How can I implement ICTS to promote an inclusive classroom atmosphere with my 3rd grade A?

Texto completo

(1)Universidad Alberto Hurtado Faculty of Education English Pedagogy. How can I implement ICTS to promote an inclusive classroom atmosphere with my 3 rd grade A?. Nicolás Carrasco García Santiago, Chile 2015.

(2) Abstract This action research aims at improving the classroom atmosphere by the use of ICTs. Specifically, to improve the inclusion of all the students in the English lesson as the context where the research is attending is completely diverse. The strategy used on this research was interactive ICTs classes in order to create an inclusive classroom atmosphere where everyone is able to participate. The data used to prove my theory was collected by questionnaires and a journal. Keywords: ICT, inclusion, classroom atmosphere, social context, special needs. Esta investigación acción tiene como objetivo el mejorar el ambiente de la sala de clases mediante el uso de TICs. Para ser más específico, el mejorar la inclusión de todos los estudiantes en la clase de inglés ya que el contexto donde se realiza esta investigación es completamente diverso. La estrategia usada en esta investigación fue clases con TICS interactivos para así crear un ambiente de clase inclusive donde todos fueran capaces de participar. La información usada para probar mi teoría fue recolectada mediante cuestionarios y diarios. Palabras Clave: TIC, inclusión, ambiente en la sala de clases, contexto social, necesidades especiales..

(3) Acknowledgment This process would not have been possible without the unconditional support of my family. I am deeply grateful and extremely proud of the sacrifices that my parents made in order to make my dreams come true. I know we have been through a lot of difficult situations. Fortunately, we were able to overcome most of the problems of the past and I am confident that we will achieve our goals for the future. Secondly, I owe sincere and earnest thankfulness to Paulina Acevedo. I am completely sure that without you, this process would have been extremely different. I want to thank your company and genuine support as I was able to overcome my inner demons and external problems as a result of your love. Also, I want to thank your family as they were always willing to help me on every single step, your family rocks. Thirdly, I would love to thank to all my friends who made this goal possible. Specially to Diego Surot, Sebastian Santibañez, Yvi Neira and many others who always gave me hope when I was just about to quit. Finally, I would like to thank my tutor Soledad Araya who made an enormous job by helping me to overcome every difficult step of this process. I would never wish any other tutor for this process. Also, I want to thank to someone who is no longer physically with us, José Callado, you will always be a model to me. Baby steps to giant strides..

(4) Index. Introduction.............................................................................................................................5 Context....................................................................................................................................6 Problem...................................................................................................................................9 Research Question.................................................................................................................10 Rationale...............................................................................................................................11 Literature Review..................................................................................................................13 Research Methodology..........................................................................................................22 Data Analysis........................................................................................................................26 Reflection and Analysis of Intervention...............................................................................33 Conclusion and Implications.................................................................................................35 Bibliography..........................................................................................................................37 Appendix...............................................................................................................................38.

(5) Introduction In the course of the current year, I have experienced many changes related to my teaching skills. At the very beginning, I wanted to focus and develop my practice on methodologies that could enhance my 11th grade classes. However, I learned and fell in love with teaching young learners. To be honest, young learners is the most enjoyable stage of children learning process. It plays a vital role in their development as people. Quite recently, considerable attention has been paid to the need of specialists in this area and I want to be one of those specialists. To make this goal true, I will henceforth work on different poor practices in order to improve and become a better professional. Additionally, during the past years, I have realized that many schools focus their English lessons on grammar, taking to oblivion the skills and the atmosphere needed while we are acquiring a new language. In this specific contexts, teachers tend to use a model focused on a grammar book. However, this practice excluded some of the students since most of them did not learn by just writing structures. Additionally, grammar oriented lessons are teacherfocused, as a result of that the teacher just speaks and do not let students be part of the class, so there is a lack of participation and interaction between the students and the teacher. I strongly believe that it does not provide the atmosphere to learn, as it has a deficit of inclusion due to how the contents are being taught. Teacher mostly does not interact with the students; it is a lecture more than a class. Consequently, this action research aims at improving my classroom atmosphere by using ICTs to reach every diverse learner. To achieve this, I will investigate, choose and test.

(6) different methodologies/activities/practices that can be blended with technological material/resources, such as songs, videos and diverse activities, in order to enhance and improve the current situation of my 3rd grade A and teaching practice. In terms of structure, this action research will follow a pattern based on the critical questioning of my own practice. Firstly, I will explain the context of the school and the class. Then, I will provide information of the current situation and what led me to believe this is an actual problem I may solve. Secondly, the body of the action research will try to propose different questions, but also answers, as it is necessary to move forward. Finally, we will be able to see the results of this process. Context Foundation The school where I will base my research is a private institution. It was founded by Roberto Polain Cartier back in 1952. Since the beginning, it was a very different school because of the dressing code and different educational methodologies that were applied during the foundation of this school. For instance, create learning programs based on what students want to learn. The focus of their learning process is founded on ideas coming from the scouts’ movement, mainly, the idea that all kind of people are able to participate in a Scouts’ group. The previous statement contextualized to this institution actually stablish that every kind of student can be part of this school, taking into consideration different social, cultural backgrounds and special educational needs. As a consequence of a long process, initialized by the ideas mentioned beforehand, they created a new program where integration was one of their main banners, understanding integration as the possibility to.

(7) integrate every kind of learner in the same institution. Also, all of them will have the opportunity to participate in the same activities. School’s arrangement Nowadays, classes have around 22 students (it can vary depending on the level). Also, the school is divided into different sectors, from playgroup until 12th. The first sector is Koalas, students from Playgroup until 2nd are part of this group. Then, we have Pudu. This sector starts in 3rd grade and finishes 6th grade. Thirdly, is Garzas which is the level from 7th grade until 9th grade. Finally, is Condores that starts in 10th grade until 12th grade. There are 2 levels that have more than 1 teacher per classroom. Those levels are Koalas and part of Pudu. These classes have a “colaboradora” who is a teacher in charge of helping both students and teachers from different subjects in every single task. School’s community The school’s community is active in comparison with other schools. In this case, teachers, parents and students have a close relationship due to the scouts’ activities. In these activities, they share part of their weekend, up to the point that some teachers have told me that they spend more time with their students than with their own families. This situation is important to understand the way that the school interacts with their students and how important the concept of family is for this institution. Integration program After a long process, the school decided to make an integration program because they strongly believe that diverse students can collaborate to make the learning process much easier for everyone. Also, different aspects of the school changed to make the.

(8) integration process faster. These aspects are: a department of inclusion, tutors for special needs students (not all of them), 2 teachers per level in the lower sectors of the school, projectors in every classroom. Moreover, the school is diverse in terms of types of students, as they accept many special needs children due to the integration program mentioned before. This program tries to integrate all the students into the same classroom, but taking special considerations to those who are special needs. At the very beginning it was such a difficult situation. Now, that I am more familiarized to this situation of diverse students I can do a lot more. However, I cannot create an effective classroom atmosphere for everyone to learn, they are so diverse that for some students, the class is more difficult than for others. As a result of my experience, I have realized that in order to succeed in terms of class progress, participation and inclusion of students. I have to investigate and broaden my knowledge on classroom management specifically classroom atmosphere. As a consequence of the previous statement, the delivering of effective activities using ICTS to enhance the previous situations may be easier for me. This idea came up by taking into consideration the different resources of the school: projectors in the classrooms, speakers, access to internet, computer laboratory, laptops and my tablet. Nevertheless, these resources were almost not used by the English department and analyzing what these objects can bring into the classroom I felt the necessity to investigate how to use them properly to improve my teaching practice and create an inclusive atmosphere where every student can participate without limitations..

(9) Also, the idea mentioned before was created by considering the diverse context of the school and what I think is a new generation of students. Therefore, these type of students spend more time on activities related to technology such as games and videos than going outside or reading books. Nonetheless, I do not think that those activities have to be replaced by technology, but the technological resources can be used to enhance the current learning process or activity where this new generation is involved. Problem According to what was mentioned on the previous parts of this research, I will give a general view of my problem. After a few weeks of teaching to a specific group, I realized that it was really difficult to create a classroom atmosphere suitable for this context. As these students were diverse in terms of social and cultural background and some of them had special needs, not all of them were able to participate in my English classes, which I considered my problem as I did not know how to create an environment where everyone was able to participate freely. Also, some of them have autism or Asperger and loudness makes them feel uncomfortable in the classroom, so I needed an inclusive, quiet but participatory environment. As a result of that, every student will be able to be included on my class. Then, I used ICTs in order to make classes a bit easier for most of them, by the use of interactive activities and helping them to focus on different ideas. However, I did not use them properly, because the first class was disruptive and some students were not able to neither participate or understand some parts of the class. As a result of the previous statements, I strongly believe that learning how to use ICTs properly may also be helpful to.

(10) setup a proper classroom atmosphere where every student is able to participate even though they do not know English or they have any problem related to writing nor listening. Research Question In this part, I realized many things. The context of my school is very different from others, because of their integration program. As a result of this, I started having problems with the appropriate classroom atmosphere to include students in the English class. Students are not different just because the way they learn, but because of social aspects too. Because of everything already mentioned. Also, according to my experiences during the first semester in this school and what I have learnt during these years at university, my research question is the following: How can I implement ICTS to promote an inclusive classroom atmosphere with my 3 rd grade A? Basically, this question can be divided into 3 different parts. Firstly, ICTS and the effective integration of them to promote the second part, a great classroom atmosphere. Thirdly, the inclusion of all the students in the English class. With this question I want to inquire on my own practice to create a great classroom atmosphere by using ICTs..

(11) Rationale As a future English teacher, I strongly believe that we are living in a new generation where students are more diverse than before. They live and feel differently and have more opportunities to expand their cultural background, specifically in this context, where most of the students are able to travel abroad. Also, the school has an integration program where special needs students are able to join this institution. Therefore, my practice needs to be improved in order to fit this context as I have been struggling with creating an effective classroom atmosphere where everyone is able to participate at the same rate. What I mean by the previous statement is that some students have difficulties to write and understand writing. Also, they have been struggling with listening and reading, not only acquiring a new language, but also in their mother tongue too. As a result of that, I am absolutely convinced that improving my own practice, as I do not know how to handle this situation, may help everyone to get involved into the English class and may help on including all kind of students even though they have any special need or they have a completely different cultural/social background. Creating an effective learning environment where everyone is able to participate and can be successful in terms of class progress is not easy. Specifically, in this context, where part of the program is based on the concept of integration. I have repeatedly seen the same practice in this institution, when teachers realize that a student is not able to learn as the rest does, they exclude these students obtaining an exemption to do not participate during the English class. I realized that I did not picture myself doing that, so a change in my practice is needed in order to include all these students in my English lessons efficiently with a great classroom atmosphere as I mentioned before..

(12) According to the previous statements and the school in question which is centered on the integration of students, I strongly believe it is extremely necessary to investigate, revise and enhance some of my practices related to the topic of creating an inclusive classroom atmosphere. As this school is diverse in many different aspects, such as: culture, social and learning needs. Also, as a possible answer, and due to the resources given by the institution (Projectors, computers, speakers, tablets, etc.), ICTS can be used to improve some of the problems that I am facing in my practice, as it can go through all skills in a class, as a result of that, I may be able to include these diverse students in the English class and all of them will be able to learn and participate in the same rate with an appropriate environment. I expect this study can help me and future teachers that might not know how to use and create meaningful and effective strategies in order to enhance the learning process of diverse students by creating inclusive learning environments. As it is a school that is mainly known because of the freedom they give to the students and integration of them, I strongly believe that this study will help future teachers of the English department to learn how to deal with this freedom and diversity..

(13) Literature Review To begin with, there are plenty of information given beforehand by other authors which is extremely necessary to mention in order to explain as clear as possible important concepts of this action research. We must bear in mind that this research is a combination of theory and context, where the context is given by the practicum and the theory is everything necessary to explain and understand different situations that I am facing. These situations are difficulties to create an effective classroom atmosphere where everyone is included and can participate without any problem. This idea came up because of the context, as there are plenty of diverse learners (different cultural/social backgrounds, special needs). According to what was stated in the previous lines, I will use this part to mention, describe and define different concepts needed in order to follow the ideas proposed in this Action Research. Students Background One of the main characteristics of this institution is the diversity of students’ background. Through all levels I was able to see differences on the students, as each of them was a different world, according to that point, I completely agree that English teachers need to be prepared in order to use the diversity of this school in order to enhance the learning of a second language. As these students have plenty of opportunities to travel abroad, different topics used on English classes are more meaningful than for other institutions. However, there are some students that come from a different background and do not have the same opportunities of their classmates..

(14) According this previous statement, the following author propose some ideas in relation to the variety of backgrounds. I invite the readers to analyze the following statement. The learning environment of schools can be enhanced by what students with a variety of backgrounds and interests bring with them; however, heterogeneity of student ability levels and preparation for school may create increased challenges for schools to meet the needs of students from different social backgrounds. (Young & Smith, 1997) As you can read, diversity in terms of background and culture can bring a lot of benefits to an English classroom. Nonetheless, it is school and teachers’ responsibility to create an effective environment for them to develop this diversity and to strengthen others’ abilities. Also, this process is not easy. As these backgrounds are different from each other, the school and different teachers have to be adaptable in order to fit everyone’s necessities. I strongly believe that these previous statements from an USA study can be applied to my context, as it is a reality that many of them come from other countries and ethnics. Classroom management and environment A positive, inclusive and creative classroom environment is really difficult to set up. There are specific practices needed in order to understand how we can improve our classroom management abilities, as classroom management is too broad we will narrow down some key concepts about it in the following lines. According to (Garrett, 2003) classroom management can be divided into the following parts: 1. Physical design of the classroom—The physical design lies in how the classroom is laid out, where the students’ desks.

(15) are, where the teacher’s desk is, where learning centers and materials are located, where heavily used items such as the pencil sharpeners are, and so on. 2. Rules and routines—Teachers establish class rules and routines (such as handing back papers and taking attendance) to keep the class activities running smoothly with as little disruption and loss of time as possible. 3. Relationships—Effective classroom managers develop caring, supportive relationships with students and parents and promote supportive relations among students. 4. Engaging and motivating instruction—Effective managers develop instruction that engages learners, and they carefully plan their instruction so that each learning activity is well organized and runs smoothly. 5. Discipline—Discipline revolves around teacher actions focused. on. preventing. and. responding. to. students’. misbehavior. Discipline does not only mean punishment, nor does it only mean the actions that teachers take after misbehavior occurs. Discipline also includes teacher actions that prevent misbehavior. I completely agree with the previous statements, as they consider different aspects needed to create a meaningful, inclusive and supportive classroom environment..

(16) I would like to start discussing the concept of discipline, because when we mention the concepts of classroom management, it is the first thing that comes to some teachers’ mind. However, it is not the only thing needed in the classroom, as it is a combination of different things (as proposed by the author). It fits my context because the school is constantly basing their learning programs in the freedom of their students to learn, but I do not think that freedom can be given in a proper learning environment without guiding them how to use it. Secondly, rapport is one of the most important things in the classroom, as it gives more confidence to the relationship between teacher and student. Also, it lets you use different kind of activities such as working out of the classroom because students actually want to be in the class and they care of participating on it. I have learnt this through practice and observing other teachers’ classes. This also enhances the communication among parents, students and teacher, which I believe is essential to an effective and meaningful teaching relation. Also, it improves the process of setting rules, as there are more communicative situations. Finally, the classroom arrangement and use of resources is enormously important, as it helps not only the teacher, but also the students to improve the classroom atmosphere and let students have their own space in the classroom. The combination of these 5 characteristics of classroom management will give to the teacher tools to support his/her practices..

(17) ICTS Information and communication technology, or ICT, is defined as the combination of informatics technology with other, related technologies, specifically communication technology. (UNESCO, 2002) Information and communication technology has changed our whole life, in our current society we are facing a new type of humans, who rely on the technology. Due to that, we can use it in many ways to create and effective and inclusive classroom, because kids are used to it and can relate the classroom to a more familiar environment. Also, technologies can be used to enhance the actual learning of the students, also it can create a positive, challenging and inclusive environment as a result of the facilitations that it provides. According to my experiences, there has been a long process of developing ICTs here in Chile. It can be appreciated in the following quote from the program TIC EDU, created by Fondef. “The. Program. of. Effective. Information. and. Communication Technologies for Education (TIC EDU) of Fondef, created at the end of 2002, currently has the goal of contributing to enhance the quality of Chilean education through the development of innovative ICT products or services, oriented to improving learning.” (ICTs for education in Chile, 2008).

(18) As you can read, this program has the goal of contributing to enhance a current situation, which is the Chilean education. I support these ideas of improving education by the use of technology. However, some practices cannot be replaced by technology. Also, I think that these resources are incredibly important to the development of inclusive classrooms, as it is stated in the book ICT and special educational needs “However, regardless of the cause of a pupil’s difﬁculty (whether it is because of an impairment, inappropriate teaching or a lack of opportunity to learn), there is always something the teacher can do to support the learner. And, as I argue in the following section, the use of ICT in responding to special educational needs opens new opportunities for participation and inclusion in the culture, curricula and communities of schools.” (Florian & Hegarty, 2004) As it was stated, it gives new tools for inclusion because it makes the process of teaching a second language more interactive for the teacher and students, but also easier, as there are more ways of learning a specific content. Inclusion “Inclusive education means that all students attend and are welcomed by their schools in age-appropriate, regular classes and are supported to learn, contribute and participate in all aspects of the life of the school..

(19) Inclusive education is about how we develop and design our schools, classrooms, programs and activities so that all students learn and participate together.” (Inclusionbc.org, 2015) To be honest, I think that everyone has special needs and as human beings we are too different from each other. As a consequence of the previous statement, inclusion is completely necessary to create meaningful and effective classes. Also, to do not feel limited by the diversity of the classrooms, as how it happened to me. This is an actual problem of schools in Chile, as they only relay on integration, which is very different. However, this Action Research aims at including every student by using ICTS to set this appropriate learning environment. As I have stated before, ICTS can provide many tools that the schools do not have right now, as a consequence, students will be able to be integrated completely in their school as a result of the combination between effective techniques and ICTs or at least, that is the aim of this action research. Diverse Learners “Students are and always have been different from each other in a variety of ways. However, shools have noe always had the mission to support achievement for all students, and children’s assignments to schools and classrooms have, during many periods in history, forested segregation rather than encouraging inclusion and acceptance of heterogeneous groups.” (Darling-Hammond & Bransford, 2005) Nowadays, our school’s mentality is changing, they are accepting the diversity but it is extremely necessary to keep in mind that integrating them is not enough, we as teachers.

(20) must be prepared in order to support these diverse learners and ICTS can provide enough tools to achieve this.. Multiple Intelligences “Multiple intelligences is a psychological theory about the mind. It's a critique of the notion that there's a single intelligence which we're born with, which can't be changed, and which psychologists can measure. It's based on a lot of scientific research in fields ranging from psychology to anthropology to biology. It's not based upon based on test correlations, which most other intelligence theories are based on. The claim is that there are at least eight different human intelligences. Most intelligence tests look at language or logic or both - those are just two of the intelligences. The other six are musical, spatial, bodily/kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist. I make two claims. The first claim is that all human beings have all of these intelligences. It's part of our species definition. The second claim is that, both because of our genetics and our environment, no two people have exactly the same profile of intelligences, not even identical twins, because their experiences are different.” (Gardner, 1983) This theory can be strongly improved by adding ICTS in order to enhance the current abilities developed by the individual. It is important to think about diversity not only in appearance, but also in states of mind which is actually what multiple intelligences propose. To be honest, this is one of the key concepts, because it states that humans can adapt their ways of learning and in our current state, we can mention that a new paradigm is being.

(21) introduced by many countries and it is the one that includes the ICTS as a crucial part of the new society..

(22) Research Methodology During this part of the action research I will name and explain different ways of collecting data. These methods are going to be used through this action research. Firstly, I want to point out the importance of action research in educational purposes. To prove the ideas mentioned on the previous lines I will use the following statement. The central idea of the action part of AR is to intervene in a deliberate way in the problematic situation in order to bring about changes and, even better, improvements in practice. Importantly, the improvements that happen in AR are ones based on information (or to use the research term, data) that an action researcher collects systematically. (Burns, 2010) These data collection methods will help in order to prove by collecting data on different actions during the process of action research. To be honest, I believe that this is one of the most important parts of the AR, as it provides evidence to prove whether the interventions work or not. Furthermore, this research mainly will be qualitative as creating an inclusive classroom atmosphere is about how students interact and feel during the English lessons. Feelings are not quantitative..

(23) Questionnaire According to what I have been reading through this process, a questionnaire is extremely important to give direct feedback on the interventions and it will be used as one of my main data collection methods. The main benefit is that you get direct opinions from a prior source, the students. However, a disadvantage is that some students do not take it serious. This will be used to collect data of the students’ current state. The state involves feelings, thoughts, etc. As it is very important to improve the rapport and also to create a positive and inclusive classroom. As the justification to use this data collection method can be found on the following quote: “It’s best to use a questionnaire (also sometimes called a survey, checklist or schedule), rather than interviews, when you want to get responses from several people and you don’t have time to interview. Dörnyei (2003, pp. 8–9)” (As it is quoted on Burns, 2010). Also, this method is suitable for this research as it gives qualitative data that will tell me the exact information of how students feel during the classes. As the topic is related to classroom atmosphere, it is enormously important to understand and analyze their feelings during classes and interventions. It will be closed-ended with the possibility to justify their answer. Journal According to the following quote: “They are extremely useful though as a way of capturing significant reflections and events in an ongoing way.” (Burns, 2010). The.

(24) importance of keeping a journal is extremely high, as it provides useful data that can be combined with other methods. It is one of the main data-collection techniques as it provides self-criticism and is constantly updated to our problems and experiences. As stated before like magazines they are periodical. The main difference is that academic journals are written by experts of their fields, as a consequence it can provide not biased useful information to our work. This method is suitable due to the qualitative data that it can provide. Writing a journal is a process of interaction and to create an effective classroom atmosphere it is necessary to interact with the students and create a place where everyone feels comfortable. A journal can provide this information as you can write whether one method works with all the students or some of them. Procedures for data collection Analyzing different journal entries and questionnaires will be my main resources of data. During the firsts weeks of my practicum, I will be making interventions to realize my problem and to get information about the students’ feelings with the use of the book. It will help me to understand if they actually understand and learn by just using a book. After the first part, I am going to keep getting data from a journal, testing different things from class activities and a wide range of methodologies. This data will help me in order to create a final intervention with the proper use of ICTs and to be inclusive during that process..

(25) Finally, I will make the final intervention where I will test if classes can be inclusive with the use of ICTs, also if by using ICTs I can create an effective and enjoyable classroom atmosphere.. Action Plan Timeline First intervention: without any ICTs. October – First week. Analyzing the data.. October – Second week. Critical peer to enhance my action plan.. October – Third week. Collecting data: writing a journal.. August - November. Second intervention: Proper use of ICTs.. November – Third week. Analysis and findings.. November – Fourth week.

(26) Data Analysis After a long process of analyzing and understanding my research question I was able to create, in my opinion, meaningful data collection methods that fit my research and give contextualized data that may help to create a real answer to my problem. First of all, this process was created considering a long term implementation. Furthermore, it was divided into different parts. Firstly, the data collection tools which helped me to compile all the data that is going to be analyzed during this part of my action research. Secondly, the analysis of the data itself help me in order to make changes on my practice to fulfill my objectives. Finally, make changes in my action plan and practices in order to improve previous problems on my practice.. During the first intervention, I did not use any ICTs. The main reason was to be able to realize what was going on in my class by collecting data and start creating an action plan. “Today was a difficult day, students were not willing to participate and it was really difficult to calm them down. After writing the menu, I started my class, one student was jumping around the classroom and shouting: “soy un niño rata”. The other students were laughing at him because of the statement. I asked him why, he answered: Porque es la verdad tío. After this unquiet beginning, I waited until they calmed down and told them to open their books and start looking at.

(27) a specific page and activity, I have to stick my class to the book activities due to the school english program” (Carrasco, 2015) Every single beginning of the class was easier when I talked to my students to get a helper for ICTs, but this class was very difficult to get them engaged. The atmosphere was disruptive and students were not willing to participate as they had to work on pupils’ book. “After a few minutes, students calmed down and I started working on different activities of the pupils’ book. Two girls are distracted, I ask them what happened, and they answered: It is difficult to work on this book” (Carrasco, 2015) These students are very different from the rest of the class. The first one has many difficulties to speak and to understand written content. Another student, has difficulties on relating to other students and adults. Consequently, I will present a table where I show the process with three different data sources: Class activities, journals and a questionnaire used at the beginning and end of the research process..

(28) At the very beginning, the process of starting and ending a class was really difficult as they did not understand simple instructions. Also, students were not willing to participate and they told me that classes were difficult to follow as there were a lot of loudness. I completely agree with their feedback, as it can be seen in one sample of the first questionnaire, Student 1 did not feel comfortable, due to students talking a lot during classes and not respecting their classmates. Also, even though classes were easier with technology, the improper use of them led to a chaos where Student 2 with special needs was not able to participate because it was too difficult to write on the whiteboard. Furthermore, Student 1 feels that with the use of ICTs we were not able to create an inclusive-quiet classroom atmosphere, as it is shown on his answer of the question number 7: “No, because they kept talking” (Questionnaire Student 1, 2015) During the second part of this process, students were trying to participate, but their lack of prior knowledge, different backgrounds and special needs stopped them to participate, as I was not able to create an inclusive classroom atmosphere. Some of them started to change. However, there were plenty of students still disrupting the class, making it difficult to follow and not respecting their classmates’ feelings. After a long process, students started to participate a bit more and pay more attention to different activities, as they thought that those activities were easier and funnier than previous book activities. Student 2 started to participate faster with the use of the tablet, as the process of participation was easier by writing with the resource on the whiteboard. Also, Student 2 mentioned that classes were funnier as she felt that participating was easier..

(29) Until now, different methodologies are working to improve my prior problem. However, it is still not enough to make everyone participate. Therefore, I have to make more changes to my action plan in order to create an inclusive classroom atmosphere by the use of ICTs. After a few weeks of collecting data, the process of starting and ending a class became much easier, it can be appreciated in the following journal entry. “Today, after the activity to choose who will be my assistant with the ICTs resources, students were quieter than before but it takes too much time” (Carrasco, 2015). Through the use of ICTs, I created a routine where students started to interact with the computer from the very beginning, in my opinion this helped me to create a positive vision of what technology can do for them. They no longer appreciate technology as a tool to play on, but a reliable resource to work on their English abilities. Also, the first use of a tablet helped the students to make corrections and participate faster than the classes without ICTs, specifically Student 2 that has a problem related to writing. I thought that the use of this specific resource actually helped a lot of students with difficulties and students felt that different resources which can be found on their houses could help them to learn English. Finally, at the end of this process and after the intervention, some students changed completely their point of view about technologies and their use. Student 3 has a lot of problem with learning a second language. Student’s context and background is completely different from others as she comes from a different school and her family has almost no interaction with different kind of cultures. Nonetheless, after the intervention we can see a complete change in their thoughts about the English class. From a.

(30) perspective where she thought that everything was difficult and she almost did not participate, to a student that wanted to be de TA and participate in the class, because it was funny and easy. This can be appreciated on her questionnaire after the intervention, some of her answers were: Question 1: Yes, because it helps everyone to learn English. Question 2: Yes, because technology help us a lot. Question 3: Yes, because it showed us how to do some activities. Question 4: Yes, it helped me a lot because it explained activities to me and taught me about it. Question 5: Yes, because every student can learn by different ways. Question 7: Yes, we learned everything and understand things better. Question 8: Yes, they improved a lot. Because if there was no technology I would not understand as well as I do with the projector. (Appendix III). These questions had 2 parts, the first one is to answer yes or no and then justify the answer, as I wanted them to think why the situation was either better or worse. According to what can be read in this student’s questionnaire, she completely changed compared to the beginning of this process. “Student 3 is always talking to other students, when I ask her to sit down or participate she answers that she does not know English, as a result of that, she is not able to participate nor understand.” (Carrasco, 2015). As you can see, she almost wanted to quit the English class. However, after the use of ICTs in the.

(31) classroom she started to get more involved to the English class, to finally be one of the cores of the class. Student 4 is one of the best in the English class, he almost knows everything before I mention anything. Notwithstanding, in order to create inclusive classes, they have to be easier for the ones that have some difficulties, but at the same time, lessons must be challenging for everyone. Question 1: Yes, because everyone can express their opinions. Question 2: Yes, because it is remarkable. Question 3: Yes, because those who are lost can know where we are and participate. Question 4: Yes, because writing on electronic objects is faster. Question 5: Yes, because everyone has their own personality Question 6: Yes, because everyone participated. Question 7: Yes, because there classes were quieter than before and students can get concentrated.. As you can read, the student completely agrees with the use of ICTs in the classroom. Currently, we know that a bottom tier student and a top tier feels the same in relation to the intervention, both agreed on the importance and effectiveness of the use of technology to setup a proper classroom environment where everyone is able to participate. Also, I agree and think it is important to mention that technology is remarkable for them as it is interactive and easy to understand, either for those who know and those who do not..

(32) Student 2 has already been mentioned before, she has some difficulties with writing and also speaking. Her responses to the questionnaire were the following. Question 1: Yes, to learn more about the class. Question 2: Yes, because it made classes easier. Question 3: Yes, because it helps use to make activities. Question 4: Yes, I found it better because it was easier to participate. Question 5: No, all of them are the same. Question 6: Yes, those were easier. Question 7: No, it was not quieter. Question 8: Yes, I do.. As you can see, Student 2 felt that classes were easier. However, the noise disturbs her and she does not like that. Taking into account the previous 2 students, the last intervention with proper methodologies to use ICTs have created a proper atmosphere where almost everyone is able to participate. This specific student was the most complicated case to me, as she has many limitations due to physical problems. However, I believe that ICTs can be used as a great tool for inclusion as we saw in the data collected. Almost everyone felt different during classes and they were willing to participate more without complications. I used these 4 samples because they are from completely different students and can provide meaningful comparable data. Furthermore, this research changed ideas related to the use of technology in the classroom. It is an effective tool and either teacher and students think the same..

(33) Reflection and Analysis of Intervention The dynamics of a class can always vary. During this action research I made 2 interventions, the first one to prove how students behaved and felt during a class focused on an English grammar book. The second intervention was about proving the efficiency of ICTs to create proper and inclusive atmospheres where all students could participate. During this complicated process of analyzing my own practice, both interventions were really useful in order to address my problem and propose different solutions. I strongly believe that the final intervention was applied successfully, as all students were able to participate and the atmosphere was suitable for the context. Some of the final changes proposed during my intervention were reviewed by a critical peer. Fortunately, her proper feedback helped me in order to analyze and realize things I was not able to take into account before. Firstly, during the first intervention, I was able to prove that a class is a combination of different factors. It was necessary because the school constantly requested me to make my classes based on the Kid’s box book. So as that, I was not able to use different kind of methodologies more student centered as the main goal of the classes was to fulfill the book. After this first intervention, I started to realize not only problems in my practice, but also, limitations in my context. As a result of the previous situations, I needed to create an effective classroom atmosphere (as my classes were too disruptive) that was also inclusive, due to the diversity of the school. However, it was also needed to complete the book activities..

(34) Consequently, I started collecting data to make an effective second intervention. During this second try of improve my practice, ICTs were used properly, as I investigated different ways of implementing technologies. Probably, the process of integrating different ICTs to the classroom is one of the most difficult processes that I have ever lived. It was a long term program where I first had to create meaningful ideas of the use of ICTs with the students, as most of them only understood a computer as a gaming machine. Secondly, I had to start creating different activities that were easy to understand but challenging to resolve. It was because of the diversity of this gifted group that I had to thought about the ideas mentioned before. Some students were willing to participate, but their prior knowledge was almost zero. On the other hand, I had students that travel abroad every year. Finally, I also had students with physical limitations and special needs in terms of learning, also considering some of them had a totally different cultural background. Concluding, the last intervention where I properly implemented ICTs in the classroom, made the classroom environment quieter and inclusive as they all could participate on different activities of the book. We also used music and videos to understand different types of vocabulary. As a result of this intervention, students were motivated and were willing to participate in this new kind of classes, as the classes were more interactive and I brought different activities related to the content of the book, but making it much easier for the students, without taking out the challenging part of these activities..

(35) Conclusion and Implications Being a researcher is challenging and tiring, you need a lot of effort and energy to become a great one. However, it gives many opportunities of growing up as a professional and that situation balances out what it requires to actually research (time). To be honest, this action research project has given to me plenty of useful information that I will use to become a better professional. As an educator, we must bear in mind that we have to be adaptable and action research helps this adaptability to start evolving from a standard professional, into a great one. At the very beginning I was skeptic about the reliability and validity of an action research, as it is certainly different from classic research. Nonetheless, being able to almost completely solve an important problem of my practice, changed my point of view. I would strongly recommend action research to every single teacher, as it is a tool that can be used for keeping ourselves updated on different important topics of our teaching practices. In my case, I had plenty of problems during this semester, but the process of constantly observe and improve an action plan is useful in order to determine what is going on in our practice. Regarding my question, according to what has been investigated, ICTs can be used to effectively create an inclusive learning atmosphere where everyone is able to participate. The previous statement can be appreciated on the different questionnaires and journal entries that helped me to prove this hypothesis. I will keep using a tablet in combination with the computer, as it gives much more opportunities for students to participate on the English class. Also, students have a chance.

(36) of use the technology with a purpose, not just in an expository approach. Moreover, I want to keep investigating on this topic, as I strongly believe we are in a new generation of people, the digital generation. This generation is often defined by their relationship to technology (Donnison, n.d.) and we can use this as a way of improving our teaching skills in order to fit this context of new challenges. In terms of limitations, many of them were given by the context at the beginning of this research. However, with the help of the tutor I was able to overcome these difficult situations. To conclude, I am completely confident that future teachers must be researches too, as it gives you much more evidence to actually change and become better. I would say that action research is a way of improving what we do not know with our experiences. As the tittle of this kind of research suggests, it is strongly related to actions, so as that, the researcher has to be willing to make constant changes in order to improve the action plan and create a better practice of it..

(37) Bibliography -. -. Armstrong, T. (2009). Multiple intelligences in the classroom. Alexandria, Va.: ASCD. Darling-Hammond, L., & Bransford, J. (2005). Preparing teachers for a changing world. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of mind. New York: Basic Books. Inclusionbc.org, (2015). What is Inclusive Education? | Inclusion BC. Retrieved 4 October 2015, from http://www.inclusionbc.org/our-priority-areas/inclusiveeducation/what-inclusive-education UNESCO, (2002). Information and communication technology in education. Carrasco, N. (2015). Journal.. -. Young, B., & Smith, T. (1997). The social context of education. Washington, DC:. -. National Center for Education Statistics, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Dept. of Education. -. Garrett, T. (2003). Effective classroom management.. -. Burns, A. (2010). Doing action research in English language teaching. New York: Routledge.. -. Donnison, S. The "Digital Generation", Technology, and Educational Change: An Uncommon Vision.. -. Florian, L., & Hegarty, J. (2004). ICT and special educational needs. Maidenhead, England: Open University Press..

(38) Appendix I: Questionnaire. Pregunta ¿Crees que es importante el que todos puedan participar en la clase?. Sí. No. ¿Por qué?. De acuerdo a lo que viviste en las clases de inglés. ¿Crees que la tecnología sirve para que participen todos?. ¿Te gustó el uso del computador en la sala de clases?. El uso de la Tablet para responder lo que proyectaba el DATA: ¿Lo encontraste mejor? ¿Te ayudó para entender mejor la clase? ¿Crees que cada uno de tus compañeros es distinto al otro y que aprenden de distintas maneras? ¿Se hacían más fáciles las lecturas al ser trabajadas en el DATA, en conjunto? Cuando se usaban distintos objetos tecnológicos (computador, DATA, Tablet) ¿Sentías un ambiente más tranquilo y apropiado para aprender? ¿Crees que las clases mejoraron con el uso de tecnología?. ¿Prefieres sólo el uso del libro, o usarlo en el computador? _______________________________________________________________________________________ Nombra 3 fortalezas del uso del computador _______________________________________________________________________________________ ¿Te gustaría cambiar algo de la clase con computador? ¿Qué sería? _______________________________________________________________________________________ ¿Crees que aprendiste más en las ultimas clases con música, videos y el uso del computador? ¿Por qué?.

(39) _______________________________________________________________________________________.

(40) Appendix II: Samples Student 1.

(41) Student 2.

(42) Student 3.

(43) Student 4.

(44) Appendix III: Journals Journal entry 1. Today was a difficult day, students were not willing to participate and it was really difficult to calm them down. After writing the menu, I started my class, one student was jumping around the classroom and shouting: “soy un niño rata”. The other students were laughing at him because of the statement. I asked him why, he answered: Porque es la verdad tío. After this unquiet beginning, I waited until they calmed down and told them to open their books and start looking at a specific page and activity, I have to stick my class to the book activities due to the school english program. During this class, students were constantly interrupting my activities, they are currently claiming about the use of the book: “¿Por qué es tan fome el libro tío?” they asked. At the end of the class I talked to them, to ask what would be their ideal class. Most of them like technology Journal Entry 2. Today I tried to make classes a bit easier for them, I brought flash cards in order to teach the vocabulary of this class. The beginning was pretty good; they were participating on the class. After starting the while, some students started distracting their classmates by going around the classroom..

(45) After a few minutes, students calmed down and I started working on different activities of the pupils’ book. Two girls are distracted, I ask them what happened, and they answered: It is difficult to work on this book. Student 3 is always talking to other students, when I ask her to sit down or participate she answers that she does not know English, as a result of that, she is not able to participate nor understand. Journal entry 3. Today, after the activity to choose who will be my assistant with the ICTs resources, students were quieter than before but it takes too much time. After this long process I started my class by remembering the vocabulary learnt before. Consequently, we turn on the screen and they know they have to pay attention, most of them are quiet and the rest are asking for silence to start the class. After activities I have to create a method to close them, as there is a dead time between activities and the rest of the class. Today, the closing part was pretty good, all of them participated and answered correctly, apparently the use of ICTs to teach new things works..

(46)