EPDM01

Development of Learning:
A Case Study
Assignment One – Proposal
TRAINEE NAME: Joseph Osama Fawzy Walaan
A case study of small group (push-in) On-line Learning Support
Title of your study: for year 12 pupils in an international school.
PAT: Mike Ennis
Deadline: 11 Oct by 23:59
ASSIGNMENT BRIEF
This activity is designed to help you focus your thinking as early as possible – before you begin the
main case study itself - and is intended to be an indicative document as well as forming the basis
for discussions with your tutor as it will identify how you propose to design and implement your
methodology.
The proposal will review your developmental understanding of the school or college in which you
are based, the learning issue central to your case study, the support process/es at the root of your
work, and the pupils who benefit from it. You will identify key texts influencing the focus of your
case study while you will also outline your research methods for collecting data for this project.
The total number of words allowed is 1000 (with a 10% leeway).
ASSESSMENT CRITERIA
Knowledge
1. Ability to design and carry out a research project that highlights your critical understanding
of the importance of supporting children and students in education settings
2. An understanding of the importance of interventions available to teachers in this area.
3. A critical understanding of a key educational theme applicable to your age phase.
Skills
4. Identification of an appropriate approach and context on which to base a case study.
5. Awareness of the role played in individuals’ learning by the teacher, teaching assistants etc.
within the context of the educational system, policies and legislation.
6. The brief review of an indicative body of literature appropriate to the situation identified
for the case.
7. Ability to structure a suitable methodology for the intended project.
8. Demonstrate an awareness of the factors that might impact on learners’ achievements.
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1) Pen portrait of your focus for this study – what is the intervention?

Here you provide information about the situation and the educational intervention you intend
to examine. You may consider why the support process was implemented in your school and
how it may be linked to specific supporting legislation in your school, area, subject or
geographical location. You may wish to consider how the intervention is implemented or give
some information on the central learning issue for which the process was put in place.

You may wish to briefly state how the learning issue or need impacts on learning. You may
provide the age that the support process relates to and provide basic information (but no
specific names are needed) about the cohort for whom the process was implemented - but
no more identifying information than that is needed.

Remember to maintain focus on the support process here and not the individuals that benefit
from it - as the support process is the main point of your case study.

Your response:
In my upcoming research, I will be discussing the on-line support provided by the school
during the previous and current years to confront the challenges that appeared due to
the COVID-19.

This intervention took place to facilitate the educational process for both on-campus
students and those who are attending classes from home. It is mainly targeting the
senior class (Grade 12 students). During the COVID-19 lockdown in the whole world,
most of the ministries of education had to close all educational institutions and that is
why, the board of the assigned school , administration and academic staff, started to
pursue immediate solutions in order to resume the classes for grade 12 students.

Meanwhile, the school also started to reformulate the grading criteria and reshape the
assessment methods to become computer-based instead of paper-based.
In general, the support processes included the utilization of digital writing tablets,
smartboards, learning management systems (LMS), and video conferencing tool (ZOOM).
(155 words)

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2) Provide information on the context, including support staff.

Here you can provide more detailed information about the school or college and the staffing
structure as it impacts on the focal point of your study. Are support assistants involved? Does
the form tutor help? Is it pull-out or push-in provision? Is there a SENCo or teacher involved?
Does it involve special lessons or locations?

Here is where you provide more information on the school, the staff, and the structure of the
process itself - but again be careful not to name the school or any individuals directly.

Your response:
The school where the previous digital interventions are and will be implemented is
located in a crowded capital. It is one of the largest schools with two international
divisions British and American. There are around 2000 students enrolled in the school
but only half of them attend the normal school days on campus and the other half join
them online via the LMS and ZOOM. The previous cycle takes place every week and then
the two groups of students switch places by the following week.

The success of the mentioned plan requires the collaboration of all the elements
involved in the educational process: teachers, co-teachers, IT administrators, stage
coordinators, and parents themselves. Furthermore, such an intervention demands the
existence of a special setup (Computers, Microphones, Cameras, …etc ) whether in the
classroom or even at home and this should be accompanied by sufficient pieces of
training and tutorials for both staff members and students.

Certainly, it is recognized to be as one of the push-in services, despite applying part of it

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3) Provide information on the learning issue or need itself.

Here you should provide a more in-depth mini-analysis and explanation (though nothing too
extensive at this point) of the learning issue or need and how it may impact learning (for
instance it could lead to underachieving, individuals becoming de-motivated, or cause
behavioural issues, etc.). You can also provide information on how particular factors are likely
to impact on learners – for example, if you are talking about poor literacy skills, you need to
show that you have considered how poor literacy skills will impact on the educational
experience of the individuals concerned.

Here you should focus closely on the learning issue or need and how it impacts learning but
you should also reference literature here to show that you have already engaged with critical
thinking at this early point.

Your response:
Undoubtedly, COVID-19 has its severe and serious impact on the educational process.
Mostly, schools all over the world are closed due to the pandemic. Also, the school which
I observe for the purpose of the research has to suspend all educational activities and the
main issue it faced was directly related to the senior classes.
Firstly, they had to resume their studies and curricula so that they can join the universities
and not to miss an academic year.

Secondly, when the decision was taken to start addressing the students via the online
sessions, it was unfair to assess them using the same old criteria which is paper-based.
Such a shift, from school-based sessions to online sessions, had its negative influence on
pupils who might lose some of their learning motivation.

As per Di Pietro et al. “The governments of several countries (e.g. Spain, Italy) have
announced that, due to COVID-19, students will not have to repeat the school year
regardless of their performance while studying remotely.
Although this could be a fair decision (Sonnemann 2020), several studies suggest that
students may be more externally motivated to learn if they know that their learning will
be assessed.” (Di Pietro et al. 2020, p. 10).

Lastly, the ethical and everlasting issues of cheating, plagiarism, and gaining unfair
advantages by any means grew more and more during the online classes. Khan (2006) has
made the point that the students might lose the ability to distinguish between e-learning
and e-cheating as they get used to misuse the online available resources.
All these preceding problems forced the school to prepare for the intervention and apply
it after few weeks of the pandemic. (277 words)

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4) Provide information on your indicated literature.

Here you need to present a brief overview of the literature available that is relevant to your
study - though not a full literature review at this point. This can come from books, academic
papers, on-line references, school documents, government legislation, etc. At this stage you
only really need to identify key literature and say briefly why it will be useful but it does
need to be more than just a list.

You need to show that you are engaging with specific literature and the theories contained
within it so here is where you make it clear that you have done some preliminary background
reading to support your research and eventual case study.

Your response:
The literature I will depend on in this case study will mainly be focusing on two areas:
teaching online and how to master it and consequences of the pandemic on the
educational process and how to deal with them.

Therefore, the following list would represent an essential aid throughout the research:
I. Michelle D. Miller, (2014) Minds Online, Harvard University Press, Cambridge,
Massachusetts, London, England.
II. Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey and John Hattie (2020) The Distance Learning
Playbook Grades K-12, Corwin Press, California, United States of America.
III. Flower Darby, James M. Lang (2019) Small Teaching Online: Applying Learning
Science in Online Classes, Jossey-Bass, California, United States of America.

The Michelle D. Miller book guides the teacher through the accelerating changes that
invade our educational systems. Furthermore, it illustrates the process of creating a
syllabus that fits an online-delivered course while considering attention, memory and
thinking problems.

Whilst, Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey and John Hattie book is so beneficial when it comes to
feedback, assessments and grading for online tests as it also shows how to talk to
students concerning integrity and honesty at the beginning of the year. (189 words)

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 5) Provide information on your methodology (case study) and research
methods for data collection.

Here is where you outline the methodological processes in place for your study - focusing on
what you are going to study and how you are going to go about it. Data could come from
observing teachers or staff delivering the support process, looking at achievement records or
other data, talking to teachers, providing questionnaires, etc. - but data should not come
from the testing or interviewing of pupils or of talking with the pupils directly about the
support process. As ever, the focus is on the support process and how it and the school are
working to support and develops learning – and not about the individuals themselves.

Here is where you tell us how you are going to collect the information you need but you may
also state what you decided not to do – and why not. Please note that you should refer to
research methods text books/journals/models (etc.) in this section.

Your response:
While working on the case study, information and data should be collected in many ways
to guarantee that the conclusions drawn are reliable, valid and unbiased.

Firstly, I will conduct informal conversational interviews with the teachers (upon
acceptance) who teach the pupils during the pandemic to assess the effectiveness of the
intervention (Louis Cohen et al. 2018)

Secondly, class observations (on-campus and online) should be conducted to gather data
on physical, human, interactional and programme settings (Morrison 1993)

Thirdly, I should gain access (as agreed upon with the school) to the student records to
compare and analyse their performance in paper-based exams versus computer-based
exams throughout this year and the previous years.

Lastly, I will design questionnaires that include open-ended questions, multiple choice
questions and rating scales about the obstacles that might face them or the students with
the hybrid classes. These questionnaires should be answered by teachers and admin staff
and must maintain anonymity. (Louis Cohen et al. 2018) (160 words)

6) Any specific issues to address in order to fulfil the study

Your response:
The investigations of student records necessitate administrative permission which I was
promised to be granted by the school principal. Also, all interviews, observations and
questionnaires will be approved by the school admins before being created. (35 words)

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 7) Ethical considerations

Here you need to acknowledge that your study is ethical (in accordance with BERA guidelines)
and that you are doing nothing in your study that would not have happened anyway (for
example, you must not experiment on pupils or seek to influence the processes and outcomes
in any way). You should also ensure confidentiality and anonymity by not naming specific
individuals or the school itself anywhere in your work.

Your response:
The name of the school, academic and non-academic staff and students will be kept
anonymous throughout the whole research. None of the students will be questioned by
any means and none of the interviews will be conducted with them. After all, the case
study will always focus on the intervention itself and how the school applies it. (57 words)

Total number of words: 1047 words