Best practices to keep kindergarten students engaged

1. Best practices to keep kindergarten students engaged Dionisia Rigby CBSE 7202T Seminar in Applied Research II Fall 2013 Action Research Final Presentation

2. Table of contents • Problem Statement – Slide 3 • Literature Review- Slide 4 • Hypothesis- Slide 5 • Participants and Instruments – Slide 6 • Experimental Design – Slide 7 • Threats to Internal Validity – Slide 8 • Threats to External Validity – Slide 9 • Procedure–Slide 10 • Data Analysis- Slide 11-12 • Correlations- Slide 13-14 • Discussion and Implications- Slide 15 • Survey Questions – Slide 16 • Intervention Tracker – Slide 17 • References – Slide 18

3. Problem Statement • The purpose of this research is to find the best practices to keep kindergarteners engaged and energetic in an all day program. It has been noticed that many students fall asleep throughout the day. Numerous kinesthetic activities will be used as a form of intervention to see what keeps students engaged the most. A pre-survey will be given, intervention will be implemented and post-survey will be given

4. Literature Review • “Gains in knowledge are often accompanied by increased interest and appreciation of the subject, both important indexes of engagement, which are related to actual activity choice and participation” (Mantizicopoulos & Patrick, 2011). • “Physical activity promotes biological changes in the brain that enhance adaptability and connections between brain cells; this brain activity is necessary for learning as well as for the growth of new brain cells (Ratey 2008)” (Reilly et al., 2012). • “Evidence supports that theory that problems with attention predate learning problems and that longitudinal investigations of the relationship between attention and literacy are critical for understanding how literacy develops” (Dice & Schwanenflugel, 2012).

5. Hypothesis – HR1 • Developing a system, where students do a series of kinesthetic activities when they seem tired or fall asleep during instruction, for 28 students in a charter school in Brooklyn, NY, for 2 weeks during the afternoon subjects, will keep them engaged in their learning and stay on task. This will also improve their attitude towards kinesthetic activities and their engagement in school.

6. Participants and instruments • Instruments • 10 Question Student Pre and Post Survey • Teacher Survey • Intervention Tracker • Video Camera • Journal • Participants • 28 females in researcher’s classroom from Brooklyn, New York • Between ages 4-6 • 26 African American, 2 Hispanic

7. Experimental design • One Group Pre-Test Post-Test Design • One group, 29 girls (School X in Brooklyn, NY) will receive a pretest (O) • Group will be exposed to a treatment (X) • Group will be post-tested (O) • Symbolic Design Representation • OXO • Pre-Test (O) and Post-Test (O) = Pre and Post Survey • Treatment (X) will consist of before and after videos of scholars during math and core instruction over the period of 2 weeks

8. Threats to internal validity • History – events outside of the experiment are likely to occur such staying up late the night before or on a regular basis • Maturation- overtime students may become accustomed to kinesthetic movements causing them to no have an effect • Mortality – students may have long absences or may transfer schools • Statistical Regression – a low number of students my bring forth results, causing data to be insignificant

9. Threats to external validity • Pre-Test Treatment – students may act differently since they were pre-tested • Multiple Treatment – Students may receive more than one treatment in succession • Experimenter Effects – Researcher actively presents potential threats; due to person bias researcher may effect results due to previous knowledge of students

10. Procedures • Pre-test – All students were given a survey measuring their initial attitude towards kinesthetic activities and their engagement in school • Treatment–Treatment were given introduced to all participants. All students were observed during Math and Core. When students fell asleep, researcher asked students to participate in different kinesthetic activities. • Post-test – All students were given a survey identical to the pre-survey measuring their final attitude towards kinesthetic activities and their engagement in school

11. Data Analysis Above is the proposed data for the activity students prefer to stay engaged during instruction. Pre-survey most students prefer to try to stay engaged on their own with no intervention. Post-survey most students prefer to do jumping jacks to stay engaged.

12. data analysis This data shows the results based on the questions, “Do you like jumping jacks?” and “Do you like stretching?”. The answer choices were 1-Stongly Dislike, 2- Dislike, 3-Like, and 4- Strongly Like.” This data also shows results for the questions, “Do jumping jacks keep you awake?”, “Does stretching keep you awake?”. Answer choices included, 1- Very Sleepy, 2- A little Sleepy, 3-A little Awake, 4- Very Awake. All areas showed great improvement after the intervention.

13. data analysis Both graphs apply to the question, “Do you feel engaged in school all day?” The first graph shows that the average rating pre-intervention was 1.8 showing that most students felt very sleepy or a little sleepy all day. The average rating post-intervention was 2.9 showing that most students felt a little awake all day. The second graph shows that before the intervention only 18% of students felt either a little awake or very awake all day. After the intervention, 71% of the students felt either a little awake or very awake all day, a 53% increase.

14. Data Analysis This graph shows the data based on the intervention. Each activity received a rating based on if they kept a student on task after falling asleep. The ratings were as follows 1- Never (0 times kept student engaged), 2- Rarely (1 to 7 times kept student engaged), 3 – Often (8 to 15 times kept student awake), and 4 – Always (16 times kept student engaged). No intervention never kept the student awake and on task. Standing kept the students engaged 5 times. Going for a walk to splash water kept students engaged 7 times. Going for a walk to get a drink of water kept students engaged 9 times. Stretching kept students awake 14 times and jumping jacks kept students engaged all 16 times.

15. data analysis The data represents the correlation between pre-survey question, "Do you like Core?" and pre-survey question, "Do you feel sleepy during Core?". This data shows a strong positive correlationbetween students' attitude towards the subject and their attitude towards their engagement during the subject. If they really liked the subject they thought they felt awake during the subject. If they didn't like the subject they thought they felt more tired during the subject.

16. data analysis This data shows the correlation between the number of times a students needed activities to stay awake and the post-survey question, “Do you feel engaged all day?”. This data shows a strong positive correlation. The more students needed to do kinesthetic activities to stay awake, the more they felt engaged throughout the day.

17. Discussion and Implications • Discussion • The implementation of kinesthetic activities proves to a best practice to keep students engaged in a full-day Kindergarten program. The implementation of kinesthetic activities also proves to improve students’ attitudes towards the activities and their attitudes towards their engagement all day. Jumping Jacks seem to keep students engaged the most. • ImplicationsTeacher surveys came be used to do further research on teacher attitudes towards to student engagement. This information can be used to determine when students are the most engaged which would further distinguish the best times to teach the most important subjects.

18. Sample Survey questions

19. Intervention Tracker

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