Pedagogy

Research Methodology
Research methodology consists of the methods and processes that help in addressing research questions and research objectives. This enhances the knowledge and understanding of research methods. This helps in understanding of the subject matter.

Creswell (2009) has described quantitative approach as one of the approaches which are used by investigators to work on the positivist claims for developing knowledge. This is based on the cause and effect thinking, variable reduction, development of hypothesis and questions, analysis of data, generalisation of data or development of a theory. On the other hand Creswell (2009) defined Qualitative research as a means of exploring and understanding the meaning, individuals or groups ascribe to a social or human problem. The qualitative research process consists of questions and procedures that emerge out of the data which is typically collected from the participants. The data analysis is build from particular to general theme in an inductive manner. Researcher interprets the data and derives meaning out of it. The report of qualitative research is flexible in structure. The inquiry support goes from a way of looking at honors in an inductive cycle. The focus of qualitative research is on the meaning of the data collected and significance is given to the rendering of the complexity of a situation (Creswell, 2009).

Research Data
Quantitative data has been described by Punch (2005) as, empirical information in the form of numbers, produced by measurement. Qualitative data can be defined therefore, as empirical information about the world, not in the form of numbers.

At the same time Punch (2005) says qualitative research material consists of interview transcripts, recordings, observational records and notes, documents and the products and records of material culture, audiovisual materials, and personal experience materials.

However both the research methods have limitations and advantages. Creswell (2009) argues that the personal training and experiences of researcher influenced the choice of the research approach. Creswell (2009) further elaborates that the use of research method also depends on the level of comfort researcher has with various research techniques. The quantitative methods will be used by someone with very good understanding of statistical aspects of the data research process. An individual trained in technical, scientific writing, statistics, and computer statistical programs and familiar with quantitative journals in the library would most likely choose the quantitative design. On the other hand, individuals who enjoy writing in a literary way or conducting personal interviews or making close observations may gravitate to the qualitative approach (Creswell, 2009). Further Creswell (2009) elaborates that the qualitative approach works best where the phenomenon needs to be understood. This also allows exploring various aspects of a concept or phenomenon. This works best in the situation where researcher is unaware of the appropriate variables of the study.

Appropriateness of the Research Methods
Creswell (2003) argues that use of neutral texts, words and phrases and non-directional language can help in avoiding ethical problems in the qualitative research process, He states that the exploration of experiences of individuals should be done and researcher should abide by the law of non-direction in the qualitative research process by the use of words suggesting a directional orientation.

Another topic linked to reviewing the literature which is identified and defined in terms that readers will require in order to appreciate a proposed research project (Creswell, 2009).
In qualitative research, inquirers use the literature in a manner consistent with the assumptions of learning from the participant and not prescribing the questions that require to be answered from the researchers standpoint (Creswell, 2009).

The use of the literature in qualitative research varies significantly.In theory oriented studies, such as ethnographies or critical ethnographies, the literature on a cultural concept or a serious theory is introduced early in the report or proposal as an orienting framework. In grounded theory, case studies, and phenomenological studies, literature is less often used to set the stage for the study.

Deficiencies in past literature may exist because topics have not been explored with a particular group, sample, or population the literature may require to be simulating or repeating to see if the same findings hold, given new samples of people or new sites for study or the voice of underrepresented groups has not been heard in published literature. In any given study, authors may mention one or more of these deficiencies (Creswell, 2009). The literature can be a fruitful source of concepts, theories, and evidence about a topic, but it can also influence how we look at a topic, thereby precluding the development of some new way(Punch, 2005).

Qualitative designs such as case studies (single or multiple, cross-sectional or longitudinal), ethnography or grounded theory may overlap, and elements of these strategies may be used separately or together.
Qualitative studies vary greatly on the issue of pre developed theoretical frameworks, and the place of the study on this substance should be indicated (Punch, 2005).

The qualitative proposal should deal with the questions of how, what and why. Where the sampling policy itself is developing, as in theoretical sampling, this needs to be explained (Punch, 2005).

These two matters here are the instruments (if any) which will be used for data collection, and the procedures for administering the instruments. If the instruments are to be developed, the steps for developing should be shown. If a qualitative study proposes to use instruments (for example, observation schedules, structured interviews), the same commentary applies. Less prearranged qualitative data collection techniques should be indicated and discussed, particularly in conditions of the quality of data issues. For both quantitative and qualitative studies, the procedures proposed for data collection should also be described, and the description should illustrate why these data collection activities have been chosen. Possible threats to the validity of the
data can be indicated here (Punch, 2005).

Validity does not carry the same connotations in qualitative research as it does in quantitative research, nor is it a companion of reliability (examining stability or consistency of responses) or generalizability (the external
validity of applying results to new settings, people, or samples).

Qualitative validity means that the researcher checks the accuracy of the findings by employing certain procedures while qualitative consistency indicates that the researchers approach is consistent across diverse researchers and different projects (Gibbs, 2007).

There are different advantages and disadvantages of each approach. Quantitative data allows standardized, objective comparisons to be made, and the measurements of quantitative research permit overall descriptions of situations or phenomena in a systematic and comparable way. This means we can sketch the contours or dimensions of these situations or phenomena (Punch, 2005).

Research Question
Making correction in L2 students writing is very important and it is of significant concern to L2 teachers and researches. Even by the help of studies, data is available to large range of results,  further research is required to identify and to recognize particularly which type of written feedback is the most important and effective for the subjects with less target language ability  under similar learning environment ( Bitchener, Young,  Cameron, 2005 Ferris, 2002). This study will be mainly focused on root investigation and effectiveness of four major types of written feedback for English as second language (ESL) and it will also give academic advice for classroom teachers and for future research. This present study will be exploring the following research question by the help of a mixed system and methodological approach of both qualitative and quantitative research methods

Quantitative research questions
Do start from low-intermediate level where ESL students who receive no remedial feedback over time improve in written accurateness comparably more than students who consistently receive corrective feedback

Does various kind of written feedback such as content-based commentary, indirect codeduncoded and direct correction assist in the beginning to low-intermediate level ESL students to different degrees in which deducting grammatical errors across whole different types of linguistic categories occur

Qualitative research questions
What are the perspectives of starting to low-intermediate level ESL students and ESL writing teachers toward different written feedbacks (content-based commentary, indirect codeduncoded correction, and direct correction)

How does beginning to low-intermediate level ESL students view regarding how written feedback should be provided and delivered by teachers differ from ESL teachers view

Here the 1st research question will be answered which has been consistently debated in the field of second language teaching which is English and that correcting grammar errors in L2.

The 2nd research question will examine and explain how four types of written feedback provided by L2 teachers influence ESL students excellent usage of grammar writing.

The 3rd and 4th research questions will disclose the deeper insight into both ESL and L2 writing teachers about their views and concerns for particular types of written feedback they receive and give at the time of experimental period and how students and teachers need to know about how written feedback should be provided and delivered.

Participants
Two writing teachers and four classes of ELS students in one community college of South California will take part in this study. English writing skill levels and subject of the students will range from starting based on low-intermediate schools. Students will have different civilization and culture for L1 backgrounds, as the majority of peoples are from Spain  L1 speakers and their age range is from 18-40 years old. Each teachers participation will be written instructions of each of two sections of same writing in class.
These writing instructors will take individual interviews at the end of the study period.

Instruments
According to demographic survey and it will be distributed among students and teachers to collect background information on the participants. All those students who take parts will get a gift and a post-test which will indicate of their overall performances and their abilities and understanding of grammar. During the semester, the students will write five short essays (200 to 300 words each). The first writing task will be collected to identify the five most regularly common occurring grammatical errors, which will serve as the aim of linguistic categories that will be investigation of this study.

All the writing including the first task will be collected by the researcher to check the grammatical mistakes in English and each written feedback will be provided for improving every target linguistic point. All students are required to re-check each writing task and write second draft after receiving the teachers written feedback to make sure that they will proper their utilization of their feedback treatment whatever they get. At the end of the semester, eight students will be randomly selected and that will be two students from each class and they will be personally interviewed by the researchers and teachers and they will try to know the students opinions and perspectives of the other different types of feedback writing which is used in their class room. The teachers will give some general level of grammar test at the beginning to study and to understand their grammar knowledge and error. In this way they can judge their own writings to develop proper knowledge for English. At the end of the semester interview will be applied on all students and teachers and that interview process will be recorded and analyzed by everyone who will participate.

The teachers will be given a general grammar test at the beginning of the study in order to ensure their grammar knowledge and error judgments at a similar level. The end-of-semester interviews will be applied to all the participating teachers, and the interview process will be tape recorded and analyzed.

Research Design
To investigate how different types of  feedback writings affect from starting to low-intermediate level ESL students grammatical errors across pre-determined linguistic categories, this study will divide students who are all participants in four treatment groups. Students of Group 1 will control group and will receive no grammar corrections during the experiment. However, for the ethical needs, the teacher will provide trivial comments or give clear notes at end of every student overall quality and organization on writings. Group 2 students will get indirect coded feedback only. Here teachers will not directly correct grammatical errors of the students writings but here teachers will point out the grammatical errors in symbols and codes to show error requiring correction.

The teacher of the Group 3 will give indirect uncoded feedback, and teacher will just underline the grammatical mistakes in order to make students understand where they are mainly lacking to improve their writings. In Group 4, students will receive feedback directly from their teachers and teachers will also directly show their mistakes in writing tasks.

In this table 1 there are four groups and the particular types of written feedback which will be applied on each group.

Table 1
Types of Feedback Treatment Group
Group 1Group 2Group 3Group 4No Error Correction
w
Content-Based on Marginal Commentary and  End result OnlyIndirect Coded
w
Correction of Symbols
To Identify Grammatical  ErrorsIndirect Uncoded
w
Underlines the Grammar Error Location
Direct Correction
w
Teachers will correct  Grammar Error
Table 1

Note Group 1 is identified as the Control Group receiving no grammar corrections, error identification, or error location.

A pretest demographic survey will be distributed among all students who are participating and at the beginning of the experimental period in order to assess their general English grammar proficiency and gather background information. Group 2 will also receive a pre-lesson to increase their level of understanding of the purpose, and English grammar error codes will be distributed between both teachers and students (Appendix A). The main purpose of these symbols is for the Group 2 teachers and students to identify every type of grammatical mistakes in their writing tasks. All the students will be requested to write second new draft which will be based on teachers feedback.

During the experimental period, every student will get same level and amount of content of grammar instruction in classrooms and in class instruction and schedule of grammar as well as topic will be divided into five short essays and this grammar instruction will be given by researcher and it will be also maintained by them for equivalency of outside factors. 1st writing will be collected by the researchers so that they can find and select five most common grammatical mistakes and target linguistic categories in this study. During this course of the semester, all students will be requested to write five short essays in class. After receiving teachers feedback, the students will recheck their writings and after this they will submit both the original and revised paper of essays to their teacher. A copy of all five short essays from each treatment group will also be assembled by the researcher after the teachers provide the target feedback treatment, and the texts will be analyzed by the researcher and another trained ESL educator to ensure agreement of error identification and categorization.

Data Collection
This QUAN-Qual research model starts with a focus on quantitative data which is followed by the qualitative method. Each student in the four groups will be asked to complete a demographic survey for background information, compose five short essays to investigate improvement in grammatical accuracy over time, and revise each of their writing tasks.  Eight volunteer students will participate in the final one-to-one interviews in order to reveal their deeper insights on the issue of error correction. The teachers will also be required to fill out the demographic survey at the beginning of the study.

All students writing tasks will be collected by the teachers. The teachers will be responsible for identifying grammatical errors (not limited to the target linguistic categories) that occur on students writing tasks and providing appropriate written feedback to students. Copies of all new writing tasks will be gathered by the researcher for data analysis. The researcher will not be involved in the grammar and writing instruction.

Data Analysis
After the students writing tasks are collected by researchers and teachers, the researcher will identify and categorize all the grammatical errors which are made by students and calculate the frequency counts and percentages of each students error, and select five grammatical errors that occur most frequently in first tasks as the target linguistic points for this study. Since the first and second research questions refer to 1 the effectiveness of corrective feedback (Group 1 versus Groups 2, 3, and 4) on ESL students writing accuracy, and 2) which written feedback (Group 1, 2, 3, or 4) tends facilitate reducing certain types of students grammatical errors, each target linguistic category will be measured and analyzed from each writing paper.

As for example, assume in Group 1 students made a total 102 verb tense errors out of 220 verbs in their first writing task. The percentage of the error usage of verb tense in task 1 will be 46.36. In task 2, Group 1 students made 99 verb tense errors out of 220 verbs, which will bring the error percentage up to 45. In Group 2, students made a total 114 out of 253 verb tense errors in writing task 1, which is 45.05 however, they produced 87 verb errors out of 206 verbs in their writing task 2, which is 42.23. Since students in Group 2 made progress of verb tense usage with 2.82 (42.23 minus 45.05) from task 1 to task 2, while students in Group 1 improved 1.36 (46.36 minus 45) from task 1 to task 2, it could indicate that Group 2 type of written feedback might reduce more verb tense errors than Group 1 after receiving the indirect coded corrective feedback. The same procedure will be applied to analyze each writing task to interpret the relationships among the target five linguistic error categories, five writing tasks, and four treatment groups.

Except scores from the grammatical error and each five writings tasks there are two -participant factors in this study
1) Five target linguistic categories, and
2) Five writing tasks.

In addition, there is a four feedback factors between-participant. In order to examine the interactions between effects of individual factors, a frequent repeat one-way ANOVA will be the statistical measurement which is basically used to analyze the target and grammatical error usage and accuracy improvement for each student and lead them to re-write and revise. Inferential statistics will also be applied to provide findings which can be generalized on overall population (Gay, 2009). All the collected texts will be reviewed by the researcher and another ESL educator to reach agreement in error identification.  The results of one by one interview with two teachers and eight randomly selected students at the end of experiment will identify participant input, and through this it can be categorized and coded into themes to respond the research questions three and four. The main purpose of the qualitative interviews is to explore and explain students and teachers insights of each applied written feedback treatment from all different ways and angles and seek out for further interpretation from data

Validity and reliability
Data validity    regularly expressed as a question  how well do these data represent the phenomena for which they stand (Punch, 2005) Overall validity of the research basically piece of research as a whole and refers to different parts of the study which fit together (Punch, 2005).

Internal validity
Internal validity helps in accessing research design study. This is based on the question whether research design is a true reflection of the reality studied or not. Punch (2005) stated that this question has slightly different versions for quantitative and qualitative research (Punch, 2005).

External validity
External validity allows generalization of the research findings study.  The question here is how far the studys findings can be generalized or transferred to other settings.

Descriptivecontextual validity
This refers to the account of the research which is complete and thorough.
Interpretive validity  this asks whether the given account in which research connects with the lived experience of the people studied is appropriate.(Punch, 2005).

For qualitative data, there is some translation of the concept of reliability, and line which rethinks linked with new paradigms.

At the 1st level same questions can be asked for qualitative data as well as for quantitative data
How to make data stable over time And how multiple data sources are used and to find out if they are internally consistent

Till what extent do data converge or diverge

At the 2nd level
To what extent inter-observer agreement is involved in observation data
A related question concerns the early processing and analysis of qualitative data does the check coding show inter-coding agreement (Punch, 2005)

Research Delimitation

Basically  Delimitation means  to draw  boundaries around study, and showing clearly what is included and what not, certain types of things are useful in avoiding misunderstanding by the reader (Punch, 2005).

Ethical Issues

Ethical questions are obvious today in some issues as personal disclosure, genuineness and reliability of the research report, the role of researchers in cross-cultural contexts, and issues of personal privacy with the help of internet data collection (Creswell, 2009). Ethical issues arise through discussions regarding codes of professional behavior for researchers and in commentaries regarding ethical dilemmas and their possible solutions (Punch, 2005).

There are various ethical issues involved in each state of a research. The ethical issues are part of the research process. Researcher needs to avoid any condition that is violation of ethics. These issues start with the initial phases of the research. According to Punch (2005)

Ethical issues in the research problem - writing an introduction to a study, the researcher identifies a significant problem or issue to study and presents a rationale for its importance. During the identification of the research problem, it is important to identify a problem that will benefit individuals being studied, one that will be meaningful for others besides the researcher (Punch, 2005).

Other ethical events during data collection engage in gaining the agreement of individuals in authority (e.g. gatekeepers) to give access to study participants at research sites. This frequently involves writing a letter that identifies and recognizes the extent of time, and possible impact of outcome research. Due to the use of internet responses and through electronic interviews or surveys needs permission from participants. This might be gained through first obtaining permission and then sending out the interview or survey (Creswell, 2009).

In the present study, the information will be collected from the students therefore the gatekeepers of this study are the school administration authority and parents. Researcher will develop a consent letter seeking permission from the parents and authority to get their ward participated in the study. This study is reflection of the ESL and information needed for the study is specific to the teaching and learning.

Part I - On Social Justice

1.1 Introduction
Between the means and the end, a common view on social justice is that it establishes a combined goal and objective this is to say that social justice is posed as the end point, the state in which it encapsulates an effective ideology as represented in practice.  Although such lofty perception is only fair, especially as social justice is perceived to address a multitude of social issues, social justice can be deemed ineffective as an end, but rather it should be taken as the force that determines the means.  The end, in this case, has to be defined according to the social realities today which include the continuous pull of capitalism and the call for individualism, the supposed threat of socialist ideologies, globalization and diversity.  Social justice can therefore function effectively more if designed as a framework and not necessarily as a platform.

What is interesting is that social justice can be considered as a paradox because it can be simplified as the mechanism that is just across social sectors.  However, the definition of just and the dynamics of social sectors have further highlighted the complexity of social justice.  For instance, in Starrs (1991) discussion on the three views of social justice --- conservative, liberal and socialist --- it seems that the premises of each lens is only fair however, in close inspection, the propositions of each of these perspectives can contradict one another.  An interesting proposal by Fraser (2003) suggests an integration of paradigms --- the redistribution of resources and recognition of cultural differences --- as a working means to establish social justice grounds.  Other authors also cited integrative approaches according to current social relevance such as globalisation (Martines, 2000) and the interweaving of global and local policies (Taylor  Henry, 2002).

In the aspect of education, social justice has served as a force that influence policy-making, especially when it comes to addressing accessibility, effectiveness and efficiency.  Evidently, education has been subject to a debate which evaluates as to how education can be function as both ends and means that are representative of social justice.  This generally boils down to the discussion whether education is privilege or a right, and in the context of social justice, the latter is continuously challenged by the greater pull of the former.

Hence, social justice may serve as the grounds for policy-making in education but the issue is that given the social realities today, what is just may need to be redefined.  Although this does not mean that the ideologies get thrown out of the window, what is important is that social justice is modified according to the changing social conditions and the factors that make it relevant. 1.2 The Different Lenses Coming up with a Definition

Many literature admittedly pointed out that social justice does not have a universal definition (Starr, 1991 Gewitz, 2001 McIrney, 2004 Rizvi, 1998).  However, common threads can be cited which defines social justice based on the grounds of fairness and equality.  Basically, social justice can be simplified as an ideology that is meant to bring about good to all (Gewitz, 2001), and how it represents equity trends.

Although social justice can be simplified in these terms, what can be defined as good, the same was as just, is subjective.  For instance, Starr (1991) presented a view on social justice according to the conservative, liberal and social perspectives.  Evidently, the differences among these three set social justice against different backgrounds.  The conservative view, which is founded on the libertarian principles which include capitalism, individual freedom, and free will, suggests that social justice is a means to remedy any injustices that may have emerged from these conditions.  This is to say that the conservative view upholds the influence of capitalism, which, in close inspection, can further polarise the rich and the poor.  There is the idea of capitalism, free will and individual freedom being the priority of the conservative, and social justice can be mostly seen in programs that are supposed to bridge the holes and the gaps as to the discrepancies of the supposed equities of the modern capitalist societies.  The discrepancies and inequalities are due to a persons birthright, but given the opportunities brought by capitalism and the free economy, this somehow gives everyone equal footing.

Although this landscape may seem fair to all, there are still the factors that make society an unequal system, and interestingly, this is also caused by the forces of the privileged.  Economic successes, despite the conservative idea, do not trickle down, and this is especially prevalent in poorer societies (Starr, 1991).  Which is why social justice does not necessarily exist as an essential element of the society, but rather it is an ideology that is pulled out in order to remedy the inequalities.

In a liberal perspective, social justice is expected to at least balance the individualist values of liberalism.  However, the lack of political stance of liberalism would prove to be problematic according to Starr (1991, p. 22), Underlying neutrality is an implicit acceptance of the current social order and a view of the way society should be, which is underpinned before, by a politically fertile ideology.  One cannot be ideologically neutral if one exists within the social order and absorbs and accommodate its values and expectations.  Apparently, to establish social justice, it needs to have a strong political pull because it establishes the relationship between ideology and society.

Last but not the least, Starr (1991) discussed social justice in the context of socialism.  The authors description can be regarded to have given a more workable lens for social justice especially as socialism refers puts social justice in the platform of socialist emancipation which strives for collective emancipation as a social reality, not for competitive individual accomplishments (p. 23) which is emphasised both in the conservative and liberal contexts.  Hence, social justice emphasises more the collective in terms of impact and influence.  However, the problem with this concept is that it overturns the ability of the individual to determine what is best or what is a functionally just society especially as the socialists are the likely ones to have the upper hand as to the definition of what is socially just.

It can be gathered that social justice based on these lenses are caught in the middle of a paradox.  The common ground among these three views can be traced at how social justice is still supposed to work for the people, but achieving it may also mean jeopardising the welfare of other groups, the individuals and the entire collective.  In putting these thoughts in the context of education, it can be easily traced as to how education policies are also caught in the same paradox especially in terms of serving the best interests of the majority.  On one hand, although the majority gets to benefit from the policies of education, what about the rest  Dont they deserve the same amount of benefits as the rest  Is social justice about pushing the welfare of the majority and leaving the rest behind, or having the majority stay put at a certain level in order for the rest to catch up

In putting this topic in a different context, what comes to mind is Frasers (2003) discussion on redistribution and recognition.  The author mentioned that social justice has been divided into two claims the redistribution of wealth and the recognition of the diverse social components that does not require assimilation to majority or cultural norms as a means to achieve respect.  In this case, these two claims can be looked at based on the context of identity politics.  What is interesting is that in close inspection, redistribution and recognition can work side by side mainly because by means of redistribution, there is a sense of assimilation, and by means of recognition, the act of recognition is substantiated.  For instance, immigrants are collectively identified according to their ability to assimilate to the dominant culture, hence, one of the initiatives of redistribution, out of this recognition, is through the design of assimilation programmes such as ESL studies.  In any case, there is always the push and pull as to the degree of what should be recognised (i.e. ethnic and cultural diversity), but at the same time, the aspect of redistribution is still driven by the fact that its main purpose is to establish a sense of equality not only in terms of value and capacity, but also in the context of acculturation.

It can be seen that in education, the redistribution and recognition is all about the intention to achieve a specific balance of acknowledged diversity and acknowledged need for integration.  This is to say that education policies, in the framework of social justice, has been all about recognising the different abilities of the students and at the same time, its curriculum and strategy design aims for a general integration.  What more can an educator want but to have his or her students above the passing grade

Other lenses that tackle social justice can be summarised based on individual rights, the extent of these rights, and how these rights affect others (Rizvi, 1998).  For Luke (1999), social justice can be simplified
through equality.

1.3 Challenges
It can be observed that the problem with social justice is that it seems it does not have a place in the current realities.  Equity in social justice is still limited which basically shows that social justice cannot exist in absolute terms.  For instance, even though Luke (1999) pointed out the importance of equality, the definition of equality needs to be specific in its context.

Social justice in education may be deemed simple at localised levels, but in setting it against the larger scope such as national standards, problems can possibly arise.  For instance, a districts above-average performance may rate poorly on a national scale.  This can be further challenged should performance is set against the international level.  Which is why, as Martinez (2000) suggested, a more global perspective may help in the formulation of more effective strategies should social justice is addressed.

1.4 Reconciling the Differences a Personal Stance
What is confusing about social justice is that as an ideology, it is an important goal that should be achieved, especially with the current state of the world.  Social justice seems unrealistic, but then it can be achievable this accomplishment, however, needs to address the hurdles of social realities especially in terms of the social, political, economic and even global aspect.

My stance about social justice is that at this point, it should be emphasised more as a process in which its design is based on larger goals (i.e. global perspective) with strategies enforced at grassroots level and pace.  In a sense, this reflects Martinezs (2000) point that social justice should be a goal and a process.  However, it should be noted that with this set up, social justice elicits a redefinition, hence, it should not be confined to the ideals of equality and equity.

From this, my stance is that a working definition of social justice, especially in the context of education, is to create policies that are effective, efficient and accessible.  Education should be effective as can be seen in its well-designed strategies following the established mission, vision, objectives and goals.  This effectiveness highlights the need for quality and at the same time, relevance this is where the integration of a more global perspective comes in.  Effectiveness, in this case, should therefore identify the current needs based on the current realities and at the same time, the projected future.

From effectiveness, the other step is to have education be efficient.  This time, it emphasises the processes involved which work hand-and-hand with effectiveness.  Efficiency also takes into consideration the processes needed in order to make education accessible as well.  For instance, this can be seen in programs which enable children that are challenged in certain subjects to have more support and access to remedial courses and assistance.  Efficiency thereby manifests the effectiveness of education.

Last but not the least, accessibility becomes the equity this basically makes education a working product of social justice, but it only works if accessibility is substantiated by both content and process.

Hence, I believe that social justice is redefined not by concept and principle but by framework.  This is because it is through a working framework that translates the concept into more concrete terms that make this ideology both relevant and realistic which will eventually pave the way to equal education outcomes.

Part II - Mathematics and Gender

2.1 Introduction

It is a common perception that the likely person who excels best in mathematics is a male.  Hilton and Berglund (1974) mentioned a study by Macoby that based on an assessment of academic performances in the context of gender, females were found to perform better in verbal and linguistic studies while males had the advantage in arithmetic and spatial aptitudes.  What is interesting is that in this study, the degree of differences did not diverge until late in the grade school years, which would become more evident in high school and then more common in college.  In Hilton and Berglund (1974) study, the authors found that the performance in mathematics is based on the perception of the student, whether male or female, as to the usefulness of math in their professions.  Hence, at that time, more males found mathematics more useful, but this does not discount the fact that although there were fewer females who were as good in math, they can compete as well with the opposite sex.

This notion can be deemed inescapable in a society that has been mostly gendered, skill sets have been also associated whether it is female or male.  Unfortunately, this has also affected the attitudes of the students towards certain subjects for example, engineering and certain sciences are more male whereas liberal arts subjects are supposed to cater better to females.  In the realm of mathematics, such perception has been somehow ingrained as well.

In this specific context, social justice becomes affective of student behaviour.  This educational issue spans the perceptions and the behaviours of both instructors and students, which is why as the executors of the curriculum, instructors need to understand how social justice is applicable even in this particular subject.

2.2 Social Justice and Mathematics
Social justice in the context of education establishes venues in which the students are guaranteed effective, efficient and accessible education which will lead to equal outcomes.  As previously mentioned, even though this sets up an ideal scenario, conditions have made this concept far from reality.  Basically, gender has been cited as a main social justice issue in mathematics especially as there have been the automatic presumptions as to which gender is likely to perform in mathematics better.  Jungwirth (2003) pointed out that as early as the 1970s, feminist movements have been aware of social inequalities due to the prevalence of male-dominated societies.  Even though this can be assumed in the professional field, the education system also became subject to scrutiny whether there was indeed some gender bias in the field.

However, in addition to gender, more studies have also cited additional factors which would further magnify the need for social justice in mathematics classrooms.  Eventually, other factors have been explored such as ethnicity and social class.  Basically, social justice in the context of mathematics education may be due to the fact that student performance in mathematics have been varied, in which case the percentage of above-average and average students are still somehow threatened with the substantial number of students who struggle in the subject.  This is why in looking at mathematics in the context of social justice, it is important to look at the different relevant factors in addition to gender.

What is interesting is that even the notion of social justice as an integral consideration in the pedagogy framework has been put into question.  This is mainly because social justice in education can be inevitably viewed because of its political intent (Atweh, 2010).  Gutstein (2003) also mentioned two points in the exploration of social justice in mathematics instruction how to concretise and factor in social justice in the teaching and learning of mathematics, and how this process is related to the standards enumerated in the general and specific curriculum.

So far, Atweh (2010) mentioned that even though there have been a considerate amount of studies examining social justice and mathematics, the engagement in social justice itself was observed to be lacking, although there have been initiatives in the aspect of policy-making.  The author raised an important point in observation, Perhaps the debate between equal opportunity and the different ways of knowing is a reflection of the need to engage with an understanding of social justice that will allow us to engage in evaluation of the merits and limitations of measures to counteract injustice (p. 47).  From this, it is evident that the main issue between the concept of social justice and mathematics is that their relationship is a challenge to establish mainly because essentially, teaching and learning are not necessarily equal.  As Atweh mentioned, there are different ways of learning, and even though a teacher applies similar strategies, the students as variables can already pose a challenge especially in terms of how their reception towards the subject can also greatly affect their performance.

One way of examining this is one of the common approaches in which students are divided into classes based on performance for instance, classroom A contains the advanced students, classroom B houses the average students and classroom C is for the below average students.  In a sense, this system already determines what kind of instruction these classrooms will receive from their respective instructors.  This system can be perceived to create a more democratic means in instruction because of the degree of education each classroom will receive according to the needs of the students.  However, the question is that, in order for the entire classes to be equalise does that mean the development and progress of classroom A will be jeopardised in order to make room to the progress of classrooms B and C  Or will classrooms B and C go through rigourous processes in order to meet the established standard similar to classroom A

However, it should be noted that social justice is not basically about student performance, but rather it becomes a derivative based on student performance.  This is to say that in the context of social justice, performance is evaluated according to prevailing social factors such as gender, ethnicity and social class.  What thereby makes social justice a growing issue is that apparently, there have been patterns that point out that there are indeed differences in performance and interest based on these components.

These differences are therefore supposed to be resolved by integrating social justice in the mathematics pedagogy this is based on the influence and impact of social justice as explained by Povey (2003, as cited in Christiansen, 2008, p. 71)

To harness mathematical learning for social justice involves rethinking and reframing mathematics classrooms so that both the relationship between participants and the relationship of the participants to mathematics) as well as the mathematics itself is changed.

It can be gathered that mathematics classrooms and instructors are tasked to develop and design a pedagogy that steps outside the conventional notion when it comes to student performance.  What can be highlighted in this concept is how mathematics is not just going to be a subject to measure intelligence and capability, but rather, it is a subject that is meant to arm all the students when it comes to their future roles in the society.  A concept that can enforce this is the idea of ethnomathematics as discussed by Dambrosio (2008).  The author pointed out that mathematics is not just a school subject and a component of some professions, but rather, it is most universal mode of thought (p. 38).  Dambrosio further elaborated how education should be also considered especially in terms of its purpose he enumerated (p. 39)

To promote creativity, helping people to fulfil their potentials and raise to the highest of their capability, but being careful not to promote docile citizens.  We do not want our students to become citizens who obey and accept rules and codes which violate human dignity.

To promote citizenship transmitting values and showing rights and responsibilities in society, but being careful not to promote irresponsible creativity.  We do not want our student to become bright scientists creating new weaponry and instruments of oppression and inequity.

As can be seen from these, dAmbrosios thesis points at how mathematics and education in general have a greater set of goals which are not just directed towards the development of the traditional view on intelligence, but rather education is enforced for the purpose of citizenship.  Social justice in mathematics, based on Dambrosios view, is both the means and the end in the attainment of the greater social goal of peace.  Because it is universal both in process and result, mathematics as education should be therefore directed towards its role in the achievement of lofty social goals.

An example is explained in a study by Goos, et al. (2008) in which the authors looked at a case in Australia.  Goos, et al. examined the presence of community partnerships based on numeracy education these partnerships are participated by schools, families, and communities in order to address and respond to the learning and development of the students for their intellectual foundation.  This program is actually based on a national policy which highlights the importance of mathematics education the Department of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs emphasises, to be numerate is to use mathematics effectively to meet the general demands of life at home, in paid work, and for participation in community and civic life (1997, as cited in Goos, et al., 2008, p. 13).

In this study, Goos, et al. (2008) mentioned how the effectiveness of these partnerships is mostly based on how each program is designed according to the specific needs and conditions of the community.  These differences can be seen in the cultural and ethnic diversity of the community, the differences in the perception on mathematics and community, and the variations of the instructional approaches.  This thereby highlights the diversity of the society which Atweh (2009) enumerated the big 8 factors race, gender, ethnicitynationality, organisational role, age, sexual orientation, mentalphysical ability and religion (p. 113).

Gutstein (2003) pointed out that in order for social justice to work, it is important that policies also include students as part of the solution.  Interestingly, one may look at social justice in the classroom as an instrument for the student, and not necessarily a process which also requires involvement from the students.  Hence, the author suggests that in order to be more effective as an integral part of social justice initiatives, the teacher must also integrate in the instruction how the students view their respective surroundings, especially their communities.  For instance, whether there are gangs in the community or how women are generally treated in their socio-cultural group and family.  Through this exercise, the student is able to have a greater understanding and awareness about these social conditions this underlining substantial meanings of their lives.

How is this therefore relevant in effective classroom pedagogy  An important foundation in performance is from these reflections, the student should then eventually realise a sense of agency.  This is to say that with the awareness about their social conditions, the student is able to accept and understand how he or she can be instrumental to changing and improving the communities.  In addition to these, through the context of social justice, the student is able to establish a better relationship with his or her respective cultural identities.

Such concept, according to Gutstein (2003) can be further translated into effective instructional strategies especially when it comes to mathematics.  Normally, numbers may be perceived to be on a different plane as compared to the social sciences.  However, the author pointed out that in order to have the students feel more involved in the learning process, the sense of social awareness can make them feel more relevant especially if the mathematics instruction is designed according to the context they are familiar with.  For instance, Gutstein mentioned the design of real-world mathematics projects that connected to students lives and experiences (p. 42).

Social justice in mathematics thereby aims to redefine the mathematics beyond the intellectual sphere hence, as a subject, mathematics education should thereby address social factors in order to create a more effective impact among the students.  Although social justice is also about equality, equity and access, applying this in the context of the mathematics curriculum also requires relevance.  This thereby explains the need to explore the social factors involved that may affect the reception and performance of the students, thus issues in gender, ethnicitysocio-cultural background and even social class have elicit inquiries in order to solve the current prevalence of inequalities in term of curriculum, instruction, learning and outcomes.

2.3 Mathematics and Gender Bias Motivational Factors
Catsambis (1994) identified three factors that may have caused a gender gap in mathematics education opportunities, achievement and choice.  It can be observed that these factors are more directed towards a persons end goal which dictates the process.  This is to say that there can be a psychological influence when it comes to the interest of the student towards the subject, and apparently, prevalence is present among genders (Appelbaum  Davila, 2009).

Catsambis (1994) generally points out that the issue is that the applicability of mathematics in the context of opportunity most likely point at activities and tasks that may interest the males more.  However, this is just an assumption but basically, this assumption affect how female students generally perceive mathematics.  Hence, if the opportunity structure appeals more to the males, and this opportunity has strong applications of mathematics, females find underrepresented, thus perceiving that the opportunity is irrelevant to them.  Thus, this highlights the relationship between interests and achievement.

It is important to point out, however, that such perceptions are also relevant depending on the age of the students.  In Catsambiss (1994) study in which the author surveyed 10th graders, it was found that in terms of performance, the female students are as good as the male students and that the perception that females lag behind males in maths can be challenged.  However, interestingly, psychological factors highlight how, despite age and performance, there is a greater amount of lower esteem and confidence when it comes to their perception towards mathematics this may be also driven by the obervation that females are generally less interested in the subject.

However, if it is observed that the general female perception on mathematics is less as compared to the males, does that mean that the traditional approaches to the subject should be maintained  Although this may be true at some point, it is important to note that the trends have been changing over the years.  This is to say that the growing interest in mathematics may be due to its growing relevance not only in the math-intensive subjects as normally perceived such as engineering.  Evidently, as dAmbrosio (2008) previously pointed out, mathematics is a universal mode of thought this can be observed to be especially true today especially with the emergence of the information and digital age.

Such development can be seen in a study by Forbes, et al. (1998) in which it was found that there has been an increase of female participation in mathematics both at secondary and university levels.  However, despite the improvements of the girls performance in the subject (i.e. studies by Couppland  Wood, 1998 Zevenbergen, 1998 and Leder  Forgasz, 1998), the image that associates mathematics with males remain to be strong.  In a study conducted by Brew, et al. (1998) which involved the participation of more than 370 students, males and females rate themselves differently when it comes to their performance in mathematics these ratings are then compared to the ones given to them by their teachers.  Apparently, the males over-rate themselves whereas the females under-rate themselves even though their teachers ratings illustrate otherwise.  What can be gathered from this study is that many students still have a gendered perception about mathematics in which it is still identified as a male domain.  In a similar study by Forgasz (1998), the author explained the presence of gender-stereotypped behaviour and expectations ith respect to mathematics (p. 42).

It can then be seen that when it comes to the issue of gender in the mathematics classroom, the main issue is perception and psychology.  Because this has been in place, this thereby highlights the dynamics of gender, equity and power in the context of mathematics.  According to a study by Johnston (1998), the kind of mathematics education that has been taught has been mostly for the purpose of applying the knowledge for quantification and reductionism, ideas which are mostly associated with the male dominated-world.  Because of this, there is also the aspect of identity in play when it comes to this subject especially as this positions both men and women in a certain place per function in the society.

With these issues at hand, social justice remains to be a pressing issue because this calls for a change as to what mathematics should be.  It is important to encourage a sense of change especially in terms of how the subject is not necessarily gender-oriented or gender-influenced.  Hence, as Fennema pointed out (as cited in Hart, 2003, p. 29)

At the end of schooling, there should be no differences in what females and males have learned, nor should there be any gender differences in how students feel about themselves as learners of mathematics.  Males and females should be equally willing to pursue mathematics-related careers and should be equally able to learn new mathematics as it is required.  The definition of equity as the achievement of equal outcomes offers the greatest promise for achieving social justice.

Interestingly, as Jungwirth (2003) cited a few studies addressing this basic issue, one of the initial solutions was co-education, but this did not bring about solutions in bringing forth balance in the classroom.  In this case, a common means to approach equity in mathematics pedagogy is through gender-sensitive approach in which both males and females receive the same degree of education, attention and interaction with the teacher.  The author pointed out that in this approach, the teacher applies a gender sensitive measure because of the uniformity.  Hence, the teacher  designs the same curriculum for both boys and girls in terms of topics, problems and tasks.  In addition, the teacher also gives equal amounts of social interaction with the students in which the genders are assumed to be equal in principle with respect to their internal conditions to learn mathematics so that it is assumed that interacting with them equally leads to an equal outcome of their achievements, interests and so on (p. 6).

As can be observed, social justice in the mathematics classroom is faced with the challenge in terms of how a teacher approaches and applies effective teaching according to certain gender equality frameworks.  This is to say that give there has been a prevailing norm as the gender bias in mathematics, an instructor needs to address the possibility that in a co-ed classroom, the male students may have the advantage over the girls, and in turn, girls are aware that their male classmates are better in mathematics than them.  Again, this shows that the existence of the general belief affects behaviour and performance.  Although it can be said that there may be more boys who are better in math, this does not discount the fact that some girls can have the same or better grades than them.

This thereby shows how the normal approach to mathematics teaching, which is described above, is probably the safest way to apply gender sensitivity in the classroom.  This time, gender sensitivity is about giving all students the same amount of instruction, material and interaction.  According to Jungwirth (2003), should the teacher notice of some students lagging behind, such case is no longer a gender issue but rather an issue that is specific to the student.  Although this brings up an important point, it cannot be helped that there are some aspects of this set of students that a teacher may eventually take note of, and that is whether these students that need additional attention and assistance are mostly boys or girls.

What is interesting is that in a study by Leder and Forgasz (1998), the authors found that there is a certain effect when classes are split into single-sex groups.  In their evaluation across a number of mathematics classrooms of this context, the authors mentioned that the girls performed better or as good as the male students.  However, this still does not change the perception on the subject as a male domain.

2.4 An Assessment of Studies on Social Justice and Mathematics
As can be seen in the previous section, the examination and exploration of social justice and mathematics step beyond the issue of gender as these also embrace other social factors.  What is interesting is that thse studies seem to emphasise similar points a) there is a variation on the student performance of students b) one of the variables of performance is gender c) there have been notable changes and developments as to the performance levels between males and females in the mathematics classroom d) despite the improvement of female students, there is still the prevailing notion that mathematics are mostly suited more for males.

Very few of these studies actually offered solutions and recommendations, but there is a general consensus that a means to tackle the problem is to acknowledge the real problem the challenge is not because mathematics is a hard subject but rather there are the social forces that can affect a students participation and performance.  These social forces, outside the big 8, also include the greater socio-cultural, -economic and -political factors that can affect the student.  This is why, as Gutstein (2003) suggested, it is important to make mathematics relevant to the students and not have the subject be placed as a mere subject that focuses on quantification and reductionism.

Part III - Action Research Approach

3.1 About Action Research
Research serves as the means to gather data in order to process information that will result to knowledge.  However, knowledge is useless if not applied and translated into a set of actions.  Action research thereby enables the researcher to look beyond the data and the information, and eventually come up with wisdom that will be applied as a means to respond to the posed problem.

In definition, Carr and Kemmis (1986, p. 162) define action research as,
... a form of self-reflective enquiry undertaken by participants in social situations in order to improve the rationality and justice of their own practices, their understanding of these practices, and the situations in which the practices are carried out.

Action research is popular in the field of education especially in terms of policy- and decision-making.  When it comes the design of the curriculum, action research is considered critical especially as there is inherently the presence of social conduct in the educational sphere.  In addition, education is also highly involved when it comes to social issues especially as this requires the development at a greater context.  Given that education is dynamic, especially as this aims to ensure continuous progress and improvement of the students, education is constantly subject to changes as enforced by social forces.

Another important factor of action research is how it is found to be also impactful to the one conducting research.  This is especially important especially among teachers who need to improve and refine his or her actions in order to be more effective.  Furthermore, according to Sagor (2000), action research can be also empowering to the teacher especially as he or she is the primary consumer of the findings (p. 3).  Sagor also enumerated the following steps involved in action research (pp. 3-4)
Selecting a focus
Clarifying theories
Identifying research questions
Collecting data
Analyzing data
Reporting results
Taking informed action

The last step in action research can be considered as an important step especially as the results are translated into a set of strategies.  In education, teachers engage in action research in order for them to find solutions to the identified problems in the classroom. Hence, this shows how this initiative is mostly used in specific settings and conditions that are only particular in that class.  In this case, a teacher may use the results for a specific class or subject depending on the identified needs.

Moreover, according to (Selener, 1997), what makes action research important is the degree of participation that the teacher actually has with this overall inquiry.  As the author pointed, this activity catalyzes practitioners creative potetial by encouraging them to create and apply their own knowledge rathen than merely implement results derived from academic research studies (p. 96).  Because the research is based on their classrooms needs, and that the inquiry can be done through various channels such as reflection which will result to a deliberative action, this approach to research can be deemed more effctive in coming up with classroom-specific solutions.

3.2 Action Research for Motivational Gender Split in Mathematics Academic Success and Social Justice
In the previous section, it was found that the gendered perceptions in mathematics has been caused by perceptions that the subject is male-dominated.  Although in some cases this has not refected in the performance of some female students, a potential issue with this is that this may affect the motivation of the female students to pursue mathematics.  Teachers can be therefore tasked to examine how the female students in their classroom view mathematics, and from there, compare how perception is translated to motivation from the motivational element, the teacher can examine the performance of the student.

This sphere of inquiry can be related to social justice as a component of action research based on the fact that action research itself can provide answers as to how to make the subject in a specific classroom or school effective, efficient and accessible.  Basically, according to Sagor (2000), action research has the following purposes 1) building the reflective practitioner 2) establishing progress in the priorities at school and 3) to build professional cultures.

Through action research, the teacher is able to reflect not only in the performance of the class but also explore the different dynamics at work.  Normally, classes are rated according to grades and standards, but basically, an effective classroom  shows substantive learning and application of the students.  Teachers can therefore reflect on the social justice factor in the class by looking at the effectiveness, efficiency and accessibility of the education.  These elements can be seen in how the teacher is able to come up with measures that are substantial to learning as determined by the set standards, learning as determined by the defined social goals, and learning as determined by the specific goals and objectives of the teacher as influenced by the conditions of the classroom.

In reflective practice, action research begins without a definite focus.  According to Sagor (2000), the inquiry can begin with the teachers general refection about the class.  For instance, if the teacher wants to know why there is a critical variation in participation and performance in mathematics, the researcher cannot automatically assume why rather, through the use of a reflective journal, the researcher is able to determine potential directions of more specific inquiry.

The teacher can apply the reflective activity by taking note of the occurrences in class.  Should the teacher notice that there are certain patterns such as, for example, more male students are actively participating in recitation, this can open the venue for reflection and inquiry that can become the subject of the research.  The action, eventually, is to make sure that the female students will be also as active as their male classmates.

Action research also includes more involvement with the subject.  The teacher can therefore conduct interviews and surveys which can further help the daily reflections as based on the happenings in class.  These data can then help the teacher understand and explore other issues which may not manifest in the classroom but instead another issue seems to more evident in test scores and overall performance.  Hence, there is a strong participatory aspect among the students in this research.  In fact, the teacher can also ask certain students to get involved in the research in order for the students to be also aware of their own social and educational practices (Kemmis, 2007).

Hence, in the mathematics classroom where it requires an inquiry as to the gender gap in terms of performance and motivation, it is important for the teacher to also explore the motivational factors of the students not only in terms of their participation but also their perception towards the subject.  As previously mentioned, although there have been female students who perform well in mathematics, the perception that it is a male domain remains to exist (Leder  Forgasz, 1998 Forgasz, 1998 Catsambis, 1994).  Although these studies establish a reality about mathematics classrooms, it is important to test this in a specific classroom.  As noted, trends may change over the years, thus many female students may have better motivation to participate and perform better in math.  In this specific research, the teacher should note of potential motivational elements in addition to perception such as, for example, the increasing interest opportunities among the female students towards opportunities that have a strong mathematics utilisation.  At the same time, it is also important to compare these information with the motivational forces among the male students.

In the reflective practice, the data can be gathered through direct inquiry or interaction with the students, and then by means of observation.  A reflective teacher thereby looks across the many sources of competencies among the students, and with effective observation, the teacher may even point out certain patterns and trends that can contribute significantly to the ongoing inquiry in this field.

From the gathered data, the teacher is now able to evaluate and come up with deliberate action.  With action research, it is integral that after the knowledge, a set of strategies and tasks are formulated.  When the teacher comes up with a set of results, solutions are then designed and applied.  In action research, the teacher can thereby deliberately impose changes in order to encourage a certain set of results andor behaviour (Kemmis, 2007 Selener, 1997),

In applying deliberate action in this particular action research, especially in the context of social justice, the teacher is then able to consider social factors as influences to the overall motivational and performance dynamics in the mathematics classroom.  In this case, the teacher may consider how female students motivation and perception may be affected by how females are generally viewed in the community.  Another possible example is that females are less motivated to study mathematics because their environment influences them to study subjects that are supposed to be irrelevant to mathematics such as liberal arts and domestic sciences.  From these results, the teacher is now able to come up with actions that may be also influential to the overall school and community dynamics. In this case, solutions and actions can possibly step outside the classroom.

Social justice in action research thereby help point out issues that are not only exclusive inside the classrooms.  Given that mathematics has been so far a male-dominated subject and practice, it is important to determine how female students respond to this.  Although at the eighth grade level many female students may be more determined to do better in mathematics, it is important to establish among the students, inside the school and inside the community that mathematics is universal and is not gendered.  Hence, encouraging students to be more open towards mathematics is a good motivational step especially should the teacher open all the students minds when it comes to the relevant opportunities, achievement and choice.

3.3 Important Notes on Action Research Ethics and Education
Since action research can open venues for more open and direct inquiry between the teacher and the student, it is important to take note of the ethical requirements that should be applied during the entirety of the activity.  The first step is for the teacher to inform the participating students the purpose of the research and what will happen after the research.  This is especially important especially if this will impact the students in the future. The second step is to define the boundaries of the research such as the teacher making it clear that participation does not lead to better grades.  Another boundary is to establish the degree of participation of the students such as the amount of time required in the participation and what kind of information that they can divulge.  Third, it is important to inform the school and even the parents of the students about this research.  This is especially important if the research requires direct involvement, and for example this may require the students to spend some time on the research or the students are required to certain access such as a computer with Internet access.  Hence, this protocol is an important practice that every teacher should not forget.

Last but not the least, the teacher should take note of the implications of the research especially should the data eventually lead to community-wide action.  This is possible if there is a strong social justice factor involved that may be outside the sphere of gender.  In this case, should the teacher decide to take the research and the action to the next level, it is important to have the school involved in order to gain support before bringing the issue to the community.

4.0 Implementation of Two Cycles of Action Research

4.1 Overview
Physical activity can be observed to be integral in any school curriculum.  In addition to giving the students the opportunity to step outside the classroom and get some exercise, physical activity has been actually found to be beneficial to the overall learning development of the students.

Physical movement and brain development have been associated together as critical components to the overall learning of a student.  Biological and physiological evidence show how the physical activity contributes to brain development by helping it prepare for the learning process.  As Feinstein (2006, p. 373) further explain

The brain and body connect to navigate the environment by predicting, planning and executing physical movements.  The brain uses this framework to sequence, order, practice, and rehearse cognition.  Being physically active prepares the brain for learning by increasing oxygen and glucose to feed the brain nutrients and by integrating, organizing, and energizing key components of brain function through physical activity.

Many studies have therefore supported the importance of physical activity to maintain excellent brain conditions how this affects learning is, however, based on the physiological benefits of physical movements to the brain.  This is to say that physical activity can help a person learn better because of the improved conditions of the brain, however, whether this affects the motivation, participation and engagement to learn still needs to be explored.

4.2 Cycle One
4.2.1 Overview
The action research tests the connection between physical activity and motivation, participation and engagement as precursors to effective and positive learning.

The connection between physical activity and motivation, participation and engagement has been found in the tasks themselves.  This is to say that getting involved in physical activities such as exercise and sports are connected to motivation and determination.  These two factors are mostly for the purpose of getting into and committing physical activities (Markland  Ingledew, 2007).  Moreover, physical activity is found to bring about a sense of achievement especially as these tasks set certain goals.

Based on this, it can be gathered that regular physical activity can help an individual develop his or her own practice of motivation, participation and engagement.  It can then be hypothesised that this concept can be applied in learning.

4.2.2 Set-Up and Metric
This concept is tested in an eighth grade class consisting of 12 boys and 12 girls.  The hypothesis is that greater involvement in physical activity can result to better motivation and participation in learning.  What is interesting in this set-p is that it can be easily assumed that girls tend to shy away from physical activity, thus, based on the hypothesis to be tested the girls may perform less as compared to the boys.

To test this, the following metric is designed as follows
In a class of 12 boys and 12 girls, each student is given an identifier B1, B2, and so on for the boys, and G1, G2, and so on for the girls.

Boys and girls are observed according to their participation in a physical education class.  Through this observation, notes are taken down as to their degree of participation in the PE class such as enthusiasm, participation, sportsmanship, etc.

The students are then observed based on their performance in other classes based on participation and performance.

The distinguished students are then identified six will be chosen from each.  From there the students are compared.  Based on the hypothesis, students who perform well in PE can also demonstrate a similar degree of performance in other classes.

The results then look at the gender differences.
This measure is a simple to way to look at whether performance in PE is comparable to performance in the regular classroom.  In a sense, this determines how participation in both areas work hand-in-hand with each other.

4.3 Cycle Two

4.3.1 Results
Based on the testing, it was found that there were certain inconsistencies based on PE performance and classroom performance.  This is to say that there are some students who show excellence both in PE and in the classroom whereas there are those who perform better in PE but are more on the tail-end when it comes to academic classroom performance.

The breakdown of the results is as follows
Classroom Performance (Boys) B3, B4, B6, G1, G3, G10, G12
PE Performance B2, B3, B4, B7, B10, G3, G7
Classroom and PE B3, B4, G3

The results show that the difference is not substantial enough to demonstrate that boys perform better than girls, and that they represent the physical activity and learning performance relationship.  What is interesting, rather, that classroom performance is more dominated by the girls rather than the boys.  In this case, this shows that although physical activity is integral to positive learning, the assumption that girls getting lesser physical movement does not follow that they are not as competitive as the males when it comes to learning and classroom performance.

4.3.2 Analysis
Although the results showed that greater physical activity does not necessarily result to better learning performance and demonstration, this does not discount the fact that physical movement is integral to better learning conditions.  When it comes to the aspect of gender, it cannot be easily assumed that just because the girls perform less than the boys, they are not armed with the same degree of motivation and determination.  This goes to show that there are other factors to consider.  Hence, when it comes to establishing the relationship between physical activity and learning, the connection is there but it cannot be gendered in measuring motivation, participation and engagement in learning as compared with physical movement.

A Lesson Plan for Teaching English Verb Tense to Hearing Adolescents whose first language is American Sign Language

Gestural indicators, including nonverbal communication and sign language, comprise ninety-three percent of communication (Communication, 1997). Hearing children whose native language is American Sign Language (ASL), such as those students whose parents are deaf, have unique differences, advantages, and challenges to their cognitive language processes which affect their education as English As a Second Language (ESL) students - despite varying levels of comfort with the spoken and written English language. This paper will analyze and propose approaches to teaching these students verb tense through the skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. After careful observation of which teaching method is most efficacious in the respective forms of communication, this paper will implement a detailed lesson plan following the approach with the best success rate as measured by the students retention over time. The program will incorporates principles of teaching practices from Brown (1988), which includes samples and a proposal for instruction of these unique English Language Learners (ELLs) in the macroskills of reading and writing.


The American Guide to Common Tense
A Lesson Plan Concerning English Verb Tense for Native Signing Adolescents

Over seven hundred high schools in the United States now offer American Sign Language (ASL) as a foreign language. In 2004, there were thirty-two secondary schools offering ASL as a foreign language in the state of Virginia alone. The number of high school students in such classes in Florida and Texas was eleven to twelve thousand (17). Clearly the tide of the perception of the differences between ASL and English is turning (Rosen, 2008).

Ninety-three percent of communication is non-verbal of that large portion, fifty-five percent of nonverbal communication utilizes facial expressions to convey intent (Communication, 1997). In William C. Stokoe and the Gestural Theory of Language Origins, Wilcox explains the building blocks of language small, representative units which join to form the semantic phonology of words, sentences, and whole conversations. He also asserts that gestures are language. He writes

Gestural theory unites language and gesture, it unites perception and conception, and it unites the represented world of objects and events and the representing world of words and grammar. Semantic phonology is the means by which the unification takes place (Wilcox, 3).

Of the fifty-five percent of instinctive, socially-programmed, and linguistic gestures involved in nonverbal communication, thirty-eight percent of this type of communication is interpreted by vocal cues (Wilcox, 2009). This presents a problem for hearing children raised in a signing environment, where the need to listen, speak, read, and write is minimal and even nonexistent in some households, such as those in which both parents are deaf. Thus, the need for an integrative approach to the formation of the English as a Second Language (ESL) lesson plan that pays specific attention to the needs of children raised in such an environment. Careful analysis is essential for cognitive development in hearing children primarily exposed to American Sign Language rather than verbal tutelage (Rosen, 2008).

Literature Review of Macroskill Approaches and Brown Principles
Total communication is one of the latest developments in ASL linguistic education. The research indicates that the simultaneous use of residual hearing, speechreading, fingerspelling, spelling, and signs comprises the most efficient means of receiving information for young children. Contrary to the popular belief that manual communication limited the effectiveness of oral training, the research has surprised many and reinforced the argument for the use of total communication (Moores, Weiss,  Goodwin, 233).  Two things are clear. The first is that Total Communication is currently the most effective form of education for signing students, and it should be combined with the Situational Learning method to produce an environment of comfort, ease, and interest as they learn abstract concepts. The second is that Browns twelve principles are particularly sensitive to the precarious identity crisis of these teens-  between childhood and adulthood, in between English and ASL (and all of the politics that accompany those differences), and in between the cultures and communities of the hearing and the Deaf people.

Verb usage, in particular, is complicated for the hearing native signer, because verbs are simple in American Sign Language and tense is irrelevant. In sign language the time frame comes at the beginning of the sentence. Instead of saying I ran yesterday, a native signer would literally sign Yesterday I run. Verbs themselves are always present-tense unless stated otherwise. Conjugated and auxiliary verbs, in general, must simply be memorized, because the Interlanguage Principle can only connect contextual words to generate an impression of time for example, in any sentence being signed, there is no conjugation of the tense of the verb. Rather, such words as tomorrow in American Sign Language, implies the act was completed in the past in English grammar. However the complexity of the language becomes even more apparent when the use of auxiliary verbs are used. An example in verbal English would be the sentence I was running yesterday when The auxiliary verb of was sets the context in the past but the usage of the present tense running is often very difficult to understand for non-native speakers. The two tenses seem paradoxical at first, but with enough training, the grammatical intricacies can be understood with proper tutelage. Even the syntactical order of verbs is different subject, direct object, and then action verb.  Furthermore, deaf parents themselves have varying levels of fluency in American Sign Language, and- in cases where native signers linguistic competency is below their peers English attainment capacity  the disadvantage of native signing children is not in the inability to hear but in the differing syntactical phrasing that can only be mastered through linguistic exposure (Marschark et al, 2007).

Brown proposes that there are twelve principles which a teacher should strive to fulfill. Of these, we will focus primarily on Meaningful Learning (purpose-bound education), Strategic Investment (selective combination and application of different methodologies and approaches), Language Ego (sociolinguistic personal identity), Self-confidence, Risk-taking, Language-culture Connection (sociolinguistic interpersonal identity), Native Language Effect (the imprinting of ones primary language upon future language acquisitions), Interlanguage (translation of additional language concepts to familiar concepts, or bridging the linguistic gap), and Communicative Competence (clarity and ability to relate) principles.  (University of South Queensland, 2010).

As we explore the macroskills of listening, speaking, reading and writing, we will apply these concepts to the proposed lesson plan. It should be noted that the goal of each methodology should be to incorporate as many of these principles as possible, but none of the methodologies or learning theories have encompassed all twelve thus far.

Listening
For the purposes of this paper, we will refer to speech-reading also as listening. The auditory method places heavy emphasis on listening and discourages reading and writing. Browns principles are evenly matched on this methods efficacy. For those hearing signers who wish to remain within the Deaf community, Meaningful Learning and listening may prove contradictory. Functionality- more so than methodology- is important to the success of the unit, so Strategic Investment is a make or break aspect of lesson planning. The auditory method embraces the very responsive, participatory, and expressive aspects of the auditory method- but falls short-sighted by limiting its scope predominantly to listening (Moores et al., 1973 USQ, 2010).

It has been established that whether one is investigating a visuogestural sign language in (deaf) native sign language users, or a heard spoken language in native speech users, similar regions, comprising left superior temporal and parts of the inferior frontal lobe are reliably active. To paraphrase, gestural and spoken languages both share similar linguistic and cognitive brain activity (Campbell  Capeck, 771). The input-feedback process is as important to their educational development as it would be in any child.

Speaking
Some of the same objections to the emphasis of listening or speech-reading apply to speaking. For children with some residual hearing or Cochlear implants- or for those who were late-deafened- their self-confidence with speech may be higher than their classmates. For hearing students raised in verbally-silent households where sign is the primary means of communication, common cultural aspects of the tempo, pitch, slang, and other customs of speech are unfamiliar to them. The principle of Self-Confidence for these students is paramount to their level of acceptance of the material and, consequently, takes on a vital importance.

The cognitive approach, which advocates a rule-based education, is not appropriate for the comprehension of the differences between English and ASL culture and tense. We may use our previous examples of the auxiliary verbs can and will, as can swim or will swim. This would be an advisable methodology for elementary education but not for Middle School or High School students, whose cognitive level has long-since surpassed the age of simplistic explanations. The particular principle that we are referring to is Interlanguage.

However, if the cognitive approach were to be melded with Elliss first principle, which says that instruction needs to ensure that learners develop both a rich repertoire of formulaic expressions and a rule-based competence, then this accepting method of teaching writing would be beneficial (Ellis, 2008, 1).

Reading
The schema process (as discussed in our Week 7 PowerPoint) of reading takes an interactive, top-down approach to language acquisition. It explains background, structural framework, and cultural knowledge (which, in turn, aids in the students Interlanguage cultural transition). Reading increases familiarity with vocabulary. A reader who is unfamiliar with insider- or native- vocabulary can infer the meaning of an excerpt by piecing together the bits that they recognize already. Consequently, reading is a visually-reinforcing aspect to vocabulary retention. As we learned in the Module 6 PowerPoint of our coursework, frequency, range, needs, coverage, regularity, and learning burden are vital items in the education in a second language. Reading effectively blankets these items in an interesting, confidence-building way.

One experiment studied the cognitive linguistic development of deaf and hearing children. The results displayed that both sets of children retain information better when they read material than when it is signed or read to them. Furthermore, signing students scored higher on the recognition of main ideas but lower on testing of details. From as early as six years of age, native signers ability to contextualize is constantly challenged. Reading, then, is more a dilemma of Communicative Competence, of a teachers ability to translate material from one perspective to another (Marschark et al., 2007).

Writing
Situational language teaching is perfect for teaching ASL. Likewise, if you use this method to connect verb tenses, the native ASL signers will be able to culturally connect with and appreciate what may be the most comfortable method of learning for them. New signing students in American Sign Language are often dismayed by the common No Voice policy. However, the situational language instruction is more engaging on a personal level and entertaining (because it often involves a one-person silent skit or face-to-face communication). Furthermore, it utilizes the Language-Culture Connection, Interlanguage, and Risk-Taking principles in a relatively low-pressure environment.

Frequent reading and writing builds a level of comfort with vocabulary and conjugations which the students might never have heard before. However, at least for the native signers who wish to maintain the established language ego of American Sign Language, English is used primarily as a formal means of communication outside of the Deaf community (USQ, 2010). Accepting and capitalizing upon the close connections of the Deaf community members is necessary to the encouragement of English language usage in all forms.

My Combined Approach
Because the benefits and disadvantages of the many forms of approaches are contradictory, my lesson will mainly focus on Total Communication and Situational Learning. However, making sentences simple and concise will ease the transition into the use and supports the Grammar Translation Method, and speaking clearly and enunciating will ease the transition from the seen to heard. MRI studies have shown that signing students have higher activity levels of activity in the left superior temporal cortex, the portion of the brain that analyzes the movements of the mouth as interpreted through speech-reading (Campbell  Capeck, 2008).

As a whole class we will cover the unit with students being called on to find their own examples also and exhibit their understanding and critical thinking progress on the subject of verb tense. In Enhancing cooperative learning in TESOL teacher education, positive interdependence, individual accountability, face-to-face promotive interaction, social skills, and group processing are cited as the requirements of effective peer cooperative learning This especially true for the Junior High age group for which we will be developing a lesson plan, because this is when the adolescent shift from family to social groups begin (DelliCarpini 2009). The adolescent years are largely focused around social and interactive concerns and organization (USQ 2010). Group learning is not used frequently enough or according to the five standards and requirements that are listed above. For those teachers who tried to properly apply cooperative learning to their lesson plans, the three most common limitations to its use were a lack of comfort, a lack of support from other teachers, and negative experiences related to classroom management (2009).

These limitations are countered by one of Browns principles risk-taking (Ellis, 2008). If the teacher does not lead by example, then no one will follow. Native signers are largely either ignored altogether or are exploited as guinea pigs for methodologies that are indifferent to their cultural and linguistic viewpoint. Risk-reward behavior is a practice for teachers, too.

Part B
2 READING and WRITING Verb Tense Lesson Plans
LANGUAGE American Sign Language to English
 Year  age group level of proficiency Junior High Varying Proficiency
TOPICTITLE Verb Tense Conjugations              LESSON LENGTH 30 minutes each
Aim The students will establish and hone the skills that are needed to properly identify tense and ably identify, name, and use past, present, and future tense verbs while building vocabulary and establishing comfort in a relatively low-pressure class environment.
Relevant prior learning knowledge Read Ray Bradburys A Sound of Thunder. (The link to a printable booklet version is provided before the lesson plan.)
Teacher preparation Printed and stapled booklets of A Sound of Thunder and key point reiteration hand-outs
Resources Website for printing the Bradbury short story booklets httpwww.onebee.commediaPDFA_Sound_of_Thunder-Ray_Bradbury.pdf

Language Learning Objectives, Activities, and Outcomes Pre-Task
Ask the students what they like to do. Select one of the verbs at a time and ask for volunteers to tell you how, in English, you would conjugate the word for past, present, and future tense. Keeping Browns principle of the Native Language Effect in mind, you should begin by putting it simply Okay, swim is a good verb. Using swim, how would you say that you did that yesterday... Yesterday I ______ . Concentrate on creating the link between ASLs priority of tense verbs at the beginning of the sentence and key words within the context of English sentences (USQ, 2010). Further examples and vocabulary will be provided in the A Sound of Thunder lesson. This is the confidence-building warm-up portion of the lesson.
The Sound of Thunder Tense Verbs Unit of Reading and Writing

GIVEN EXAMPLE
Read the following sentence from page two We guarantee nothing, said the official, except the dinosaurs (Bradbury, 1952). In a sense, this example refers to the past, present, and future, but students should be able to identify which tense is being applied in the situational context of the excerpt. While the students will listen to the reading and speak about the reading, the emphasis is still upon reading to come to their own analysis of the text and of verb usage. Writing should be reserved for the notes of all information written on the board and so will be ensured to be correct.

Language Learning Objectives, Activities, and Outcomes Task
After the Pre-Task phase is completed, ask the students to find other verbs in the short story. If there are no volunteers, then the ice can easily be broken by refreshing memory with a short synopsis of The Sound of Thunder.

The Sound of Thunder Tense Verbs Unit of Reading and Writing
Ask for volunteers again. If there are still none, then offer more examples. On page 9, Travis said, There he is. Theres His Royal Majesty now (Bradbury, 1952). This is a perfect and simple introduction to stative verb is and its use in contractions. If the students are still confused about these variations of the stative verb is, then select a student to read the two sentences in the context of the two paragraphs before and after it as well.

LESSON TWO READING AND WRITING
Review the selection. The students will then generalize about the action of the selection, and be informally quizzed about the situation in the two particular sentences of the example above. At this point, they should be ready to demonstrate their understanding of the intended meaning of the sentence and grasp the details that indicate and comprise verb tense and have a solid foundation for the further exploration of verbs. (Any examples- whether located by the teacher or the student- should be read aloud and the verbs should be identified.)

The class will then be polled (by show of hands) on the tense as past, present, and future. Everyone should remain facing forward. This will alleviate some of the uncertainty (as recommended by the Self-Confidence principle) and create an Interlanguage personal involvement and identification with English and the new possibilities of a dualistic Language Ego.

Discuss how they come to an understanding of tense. Are there key words Write the following list on the board and ask that the students identify more possible examples either from their own experiences or from the literature. It is important that the students be able to identify the use of ing and ed endings and certain auxiliary verbs as an indicator of verb tense.
Then, past, historic, once, last, yesterday
VERBS did, had, was, looked
Now, present, current, still, today
VERBS do, have, am, look
One day, future, hopefully, someday, tomorrow
VERBS will do, can will have, will be, will look

Language Learning Objectives, Activities, and Outcomes Post-Task
The Sound of Thunder Tense Verbs Unit of Reading and Writing
The students should be able to infer from key words and verb conjugations when the action is happening. This is where the teacher must engage the students imagination once again.

Review the first pre-task example chosen by a student and informally quiz them on the proper forms of the verb to mean yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Continue the recap by reviewing their selections, as well as the contraction usage of Theres. An example from ther text (on page 4) Christ isnt born yet. Reiterate that a person am and an object is I am sitting on a chair that is way too small for me. Next, create sentences from the list of key tense words that you came up with together. See if they can identify when the action occurred and further identify what tense that time frame implies. Be sure to briefly explain the importance of this concept as a matter of courtesy and professionalism and to reward the students for their successful inferences. Development of their Language Ego will be vital to their perception of English and to their development of self-confidence, but clarity and understanding of the differences between the signing and mainstream cultural and linguistic quirks aids in successful achievement of Communicative Competence.

Although the time machine of this story is still a subject of science fiction, provide a bridge into the next unit of your Ray Bradbury Readings and Modern Grammar unit through the use of the teaser, i.e. the next futuristic Bradbury literature may not sound so far-fetched. This teaser will also provide a hint at the meaningfulness of the unit in the perspectives of History, English, Grammar, and Technology.

Finally, discuss the changes in the sign on page seventeen. Ask 1) What has changed, 2) Why do you think it changed, and 3) How does the change in language reflect a social change  Point out- if no students do so first- that Bradbury writes about the chemical taint of the air (Bradbury, 1952). The students should be able to identify the incorrect spelling on the sign and the implications involved and be able to navigate seamlessly through the different time settings of the short story.

Language reflects culture. As the students learn English, they are given the choice to choose or move between mainstream American or Deaf culture. The point is that they now have the choice without much fear of embarrassment- with self-confidence.  These are the Risk-Taking and Self-Confidence principles of Brown, arguably two of the most effective to use to educate native signers on the acquisition of English. However, when teaching English to those fluent in ASL as their first language, the principles involving language and culture are vital to successful outcomes and mindful application of the principles of Meaningful Learning, Strategic Investment, Language Ego, Language-Culture Connection, Native Language Effect, and Interlanguage principles will aid inthe development of Communicative Competence. Without first establishing such a principle of competence, Risk-Taking and Self-Confidence are beyond a teachers grasp.