Formative design

Dr. Dennis visited our class and talked to us about formative design. I like the focus on valuing practitioner knowledge. The pragmatic epistemology also appeals to me.

Formative design differs from action research in its focus on utilizing and developing theory. Differs from experimental and quasi-experimental in that you can modify what you are doing based on what you see happening. It's not quite the same as Mixed Methods.

Part of pragmatism says that even conflicting ideas can be informative. How do conflicting theories come together to inform classroom practice? Praxis is an important concept in formative design.

This approach emphasizes close alignment between theory, research, and (classroom) practice, and it's iterative.

Your approach should be skepticism, not romanticism or advocacy. Your goal isn't to prove your theory is right. You have to balance your beliefs with what is actually working in the classroom.

This is a methodology in its infancy, so researchers working in this area must be explicit in all stages of the research.

Timeline for Formative Experiments

Phase 1: Preliminary phase - recruit schools and teachers, meet with stakeholders, discuss goals, obligations, responsibilities; negotiate plans.

Phase 2: Gather demographic data. Use "ethnographic" methods to create a thick description of the classroom, school, and community.

Phase 3: Gathering baseline data. Establish where participants are in relation to the pedagogical goal prior to implementing an intervention.

Phase 4: Implement the intervention; gather data.

Phase 5: Post assessment to provide comparison to baseline.

Phase 6: Consolidate findings and write it up.

For information on formative design and related issues, see:

Bauman, J., Ware, D., & Edwards, E. (2007). "Bumping into spicy, tasty words that catch your tongue": A formative experiment on vocabulary instruction. The Reading Teacher, 61(2), 108-122.

Johnson, R. B., & Onwuegbazie, A. J. (2004). Mixed methods research: A research paradigm whose time has come. Educational Researcher, 33(7), 14-26.

Reinking, D., & Bradley, B. A. (2008). Formative and design experiments: Approaches to language and literacy research. New York: Teachers College Press.

Reinking, D., & Watkins, J. (2000). A formative experiment investigating the use of multimedia book reviews to increase elementary students' independent reading. Reading Research Quarterly, 35(3), 384-419.

Ivey, G., & Broaddus, K. (2007). A formative experiment investigating literacy engagement among adolescent Latina/o students just beginning to read, write, and speak English. Reading Research Quarterly, 42(4), 512-545.

Dennis, D. (n.d.) Co-constructing the implementation of multi-level texts in middle school science classrooms. Unpublished proposal for research.