Assessment: Interviews Journal Article

The article, "Using Student Interviews to Guide Classroom Instruction: An Action Research Project" outlines a very unique "action research project". In an action research project, as opposed to traditional research projects, a designated school research staff partakes in various types of research in an effort to change and improve varying aspects of the school and the daily school lives of the students. The overall goal of an action research project is to initiate and guide further change in the structure of the school.

In this particular situation, many teachers from Jefferson Elementary School ranging from kindergarten to fourth grade had noticed that they were struggling in teaching problem solving in the classroom. They found that this concept was not only hard for them to teach, but even harder for the students to learn. The staff realized that the number one hurdle was lack of knowledge as to the individual learning styles and practices of certain students. Therefore, they chose to investigate the following two questions...
"Do student interviews provide teachers with a more detailed, accurate, and complete picture of children's mathematical understanding?"
and
" Does this knowledge help teachers improve the way that they teach mathematics?"

The action research plan unfolded as follows, team members conducted interviews with individual students while the rest of the class partook in extension activities. Two sets of interviews were conducted, one in the fall and one in the spring. The team members then shared the results of their interviews with the rest of the team and the staff and described the possible impact of using the results of these interviews to guide classroom instruction.