Schrecengost Action Research 1

INVESTIGATION #1
What challenges do teachers face across grade levels? What are some
similarities and differences?
Investigation 1 was designed to answer my research question in
the form of both qualitative and quantitative data. The questionnaire
was designed in a manner that listed several different challenges and
teachers would either agree or disagree with each challenge. In order
to narrow down my findings I only focused on the answers where
teachers marked agree. Additionally, independent interviews were
designed to reinforce the qualitative findings in two different grade
levels.
This investigation also involved gathering research information
about several challenges that teachers may face. Moreover, it included
creating a survey for teachers to fill out and return (qualitative data).
Additionally, individual teachers (grade level chair) from grades 1 and
2 were interviewed to obtain more detailed information.
Researcher Reactions
Honestly, this investigation allowed me to see what the
challenges were for teachers at Rocky River Elementary. Although it is
a small section of a much wider research topic I believe that these
findings are not only helpful to me as a pre-service teacher but they
would also benefit the school administration. Administrators often have
high expectations for teachers but seldom understand what challenges
they may face in the classroom. In figuring out the challenges teachers
believe are most pressing and perhaps may even impede student
success, administration can brainstorm ideas on how to improve,
prevent and even get rid of these challenges. For example, in
conducting this investigation I concluded that 1 out of 6 fifth grade
teachers completed the questionnaire; which leads me to assume that
time management, is a challenge seeing as they do not have an
assistant like K-3, who had a higher number of participation. K-3
teachers have assistants that support them throughout the school day,
which may allow for more time to complete medial tasks.
What The Findings Mean For My RQ
As for the findings, I believe that it means several things in regard to
my research question. First of all, it means that there are certainly
several challenges across grade levels; several grade levels share
some challenges such as: parent involvement and time management
and others seem more geared towards a certain grade level. For
example, first grade seemed to agree that a lower salary was a
challenge, whereas fifth grade saw time management as more of a

Schrecengost Action Research 2

challenge. It also means that there are several opportunities for further
research, such as Does the number of years teaching affect the
challenges in the classroom? or Do the types of challenges differ if
the teacher is male? My findings also mean that my research question
should have been narrowed down in order to obtain maximum
participation.

Schrecengost Action Research

My Findings
Potential 1
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Challeng
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nd
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Challenge Key
1. Lack of employer support
2. Lack of adequate professional development
opportunities
3. Lack of prerequisites (e.g. qualifications,
experience, seniority)
4. Classroom Management
5. Knowledge of and understanding of curriculum
content
6. Student discipline and behavior
7. Parent Involvement
8. Cooperation and collaboration with colleagues

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9. Involvement and responsibility at work

10. Faculty communication/decision making
11. Class size
12. Lack of technology resources
13. High emphasis on high-stakes testing
14. Lack of teacher originality in lesson planning
15. Low salary
16. Properly meeting the needs of students
17. Time management
18. Finding proper resources
19. Parent communication

Schrecengost Action Research

Each tally represents one teacher from each grade level that marked the agreed box on the
questionnaire. In other words, the maximum number of tallies in a grade level is the total number of
teachers that participated from that grade level. For example, in Kindergarten the maximum number of
tallies in a box is 3, which means 3 kindergarten teachers completed the questionnaire, etc. As the table
suggests, 3/3 K teachers that participated agree that low salary is a challenge in their teaching. In the
interview with the K grade level chair, she mentioned that Kindergarten is perhaps the most challenging
grade to teach because it is the childrens first year of school and many students have never been apart
from their parents for such a large portion of the day. Additionally, she stated that many K teachers feel as
though they do not get paid enough to deal with a lot of the situations that arise both in the classroom and
as professionals.
First grade teachers, however, feel differently. In the chart we can see that 6/6 1st grade teachers
that participated agree that student discipline, parent involvement, time management and parent
communication are all challenges for their teaching and student success. However, in the interview with
the 1stgrade level chair, a different challenge was presented. In conferring with her colleagues throughout
the school year she believes that the biggest challenge she sees all of them face is doing whats best for
our students while at the same time trying to please the people who reside over us and hand down the
curriculum. While I believe a lot of what we teach is great, there are some things that we expect of first
graders that are not developmentally appropriate (no recess days, little arts integrated into the day, no
center-based learning).
It is apparent that 3out of 3 second grade teachers agree that parent involvement and low salary are
challenges in their teaching and student success. In the interview with the 2nd grade level chair, a different
challenge was mentioned. I think the greatest challenge is something we actually discuss a lot which is
vertical planning. Third grade is a huge jump for the kids and so a challenge for second grade teachers is
to make sure we do things to try to help take some of that pressure off. We also have a challenge with the
vertical planning with the first grade teachers.
Four out of four fourth grade teachers agree that parent involvement; faculty
communication/decision making and low salary are all challenges. Third grade is when high stakes testing
begins, which means more stress is added for teachers to prepare students both mentally and
academically. For this reason they believe that they do not get paid enough for all of the extra work they

Schrecengost Action Research

have to get done by unrealistic deadlines. In addition, the fact that it is a larger school faculty
communication needs improvement because it is often unclear as to what is expected of them, etc.
Three out of three fifth grade teachers that participated in the questionnaire agree that time
management and parent involvement is a major challenge for them. In an interview conducted with the 5 th
grade level chair, the teacher stated that as 5th grade teachers they not only have the responsibility to
prepare students for the end of grade tests but they also have the responsibility to prepare students for 6th
grade (Middle School); which leaves them very minimal time for teaching in depth. Parent involvement, like
other grade levels, is a challenge in 5th grade because as students get older teachers observe that the
fewer parents get involved. Additionally, there is sometimes a language barrier between teachers and
parents, which makes parent communication/involvement difficult and almost impossible.
After conducting my investigation I concluded that the one challenge that appears to be similar
across grade levels is parent involvement. Despite the limited number of participation, 18/21 teachers
who participated of all grade levels K-5 agreed that parent involvement is a challenge for them as teachers
and for student success. Additionally, other challenges that K-5 teachers agreed made an impact in their
teaching and student success included: faculty communication, class size, time management, meeting
student needs, and parent communication.
Based on this investigation it is obvious that teachers are presented with a seemingly
insurmountable amount of challenges. As previously stated, some challenges that were discussed in the
interviews were not even a part of the questionnaire, which leads me to ask: What other challenges do
teachers have but may not feel comfortable openly discussing it?

Anticipated Next Steps

Although I decided to complete investigations on three unrelated research questions if I were to continue
to conduct investigation based on this research question: What challenges do teachers face across grade
levels? What are some similarities and differences? then my next steps would be the following:
Select the top 5 challenges chosen from the questionnaire and create a short answer survey for
teachers to complete.
Short answer surveys are to be completed via e-mail or survey monkey for easier data analyzing
Conduct surveys for K-3 teachers only, in order to narrow down the research
Conduct focus groups to dive into more details as to why teachers feel these are the most
challenging aspects
Questions for Peers
What do you think I could have done better to collect data?
Do you think narrowing it down would be a better option? If so, what topic should I have narrowed it
down to?