Action Research Information

Spring, 2002

 

 

Purpose: The overall purpose of this assignment is to:

1) familiarize you with action research, a helpful way to address problems or issues that arise in your own future classroom;

2) develop reflective skills;

3) help you expand your teaching practice, and

4) enhance your learning experiences during your internship experience.

Action research is a focused inquiry into some issue or aspect of your practice in order to find out more about it, and eventually to improve upon it or make it more effective. It is a form of self-reflective problem-solving that enables teachers to better understand and solve important issues in their classrooms. A research question guides the process, and teacher-researchers examine this question for their own benefit and the benefit of their students. Questions most often asked by these researchers:

• How can I improve the quality of my practice?

• How can I learn more about my teaching?

• How can I better match my teaching strategies with my values and beliefs about education?

 

 

 

DEVELOPING AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT

Identifying a question

Action research questions come from the concerns of teachers. They focus on the improvement of one's personal practice through an examination of the how and why of practice.

• Consider your beliefs and values about education. Are there discrepancies between what you do and what you would like to do?

• Identify specifically what you want to study about your practice.

--The question should focus on YOU and YOUR PRACTICE. For example, you can study a student or a type of student, but the study should focus on YOUR interaction with the student.

• Describe the benefits of resolving this question.

• Consider the possible modifications to your teaching practice that might result from the findings of your study.

Several strategies can be used to select appropriate questions:

1) Brainstorm a list of questions about teaching that have emerged during your student teaching and observation experiences. Rephrase, narrow, or broaden your questions to make them more appropriate for study. Discuss ideas with colleagues at your site.

2) Read sample projects.

3) Present proposed research questions to your colleagues for suggestions and revision. For example, a question you present might be, "In what ways might the use of a contract system encourage students to complete their class work?" Your colleague might respond that this question simply focuses on what works about the particular practice. They might suggest that a more successful question might be broader or more open-ended--something like "What way(s) might I best motivate my unmotivated students to complete their work in my social studies classroom?" A question phrased in this broader, more open-ended way, encourages the action researcher to consider why the students might not complete their work, the potential effects of alternative strategies for solving the problem, and the researcher/teacher's own role in the situation. Expanding the topic in this way provides a more reflective investigation of the issue of motivation. On the other hand, in order to carry out the research, the researcher will have to narrow the investigation to two or three strategies.

 

DATA COLLECTION

Consider:

• What information will you need to study your question? What evidence will you need to collect to enable you to make a judgment on the outcomes of your practice in terms of the quality of your teaching and your students' learning?

• How will you collect the data?

The recognition of effective teaching is a critical element of learning how to teach, as is being able to identify ineffective teaching practice. Researching your own practice, however, can be an intensely personal experience and can generate a variety of emotions as you study your own classroom for the first time. For example, it may bring to the surface deep concerns about one's adequacy that are painful for some people to examine. Consequently, when selecting ways to study your own practice, you want to use data collection strategies that support you in your search for answers, and help you better analyze the situation.

As you consider what data you will need and how you will gather it, remember that, in your classroom, you can observe behavior and interaction, but you cannot observe what people are thinking or feeling. You can, however, infer what they are thinking or feeling from their verbal and nonverbal behavior or from the written word. Consequently, as you select methods for data collection and analysis, select strategies that fit your study questions.

Some data collection strategies you could use: (

Frequency counts - Use of this strategy serves as the basis for future comparisons. (Counting how many times a certain thing occurs.)

Interviews & Discussions: Before interviewing a selected student, you should design questions. Doing this will help you get answers without asking leading questions. For example, if you want to know why certain issues are being ignored, you might ask - do you have issues that you discuss in class? Why? Once they provide the answer you can begin probing. If your questions are too leading, the interviewee may only feel cornered and may not be willing to cooperate.

 

Observations & Field Notes: Using observation, you could keep notes of what you observe in class and elaborate upon your observation notes once you leave the classroom. While observing, you should focus on whatever activities and interactions might help you find the answer to your chosen question.

Questionnaires: Using this method, you could design a series of questions that would begin to answer your research question. Of course, you would need to design your questions beforehand, and make sure that your questions are appropriate to the teachers, the students, or whoever will provide the responses. You will also need permission from the principal and your cooperating teacher. Remember, you cannot do this at the last moment and expect to calculate the results quickly.

 

DATA ANALYSIS

• How will you analyze and evaluate the data you collect?

• Describe your analysis process and how you expect this process will provide you with the

answers you seek.

Consider:

Time analysis - requires that you note behavior and its duration. Percentages can express relationships between student time-on-task and total class time. For instance, what percentages of class time, are consumed by teacher/student talk? This strategy would be used over time and require collection over time.

Trend analysis - This method involves reviewing data to determine if certain patterns can be detected over time. For example, do you always call on the same students to answer questions? Again this would involve collection over time.

Content analysis - Using this methodology you could examine teacher or student comments if recorded verbatim (using audio/video tape). For example, you might record questions your students ask and explore the types of the responses. Questions that begin with who, what, where, and when tend to draw factual responses, while how and why questions require more complex thinking. You need to decide what questions you are going to ask and why.

What should you watch for or listen to? You will probably be observing yourself, your students in a group, or a particular student. While collecting information from/about yourself and/or students, you should also do some sort of reality check where you check what you think you saw with other people involved. There are ways to ask questions that do not lead a person into simply providing the answer you want to hear.

Your data analysis should lead you to deriving meaning and understanding from the data. In order to make maximum use of observational data, it is important to be able to recognize the significance of what you observe. It is also important to draw from your past coursework and the thinking you have previously done in your classes. Otherwise, you may tend to interpret what you observe solely in terms of your own experience and that would be potentially very limiting.