ACTION RESEARCH

Trudy Thorson & Kendra Beliveau

ED 800

November 19th, 2012

ACTION RESEARCH

 “Action research is characterized as research that

is done by teachers for themselves”

(Mertler, 2009).

 Teachers examine their own

classrooms, instructional strategies, assessment

procedures, and interactions with student learners

in order to improve their quality and effectiveness.

WHAT ACTION RESEARCH IS AND IS NOT

What it is… What it is not…

• A process that improves

education through change

• Problem-solving

• Collaborative • Doing research on or about

people

• Cyclical • Linear

• Practical and relevant • Conclusive

• Within context of teacher’s

environment

• Generalizing to larger

populations

• How we can do things better • Why we do certain things

• Explores, discovers and seeks

to find creative solutions

• The implementation of

predetermined answers

• A way to improve instructional

practice by observing, revising,

and reflecting

• A fad

VIDEO: ACTION RESEARCH MADE SIMPLE

 Action Research Made Simple

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qg83f72_6Gw

Key Characteristics

 Addresses Real Life Problems

 Constructs Knowledge

 Promotes Change

 Collaborative / Participatory

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qg83f72_6Gw

A BRIEF HISTORY OF ACTION RESEARCH FERRANCE (2000)

 Kurt Lewin, a social psychologist and educator, first

formulated the idea of performing research in a “natural”

setting in the 1940s.

 No distinction between the research study and the

problem to be solved.

 Proposed that research should be cyclical rather than

linear.

 Stephen Corey was among the first to use action

research in education and he stated the following:

We are convinced that the disposition to study…the

consequences of our teaching is more likely to change

and improve our practices than is reading about what

someone else has discovered of his teaching (Corey,

1953, p. 70).

MODELS AND TYPES OF

ACTION RESEARCH

MODELS OF ACTION RESEARCH

 Many models exist but all share the same basic

principles which are:

 A central problem or topic

 Observation or monitoring takes place

 Collection and synthesis of data

 Some type of action is taken

 Next stage of action research (varies)

ACTION RESEARCH INTERACTING SPIRAL ERNEST STRINGER (2007)

LEWIN’S ACTION RESEARCH SPIRAL (MERTLER, 2009)

CALHOUN’S ACTION RESEARCH CYCLE (MERTLER, 2009)

BACHMAN’S ACTION RESEARCH CYCLE MERTLER (2009)

RIEL’S ACTION RESEARCH MODEL (MERTLER, 2009)

PIGGOT-IRVINE’S ACTION RESEARCH MODEL MERTLER (2009)

TYPES OF ACTION RESEARCH (FERRANCE, 2000)

STEPS IN ACTION RESEARCH

STEPS IN ACTION RESEARCH (FERRANCE, 2000)

STEPS IN ACTION RESEARCH FERRANCE (2000)

 Identify a problem area

 Meaningful, attainable and within teacher’s influence

 Higher order question that is specific and concise

 Collection and organization of data

 Portfolios, interviews, photos, diaries, field notes, videos, journals, case studies, checklists, surveys

 Appropriate, easy to collect, and readily available

 Triangulate data (i.e. use three or more sources)

 Organize to identify themes; can be arranged by gender, classroom, school, grade level, age, etc.

 Interpretation of data

 Analyze and identify major themes

 Quantitative or qualitative

STEPS IN ACTION RESEARCH

 Action based on data

 Use the data collected complemented by current

research to develop a plan of action

 Alter only one variable

 Document and collect data during action phase

 Reflection

 Evaluate the results

 Was the intervention successful? Can the positive

results be directly attributed to the variable addressed?

 If unsuccessful, what could be done in subsequent

attempts to elicit more favorable results?

UNDERSTANDING OUR LEARNERS AND DEVELOPING

REFLECTIVE PRACTICE: CONDUCTING ACTION RESEARCH

WITH ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS

SOWA (2009)

 The study outlined action research projects of six

graduate student teachers in an ESL Methods Course.

Three projects are described in the paper and we will

outline one of these to show how it reflects the steps of

action research.

 Identify the Problem

 Students were not able to make “connections between

the sound symbol relationships necessary for word

decoding in reading and spelling” (Sowa, 2009, p.

1029).

http://www.sciencedirect.com.libproxy.uregina.ca:2048/science/article/pii/S0742051X09000985

UNDERSTANDING OUR LEARNERS AND DEVELOPING

REFLECTIVE PRACTICE: CONDUCTING ACTION RESEARCH

WITH ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS

SOWA (2009)

 Gather Data

 Reading assessment: Pre- and Post-Tests

 Work Samples

 Interpret Data

A reading pre-test was used as a baseline

Student samples showed beginning writing and spelling

strategies

UNDERSTANDING OUR LEARNERS AND DEVELOPING

REFLECTIVE PRACTICE: CONDUCTING ACTION RESEARCH

WITH ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS

SOWA (2009)

 Act on Evidence

 Re-teach phonemic awareness to try to improve ELLs

reading, writing and spelling skills.

 Taught phonics in context

 Worked on spelling strategies including letter-sound

relationships and letter-sound combinations

 Evaluate Results

 Work samples indicated an improvement in spelling and

reading but only a slight growth in reading.

 The reading post-test showed improvement amongst

students to decode words and recognize miscues.

ACTION RESEARCH: USING WORDLES FOR

TEACHING FOREIGN LANGUAGE WRITING BARALT, PENNESTRI, & SELVANDIN (2011)

 Used Mackey and Gass’s (2005) explanation of action research as framework for study.

 A very comprehensive research report which includes three sections:

1. Explanation of data visualization as a learning tool (creates a rationale for the research study)

2. The action research report conducted by the authors using Wordle

3. The outcome of the project and suggestions for how educators can use word clouds in foreign language classrooms

 Context: 18 students in an intermediate-level Spanish FL class at a private research university who met for 50 minutes three times a week. Four compositions were to be written during the semester and students were expected to be able to: present information formally with an introduction, provide supporting paragraphs and a conclusion; use accurate grammar; and use instructors’ feedback in their writing. The expectations were clearly communicated to the students.

http://llt.msu.edu/issues/june2011/actionresearch.pdf

ACTION RESEARCH: USING WORDLES FOR

TEACHING FOREIGN LANGUAGE WRITING BARALT, PENNESTRI, & SELVANDIN (2011)

 Identify the Problem

 Two main issues in students’ writing:

1. Continuous repetition of errors

2. Reliance on high frequency words without attempting

to use new vocabulary in writing

 Data Collection

 Word frequency counts from students’ compositions and

a whole-class-based word cloud.

 Teaching reflection about the class discussion

 Instructor asked students about their perceptions of the

use of Wordle in the writing process

 This procedure was used for all four compositions.

ACTION RESEARCH: USING WORDLES FOR

TEACHING FOREIGN LANGUAGE WRITING BARALT, PENNESTRI, & SELVANDIN (2011)

 Act on Evidence

 Wordles helped to show students’ progress

 Students used more vocabulary in their compositions

 Facilitated class discussions about the writing process

 Evaluate Results

 Both the students and instructor agreed that using

Wordles created excitement about writing.

 Effective, novel, and enjoyable.

 Students incorporated more varied vocabulary, used

grammar more accurately, and had more content in their

writing.

 Workshop days became more student-centered

ACTION RESEARCH: USING WORDLES FOR

TEACHING FOREIGN LANGUAGE WRITING BARALT, PENNESTRI, & SELVANDIN (2011)

 Limitations

 Lack of generalizability

 Findings of action research are typically only

relevant to the specific classroom being

investigated, its students and its own uniq