Action Research Essentials: 11 (Research Methods for the Social Sciences) - Softcover

Craig, Dorothy Valcarcel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0470189290 ISBN 13: 9780470189290

Verlag: Jossey-Bass Inc.,U.S., 2009

Inhaltsangabe

Action Research Essentials is a practical guide born of the author's own experience working with students in the social sciences and education, providing a step-by-step outline of how to "do" action research--backed by the most extensive theory and research coverage on the market today. The author guides future researcher/practitioners through the action research process via numerous concrete illustrations and a wealth of on-line resources; positioning it as a fundamental component of practice,

A key and unique strength of the book is its outreach to a much larger breadth of students than usually found in action research books. This book will illustrate all the steps in action research using examples from education, social work, psychology, sociology, nursing, medicine, and counseling.



The structure of the book is intended as the sole textbook for a course devoted to naturalistic inquiry, practitioner research, or beginning qualitative methods, or can complement a general research course.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Dorothy Valcarcel Craig is a professor of education, certified online instructor, and program coordinator in the Department of Educational Leadership at the College of Education and Behavioral Science, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, Tennessee. She previously held the position of associate dean for Teacher Education.

Von der hinteren Coverseite

Action Research Essentials offers students, faculty, and practitioners an accessible and practical guide on how and when to do action research most effectively. Dorothy Valcarcel Craig, a leading expert on the topic of action research, provides step-by-step approaches and shows how to gather the right data, conduct a comprehensive and useful literature review, analyze the data, design and implement a resulting action plan, and present the findings. Designed to be broadly applied, the book is filled with illustrations from the field of education, as well as from social work, psychology, sociology, nursing, medicine, and counseling.

Action Research Essentials contains a variety of online resources as well as rubrics and checklists to help students design questions, evaluate online sources, write the literature review, and create the action research report.

Praise for Action Research Essentials

"Action Research Essentials provides educators with an informative, detailed, and well-organized resource that guides them through the process of reflective inquiry."
?Teresa Dalle, English Department, University of Memphis

"Among the dozens of research texts available, this new text by Dorothy Varcarcel Craig serves a valuable purpose: communicating clearly the essentials of action research, for enterprising college and university students."
?Porter King, Trevecca Nazarene University; editor, Tennessee Educational Leadership

"Action Research Essentials thoroughly describes the steps involved in action research, scenarios where action research is appropriate, and guidelines for writing the action research report."
?Donna J. Urban, instructional design manager, Jones Knowledge

Aus dem Klappentext

Action Research Essentials offers students, faculty, and practitioners an accessible and practical guide on how and when to do action research most effectively. Dorothy Valcarcel Craig, a leading expert on the topic of action research, provides step-by-step approaches and shows how to gather the right data, conduct a comprehensive and useful literature review, analyze the data, design and implement a resulting action plan, and present the findings. Designed to be broadly applied, the book is filled with illustrations from the field of education, as well as from social work, psychology, sociology, nursing, medicine, and counseling.

Action Research Essentials contains a variety of online resources as well as rubrics and checklists to help students design questions, evaluate online sources, write the literature review, and create the action research report.

Praise for Action Research Essentials

Action Research Essentials provides educators with an informative, detailed, and well-organized resource that guides them through the process of reflective inquiry.
--Teresa Dalle, English Department, University of Memphis

Among the dozens of research texts available, this new text by Dorothy Varcarcel Craig serves a valuable purpose: communicating clearly the essentials of action research, for enterprising college and university students.
--Porter King, Trevecca Nazarene University; editor, Tennessee Educational Leadership

Action Research Essentials thoroughly describes the steps involved in action research, scenarios where action research is appropriate, and guidelines for writing the action research report.
--Donna J. Urban, instructional design manager, Jones Knowledge

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Action Research Essentials

By Dorothy Valcarcel Craig

John Wiley & Sons

Copyright © 2009 Dorothy Valcarcel Craig
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-470-18929-0

Chapter One

INTRODUCTION TO ACTION RESEARCH

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After reading Chapter One, you should be able to:

* Discuss several definitions applied to action research

* Identify the steps involved in the action research process

* Examine the rationale for selecting action research as an appropriate method

* Discuss the role and responsibilities of the ethical researcher

INTRODUCTION

We live in an information age driven by accountability issues that influence practice across many disciplines. The classroom teacher faced with designing effective instruction that meets the needs of a diverse population of students must also address the demand to prepare students for end-of-year standardized tests. Social workers-in order to give attention to multiple cases-must examine procedures and practices to develop effective strategies that reflect sound performance. Professionals in the field of nursing-faced with budget cuts and shortages-examine current practices as they address accountability concerns in order to support needs and improve conditions. Graduate students are encouraged to examine a variety of issues in their field of study-many of which involve some type of accountability related to practice-as they build skills needed to be effective researchers. These are just a few examples of practitioner-based environments where professionals-whether it be teachers, nurses, social workers, graduate students, or human resource coordinators-face the need to examine a variety of issues and concerns in order to gather information systematically and formulate a plan to improve practice. This chapter presents information that is covered in depth in later chapters. Examine the information presented here, and seek additional explanations in other chapters.

Although conditions for inquiry are present in a variety of practitioner-based settings, this text will specifically focus on teaching and learning environments such as classrooms and will present information to help graduate students build skills needed to identify problems, carry out research, and develop action plans to improve practice. Therefore, the expressions "work-based environment" and "practitioner-based environment," although they may be applied to a variety of settings, should be understood as specifically referring to the classroom setting in the P-16 environment.

WHAT IS ACTION RESEARCH?

Within the realm of teaching and learning comes the blended challenge of addressing accountability issues while at the same time using available information and experience to improve practice. Once immersed in the classroom, teachers often find the role of teacher expanding to that of teacher-as-researcher. This is in part based on their experience as professionals as well as their knowledge base as experts in the field. Elliot Eisner (1998), in The Enlightened Eye, suggests that experience has its genesis in the transactions one has with the environment. There is no better catalyst to inform practice than the teacher who interacts in the classroom on a daily basis. Drawing on professional experience, classroom teachers often find themselves engaged in inquiry regarding the intricacies of teaching and learning. This is possible due to the expertise of the practicing teacher and the data available in the environment. Data are sets of information collected during inquiry. They may consist of sets of numerical information. Data may also take the form of interview responses, observations, or survey responses. When considering the type of data typically available in the classroom environment, one might think of classroom test scores, recorded observations of interactions, inventories, journal entries, interview responses, standardized test scores, projects, and writing samples, to name a few. The inquiry process involves identifying problems, gathering data, analyzing data, and designing a plan of action. The plan is implemented-based on the inquiry-in the practicing environment. Additional data are collected and analyzed, which leads to conclusions-all for the sake of improving practice. This type of research is known as action research.

Action research is a common methodology employed for improving conditions and practice in classrooms and in other practitioner-based environments such as administrative, leadership, social, and community settings. Kurt Lewin, who was instrumental in establishing a research center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was perhaps one of the first researchers to use the term action research. Lewin (1951) suggested that in an effective community of practice, comparative research takes place. This comparative research consists of an examination of conditions and effects of different forms of social action. Unlike research that produces findings without action, the spiral and cyclical research process leads to action and improvement.

Through action research, teachers and others working in a practitioner-based environment use their expertise and knowledge to conduct systematic inquiry that helps improve conditions and solve problems. As practitioners interact in the environment, they gain experience. They use this experience to inform practice. However, experience must be matched with evaluative skills to improve the practicing environment. Effective evaluation of a program, situation, or condition-which is in essence based in systematic analysis-can be facilitated through action research. Action research encourages the researcher to consider the interconnectedness of the environment and everyone in it, the conditions present in the environment, and the interactions among the individuals in the environment. Action research is typically community-based. Community-based research is usually conducted in the practicing environment, individually or in teams. It involves the parties who naturally interact in that environment and is ordinarily conducted to improve the community as a whole. The community may be the individual classroom, a grade level of classrooms, the school, or the entire school system. Lewin (1951) uses the term community of practice to describe the community-based quality of action research.

In addition, action research is considered a field-intensive process. A field-intensive process is one that requires the researcher to take an active part in the environment being studied. The researcher is expected to be a participant observer as well as a researcher-as-instrument involved in the research process. A participant observer is a researcher who takes part in all activities in the environment being studied and interacts naturally with subjects in the environment. A researcher-as-instrument is able to rely on expertise, draw on experience, and use research skills in an unbiased manner in tasks such as conducting interviews and recording notes during observations. The field-intensive process also requires the researcher to collect multiple forms of data, organize the data effectively, analyze the data, and use the findings to design an action plan. The researcher uses the findings-matched with knowledge of the environment, expertise, and experience-to develop a plan for improvement. The action plan is a framework or blueprint that is implemented to improve practice, conditions, or the environment in general. The design of the action plan is based on the inquiry and findings. All of these things make action research an ideal methodology for practitioners.

For example, one classroom teacher may observe certain interactions among students in the classroom environment, which leads the teacher to believe that the reading material currently being used is not challenging enough. The teacher overhears students admitting that they had read the book and done the same activities the year before. The teacher also notices that most of the students breeze through the comprehension tasks and related writing activities with ease. Consulting with grade-level teams, the teacher discovers that other teachers are seeing the same things in their classrooms. This prompts a grade-level survey of all students, observations over a period of time, and group interviews with students in order to gather information regarding previous reading experiences, interests, and preferences. Each teacher compares results with colleagues. The grade-level team decides to gather additional data consisting of student classroom reading scores, writing samples, standardized test scores, inventories of reading materials, compiled lists of library resources, and parent or guardian input based on a short survey. The data are organized and analyzed. This leads to a redesign of the reading program and a plan of action for implementation. The teachers involved in this action research example relied on their experience as experts in the field. They were participant observers in the environment as they interacted with students, observed, and collected data. They organized the classroom data and used them to design an action plan to improve their own practice and the community of practice as a whole.

ACTION RESEARCH: SOME DEFINITIONS

Although there are many definitions of action research, most have common threads that illustrate the key theoretical points of the method. Several of these points have already been mentioned. First, action research is typically conducted by teachers for teachers. It may also be conducted by practitioners for practitioners. The process focuses on practice in order to improve practice. Action research may result in positive change in the form of action. It is participatory in nature and involves the community of learners, the community of the environment, and the community of practice. The focus of action research inquiry is related to all of these. It is systematic and structured. Last, action research focuses on problems, issues, or concerns present in the practicing environment.

Many definitions imply that action research consists of research for the sake of taking action. The process requires the researcher to become actively involved in the study of the environment and the parties who interact naturally with each other and with the environment. The process is practical in that data and the analysis of data lead to improvement and change. The process is also participative because it encourages collaboration among colleagues. The collaborative quality of action research is empowering due to the fact that participant researchers are able to effect change and make improvements. The collaboration is imperative because social reality is determined and improved as part of the overall common goals and visions of an entire school. The process is also tentative in that the inquiries may result in change in particular situations and may then be reexamined as needed. Finally, the process is critical for practitioners because they are able to search together for practical solutions and improvements.

Action research is both proactive and reactive. A proactive research process is prompted when a practitioner researcher-operating naturally in the environment-uses expertise to identify potential problems and then conducts systematic inquiry in order to improve conditions. A reactive research process is prompted when a practitioner researcher-interacting naturally in the environment-identifies an existing problem and then conducts systematic inquiry to correct the problem and improve conditions.

For example, a proactive study may require the teacher researcher to try a new practice, collect data, and reflect on alternative behaviors and results, which may lead to yet another new practice-all for the sake of positive change. A reactive study may involve collecting data to diagnose a problem, using results to implement a plan, and then distributing data and findings to others in order to effect change and improve practice. Whether proactive or reactive, the characteristics and components of action research and the process itself are continuous inquiry, reflection, and continuous improvement.

According to Sohng (1995), action research is premised on the principle that the parties in an environment carry out the investigation themselves; it therefore excludes techniques that require a separation of the researcher from the people being researched-as when experimental subjects are kept ignorant of the purpose of the study. The participatory nature of action research enables the researcher to study the natural practicing environment, engage in a methodical examination from inside a particular environment, examine the environment and all it entails, collect data, analyze the data, design an action plan for positive change, and draw conclusions and present findings to inform practice. It should be noted that the results of action research may not always require a formal presentation of findings. In many cases, action research conducted by individual teachers is not shared formally. The results may, however, be shared in an informal manner with colleagues and administrators. Although the action research process is aimed at improving practice and effecting change, the process is also a journey that tells a story. The journey of action research conducted by individuals tells a story of thought processes, solutions, and strategies. The story may be personal in a specific classroom and environment or public across several grades or even the entire school or institution.

Various researchers examine the definitions of action research further and suggest that multiple definitions are necessitated by the nature and uniqueness of the process (Noffke & Stevenson, 1995). Perhaps the most distinctive aspect of action research is that researchers can evaluate the situation and conditions from inside the environment, thereby obtaining authentic data and firsthand information. For example, practicing teachers who engage in action research as a means for bringing about the essential aspects of a more genuine profession are true researchers in that they are able to share a base of knowledge and expertise common to their profession. As practitioners, they are able to use their knowledge to drive systematic inquiry because they are aware of the standards of their practice. Practicing teachers-and practitioners in general-understand the differentiated roles in the profession and are fully competent to make professional decisions with regard to improving a specific situation. And they are able to engage in continuous reflection in order to improve the working environment (Meyers & Rust, 2003).

Action research has also been defined as the process of studying a "real" environment to understand and improve the quality of actions or instruction (Henson, 1996). It is a systematic and orderly way for classroom teachers to observe their practice or to explore a problem and a possible course of action. It is preplanned inquiry that is systematic and organized and can be shared with others in order to improve practice (Johnson, 2002). Sagor (2000) sums up action research as a disciplined process of inquiry conducted by practitioners who want to improve their own situation. The primary reason for engaging in action research is to assist the "researcher" in improving or refining situations, environments, and practice.

WHY ENGAGE IN ACTION RESEARCH?

Action research enables the researcher to study a particular situation and then to design and implement a plan to improve practices, conditions, and environments. Although there are numerous reasons to employ action research as a method for conducting research, there are basically three main purposes for selecting the approach.

1. Action research is selected as a method for conducting research by those who want to solve problems, address issues, and improve situations and conditions because the process promotes professional growth, improvement, and change. The process enables teachers and practitioners to become "experts in the field" because findings are based on true inquiry and therefore inform practice.

2. The method is ideal for addressing specific targeted goals and objectives that are within the realm of possibility for the practitioner to achieve. By actual conducting an action research study, teachers are able to experience success firsthand.

3. Action research promotes collaboration and encourages "community" among all parties involved in a specific learning situation, leading to results that have the potential to improve conditions and situations for all members of the learning community.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Action Research Essentialsby Dorothy Valcarcel Craig Copyright © 2009 by Dorothy Valcarcel Craig. Excerpted by permission.
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Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Jossey-Bass Inc.,U.S.
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2009
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0470189290
• ISBN 13: 9780470189290
• Einband: Tapa blanda
• Anzahl der Seiten: 272
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar