1. Action research in education HeryYanto The Host Your Own Webinar - Elluminate August 10, 2011
2. What grade are you teaching right now? K – 6 7 – 8 9 – 12 others
3. Have you done an action research before? Yes No I am not sure
4. How do you answer these questions? What can I do to accommodate diversity in learning style of my students? Why most of my students cannot write a good essay? Does doing a classroom presentation effective for this lesson? How can I encourage my students to read their lesson chapter before coming to class?
5. Agenda Action research approach Action research in education Types of action research Teacher and action research Action research is a cycle Examples of action research question Action research report
6. Action research approach (Denscombe, 2007) Hands-on, small scale research project Originally: Social theory – solving immediate social problems Recently: organization development, education, health and social care Improve practice/professional development – “participation” Involved with practical issues
7. What is action research? Action research is a process in which participants examine their own educational practice systematically and carefully, using the techniques of research. (Ferrance, 2000)
8. What is action research in education? Action research is a systematic process that allows you to try out different ways of doing things in your classroom or in your school, until you find something that really works for you and for your students . (Laycock & Long, 2009)
9. Types of action research in education(Ferrace, 2000) Individual teacher research Collaborative action research School-wide action research District-wide action research
10. Why should teachers do action research? (Laycock & Long, 2009) Examine situation Get input from participators Collaborate with colleagues to solve problems Appraise self-performance Improve practice and professional knowledge
12. Action research is a cycle (Laycock & Long, 2009) Look Think Act Reflect
13. Example of action research #1 Problem: 9th grade students cannot write a good sentence. Solution form reading: writing workshop, wiki, blog, peer mentor, twitter Idea: students tweet a sentence everyday and peers and instructor give them feedback Evaluate: quality of writing sentence, discussion, interview student, student evaluation Based on evaluation – next action
14. Example of action research #2 Problem: 12th grade students have low performance on applying power and square root Solution from reading: math software, supplement with calculator, role play, game Idea: role play and group presentation Evaluation: using pre-test, quality of project, post-test, students evaluation Based on evaluation – what is going wright and what is going wrong? What is the next action?
15. How the action research report look like? Introduction Literature review Research questions Method for data collection Finding Reflection Conclusion References Appendix
16. Conclusion: A checklist for action research (Denscombe, 2007)…[1] Does the research project address a concrete issue or practical problem? Is there participation by the practitioner in all stages of the research project? Have the grounds for the partnership between practitioner and any outside expert been explicitly negotiated and agreed?
17. Conclusion: A checklist for action research (Denscombe, 2007)…[2] Is the research part of a continuous cycle of development (rather than a one-off project)? Is there a clear view of how the research findings will feed back directly into practice? Is it clear which kind of action research is being used-’technical’, ‘practical’, or ‘ emancipatory’?
18. Conclusion: A checklist for action research (Denscombe, 2007)…[3] Has insider knowledge been acknowledged as having disadvantages as well as advantages for the research? Is the research sufficiently small-scale to be combined with a routine workload? Have ethical matters been taken into consideration?
19. References Denscombe, M. (2007). The good research guide for small-scale social research projects (p. 310 p.). Open University Press. Retrieved from http://www.amazon.co.uk/Good-Research-Guide-small-scale-research/dp/0335220223 Ferrance, E. (2000). Action research. Brown University. Retrieved from http://www.alliance.brown.edu/pubs/themes_ed/act_research.pdf Laycock, D., and Long, M. (2009). Action Research? Anyone can!. IBSC Global Action research Project. Retrieved from http://drjj.uitm.edu.my/DRJJ/MATRIC2010/5.%20Anyone_can_Action_Research-DRJJ-02022010.pdf Riel, M. (2011). Understanding action research. Retrieved from http://cadres.pepperdine.edu/ccar/define.html
20. Future questions Hery The University of Hawaii at Manoa herythe@hotmail.co.uk MAHALO
