Transcript Threats to Internal Validity

Tiger Talk
An Action Research Project
By John Heyenga
Ed.70202T
Table of Contents
Introduction
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Statement of problem
Review of related literature
Statement of hypothesis
Method
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Participants (N)
Instruments
Experimental design
Procedure
Results
Discussion
Implications
Literary Review 1
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Articles on Tone of Voice
Brown, D. F. (2005 ). Idea of “Congruent
Communication.”
 Meiners, E. B., & Miller, V. D. (2004). A general tonal
approach to dealing with “subordinates.” A study
showing how polite and less severe tones lead to a
better work environment.
 Kenman, L. F. (2007). Business communication model,
applicable to education.
 Rogers, B. (1995). 5 Tricky Personalities and How to
Handle Them. Instructor, 105 (1), 16-19,24-25. Writes
about ways to communicate with difficult students.
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Literary Review, 2
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Articles on Intercultural Communication
Chubbuck, S. M., & Zembylas, M. (2008). Effective
emotions and communications in an urban school.
Simpson, A. W., & Erickson, M. T. (1983). Different
types of teacher communication, including non-verbal, in
response to students’ cultural identities.
MacNaughton, G., Hughes, P., & Smith, K. (2007). Ways
to relate to challenging students. The key is for the
educator to try and start anew with the students and
relate to them in a way that positively recognizes their
differences.
Non-Violent Communication
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Non-Violent Communication
“This approach to communication emphasizes compassion as the motivation for
action rather than fear, guilt, shame, blame, coercion, threat or justification for
punishment. In other words, it is about getting what you want for reasons you will
not regret later. NVC is NOT about getting people to do what we want. It is about
creating a quality of connection that gets everyone’s needs met through
compassionate giving.”
(NVC website: http://www.cnvc.org/node/369)
Introduction
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In my work in at an after-school program in the Bronx, I have
encountered many problems in communication. Some of the
students’ behavior requires disciplinary response. When these
situations occur, I have observed that the students present
challenges to the teachers. When the response to this challenge is a
punishment, or expression of frustration, the result is that the
student takes the miscommunication to the next level. Such a verbal
struggle can escalate to a futile and exhausting disciplinary
deadlock. On the other hand, when the teacher responds with
authority, but calmly and supportively, the conflict can be defused.
My experience has led me to investigate the occurrence of this
technique in other educational scenarios, and its documentation in
other fields.
Statement of Problem
Setting: NYC public schools
 Problem 1: Profane language and
transgressive behavior, avoidance of
academic work.
 Problem 2: Punitive teacher tone and
discipline failure.
 Result: Breakdown of trust and
communication.
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Research Design
Quasi-Experimental: One treatment group
 Surveys: several surveys will be conducted; a
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demographic survey, a pre-survey and a post survey
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Design Pattern:
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Non-Randomly Assigned:
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post survey
OXO= Presurvey, treatment, and
Researcher is using
class assigned to them
This study will examine better ways for student and
teacher to communicate; Tiger Talk. It will be conducted
at an urban school in New York City, P.S. X. The
students are grades 6-8.
Threats to Internal Validity
Maturation: Loss of interest by students over time
 History: students may be inhibited by peers
 Mortality: There could be a large dropout rate
 Instrumentation: The surveys might be flawed
 Maturation Interaction: These participants have
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different maturation rates over time
Threats to External Validity
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Experimenter effect:
Does the researcher have
any personal biases?
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Selection treatment:
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Participants Effects:
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Ecological Validity:
Non-random volunteerism.
This project uses students from my class i.e.,
nonrandom
Novelty effect- Student
results maybe skewed by the newness of the study
environments ?
Will treatment work in different
Demographic Survey of 12
Participants
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Seventy-five percent had Latin heritage, sixteen
percent Afro-American, and nine percent
"Other."
Eighty-five percent of these students lived in the
United States for four to eight years.
Nine were male, three female.
Six were sixth graders, four were seventh
graders, and two eighth graders.
Six out of twelve had more than two siblings.
Of the six with many siblings four thought it ok
to yell at teacher
Survey Response: Pre and Post
LIKERT SCORES
PRE AND POST SURVEY AVERAGES
4
3.5
3
2.5
3.23 3.23 3.38
2.77
3.15 3.08
2.69
2.15
2 1.77
1.5
1
2
2.23 2.15 2.23
3.38
3.1
2.46 2.46 2.62
3
3.23 3.15
2.15 2.23 2.23
PRE-SURVEY
POST-SURVEY
0.5
0
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
STUDENT SCORES
h
i
j
k
l
RESULTS
SCATTER PLOT
 The scores were
higher on the Post
Survey.
 The standard
deviation for both
sets of data was
small,.045 for the
pre-survey and
.041for the post
survey.

COMPARING PRE AND POST SURVEY AVERAGE
SCORES
4
LIKERT SCORES
3.5
3
Pre-Survey Likert Avg.
2.5
Post-SurveyLikert Avg.
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
STUDENTS
Discussion
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Not found by this study : strong correlations
Caveat: Don’t overestimate the graphs
Several questions : no marked changes.
More significant : factors difficult to quantify
Increased sense of camaraderie when working
on developing the empathy code.
This may have skewed the of the statistical
analysis
Positive response of students to the Empathy
Code used to phrase the post survey questions.
Implications
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Tiger Talk is the combination of two factors: a cross-cultural
vocabulary to use in difficult situations and the use of tone of voice
that is not reactive.
The findings do suggest that Tiger Talk could be making a
difference, after the focus groups that employed the empathy code.
Would the same result have been achieved, however, with a fresh
group of students who had not developed the vocabulary, worked in
focus groups, and known the researcher personally?
There is an element of this study that is not quantitative, but
qualitative, in that it hinges on the growth of interpersonal relations,
and the development of respectful practices over time.
Given time, more therapy sessions and role playing might make a
much more significant difference in the data seen here.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Berry, R. A. W. (2006). Inclusion, Power, and Community: Teachers and
Students Interpret the Language of Community in an Inclusion Classroom.
American Educational Research Journal, 43(3), 489–529.
Brown, D. F. (2005 ). The Significance of Congruent Communication in Effective
Classroom Management. The Clearing House, 12-18.
Chubbuck, S. M., & Zembylas, M. (2008). The Emotional Ambivalence of
Socially Just Teaching: A Case Study of a Novice Urban Schoolteacher.
American Educational Research Journal, 45
(2), 274-318.
Juzwik, M. M., Nystrand, M., Kelly, S., & Sherry, M. B. (2008). Oral Narrative
Genres as Dialogic Resources for Classroom Literature Study: A Contextualized
Case Study of Conversational Narrative Discussion. American Educational
Research Journal, 45(4), 1111-1154.
Kenman, L. F. (2007). Tone And Style: Developing A Neglected Segment
Of Business Communication. Business Communication Quarterly, 305-309.
MacNaughton, G., Hughes, P., & Smith, K. (2007). Rethinking Approaches to
Working With Children Who Challenge: Action Learning for Emancipatory
Practice. International Journal of Early Childhood, 39(1), 39-59.
BIBLIOGRAPHY PART 2
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Meiners, E. B., & Miller, V. D. (2004). The Effect of Formality and Relational Tone on
Supervisor/Subordinate Negotiation Episodes Western Journal of Communication,
68(8), 302-321.
Monroe, C. R., & Obidah, J. E. (2004). The Influence Of Cultural Synchronization On
A Teacher’s Perceptions Of Disruption: A Case Study Of An African American
Middle-School Classroom. Journal of Teacher Education, 55(3), 256-286.
Non-Violent Communication Statement : NVC website:
http://www.cnvc.org/node/369)
Rogers, B. (1995). 5 Tricky Personalities and How to Handle Them. Instructor, 105
(1), 16-19,24-25.
Rosen, L. A. (1990). A Survey of Classroom Management Practices. Journal of
School Psychology, 28 (3), 257-269.
Simpson, A. W., & Erickson, M. T. (1983). Teachers’ Verbal and Nonverbal
Communication Patterns as a
Function of Teacher Race, Student Gender, and Student Race. American
Educational Research Journal, 20(2), 183-198.
Meyers, E.M., Fisher, K.E., & Marcoux, E. (2008). Studying the everyday information
behaviors of tweens: Notes from the field. Library and Information Science Research,
29(3), 2007, 310-331.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological
processes. Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press.
Walsh, D. (2004). Why do they act that way: A survival guide to the adolescent brain
for you and your teen. New York: Free Press.