Students on the sidelines (collections of "aborigines" and "settlers") will be encouraged to observe the interaction and critique the leaders when they digress from historical accuracy, when they go out of character, and when they do not like what their leader is doing. This, we hope, will open better and livelier discourse among students.

At the close of each day, conclusions will be drawn, including students' answers to the question "What would life be like today here in Australia if this was what actually happened in the nation's early days?"

The instructor will refrain as much as possible from lecturing throughout this process within the experimental classrooms, instead interacting with the role players and student observers in much the same way as the students, but only when deemed necessary. However, when there are impasses, the instructor will ask probing questions to move the process along. That is, he or she will function more as workshop facilitator than as a fount of knowledge.

Analysis

During, or directly following a class, the instructor will record observational notes on such points as:

Group and individual attentiveness

Which parts of the process met with lively student participation, and which had the opposite effect

Evidences of learning taking place

Indications that...

These, the test scores, and student feedback will all go into the final report. As this will be a preliminary study, no statistical analysis will be computed or presented.
Reflection

After reviewing the results collected, upon completion of this module, the instructor-as-researcher will draw conclusions about the results and about the study design -- did the process accomplish what it set out to accomplish, and did the study design provide reliable data to test the hypothesis? Students will also be asked to provide feedback on the process, either in writing or verbally.

Barring unforeseen problems, evaluations drawn from evidential data will show that:

1. Learning took place, or it didn't

2. Learning went beyond mere recitation of facts

3. The process held the students' interest.

All of this data will be compared with similar data collected from the control group.

Reporting

The final class report prepared by the instructor, representing his or her reflections upon the experience, along with recommendations drawn from those reflections, will be presented to school administration for further action. Areas of success and elements of the program that can be improved in forthcoming action plans will both be duly noted.