Partnership Program ~ Research Findings

"Using our own classrooms, we are changing the way we work with students as we look at our classrooms systematically through research… We approach our classrooms with humility and a sense of inquiry and wonder – and we make a commitment to add our wisdom to a knowledge base that educates others about the realities of teaching and learning" ~ Ruth Hubbard and Brenda Power: educators and leading authors about teacher-researchers, authors of "The Art of Classroom Inquiry."

Teachers are natural researchers and problem-solvers, though we are rarely viewed as such. Each day we observe how our students respond to our lessons; puzzle over how to help a struggling student; and pour over our students' work to figure out what they learned, what they did not, and why. We are constantly analyzing the "data" our students offer us and tweaking our lessons, units and teaching strategies to best suit their particular needs. The difference in conducting formal "teacher research" is simply a matter of dedicating more time to developing a skill we all ready have - to look closer, take more notes, involve our students in self-reflection, ask ourselves harder questions, and spend the hours truly needed to sift through all of the data gathered.

You can read about my research discoveries on the following pages. Much of what I found was a joyous confirmation of my "gut-feeling" of what I thought my students were getting out of our partnership. But there were also many surprises - connections I didn't know they were making, actions there were taking at home that I knew nothing about and insights revealed only after much gentle prodding.

The process of this particular research project has been an exciting, several-year adventure. In the fall of 2003 I thought hungrily about how much my students had benefited - emotionally, socially and academically - from our recent Hidden Villa field trip. I wondered, what would happen if we found a way to go back more than once? What would happen if my students were encouraged to develop an emotional connection to the garden, farm and forest of Hidden Villa through repeated visits and integrated curriculum throughout the school year? Fortunately, the Hidden Villa Environmental Education Program was interested in this question as well and so we embarked on what would become a new partnership between Hidden Villa and Castro Elementary School.

Our impressions of the results of the new program were exciting. We had all witnessed the wide-ranging benefits my students reaped from the opportunity to return several times to Hidden Villa and integrate their experiences into classroom academic learning. But what exactly were these benefits? How prevalent were they? What were we missing? With these burning questions in mind, we headed into our second year - this time with a second classroom and two programs: with split-grade classes, our 5th graders had already participated in the first year's program, while our 4th graders were just beginning.

For my role as a "teacher-researcher" I did many things to pursue the depths of our questions: I made careful observations of my students during the field trips and integrated units, took copious notes, designed self-reflection surveys for both before and after each field trip, structured and recorded extensive peer interviews, sent written surveys home to all families and took many, many photographs and videos of my student through-out the year.