A research project I am carrying out at the moment

1. My Research
Introduction
Dealing with demotivation and disengagement of students is a current issue that most
teachers face. Challenging as it may seem, teachers never give up seeking for innovative
and creative ways to interest their students. Thus, the class I have decided to look into is
a group of children who has been the subject of enquiries of the teachers who have
worked with them in previous years.
When this year, I became their teacher, I immediately noticed that some children got
bored easily and appeared to be demotivated in some parts of the class. They claimed it
was too early- the class starts at 9 AM- and that they were tired. Therefore, I started
including energizing games and activities at the beginning of the class that worked well.
However, after this, and when they had to engage in other types of activities, motivation
and enthusiasm vanished. They started to fidget, yawn, ask the time or request for
repetition of an activity they liked.
After trying different ideas to engage them, I have decided to explore this issue further
to see what I was missing. I asked a colleague to observe my class and see if there was a
flaw, attitude or something in my teaching practice that could affect their lack of
enthusiasm. I also crafted a “complaint book” where they could draw or write all the
things they do not like about the class and I included a section in which they had to give
stars- from one to five- to different aspects of the class e.g. teacher, book activities,
games, video class etc.
After this initial exploration phase whose purpose was to detect threats to engagement, I
found out that the most demotivating tasks were the coursebook activities. Therefore, I
have made this the focus of the following research project.
Research project Your answers
Title: “Redesigning coursebook activities through 2.0 web tools: Can this
enhance children’s motivation for learning?”
Describe your research topic My research study focuses on redesigning the coursebook activities
using 2.0 web tools and see if this can help children aged 9-10 maintain
their interest in the English class.
Aims of your research  Discover if the activities designed using 2.0 web tools are more
appealing for these children than the coursebook activities.
 Compare the level of engagement before and after technology
use.
 Transform the book activities into a more attractive learning
experience.
 Contribute to the digital literacy of these students

2. Research question(s)  Is the redesigning of the coursebook activities through 2.0 web
tools more motivating than the coursebook?
 Will the use of technology enhance my students’ engagement?
 How can the adaptation of the material using these tools meet my
students’ needs?
 How is children’s performance affected after this intervention?
(in tests for example)
Why are the topic and research
questions meaningful to you?
This group is the most challenging class I have ever had. It is frustrating
to see how tasks that work well in other groups are meaningless to them.
So far, most of my attempts to engage them in the class have failed. The
teachers who worked with them in the previous years shared my views
about the group and claimed to have tried-unsuccessfully- different
strategies to interest them. I see this group as an opportunity to grow
professionally since they have proved to be a major challenge. Besides, I
believe children could benefit from the adjustments, too. It might be a
win-win for everyone.
Describe the context of your
research
The research will be done in a private institute of about 200 hundred
students situated in Río Colorado Río Negro. The institute has four
classrooms equipped with overhead projectors and internet access. There
is one computer room- only used by junior and senior classes- equipped
with ten computers, a projector and a board with a Mimio (where I plan
to work) As this classroom is banned for children, I have to request
permission for its use. Children will have classes in their usual
classroom for 45 minutes and move to the computer room for 35
minutes to work on a “digital version of their coursebooks” in the
computer room. (the last 10 minutes are left for a wrap-up activity)
Describe your participants There are 15 children-7 boys and 8 girls- aged 9-10 who belong to
middle-class backgrounds. They attend classes twice a week for one
hour and a half each day and they use the book “Exploring our world 3”
National Geographic learning-Cengage This is their third year of
instruction and the first time I have been their teacher. It is worth
mentioning that they do not have discipline problems. TPR, hands-on
activities and games seem not to be enough for this group.
Describe your theoretical
background/framework/literature
review. What concepts will be
central in your study? Any key
authors? Any key
articles/books?
I will try to articulate content, technology and pedagogy to meet the
learning aims according to the curriculum. Some literature that may help
achieve my goals:
 Developing digital language learning materials (Tomlinson
2014) London: Boomsbury
 ERIC as suggested by Burns (2010, p 41) to browse on internet
articles
 ELT journal issues by Oxford University Press. Young learners’
engagement with multimodal texts By Annet Kaminsky
 Books by Graham Stanley and Nicky Hockly
What instruments will you use to
collect data? Describe them and
justify why you want to use
them. What data are you hoping
to obtain?
Qualitative methods: I will use a similar version of the “complaint
book” they have completed in the exploration stage. I will include the
category “computer activities” for them to rank. After that, a comparison
will be drawn. I will also turn tests into data collection tools to see their
performance after the change and compare them with previous ones.

3. Quantitative method: I will ask the colleague who has observed the
group before to observe the 35-minute class in the computer room.
During the observation phase, my colleague and I will try to detect signs
of boredom /excitement /engagement or any other reactions to the
activities. The observation will be documented through observation
sheets: behavior checklist. Observation of the class is paramount since I
will obtain an immediate feedback of the ongoing classes in the
computer room and thus refinements can be introduced.
I hope to obtain clear evidence of my students’ engagement/
disengagement in the new activities and see if their performance has
been affected and the learning aims are accomplished.
How will you analyze and
present the data collected?
The information obtained through the complained book will be analyzed
and categorized through inductive coding. The tests before and after the
intervention will be compared and presented in a table. A deductive
approach will be applied to the observation sheets since pre-arranged
categories will be given to be observed and analyzed. Once coded, this
data will be presented in a numerical scale- Nominal.
Suggest a possible timeline for
your research. When will you do
what?
I estimate that a three-month period will give me the chance to see if I
should continue with this modality or not. After this period and once the
novelty has worn off, I will start observing and keeping track of the data
for six more months. I will analyze it with my colleague to get a more
objective picture.
How could you disseminate your
study?
I will share my findings with my colleagues and the principal through a
prezi presentation.