Episode III: T-CAP Presentation to Greenwood Staff

Red Rose Orgiginal Blend Tea in a Flipping Physics Mug

Welcome to Digital Tea with Mr. E. where we will discuss what’s brewing in the world of educational theory. This blog is the third of an eight episode series where we will explore T-CAP: A Student Learning Model, and its fit for the modern digital classroom. As I write this blog sitting at a lab station in my classroom at Greenwood Middle/High School, I am sipping a cup of Red Rose Original Blend Tea in my Flipping Physics mug. This mug features a silhouette outline of Flipping Physics pioneer Jonathan Palmer in his inverted pose. Flipping Physics is a theory I adopted back in 2016 as I modernized Physics education at Greenwood High School. This approach to student learning moved the hard parts of physics problem solving to a collaborative class setting. The approach also moved the introductory knowledge acquisition portion of Physics out of the classroom where the students develop foundational knowledge independently. I have had much success with running Physics in a flipped manner as the students have become better problem solvers while also reducing their stress in the course.

In this third episode exploring the T-CAP student learning model, the focus will move to the reveal of T-CAP to the Greenwood staff during the week of September 9-13, 2019. In preparing for the presentation of T-CAP to the Greenwood staff, I met with principal Michele Dubiach on September 3rd during professional development time. Over the summer, Mrs. Dubiach graciously offered her assistance to be an internship mentor for me. As a result we routinely discuss the T-CAP project how it may be used to help the Greenwood district pursue its goals of integrating the four C’s (communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking), and cross curricular project based learning.

In our meeting on September 3rd it was decided that I would present T-CAP during the last ten minutes of the September 10th faculty meeting. Mrs. Dubiach indicated she was going to present on a menu of professional development options for the staff prior to the T-CAP presentation. I was very pleasantly surprised when Mrs. Dubiach revealed she had decided to include participation in the T-CAP inter-rater reliability study in the action research opportunities for the staff. Mrs. Dubiach then challenged me to think through the “what’s in it for me / why would I help you” concepts in regards to asking Greenwood staff to participate in the T-CAP validity and reliability experiments. I responded that enough volunteers would likely join the T-CAP studies based on some combination of 1) an inspired interest in the T-CAP model and its potential use in their classrooms, 2) a genuine school culture of helping one another professionally, and/or engaging in a project to satisfy the principal’s action research task for professional growth. We both agreed that enough potential was present to recruit research volunteers.

The morning of September 10th arrived, and I decided to go school 45 minutes early to practice and rehearse my presentation points. Mrs. Dubiach stopped by my room at 7:00 AM and asked if I could run the faculty meeting agenda from my laptop so as to make a smooth transition to my T-CAP presentation. I agreed to this task, and went back to practicing the presentation. When I finished my rehearsal, I looked at the clock and saw it was 7:17 AM. In a moment of panic, I realized I was already 2 minutes late for the faculty meeting. In a flash, panic transitioned to adrenaline as I gathered my laptop and sprinted out of my room, down the C-hallway, halfway down the main hallway, up the stairs and through the English wing to the HUB. As I entered the room, I transitioned to a forced normal pace, and I purposely accepted less oxygen than needed with each breath as I refused to allow it to appear I was breathing hard. I casually walked up to the podium and connected my laptop wirelessly to the projector and started projecting the faculty meeting slides in perfect timing with the conclusion of Mrs. Dubiach’s opening remarks.

I must admit that it was difficult for me to focus on Mrs. Davidson’s presentation on the student assistance program, the update’s regarding the faculty caring fund, or Mrs. Dubiach’s introduction of the professional growth menu for the 2019-2020 school year. I used those 15 minutes to operate the slides and documents at the speaker’s request with one half of my brain, and used the other hemisphere to return my heart to resting rate, and make last moment mental preparations for the T-CAP presentation.

I was offered center stage to present T-CAP with approximately 10 minutes and 30 seconds left before the students were allowed in the building. I casually started a timer on my iPhone and began to present T-CAP: A Student Learning Model. I opened with the TPACK problem for assessing student work and briefly told the story of Shulman’s development of content and pedagogy theory, (Shulman, 1986). This led to the 2006 improvement to the theory by Mishra and Koheler’s technology addition to create TPACK, a model fit for teacher evaluation.

The middle of the presentation introduced T-CAP, its focus on student learning, and thought process behind the definitions of three dimensions of content learning, technology learning and artifact production. I was surprised when interrupted with applause from the faculty regarding my explanation of artifact production. I indicated that artifact production is the feature that makes T-CAP special in that it allows for student choice in proving learning in why that is meaningful for the student, and not just for the teacher.

I began my closing with an explanation that T-CAP needs to pass validity and reliability tests in order to become an accepted theory, (Li, 2016). Lastly, I made a request for volunteers to join the T-CAP validity and reliability studies. Mrs. Dubiach then jumped in to state that participation in the T-CAP reliability study would count as action research. As Mr. Dubiach spoke I stopped timer on my iPhone: it read 9 minutes, 59 seconds. The bell then rang, and everyone was dismissed to their classrooms.

On the walk back to my room on the C-hallway I was congratulated on an inspiring presentation by the superintendent, the principal and four teachers. Interestingly, superintendent Dr. Guarente said that he is interested to see the expansion of my professionalism as the T-CAP project ascends to the broader educational community through 2022. Back in my classroom I conducted my homeroom responsibilities, found three more congratulatory emails, and started my period 1 planning period. I felt it was time to strike while the iron is hot, and crafted an email to recruit volunteers for the T-CAP research study:

Over the next four days emails trickled in pledging support to participate in the validity and reliability research studies. The response was amazing. In total 12 staff members volunteered to join the T-CAP studies! To put that in perspective there is a about 40 staff members in the middle/high school. Almost all of them volunteered to do both studies if I needed them. This offered me the flexibility to create the validity and reliability teams in accordance with the needs of the research. For the validity study there will be 11 participants consisting of: 1 forign language teacher, 1 ELA teacher, 2 agriculture science teachers, 2 science teachers, 1 elementary teacher, 1 math teacher, 1 social studies teacher, and 2 administrators. The reliability study team consists of 4 science teachers and an ELA teacher. 4 of the participants are participating in both studies. I am very humbled with the support offered by the Greenwood staff for the T-CAP study. Greenwood was a 2018 receipt of the National Blue Ribbon Award, and the professional support for T-CAP is just another reason why I believe that the award was given to a deserving school.

Episode IV of this eight part series will journal my experiences in the week of September 23rd-27th. In that week I am holding a professional development session on September 24th with the validity team to kick off the validity study. This is the first phase of the research plan. I am excited to expecting 8 teachers and 2 administrators to the validity team. Also, the fourth post will feature a new brew of tea in a special mug. I look forward to sharing the progression of my T-CAP research throughout this internship. Feel free to leave comments below. You may also contact me privately at jeverett@greenwoodsd.org.

References:

Li, Yue. (2016, November 28). How to determine the validity and reliability of an instrument. Retrieved from https://blogs.miamioh.edu/discovery-center/2016/11/ how-to-determine-the-validity-and-reliability-of-an-instrument/.

Mishra, P., & Koehler, M. J. (2006). Technological pedagogical content knowledge: a framework for integrating technology in teachers’ knowledge. Teachers College Record, 108(6), 1017–1054.

Shulman, L. S. (1986). Those who understand: knowledge growth in teaching. Educational Researcher, 15(2), 4-14.