to the hands-on lesson. Overall my
findings yielded great increases between pre and post assessment scores with both units, with the
hands-on method yielding a significantly higher average increase. Due to my research findings I
plan to implement as many hands-on skills within each unit as I can in hopes to keep my
assessment scores higher. I still would like to do more group projects as well, for the fact that my
students enjoyed it and did a great job working together.
33. Maintaining Motivation & Retention 33
The second portion of my action research plan was created in hopes of figuring out how
much of a distraction personal technology posed in the classroom. Between cell phones and
laptops it is very easy to be distracted by social media outlets, communicating with friends, ect.
My hypothesis basically stated that if these technologies were taken away, then students would
pay more attention in class resulting in higher assessments. My findings for this exercise were
not at all what I imagined. I expected there to be a radical grade gap between the two
assignments; while there was an increase in scores between the assignments with and without
technology usage as a distraction it was not as drastic and increase as I imagined it would be.
Instead the percentages between the two assignments did not waver much at all, a mere 5%. To
me these results meant that the students are more than capable of adequately completing an
assignment even when surrounded by the distractions technology poses, though they do slightly
better when technology is taken off the table completely. When it comes to this exercise the only
weakness I can think of is that perhaps the assignments were too easy, or I gave them more than
enough time to complete them which is why the scores were so high on both ends. I still believe
that cell phone usage should not be permitted in the classroom. While I had hoped this exercise
would yield more drastic results proving how much of a distraction technology can be, there was
still a slight increase making my hypothesis and research questions regarding this topic correct to
an extent. Admittedly, I was wrong in that the differences between the two assignment’s scores
were not as large as I hypothesized. Ultimately I am glad that I included this exercise into my
action research plan regardless of the findings and my beliefs.
I am nowhere near done in my pursuit of becoming the best teacher that I can for my
students. This action research plan has allowed me to answer questions by doing my own
research and carrying out my own experiments. My findings were interesting to me in that they
34. Maintaining Motivation & Retention 34
were both predictable in some ways based on my research, and completely out of the blue in
other ways. I have learned so much on what needs to be done to reach my students. The amount
of effort it takes to be a successful teacher is quite daunting. Reading the articles I did for this
project and creating my lesson plans to correlate my research shed a light on the areas I had been
lacking on previously. Yes, the Millennial generation can be difficult to work with, but there are
simple changes that every teacher can make to reach these students and have a positive impact on
the classroom environment as a whole. As I make the next step from teacher assistant to full time
teacher I want to continue my research on which teaching strategies and methods are proven to
be the most successful, as well as continue my education in order to stay as relevant as possible
where new technologies and programs in the classroom are concerned. To me, this action
research plan is a mere stepping stone on my path to create a name for myself as an educator and
leader in the tangled web that is the education system.
35. Maintaining Motivation & Retention 35
References
Behi, R., & Nolan, M. (1996). Research. Quasi-experimental research designs. British Journal
Of Nursing, 5(17), 1079-1081 3p.
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Education System (2016, March 30). In S. Abbott (Ed.), The glossary of education reform.
Retrieved from http://edglossary.org/hidden-curriculum
Hootstein, E. W. (1994). Motivating students to learn. Clearing House, 67(4), 213.
McGlynn, A. P. (2005). Teaching Millenials, Our Newest Cultural Cohort. Education Digest,
71(4), 12-16.
Millennial [Def. 1]. (n.d.). In Merriam Webster Online, Retrieved April 1, 2016, from
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/citation.
Nicoletti, A., F.S.C., & Merriman, W. (2007, Apr). Teaching millennial generation students.
Momentum, 38, 28-31. Retrieved from
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Nikirk, M. (2012). Teaching Millennial Students. Education Digest, 77(9), 41-44.
Seidel, A. (2014, July 18). The Teacher Dropout Crisis. In NPR. Retrieved from
http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2014/07/18/332343240/the-teacher-dropout-crisis
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Technology [Def. 2]. (n.d.). In Merriam Webster Online, Retrieved April 1, 2016, from
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/citation.
37. Maintaining Motivation & Retention 37
Appendix A
Teaching Strategy Survey
Greetings class! My name is Ms. Zengerling and I am your student teacher for this semester. I
graduate with my masters in May with my MA in Agricultural Education. My hope is to become
a full time teacher and be the best teacher I possibly can. With that in mind I am asking you for
your personal insight as to what I can do to help keep you personally motivated and ready to
come into class excited to learn every day! I ask that you take this survey seriously so I can do
everything in my power to give you the best education I can! Thank you
The following are different teaching strategies I can use to help keep you interested and
motivated. Please circle the TWO methods you believe will help you learn and stay motivated
the most:
Inclusion of more hands-on experiences
Help study and learn by including games and team building activities into lessons
Showing more videos that pertain to what I am teaching so you have a good visual of
what you are learning
Create colorful and informative power points that I use to teach from and you are
required to write personal notes on
Include more thought provoking questions into my lessons that lead to good group
discussions
Assign projects where you can work together with your peers to complete
One last question! If you were in my shoes, is there anything you would do differently as the
teacher to help you better learn and stay motivated?
***Thank you for your input! You all are amazing students who deserve the best in life and I am
here for you to help make that possible in any way I can!!!***
38. Maintaining Motivation & Retention 38
Appendix B
Radiology Diagnostic Group Project
You and your teammates are veterinarian students learning how to read radiographs. You
have been assigned a radiograph of an animal that has a specific issue and it is your job to
diagnose the patient by reading the radiograph and researching what you need to be
looking at to reach a diagnosis.
Before you look at your x-ray lets learn some basics:
o What are the five major densities that will show up on an x-ray? Describe what
they look like.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
o When you take an x-ray you have to measure the body part you are taking a
picture of with a caliper and then use those measurements and compare them to
the technique chart to make sure you set the correct Milliamperage (mA) and
Kilovoltage (KV) levels on the machine before taking a picture. You also need to
make sure the collinator is set correctly in order to avoid scatter radiation.
(Please define the bold, underlined words on the back of this paper)
Now that you are familiar with radiography terminology it is time to record your patient’s
information:
o Patient Name:
o Species:
o Sex:
o Age:
o Symptoms:
It is now time for you to view your radiograph! Record your findings and write down any
comments or questions you may have.
What is the final diagnosis you and your team determined?
39. Maintaining Motivation & Retention 39
Radiology Case Study #1
Meet Tilly! Tilly is a Cairn Terrier that is ten years old. Tilly is a spayed female. She has been
brought into your vet clinic today because her owners have noticed that she has been using the
bathroom more in the house which is something she has never done before. Her urine spots are
small and frequent and when the technicians at work caught her urine they noticed hematuria.
The next step was to take an x-ray to try and determine Tilly’s problem and the next course of
action.
40. Maintaining Motivation & Retention 40
Table 1
Teaching Strategy Survey Results
Teaching Methods Number of Student Votes
More hands-on 13
More games and team building exercises 9
More videos and visuals 6
Colorful and informative power points 6
Inclusion of questions and group conversations 3
More group projects 11
