Qualitative MethodsAction Research: Becoming DeliberateYear: TBA
Time: TBA Location: TBA |
Mike Barnett |
|
"Action research is a fancy way of saying let's study what's happening at our school and decide how to make it a better place."
- Emily Calhoun
The audience for this course is expected to primarily consist
of MAT students or in-service teachers who are interested in learning more
about how to investigate and improve their practice. The course can be modified for pre-service students
if the students are either (1) currently engaged in their teaching practicum
or (2) engaged in significant teaching with a supervising teacher.
The only major prerequisite for this course is the willingness
to critically examine your practice and share your work with your peers and
the larger educational community. It is also expected that students be familiar
with communication tools such as e-mail and the World Wide Web as we may make
use of asynchronous conferencing to extend our classroom conversations and
to share other resources
We are currently witnessing a shift
from cognitive theories that emphasize individual thinkers and their isolated
minds to theories that more fully acknowledge the role of the physical and
social context in determining what is known. This shift has provided new visions
of what teacher education should look like and what strategies can best be
leveraged to improve teaching practice. Many teacher educators have grown
dissatisfied with the traditional individualistic approach to teacher education
and have come to recognize that the improvement of teaching is best facilitated through participation
in collaborative learning communities. These communities can be identified
as they afford opportunities to articulate, reflect on, and share teaching
experiences with others (Grossman, 1991; Stein, Silver, & Smith, 1998).
A number of efforts are underway to that bring teachers together in which
they share their teaching strategies, experiences, and reflections (Cochran-Smith
& Lytle 1999; Putnam & Borko, 2000; Thomas,
Wineburg, Grossman, Myhre, &
Wollworth, 1998). A fundamental premise of these initiatives
is that groups of individuals come together with the goal of developing relationships
in which all members struggle with and construct the notions of not only what
it means to teach, but also how to transform current teaching practices to
be more aligned with current national policy (Thomas, Clift, & Sugimoto, 1996). This course is founded upon
this principles that our teaching can best be improved through
discussion, collaborative reflection, and critical evaluation within an open
environment where each person’s voice is valued.
There are many different kinds of teachers in the world.
However, one thing that seems to separate teachers is their ability to reflect
upon and learn from their previous teaching experiences. For instance, there
are those teachers who have one year of experience repeated several times
and those who have several years of experience. The major difference between
these two groups of teachers is the latter group spends considerable amount
thinking about ways to improve their teaching. That is, master teachers are
those teachers that are continuously inquiring into their own practice. This
course is designed to provide you grounding in how to systematically examine
your practice through sustained inquiry.
We know a great deal about good teaching in general (e.g. McKeachie, 1999), but every teaching situation is unique in terms of content, level, student skills and learning styles, teacher skills and teaching styles, and many other factors. To maximize student learning, a teacher must find out what works best in a particular situation. There are many ways to improve knowledge about teaching ranging from personal private reflection, collaborative reflection with peers, and more formal investigations concerning practice and instruction and how current instructional strategies are improving student learning. In recent years action research has become more and more accepted as a valid way of investigating and improving practice. There are many reasons for this growth, however perhaps the most important reason for practitioners is the reduction in the lag time between educational research and its impact on classroom practice. In short, action research is a method of finding out what works best in your own classroom so that you can improve student learning. However, there are a number of different interpretations and meanings associated with action research and we will explore those throughout the course. Further, we will examine how our work as action researchers can inform educational theory.
Topics include an analysis of the different frameworks of action research, ways to identify problems to investigate, the selection of appropriate research methods, collecting and analyzing data, and ways to draw conclusions from the research, and the relationship between our findings and educational theory. The major assignment for the course will be the completion of a mini-research project undertaken in an educational setting in which the student is engaged in professional practice. However, there are other assignments along the way that are intended to support your research project.
During your undergraduate, graduate years, or teaching years, you have learned about many teaching topics. You may have read outside materials on a particular topic, or you may have informally experimented with new methods in your classroom. In this class, you will learn how to conduct research of your own, so that you can make effective decisions about your own teaching situation. You will learn how to systematically review and critique the literature on a particular topic, and how to combine the current research and theory on related areas to come to new and valid conclusions. You will learn how to systematically evaluate new teaching methods in your classroom, or assess what teachers and students are thinking and doing. As an added benefit, you will find that other decision-makers (teachers, parents, and administrators) are more interested in facts based on your research than in your unsupported opinions.
Some other objectives of this are:
My policy on grades is that everyone in the class starts out with an A. However, this does not mean one can take it easy throughout the course. Rather I have very high expectations and expect everyone to keep up with the readings and to be thoughtful and reflective concerning their particular project. Therefore, all that I ask is that you work hard, help one another, work with your teacher and think critically about the readings, your teaching, and student learning. Hence, if you do these aforementioned things your grade should fall into place. However, to help me, in evaluating the following assessment system will be in place for this term.
Course grades will be determined by written work, class participation, and your research project. There are no exams.
| Assignment | Points |
| Initial Letter | 100 |
| Refined Proposal | 300 |
| Article Critique | 100 |
| Group/class participation | 75 |
| Final Report | 500 |
| Research Presentation | 100 |
| Total | 1325 |
| Grading | Points |
| A | |
| B | |
| C | |
| D | |
| F |