EDUC 630
Data collection is a big piece of education. Teachers track student progress through classroom tests, benchmarks and progress monitoring, and behavior charting. High-stakes testing, used by the state and federal governments, determines the success of individual schools. “Measuring change in learning is essential for determining whether students are benefiting from their educational program” (Ruble et al., 2018, p. 186). Teachers often use data to assess the success of a particular lesson. They also track individual progress and pinpoint areas where a student might excel or need assistance with. Data provides a means to personalize education to meet individual needs of students.
In my own classroom, I use a lot of bar graphs and logs to track my students progress in their IEP goals. I mostly use paper charts, created with Excel, to fill in by hand. I have not taught my students specifically about data collection beyond the tracking of their own progress and self-monitoring behaviors and emotions. However, we discuss their scores and compare them to previous scores and their goals. Roblyer and Hughes (2019) mention many examples of software tools to track data, including spreadsheets, Google Forms, polling applications, and databases. I have done digital graphing in the past, but it seemed to be more time consuming when I had to go back and input information at a later time. Now that handheld devices are more readily available, it might be time to give that option another chance.
References
Roblyer, M. D. & Hughes, J. E. (2019). Integrating educational technology into teaching: Transforming learning across disciplines (8th ed.). Pearson
Ruble, L. A., McGrew, J. H., Wong, W. H., & Missall, K. N. (2018). Special education teachers’ perceptions and intentions toward data collection. Journal of Early Intervention, 40(2), 177-191.
Created by: Casey Jo Burrus © 2021
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updated: February 3, 2021
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