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11/16/14
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Establishing and Sustaining an Ac5on Research Agenda
COTESOL November 13, 2014
10:15 – 12:00
Envision a future!
Tradi5onal PD
• Workshops & Mee5ngs
• Transi5on of knowledge from expert
• Focus on teaching
Ac5on Research
• Classroom based • Knowledge generated through ac5ons
• Focus on learning
“Taking the ,me to reflect cri,cally on the things we are doing in our classrooms is perhaps the most
effec,ve thing we can do to ensure that what we are doing is having the desired outcomes, and is changing our prac,ce in the ways we want it to.”
(Wenmoth, 2007)
Ac5on Research can…
• Address gaps in knowledge • Replicate knowledge • Expand knowledge • Broaden perspec5ves • Inform prac5ce!
What is Action Research?
• Systematic inquiry conducted by educators with vested interest in
the teaching–learning process or environment for purposes of
gathering information about how their school operates, how they
teach, and how their students learn
• Research done by teachers for themselves
• Systematic inquiry into one’s own practices
• Research then has increased utility, effectiveness
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Riel, 2011
What element(s) of your prac5ce or what aspect(s) of student learning do you want to inves5gate? No ac5vity is worth doing if it is not central to improving teaching and learning!
• 47 Instruc5onal Prac5ces Grouped Into 7 Themes
• Use to self-‐evaluate • Generate ac5on items
Collect and Analyze Data
Use valid and reliable measures. How are students currently behaving/achieving? What story is told by these data?
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Clarify Theories
Iden5fy the values, beliefs, and theore5cal perspec5ves researchers hold in rela5on to your focus.
Iden5fy Research Ques5ons
Generate a set of personally meaningful research ques5ons to guide your inquiry. What will the change be in your classroom?
What barriers come between students and the comple5on and return of their homework?
How can I increase the amount of out-‐of-‐school learning and
studying my students complete?
What would happen if . . .
Would par5cipa5on increase if I grouped students by language proficiency level ? (Are there different interac5on paherns
across groups?)
Could I increase my students’ oral language par5cipa5on by implemen5ng readers’ theater?
Will oral language skills increase if students create podcasts
about the books they read using Garageband? Podcasts will be published to the class website using iWeb every week for one
term.
Broad Topics
• Listening, Reading, Wri5ng, Speaking • Classroom dynamics (kinds of interac5ons) • Grouping arrangements (pairs, whole class, coopera5ve groupings)
• Use of materials • Grammar/vocabulary • Assessment policies/techniques
Take Ac5on
• Plan a course of ac5on. • Refine your prac5ce.
• What will you do differently than you have done in the past?
Collect and Analyze Data Use valid and reliable measures. What will the evidence be that you use to answer your ques5on? How have students’ behaviors’ changed? What story is told by these data?
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• Journals/diaries: regular dated accounts of teaching/learning plans, ac5vi5es and classroom occurrences, including personal philosophies, feelings, reac5ons, reflec5ons, explana5ons.
• • Teaching logs: more objec5ve notes on teaching events, their objec5ves, par5cipants, resources used, procedures, processes, outcomes (an5cipated and unan5cipated).
• • Document collec6on: sets of documents relevant to the research context, e.g., course overviews, lesson plans, students' wri5ngs, classroom materials/texts, assessment
• this stage teachers can decide whether they want to explore the issue alone or withtasks/texts, student profiles, student records. • Observa6on: closely watching and no5ng classroom events, happenings or
• interac5ons, either as a par5cipant in the classroom (par5cipant observer) or as an observer of another teacher's classroom (non-‐par5cipant observa5on). Observa5on can be combined with field notes, recordings and logs or journals.
• • Field notes: descrip5ons and accounts of observed events, including non-‐verbal informa5on, physical semngs, group structures, interac5ons between par5cipants. Notes can be 5me-‐based (e.g., every 5 minutes) or unstructured according to the researchers purpose.
• • Recording: audio or video recordings, providing objec5ve records of what occurred, which can be re-‐examined. Photographs or slides can be included.
• • Transcrip6on: wrihen representa5ons of verbal recordings, using conven5ons for iden5fying speakers and indica5ng pauses, hesita5on, overlaps and any necessary non-‐verbal informa5on.
• What did we intend to do? • What actually happened? • Why did this happen? • What are we going to do next 5me?
Report Results
hhp://gse.gmu.edu/research/lm5p/arp/ex
SMART Goals • Specific
– What are you going to do and why? • Measureable
– How will you know when you have succeeded? • Ac5on Plan
– What steps will you take? • Realis5c
– Do you have a grain size that is manageable? • Timeframe
– When will each phase be complete?
Ethical prac,ce in ac,on research
• Informed consent from par,cipants-‐ students, teachers, parents or others;
• Processes should be transparent – – in the conduct; – researchers accountable for the processes and products of their research –
making these public is part of the transparency.
Ac,on research is subject to the same ethical protocols as other social research.
• There must be an earnest aKempt to ‘do no harm’.
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Example: Wide Reading Study • Action Research done by Estelle
Lara & other 1st grade teachers at Farmers Branch Elementary
• They created their Wide Reading
routine based on ideas from 2 Reading Teacher articles
– Kuhn, M. (Dec. 2004/Jan. 2005). Helping students become accurate, expressive readers: Fluency instruction for small groups. Reading Teacher, 58(4), 338-344.
– Pikulski, J. & Chard, D. (2005).
Fluency: Bridge between decoding and comprehension. Reading Teacher, 58(6), 510-519.
Original Conceptualization • Goal: increase fluency for lowest
achieving first graders • 3 different texts at same level each
week – Chosen by experienced RR/DLL
teachers – Criteria: Story quality and oral
language potential • Increased text level each week
(E à J) • 6-week intervention in spring
(March 4 – April 25) • Students grouped heterogeneously
Outcomes Outcome
Results
PRE POST Levels Increased
?
2 2 0
6 8 1
6 10 2
6 12 3
6 16 5
8 14 3
8 14 3
8 14 3
8 16 4
8 16 4
8 16 4
8 18 5
10 8 -1
10 12 1
10 12 1
10 12 1
PRE POST
Levels Increased?
10 14 2
10 14 2
10 14 2
10 16 3
10 16 3
10 18 4
10 18 4
10 20 5
12 16 2
12 18 3
12 18 3
12 20 4
12 20 4
12 20 4
14 16 1
05
1015202530
Percent of
children
-1 0 1 2 3 4 5
Change in Reading Levels
Increase in Reading Levelsfor English Learners
%
• hhp://archive.teachfind.com/hv/www.teachers.tv/videos/ac5on-‐research.html
(Capture with camtasia?)
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• “The research we do at the local level -‐ collabora5vely -‐ is what makes formal, outside research work. Outside research cannot be installed like a car part -‐ it has to be fihed, adjusted, and refined for the school contexts we work in.” ― Mike Schmoker
