Educating Incarcerated Youth

Does the use of non-traditional teaching and learning strategies improve engagement and achievement of incarcerated youth? This is the question that I would like to address in my research. Many students who are currently incarcerated underperformed while they were enrolled in traditional school settings. Most students continue to perform poorly academically during incarceration. Some teachers who work in the juvenile system have explained to me that their students are not engaged in class and often struggle to make academic gains. There are many external factors, including living in confinement, illness, anxiety, fear and abuse, that may contribute to why students are disengaged in class and fail to make academic progress. This research will focus specifically on the teaching and learning strategies that are being used in the classroom and examine whether or not these strategies can contribute to keeping students engaged and to students making progress in their learning.  

I will address this research question by defining and providing examples of  traditional and non-traditional teaching and learning strategies. Since the research addresses both engagement and achievement, I will collect data to address these two areas. In order to address the engagement portion, I will observe classrooms to see if teachers are using non-traditional teaching and learning strategies. I will observe to see if students are engaged in cases where non-traditional teaching strategies are being used and compare that data to engagement in classes that use traditional strategies. I will have a list of actions to check for during these observations.  I will also collect and compare data on student performance in classrooms that use traditional and non-traditional teaching strategies in order to address the achievement component.

In addition, I plan on making this an action research by involving my classroom in the study. I plan on using non-traditional teaching and learning strategies.  I will have my colleagues observe my classroom to collect data on engagement. I will also compare my class data on student performance with data for students in classes that use traditional teaching strategies.  

    Finally, I will survey students and administrators to find out the classes they find engaging and why. I will compare this information to the data that I collect during my observations.