Middle School Teacher Experiences Regarding Implementation of a Student-Engaged Design Course

Student-Engaged Design (SED) incorporates teaching students how to become independent learners by incorporating key principles of learning, motivation, and cognition. The purpose of the present study is to examine teachers’ perceptions of the function, utility, and implementation of an SED intervention focused on developing the self-regulatory functioning of middle school students. The sample consisted of nine teachers (n=9) who received professional development on how to implement this SED course. All teachers were interviewed and were asked to provide reflections on their experiences regarding the function and utility of SED. Classroom observations were also conducted. Using a thematic analysis, findings revealed that the SED intervention promoted student self-advocacy, curiosity, growth mindset, and self-regulation. Educational implications and future suggestions are discussed.

Hello everyone, my name is Asuka Nuwere. I am a Psychology Honors student at Mason.
I will be presenting my research about Middle School Teacher Experiences
regarding the Implementation of a Student-Engaged Design Course, which is aimed to help students to develop self-regulated learning skills and improve academic learning and achievements.

My research is part of a larger funded project to test the effectiveness of a Student-Engaged Design course. The purpose of this study is to examine teachers’ experiences
implementing an SED course by capturing their perceptions of its function and utility.

Prior Research shows that middle school is a crucial phase in every student’s educational career. Another research suggests that SRL is an important skill that middle school students need to develop to succeed in school, and teachers can be trained to facilitate student’s SRL skills. However, most SRL interventions focus on college students.

Not only does SED teach students how to become self-regulated learners, but it provides educators the tools to support their students by including seven components crucial for effective learning and development. SRL, Motivation, Deep Learning, Curiosity, Growth Mindset, Self-advocacy, and School Connectedness

In my study, I ask three research questions. My first research question is What does an SED intervention look like in middle school classrooms? My second research question is How do teachers perceive the function and utility of the intervention with respect to developing middle school student’s SRL skills? My last research question is To what degree do middle school teachers use the key features of the intervention while teaching?

My method of examining these research questions involves a sample of nine in-service middle school teachers in the rural Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. The majority of the participants were white and female, and the targeted middle school is a medium poverty level school.

Nine teachers participated in four professional development workshops, and the SED course was embedded in the curriculum. Following their implementation of the course, four teachers were observed for one class period, and semi-structured focus group interviews were conducted on Zoom. Three teachers completed reflections at the end of the academic year.
Data were collected through three different instruments. I used MaxQDA to perform thematic analysis of teacher interviews and reflections. I used descriptive statistics to analyze teacher observation data.
To answer research questions 1 and 2, I coded teacher interviews and found a total of 260 codes. Preliminary results show that all of the key components of the intervention were found in the data. Among the codes, SRL and Deep learning were found most frequently.

Two themes were found through the thematic analysis. Project Learning and SRL skills learning. Project learning refers to student learning by engaging in and working on projects and getting more hands-on learning of the content as they learn. SRL Skills Learning refers to the students learning of SRL skills that will help them manage their own learning.
Here are the sample quotes.

Three main themes were identified as SED intervention function themes. Enhancing Student Motivation, Fostering Collaboration Skills, and Differentiation. Enhancing Student Motivation refers to the impact of teaching style and project-based learning on student motivation. Fostering Collaboration Skills refers to supporting students’ collaborative work
to make progress toward their learning goals. Differentiation. This theme refers to teachers’ awareness of students’ needs despite students not expressing them. Here are the sample quotes for the three themes.

The results of teacher observation show that among all the key components, Student Self-Advocacy and Growth Mindset were found the highest and the SRL performance phase was the lowest. The results showed that teachers dedicated themselves to helping students
speak up, however, teachers did not explicitly encourage their students to use the performance phase, and monitor their progress. Overall, the observers found that teachers were able to develop students’ learning through the intervention.

I coded the teacher reflection data and found a total of 54 codes. Preliminary results show that among the codes, SRL, deep learning, and growth mindset are found most frequently.
Participating teachers indicated that the SED intervention was useful for improving students learning and development. These findings are consistent with prior literature that show
curiosity, self-advocacy, and deep learning improved student learning and performance.
Our preliminary results may have important educational implications for teachers.

Based on the findings, SRL and other crucial components such as deep learning, self-advocacy, and growth mindset were most useful for improving student’s learning and development. Teachers should focus on having students work on projects of student’s choice
and encourage students to apply SRL skills in a practical manner while students are working on projects. Moreover, to enhance student’ motivation, teachers should support students to work collaboratively with peers to achieve goals.

This study has limitations worth mentioning. Some teachers did not provide the end-of- reflections. Participation in this study was voluntary, and the participating teachers may have been already motivated. The generalizability of the findings is limited. The findings of this study should be validated with other samples in the future study.

I am still in the process of finishing all the analysis of our data, but my goal is to disseminate the findings and present them at conferences. I would like to express my special thanks and gratitude to the OSCAR, Dr. Lee, Dr. Kitsantas, as well as my team members who helped me in doing this wonderful project. Thank you for watching.