User Studies: SUSE Focus Groups

Background
Methodology
Limitations
Results

Background
As a member of the Stanford University School of Education (SUSE) I have had the good fortune to work with students in many programs, particularly the Curriculum and Teacher Education (CTE) program. Since most of these colleagues had worked as teachers, their resources needed to be tapped as to what designs could best benefit teachers.

Methodology
24 fellow graduate students in SUSE were invited to participate in a focus group. This list was comprised mainly of masters students and first year doctoral students in the CTE program. Two doctoral students in their third year were also invited, as were three members of the Stanford Teacher Education Program (STEP) who are currently on teaching assignments.

The emailed invitation was as follows:

Hi.
I am looking for former classroom teachers to chat with me as research for my LDT Master's project.

Here's the plan:
COHO
Thursday, April 8
6:00 p.m.

Let's reflect together on how we used to share information and communicate with our kids and our colleagues and maybe do some brainstorming.
Hope you can make it!

As a part of the Learning, Design, and Technology seminar, I was able to have a follow-up discussion after the focus group and stemming from issues raised there. In addition to LDT students, one SUSE faculty member joined the discussion.

Limitations The very fact that these former teachers are now a part of SUSE indicates that they take initiative, perhaps more than the average teacher. The SUSE teachers do, however, represent diverse teaching situations.

Results
The following notes were taken at the official focus group meeting on April 8th and at an informal discussion the week following the focus group. The content of both discussions emerged mainly from the participants in the discussion and happened to touch on the same topics so the resulting notes are presented as a compilation.

teachers are isolated, talk happens only at lunch
typical office behavior is to use the phone but teachers should not be on the phone during class time
need alternative method for "quick, on the spot" communication
public communication (in front of students) is ok by this group

TPD should:

be situated in context

continuous throughout the year

allow teachers control over the content

necessary elements:

scanner or document camera - "ooooh!"

printer - necessary

locate boards in lounge and offices

accessibility from home

work like a blackboard - simple, what teachers know
should be rules for use - e.g. no discussion about students b/c students can see it
internal clock and calendar for send command - automatically knows which board should receive yet teacher chooses only a person's name

scaffold TPD - templates

action research - (make use of Cindy's template?)

study group maintenance

team planning

individual / group goal setting

team development

modeling for students and other teachers
consider privacy issues
be able to find a person during a given moment with a "whereis" type command

possible examples of use:

English class has a science question coming from a short story

meeting with team

cool thing happening - alert others to come see

templates

clipping from a journal to share with colleagues

get colleague to proofread handout for tomorrow

collaborate between English class and History class

secondary functions:

face to face meetings

student collaboration in one room, among rooms, to other schools
ability to annotate scanned documents before sending them - size, text

Enthusiasm for classroom experimentation gathers momentum and direction cumulatively, like a train rushing downhill without obstacle (Rosenholtz 1991).

Enthusiasm for classroom experimentation gathers momentum and direction cumulatively, like a train rushing downhill without obstacle (Rosenholtz 1991).