teacher action research workshop 2: framing the study
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Teacher Action Research Workshop 2: Framing the Study. EARCOS Teachers’ Conference 28-31 March 2012 Donna Kalmbach Phillips, Ph.D. Pacific University, OR USA. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Teacher Action ResearchWorkshop 2:
Framing the Study
EARCOS Teachers’ Conference 28-31 March 2012
Donna Kalmbach Phillips, Ph.D.Pacific University, OR USA
This interactive workshop is designed to guide participants through the first stages of developing an action research project:
problelmatizing practice, finding a topic, developing a critical question, choosing a study design, and connecting critical literature to an
action research study. Participants will work towards designing a draft
action research proposal.
Teacher Action Research: Process Workshops
Framing the Study
Discover an Area of Focus
Develop a critical Question
Research Design
Literature Review
Trustworthy Action Research
DesignData Analysis, Interpretation
Research Design
Triangulation
Criteria for Trustworthiness
Data Analysis Fundamentals
Ongoing Analysis:Cycle & Strategies
Final Data Interpretation
Going Public
………………………………………………………Critical Questions……………………………………………………………
Researcher Dispositions
Finding a Topic
Problematizing Practice – Cluster 1
Problematizing Practice – Refining Cluster
Problematize the Cluster: Critical Colleague Interview
•Share your cluster with a critical colleague.•Describe an experience that might best illustrate the focus behind your cluster.•Critical Colleague listens hard for the following:
• Assumptions• Beliefs, biases• What might be missing or may be overlooked.
(What other problem sources, possibilities may exist?)
• Synthesize what you hear as the “real” focus or question.
Developing a Critical Question Important to you Within your sphere of influence
Contains a good idea Authentic
Focused Compelling
Supports a mission/belief/value Benefits students
Informs your work Is your work – not outside your work; will be meaningful to you and your students
Evolution of a Critical QuestionHow can high school chemistry students learn to study more effectively?
The question is too broad.How would you define study skills?What does effective look like?Why do you want students to study more effectively? For what purpose?
Will teaching my HS chemistry students study skills enrich their understanding of the content area?
Getting closer…Study skills is a broad area that has different meanings for different people. Define “study skills.” Why these skills? What is within your sphere of influence?
How might the use of graphic organizers, quick draw chalkboards & review games increase my HS chemistry students’ content vocabulary?
Question is more focused. Specific study skills are identified. Purpose is clear. Possibility for meaningful results.
How will this question guide the study?
Give it a try:Draft a possible critical question based upon one of your clusters.
Sharpening the Critical Question
What attributes of an online small group learning environment engages students most effectively?
What factors contribute to engaged online small group learning? What
characteristics must be present to foster engaged small group learning in an online discussion course?
What factors work together to create an environment where individuals engage in online discussion in critical and informative ways?
What factors work together to create an environment where individuals engage in an online course to foster meaningful discussion and learning?
What factors work together to create an environment where individuals in an online course engage in active and meaningful discussion?
What makes EDUC 632 click or not click?
Sharpening the Critical Question
1. Write your current CQ in the middle of the page or workspace.
2. Identify 1-2 words or terms in the CQ that seem ill-defined, vague, too broad, or otherwise problematic. Circle.
3. Start with one of the words/terms. Draw a line away form the word/term. Brainstorm about the word/term. Clarify, question. Narrow or broaden. Rewrite. A CQ should act as scaffold, not a fortress.
4. Continue to work through the question.
Research Design & the Critical QuestionIntegrated Action Self-Study Ethnography Curriculum Analysis
To specifically “try out” a teaching method, practice or approach in order to address a concern or to improve student learning: an intervention
To deliberately focus on self as the teacher (role, talk, actions) in order to address a concern or to improve student learning.
To better understand an issue, dilemma, situation – a study of culture and/or dynamics.
To analyze curriculum, based upon the literature in the area, to ascertain strengths, weaknesses that can be addressed during implementation.
What factors work together to create an environment where individuals in
an online course engage in active and meaningful discussion?
How does my online talk, individual and group responses, and emails influence an online discussion course?
Will the inclusion of online live small group chats serve to further
engage and sustain an online course?
What text qualities most
encourage small group online discussions?
?
Ethnography
Self-Study Curriculum Analysis
Integrated Action
Research Design & the Critical Question:Revise CQ according to design-type
Integrated Action Self-Study Ethnography Curriculum Analysis
To specifically “try out” a teaching method, practice or approach in order to address a concern or to improve student learning: an intervention
To deliberately focus on self as the teacher (role, talk, actions) in order to address a concern or to improve student learning.
To better understand an issue, dilemma, situation – a study of culture and/or dynamics.
To analyze curriculum, based upon the literature in the area, to ascertain strengths, weaknesses that can be addressed during implementation.
What gets to the heart of what you want to study?
Paradigm (beliefs):It influences CQ, theory & research consulted, research design & data
analysis & interpretation
(Make your paradigm transparent!)
Teacher Talk in the Teacher-Student Writing Conference
Paradigm Critical Question Research Design Focus
Research Design
Humanistic(fixed identities)
How does teacher talk influence student writing success?
Teacher’s talk Specific kind of talk to remedy deficient student writing.
Postmodern(constructed identities)
How is dialogue in the teacher-student writing conference socially constructed?
Teacher’s talkStudent’s talkPower DiscoursesSocial factors
Identify discourses; clarify how power works; adapt talk to construct students as writers
Post-Material-Feminist(entangled identities)
How is the teacher-student writing conference a construct of discourse & the material?
Teacher’s talkStudent’s talkPower DiscoursesSocial factorsSchedule, class arrangement, writing tools, etc.
Identify entanglements. Consider any intervention as it reacts with discourse & matter.
Literature (distant colleagues), the CQ & the Research Design
Literature:TheoryResearch
Refines CQ
Informs Research Design
Guides Data Analysis/Interpretation
(Par
adig
m, B
elie
fs, T
each
er E
xper
ienc
e)
Context
Drafting an AR DirectionWorking draft Critical Question
Research Design &How This Reflects My Beliefs
Theory/Research I Need to Read
What factors work together to create an environment where individuals in an online course engage in active and meaningful discussion?
Ethnography: Study will analyze entanglement of attitudes towards technology; discourse; texts as intervention; technology as active agents; teacher input, all as intra-action.
Clusters of research to read:Online learning research – specifically, “discussion”Some research on social networking applied to educationTheory: post materialism
Drafting an AR DirectionWorking draft Critical Question
Research Design &How This Reflects My Beliefs
Theory/Research I Need to Read
Where we are in the AR Process
AR Data Interpretation
Revisit, review: reread ongoing data analysis & memos
Create mind maps,charts, and/or timelines;
generate categories
Expand your interpretation
Apply layers ofinterpretation
Return to the questions
Draft synthesisStatements
Interpretation Scaffold
Telling the Story
Prewriting AudienceKey Points“Thick Description”“Results”LingeringQuestions
Going PublicWeb pageBlogConferencesPractitioners’JournalsNewspaper &Letters
Critical Questions
Critical Questions
Discover an area of focus
Literature review
AR Design
What I willdo in my AR
Project?
What data will I collect?
How will Icollect the data?
How will I organize
the data?
AR Plan &Timeline
Becoming a Teacher Action
Researcher
Clarify Critical
Questions
Collect Data Set
ObservationsArtifacts
Interviews
Researcher’s Journal
On-Going AnalysisOrganize and readthe dataThink about the dataChart, free write,cluster process the data in theresearcher’s journalUse AR question as guide
Write AR memoDraft synthesis statements
Questions
AR Data Analysis
PracticingAR
Teacher Action Research: Process Workshops
Framing the Study
Discover an Area of Focus
Develop a critical Question
Research Design
Literature Review
Trustworthy Action Research
DesignData Analysis, Interpretation
Research Design
Triangulation
Criteria for Trustworthiness
Data Analysis Fundamentals
Ongoing Analysis:Cycle & Strategies
Final Data Interpretation
Going Public
………………………………………………………Critical Questions……………………………………………………………
Researcher Dispositions