Transcript Studying One’s Own Practice through Action Research

Studying One’s Own Practice
through Action Research
Ruth Heaton
College of Education and Human Sciences
Department of Teaching, Learning and
Teacher Education
• What is Action Research?
• How does Action Research fit with Math in
the Middle?
• What do Action Research questions look
like?
• What might Action Research look like in
your setting?
What is Action Research?
Action Research is the systematic,
intentional inquiry by teachers about their
own school and classroom work.
• Systematic means ordered ways of
gathering and ordering data.
• Intentional means planned rather than
spontaneous.
What is Action Research?
• teacher research
• teacher inquiry
Action Research is a process of inquiry.
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Identify an area of focus.
Formulate a question.
Collect data.
Analyze and interpret data.
Develop an action plan.
Generate new questions. . .
Where did the idea of Action
Research originate?
• 1940’s and 1950s in USA:
Stephen Corey and Kurt Lewin
• 1960’s and 1970’s in Great Britain and Australia:
Lawrence Stenhouse and John Elliott
Stephan Kemmis and Robin McTaggart
• 1980’s in USA:
New teacher research movement in writing and
literacy
Why is Action Research important in
teacher development?
• Marilyn Cochran-Smith and Susan Lytle
Inside Outside: Teacher Research and
Knowledge (1993)
• A traditional view of professional development
implies transmission and implementation of
knowledge from outside to inside schools. (p.xiv)
• Teacher research interrupts traditional assumptions
about knowers, knowing, and what can be known
about teaching. (p.xv)
• Teachers play important roles in generating
knowledge and in deciding how knowledge
ought to be interpreted and used. (p.x)
• Teacher research is a form of social change
wherein individuals and groups labor to
understand and alter classrooms, schools,
and school communities. (p.x)
Action Research
• redefines the notion of knowledge for
teaching
• changes the locus of the knowledge base
• alters the practitioner’s stance in relation to
knowledge generation in the field
Why do Action Research?
• The goal of Action Research is to
understand what is happening in your
school or classroom and to determine what
might improve things in your context.
Criteria for Action Research Studies Using Language
of Traditional Research
• Action Research does not need to be generalizable. This
means that your findings do not to apply to any other
setting than your own.
• Action Research does need to be valid. Do these data
really measure or represent what we say they do?
Consequences for students can sometimes be severe when
important educational decisions are based on invalid
instrumentation, data, or theories.
• Action Research does need to be reliable. Your methods
of measurement need to be accurate. An instrument is
unreliable if each time you use it you get wildly different
results.
Action Research and
Math in the Middle
All Math in the Middle teachers will do Action
Research beginning in Year 2 of their involvement
in the project for the purpose of:
1) Learning about one’s own classroom, school, or
district in ways that are related to mathematics
teaching and learning;
2) Sharing what one learns with others;
3) Developing one’s capacities as a teacher leader.
Learning to Do Action Research
Math in the Middle will offer two courses
that integrate learning about statistical
content with learning about action research.
The courses will be taught by instructors
with quantitative and qualitative research
experience. Instructors will have expertise
in the analysis of data and action research.
The Action Research Process
• Identify an issue, theme, or problem.
The issue, theme, or problem may evolve
from previous inquiries into practice or
emerge from coursework, assessment data,
or your current classroom or school
situation. At this beginning stage of
development, THINK BIG.
Formulate a question
• Select one small part of your issue, theme,
or problem to generate an Action Research
question. Consider your own limitations.
Research small.
Do a Literature Review
• Your knowledge of research related to your
Action Research question should be
thorough, broad, and deep.
• Reading should be extensive in search of
overall trends, controversies, and current
thinking about your issue.
Gather Data
• What do you already know about this problem in your own
setting? What have you already observed about the issue?
Is there existing data gathered for another purpose to
support your study?
• Gather existing and new qualitative (e.g. interviews,
observations, recordings of interactions) and quantitative
(numbers to quantify cause and effect relationships) data.
Analyze Data
• Consider both qualitative and quantitative
data.
• Use correct and appropriate statistics.
• Use correct representations for the statistics
you choose to use.
• Identify themes and patterns in qualitative
data.
Answer the Question
Based on the results of your qualitative and
quantitative data analysis, draw conclusions
and, if possible, make an informal inference
related to your question.
Identify Limitations
• Internal limitations are those factors in your
that control may have affected your results.
• External limitations are those factors out of
your control that may have affected your
results.
Reflections and Learning
• Identify next steps, personal learning and
insights into the project.
• Identify changes, challenges, new
perspectives, and ways to do things
differently.
• Identify new problems that surface and may
be new Action Research projects.
Sample Action Research Project
Comprehending Problem Solving Tasks:
Retelling as a Strategy for Helping First
Graders Understand Mathematical
Language
By Elizabeth Miller, Hardwick, Vermont
Examples of Action Research
Questions
• How do these questions differ from one another?
• How are the questions similar?
• How might questions generated by teachers in
Nebraska be similar to and different from
questions generated by teachers in Vermont?
• How might questions generated by rural teachers
in Nebraska be similar to and different from
questions generated by teachers in non-rural areas
in Nebraska?
Action Research Planning Guide
1) THINK BIG.
2)
.
Think small
3) Think about complexities of your own
situation.
Samona Joe
(5th and 6th grade math and science
teacher in a middle school in
Philadelphia)
Samona Joe’s Questions
• What role does power as played out in differences
of gender, race, and class have in my teaching and
my students’ learning?
• What do I do as an educator to address issues of
race and racism in current educational policy and
practice?
• How does awareness of race and racism inform
my evaluation of my students’ performance and
learning and my own growth as a teacher?
IT’S A JOURNEY. . .
ALL ARE WELCOME