RES 5040: Teacher as Researcher (spring 09)

Data Story: Athletics and Education

The last two weeks has been a very eye opening experience about data collection and learning new things about athletics and education. I guess the first thing that has really caught my attention is how much detail and time I have to put into the data collection. I have done six interviews last week and spent afternoons observing different athletes. The interviews took place at 7:15 each morning and the observations of practice were after school each day. I have found out for myself that I have to be very effective with my time and energy. I seem to have a common bond with two of the athletes, where the other two grew up in a different manner than myself.

I interviewed Donovan at 7:30 am, and talked to him about many things that are going on in his life and his education and sports. I was very intrigued by the amount of pressure this kid feels when playing sports. He has always felt that he needed to be the best to please his father and brother. He has over the last three weeks had a major change in his life. Three weeks ago he went through a very tramadic experience with the death of his father. He has since then picked up a tutor for his math and Biology class to try to keep up with his work. It was very reassuring listening to him talk about how even though his dad was gone he wanted to do even better in his academics to make his dad proud. Donovan talked to me openly about how he didn’t really try his best in class and he knew that if he tried as hard in the classroom as he did when he played basketball he would do much better. I went and observed Donovan in his Advanced Studies class and I noticed that he seemed very tired and was having a difficult time in paying attention to the teacher. I don’t really know what caused this, but during the next interview I would like to ask him what time he goes to bed, how practice time effects that, whether he sleeps in other classes, and find out detailed things that could get me more insight. I would like to go back and observe him during a class later in the day to see how he is.

Another interview and observation that I really enjoyed was with Coach Bradley and it took place at 3:00 in his room. Coach Bradley seemed to be very influential in his players education. He had the students in his room for a 45 minute study hall while we were doing the interview. This study hall is maintained three days a week during the sports season. He talked about how he uses coaching as another teaching tool in helping his students to succeed both on and off the field. He said his team always has one of the highest GPA’s in the school and he believes it is because of the study hall and the after school work he makes them do. Later on we went to the practice field where I watched an hour of the practice. Coach Bradley was very positive in working with the students and stayed on them pretty hard to continue to work to get better. He wanted to see improvement everyday. I feel like Coach Bradley is a very good role model for these soccer players and stresses the importance of their school work. I have heard other teachers comment on how nice it is to have those students working after school.

As I continue with the data collection, I will need to conduct a few more interviews to try to understand some of the things I saw. I am very much looking forward to understanding what makes student athletes succeed in the classroom.

Scott Harrill