A celebration was held in my inner-city school gifted classroom, November 20, 2001. The occasion was not a promotion or holiday. The purpose of the event was to report the results of an action research (AR) project. Although the celebration was a course requirement, it was heart felt and probably would have occurred regardless of the syllabus. The completion of an AR project merits a fête and the finale of “Using System Dynamics Computer Modeling Software to Teach Cause-Effect Relationships in Reading Selections,” was no exception.

The Beginning

As the 2001-2002 school year began, I embarked on my first AR after 25 years as a classroom teacher. The project was designed to determine if the use of system dynamics computer modeling software would affect student ability to recognize cause-effect relationships in reading selections. Determining causality was the one weak link I could find in my gifted students’ reading scores and I suspected that this was due in part to the fact that cause-effect relationships were traditionally taught in an abstract fashion that was not making contact with students who were in the concrete and preoperational stages of development. Stella™, a computer modeling program, seemed to provide a concrete method of displaying abstract relationships and so I thought it would be a good method to give structure to causal relationships in reading selections. A pretest was given to about thirty 4^th and 5^th grade gifted students and then the fun began.

The Intervention

Students were introduced to system dynamics techniques, such as causal loops and behavior-over-time graphs, as they read and analyzed simple short stories. We then advanced into modeling stories using stock and flow diagrams which served as a stepping stone into the actual computer modeling software. As the students tested their diagrams using Stella™, their understanding of more complex relationships within the stories became apparent. The intervention culminated with an analysis of Hamlet’s motivations to avenge his father’s death.

The Results

The posttest data showed an increase in total comprehension and ability to identify cause-effect relationships. There was also a positive attitudinal change in the students’ perception of the benefits of using a computer program to improve reading skills. The most important product of this research, however, may not have been the data or the methodology. The most important outcome of the AR was reflected in my new view of the classroom which was no longer just a place where instruction was meted out to achieve goals and objectives. The classroom had been transformed into a laboratory where not only existing learning theories could be implemented, but also new ideas for delivering curriculum could be tested, refined, and shared with other educators. After 25 years as an educator, I felt as if I had only begun. I am wondering now how many more AR experiences lie ahead before I finally trade the dry erase marker for a fishing pole!

The Bottom Line

Kurt Lewin has been credited with developing the idea of action research, but my guess is that whenever and wherever a teacher, guru, shaman, didact, rabbi, prophet, or priest has stood before a group of potential learners, action research has transpired in the quest for the most effective method for exchanging knowledge and understanding. We are only now learning to formally plan, implement, and report our findings as teacher researchers. My bottom line word to teachers and students is simply this: When the syllabus or supervisor calls for an AR project, do not consider it a threat. Consider it an extreme privilege, for there lies before you the opportunity to transform the classroom into a laboratory in which every participant is a teacher/learner/researcher and every new experience (to paraphrase C. S. Lewis) is better than the one before.

Vernon Eckleberry received his BA and M.Ed. From Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah, Georgia, and a Ed.S. degree in Instructional Technology from Valdosta State University. He has been an educator for 25 years, primarily serving as a gifted education resource teacher in grade levels 1 - 12. Currently he is the gifted resource teacher for an inner city elementary gifted education center which serves four schools in the Golden Isles area of Southeast Georgia.

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