Triangulation: An Extended Example –Template
Data Set Description
Lisa was a student teacher in Family and Consumer Science at a large urban high school. The high
school students in her Child Development class had the opportunity to teach pre-school in a local
Head Start (U.S. government-funded preschool) program. The high school students were bused to
the Head Start location twice a week. Lisa’s action research project centered on analyzing how a
service-learning project like the Head Start teaching experience facilitated high school students
learning of human development concepts. Lisa followed the progress of six students over a tenweek period.
Lisa’s first complete data set was collected prior to the high school students’ Head Start teaching
experience. The second complete data set was collected during the weeks of the first teaching
experiences at Head Start. During this time, Lisa was teaching a unit on literacy development and
specific strategies to use with preschoolers to scaffold their literacy development. Some of the
concepts/skills students were learning included:
discovering genres and purposes of children’s books;
learning how to support children’s literacy;
determining what preschool children like about books;
why reading aloud is critical to literacy development;
how to read aloud to preschoolers.
During this unit, Lisa recorded a Teacher-Researcher’s Log of all the lessons, activities, and skills
she taught:
Teacher-Researcher Log
Data Set #3
October 23 - November 14
Thursday October 23rd:
-Journal Questions
Write about your experience with books as a kid.
What was your favorite children’s book? Why?
-Children’s Literacy Power Point Presentation
Monday October 27th:
-M&M activity
-Read Article
-Evaluating children’s book assignments
-Go over “Choosing Children’s Books” Assignment
-Video: Read to Me!
Wednesday October 29th:
-Guest Speaker from OHSU talked about Children’s Developmental Milestones
-Discusses importance of literacy in preschool lives
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Francis Group, LLC.
-Students with passing grades left class 20 min early
***K. stayed behind
Friday October 31st:
-Children’s Literacy quiz
-BDA “Reading Aloud”_par -Mini conference to choose children’s book
-Go over children’s literacy project steps 1-4
-Students turn in rough draft steps 1-4 next class
Tuesday November 4th:
-Students' 1st day at Head Start (See Data Set #2)
Thursday November 6th:
-Computer labs to work on steps 5-10
-Rough drafts steps #1-4 due, 1/3 class was finished
-Students did a journal write about Head Start experience
-Supposed to start literacy project presentation next Friday 14th, next Friday will
be used as computer time instead
Wednesday November 12th:
-Head Start day #2 (see Data Set #2)
Friday November 14th:
-Computer lab to work on step #1-10
-Students did a journal write about Head Start experiences
Lisa distributed the following survey to her students after teaching this unit (Lisa used the initial of
each high school student’s first name in all of her notes):
Question
Agree
Uncertain
I have learned a lot about children’s
K. A. B.
literacy throughout the entire children’s L. E.
literacy unit.
J.
I was taught the appropriate
background information on children’s
literacy to create a successful
children’s literacy project.
I will feel more comfortable reading a
book to a child because of the
information I have learned about
K. A. B.
L. E.
J.
A. B. L.
E.
K. J.
Disagree
Becoming a Teacher Through Action Research, Second Edition © 2010 Routledge / Taylor &
Francis Group, LLC.
children’s literacy.
With the information from this unit, I
will be better able to help the Head
Start children with literacy activities.
K. A. B.
J. L. E.
Through this unit, I have learned that
providing children with literacy skills is
an important component of their
development in reading and writing.
K. A. B.
J. L. E.
Lisa interviewed her focus group after teaching the literacy unit. One of the questions she asked
was, “How will you use your newly acquired literacy knowledge in the Head Start Classroom?”
These are the responses from the high school students:
K: I will be able to see what the children are doing.
A: I will feel more comfortable reading to the children and helping them write. I have a better
understanding of their abilities.
B: I will use the knowledge by reading to the kids, knowing where things are in the classroom, and
being able to observe the children’s actions
J: This unit made it easier and much more comfortable to read and listen to the preschool children.
L: I will ask more questions when I am reading aloud to preschoolers.
E: I will know the difference between what kinds of books there are, and what is appropriate or not
for preschoolers.
The high school students in Lisa’s Child Development class completed a literacy project to be used
in the Head Start classroom. Lisa developed a scoring guide for this project, specifically outlining
the concepts and skills she hoped students would demonstrate. Her students performed as follows
on this project:
Becoming a Teacher Through Action Research, Second Edition © 2010 Routledge / Taylor &
Francis Group, LLC.
Lisa noted in her Researcher’s Journal that the grades from the literacy project were higher than
those from an earlier project when the high school students had not yet begun teaching in Head
Start. She speculates that the actual teaching increases the meaning and purpose of this assignment.
She also spends time connecting this phenomenon with what she has read in the literature on
service-learning.
In addition, Lisa observed the high school students as they taught in the Head Start program the
week after the literacy unit was completed. She specifically looked for connections between what
she taught in the unit and how the high school students are interacting with the preschoolers. Here is
a sample of her observations:
Observation at Head Start
Date: November 13, 9:40 - 10:25
Site Name: K. Elementary
Focus Group Name: E., A., B. (Absent), L., J., K.
What I am observing for:
students' interactions in the literacy area;
students said title of the book, author's name, good volume, gave character a
different voice, used facial expressions;
students' connectedness and comfort in the classroom.
Note-taking
Head Start students arrive at 9:40, L.
interacting with students, helps take off
their jackets and assists with snack
time.
L. and E. on the floor playing with a girl
and boy. L. asks girl if she wants to help,
she gives positive reinforcement.
L. questions preschoolers about the
shapes, and allows her to answer
questions.
J. is reading a book to a young boy using
a very descriptive voice (The Very
Hungry Caterpillar), points to pictures
and had preschooler point to pictures
with her, and read numbers together.
Note-making
L appears comfortable with children.
Have I taught these skills? Or are these
skills L. knows?
Use of questioning – lit unit connection.
Did she learn this there?
Did the literacy project help with this
comfort and ability? J. uses expression
when reading; using a different tone of
voice for each of the characters in the
book; great volume.
Pretend Reading
J. scaffolds with positive feedback to
child’s observations/questions and by
speaking/reading in both Spanish and
English.
J. asks child “You know the story you
want to read to me?” Child looks at
pictures, boy pointed to the pictures and
said the pictures in Spanish. J. and boy
interacted in both Spanish and English.
Becoming a Teacher Through Action Research, Second Edition © 2010 Routledge / Taylor &
Francis Group, LLC.
L. saw girl in the library reading and
went up to her and asked “Do you want
me to read to you?” Read title and
author of the book. Asked her “How
many family members do you have?”
Questioned girl about her family, held
book so child could see it.
L. invites 2 other children to read the
book with her, she counts and let’s
children help.
L noticed the book was in Spanish but
went ahead and read it anyways.
Elizabeth L. read and used an expressive
voice. She asks children if they could all
see the books, holds book by spine so
everyone could see.
J. read to a child the entire time at
Head Start. Lots of interaction between
J. and child. Questioning, commenting
and reading text.
Doing the literacy presentation/project
seems to have really helped L. with her
reading ability and confidence. I don’t
think she would have initiated the
reading earlier. L. uses expressive voice
& questioning to help child connect to
text.
Good interaction with children and text:
literacy unit connection.
She didn’t say sorry I can’t read this I
don’t know the language, instead she
asked the child to help her with reading.
Great connection with kids and asking
questions, making sure everyone could
see.
J. uses physical movements to express
the story and make it more visual; great
voice expression, contact with child – all
literacy unit connections.
Lisa used the time on the bus ride between the Head Start location and the high school to interview
the high school students about their experience teaching that day at Head Start. She asked them
questions that would further provide evidence of whether or not the high school students were
making connections between the literacy unit taught at the high school and the actual Head Start
teaching experience. Here are some of their responses:
E.:
“I noticed all types of books in the classroom.” —12/2
“When Carol read the story to the preschoolers I was able to see the things you
taught us about reading aloud to children such as using an expressive voice.” —12/10
***Erin mentioned that she learned so much this term, that she is going to change
her schedule so she could take Child Development 2, starting next term.
A.:
“The things we are doing in class I am able to see now how they connect to the Head
Start classroom, I feel like I understand the preschool developmental milestones in
literacy a bit better.” —12/10
Becoming a Teacher Through Action Research, Second Edition © 2010 Routledge / Taylor &
Francis Group, LLC.
B.:
“I worked with a student doing invented spelling today … having been taught what this
is in class I was able to see what invented spelling was. Without the unit on literacy I
wouldn't have known what invented spelling was or know how to support preschoolers'
writing abilities.” —12/12
L.:
“I used the pointing out, having the preschooler count with me while I read the story.
I learned about this during the children’s literacy unit. I could see that interacting
with preschoolers during a story is a lot more beneficial then just sitting there doing
all the reading.” —9/26
“I saw emergent reading/pretend reading occurring at the library center.” —12/2
***L. mentioned that she learned so much this term, that she is going to change her
schedule so she could take Child Development 2, starting next term.
K.:
”I saw how literacy can happen in other areas of the room not just at the library
center. I noticed 2 girls interacting with each other at the computer area, working on
alphabet letters. Literacy is all over the Head Start classroom.” —12/12
“That we are learning in class helped me because I showed how to teach children to
write letters.” —12/12
***K. mentioned that she learned so much this term, that she is going to change her
schedule so she could take Child Development 2, starting next term.
J.:
“I noticed that there are no board books or large books in the classroom. Maybe they
only use large books during large group time and they don’t have really young children.
So they don’t need board books.” —12/12
Becoming a Teacher Through Action Research, Second Edition © 2010 Routledge / Taylor &
Francis Group, LLC.
Questions To Consider
1.
How does this data collection represent both action research and instructional assessment?
2.
Identify the different elements of Lisa’s data set as observation, interview, or artifact. Are
the elements well balanced?
3.
If you were Lisa, what additional data would you collect during the next data collection
period?
4. How does this data collection set represent all four different categories of action research
(Integrated, Ethnographic, Curriculum Analysis, and Self-Study)?
Becoming a Teacher Through Action Research, Second Edition © 2010 Routledge / Taylor &
Francis Group, LLC.