ACTION RESEARCH—SIMPLIFIED FOR BUSY EDUCATORS

 Why?
o Improvements in education are most effective when TEACHERS have the responsibility of
identifying issues and amending them themselves and in collaboration with each other
 What does action research mean to teachers? Exploring methods to improve their pedagogy and
practices, disciplined inquiry, occurs at all levels; (more deliberate, substantial, and critical reflection
that is documented and analyzed to improve teacher practice)
o Involves action, evaluation, reflection; is cyclical in nature
o Individual, participative, and collaborative
o Situational and context-based
o Want to improve, refine, reform, and problem-solve issues in our institutions
o Reflections are based on interpretations of data
o Findings emerge from classroom experiences, as actions develop and are implemented; it is an
ongoing process
o Seek “facts” and “truth” about reality that can be empirically demonstrated or observed
 Reflection
o To better understand experiences and outcomes
o To be better able to analyze what can/should be improved upon
o To create new knowledge for classroom teachers and inform their classroom actions
o Must also reflect on formal types of knowledge such as textbooks, standards, curriculum,
behavioral programs, etc. to understand the framework within which the changes must
operate while still allowing for exploration and creative thoughts
 What model to use?
o Varies with topic studied—individual, collaborative and schoolwide (partnerships and
collaboration used)
o Shaped by your context, your professional identity, and paradigm (set of beliefs and
assumptions that guide your inquiry)
o Iterative—cyclical steps
 1) Identify problem, 2) Gather background information, 3) Design the study, 4)
Collect data, 5) Analyze and interpret data, and 6) Implement and share the findings,
REPEAT
 Change—Engage—Observe Results—Reflect on Action—REPEAT
 Plan—Act & Observe—Reflect—Revise Plan—Act & Observe—Reflect—REPEAT
 Observe—Reflect—Plan—Act—REPEAT
 Reflect and analyze—Determine general idea of need—Scan the literature—Narrow
the topic—Tentative action plan and consider different strategies—Refine topic—Take
action and monitor effects—Evaluate (Reflect and analyze)—REPEAT
o Flexible titles but should reflect YOUR needs
 What do you look at?
o Student performance
o Teacher ability to execute
o Curriculum
o Teaching strategies
o Assessment
o Affective and cultural needs
 o Socio-economic factors
 Connect action research to experience
o Should be context bound and address real life problems
o Inquiry that uses a collaborative process where all participants’ contributions are taken
seriously
o Meanings/reflections lead to construction of new methods/meaning
o Credibility/validity of action research knowledge is measured by whether the actions solve
problems and/or increase participation/achievement
o What student/problem do you need to focus on; what strategies to use; how to assess
o What previous research supports; what is your research questions
o How to collect data (quantitative/qualitative; pre-test/post-test; baseline/intervention) and
show it (graphs/tables)
o Qualitative methods in face-to-face work while employing data and background
o Quantitative method work when available or useful.
o What are outcomes? What decision can you make? Be open to surprises!
 Examples of Action Research Topics
o Change style in teaching mathematics; instead of giving children tasks using abstract principles,
make links with other subjects in the hopes of encouraging students to see mathematics as a
discipline that could improve understanding of the environment and historic events; improves
pedagogy
o Flexible seat in classroom to increase effective collaborative learning
o Structured homework protocols for increasing student achievement
o Strategies to increase student participation in homework
o Develop a system of formative feedback for writing
o Using music to stimulate creative writing
o Weekly brown bag lunch sessions to improve responses to PD from staff
o Using exercise balls as chairs for better classroom management
o Develop protocol for best practices in teaching argumentative writing
o Did student attendance affect student growth in the area of grammatical errors?
 Action Researchers
o Need to reframe our expectations
o Begin training in pre-service for new teachers
o Can and should encourage educators to be teacher-researchers
o Teachers on the frontline and experience first-hand the needs
o Reach out to university personnel who are also interested in similar areas. Your institution may
create a collaborative with a higher education facility to further your action research.
o Increases classroom effectiveness and efficiency; allows flexibility to address the needs of
students as they change
o Action research vs formal research—more training as researchers, longer time frame usually,
rigorous controls while action research generally addresses more local and addresses more
immediate problems
 Answer these questions:
o What is your problem area?
o What previous research supports what you want to do?
o What is your research question (needs to be manageable—budget, time, skill limitations)?
 o What strategy, intervention, or approach will you use?
o How will you collect and organize your data (quantitative vs qualitative; pre- or post-test;
baseline or intervention, formal vs informal data collection)? (Keep your goal in mind.)
o How will you show your data? (visualization; graphs vs tables)?
o What are the outcomes from the data and what decisions can you make from it?

Allow time for Audience Activity:

1. Provided a scenario have the group determine—

 The problem area

 What research will you look up?
 What strategy, intervention, approach will you take?
 How will you collect and analyze your data?
 How will you show your data?

A) Frustrated teacher wants students to complete homework assignments regularly. Teacher has
experimented with various different kinds of homework but with no improvement. Asked school
curriculum coordinator for help but feels suggestions are not relevant to her setting. Teacher feels
she has unique challenges. Teacher decides to educate her-/himself about different approaches.
B) At-risk students need to be motivated. Do peer-mentoring programs help motivate high school at-
risk students?

2. What are one or two examples of action research that would help you at your school/institution? What
would be your first steps?

ACTION RESEARCH—SIMPLIFIED FOR BUSY EDUCATORS

Improvements in education are most effective when TEACHERS have the responsibility of identifying issues and
amending them themselves and in collaboration with each other. This session will provide clear, concise steps
to use in performing action research that will help you develop strategies/pedagogy for the improvement of
your students' achievement. We will explore answers to these questions: 1) What does action research mean
to teachers? 2) What can we learn from our reflections? 3) What action research model should we use? 4)
What data should we use? 5) How do we connect action research to experience? 6) What professional training
should be provided to encourage teacher-researchers and enhance their skills? Examples of action research
topics and steps will be discussed. Audience participants will brainstorm steps for sample action research
topics. The PowerPoint and Bibliography will be available for participants.