- 156 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
Engaging in Action Research
About This Book
You don't need a tweed jacket to be a researcher â in thousands of schools across North America, practising teachers conduct studies on best practices, alternative approaches, and effective learning strategies. Classroom teachers have experiences and opportunities unavailable to researchers in a university setting, and action research â site-based, teacher-conducted research â can have a valuable impact on the educational community.
Yet many teachers don't see their work as real research, and many other teachers have great ideas for research projects but don't know where to begin. For these teachers, Engaging in Action Research demystifies the world of educational research and provides support, guidance, and encouragement. From creating a research plan to reporting findings, this book provides step-by-step instructions to help teachers conduct research projects in the classroom, using strategies that work. Get ready to investigate, analyze, and share!
Frequently asked questions
Information
1 You as researcher
Essential Questions
- Why do many teachers and school leaders find research daunting?
- How can this book help?
Chapter Purpose
- To present research as a doable task
From âout thereâ to âin hereâ
But Iâm not a researcherâŠam I?
Pamela: Focusing on Home ReadingPamela has taught in a number of primary classrooms over the past twelve years. Her colleagues affectionately call her classroom âthe other library.â Over her career, Pamela has amassed a sizeable classroom-reading collection that she uses with her students. She is a staunch believer that students should develop strong reading skills early in their school career, and, as a result, she implements instructional strategies and structures aimed at this goal. Over the years, she has begun to sense a decline in the amount of reading that students are doing outside of school. Didnât it seem like just ten years ago students were reading more at home than they are today? She is curious to see if her insight is more than just her singular perspective, and she hopes to help children read more and better. Are her colleagues also noticing the same trend? Has there actually been a drop in reading, or is it just a decline in the traditional practices that she associates with reading (such as curling up with a book alone or with an adult)?Martin: Flipping the ClassroomMartin is the head of the mathematics department at a large urban high school. He works closely with six colleagues who share his passion for algorithms and problem solving. Over the past three years, this group has informally debated issues related to their individual instruction and the schoolâs math program in general, often leading to sharing best practices and resources. The latest topic dominating their professional dialogue is the concept of the âflipped classroomâ: moving instructional components of teaching to online forums for students to access outside of class, and using class time for homework and practice with support from teachers and peers. Basically, the concept is to âflipâ when teaching and homework happen. A growing number of schools are successfully using flipped classrooms, and the concept is interesting for this relatively progressive department. Martin is interested in exploring this concept with another member of the mathematics department, effectively developing a two-person team to investigate its merits. Could the flipped-classroom concept become a model for effective mathematics instruction in their department? Could it work for other subject areas at their high school? What have other schools done with flipped classrooms that has improved student learning? Finally, what should Martin and his colleagues do to get parents on board with a pilot of this innovative concept at their school?Janice: A Collaborative Coaching ModelJanice is an instructional coach. For the past four years, she has worked with teachers in a relatively small rural school district. Her role involves modelling lessons, supporting teachers with differentiated instructional strategies, designing assessments, and anything else aimed at improving teacher effectiveness across the schools she works with. Janice has found that she is most effective when coaching teams of teachers, rather than individual teachers. Although coaching individual teachers accounted for the bulk of her job in her first two years, she is now coaching more teams than individualsâand Janice has discovered that working with teams has led to greater collaboration within schools, more peer support that relies less on her involvement, and expanded coaching expertise at each site. She has also found that her time is more effectively used. She knows that most surrounding districts, and her colleagues in similar roles, still heavily focus on one-to-one support. She has begun to write about her experiences working with teams, rather than just individuals, on her professional blog. Other districts have approached her to lead professional development in this area.Although Janice feels that she knows the benefits of team coaching, she is really interested to hear the thoughts of teachers she has worked with. Are they experiencing benefits from team coaching? Did those who received individual and team support have a preference, or feel that one method had a greater impact on their growth? What key elements, learned from coaching her colleagues, would be most beneficial to share with other instructional coaches?Paul: A Cross-district ApproachAt a meeting of district superintendents, Paul discusses the growing population of English-as-a-second-language (ESL) students with a group of four superintendents and associate superintendents. Each district has engaged in multiple strategies and initiatives designed to support this student population, but with varying success. Overall, the groupâs sense is that no one is successfully meeting the needs of their ESL learners. Rather than continuing to address this issue in their geographically determined silos, Paul suggests that the districts pool their resources to investigate the issue together, determining what practices really make a difference in schools across their districts and researching best practices from other jurisdictions. The informal group of leaders agrees to schedule a meeting to explore their ânapkin ideaâ further, inviting the key personnel in each of their organizations to attend.
The rewards and challenges of research
You can do this
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Contents
- Chapter 1: You as Researcher
- Chapter 2: Introducing Action Research
- Chapter 3: Starting a Research Plan
- Chapter 4: Completing a Literature Review
- Chapter 5: Designing Your Research Method
- Chapter 6: From Plan to Action
- Chapter 7: Managing Your Research Project
- Chapter 8: Collecting Your Data
- Chapter 9: Analyzing Your Data
- Chapter 10: Reporting Your Findings
- Chapter 11: Pacing Yourself
- References