This document provides an overview of an action research workshop for librarians. The workshop aims to teach participants how to incorporate evidence-based research into their practice through action research. It discusses the action research cycle of planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. Participants will learn about generating research questions based on problems in their work, collecting and analyzing both quantitative and qualitative data, and sharing and applying the results to make changes and ask new questions. The workshop involves hands-on activities for participants to analyze sample datasets and plan their own action research projects to investigate issues in their own practice.
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Action research for_librarians_carl2012
1. Action Research
How to easily incorporate
evidence based research into your practice
1
CARL Pre-conference
Thursday, April 5, 2012, April
8:00 am – 12: 00 pm Cunningham, Saddleback
Community College
Salon A-C
San Diego, Calif.
Stephanie Rosenblatt,
California State
University, Fullerton
2. Learning Outcomes
Learning Outcomes
I. Articulate questions about your practice and
collaborate with peers to generate ideas for
investigating these questions
II. Practice using various methods and tools for
data collection and analysis.
III. Understand the concept of action research
2
6. Action Research is…
6
Informed by concerns about practice/praxis
Conducted and often initiated by the librarian(s)
impacted as their expertise is valued
Collaborative
Critical, deliberative, and self-reflexive
Instigated with the goal of changing practices,
processes, policies, theories, or systems
Applicable to the local context
7. 7
Getting to
know… What do
you hope
What do to get out
you do?
YOU! of today’s
session?
What kinds
of research/ Where
evaluation do you
have you work?
done before?
8. Plan
8
• What’s problematic in your work?
• Identify partners and “critical friends” by
talking to them throughout the process
• Review the literature
• Develop a research plan
• What kind of information do you need to
investigate your question/problem?
• How can you collect it?
9. Task: Consider Your Work
9
• Take a moment to think about
your own work. What’s
problematic?
• Generate one or two questions
you’d like to investigate.
•Talk to a partner in your group.
Do you share any
questions/problems in common?
13. METHODOLOGY
INTERLUDE
Quan Qual Mixed
BUT FIRST: WORLDVIEWS (ESPECIALLY
PRAGMATISM)
13
14. WORLDVIEW RESEARCH FOCUS
Act
Pragmatism Problem centered
Postpositivism Theory verification,
Objectivity
Constructivism Multiple meanings,
Subjectivity
Advocacy Empowerment, Change
oriented
14
15. 15
Quantitative Intent: see how data fits an
Inquiry existing theory, model, or
explanation
Ask close-ended questions
Collect and analyze
numbers; Statistics
Large samples
16. 16
Qualitative
Intent: learn participants’
Inquiry Act
views
Ask open-ended questions
Collect and analyze words
and images; themes
Small Samples
18. VALIDITY
Quantitative Qualitative
•Statistical methods:
Act methods:
•Coding
-rejecting hypotheses -identifying themes
-calculating effect sizes
•Small samples studied in
•Large, random or depth in their natural
representative samples environment
•Take steps to remove •Peer review of data and
researcher bias analyses; reciprocity with
participants
18
19. 19
MIXED METHODS:
“clarify Qualitative data enhance
subtleties, cro quantitative findings because
ss-validate they explain the statistical
findings, and relationships
inform efforts
to Qualitative data can inform
plan, impleme instrument design for a later
nt, and quantitative phase
evaluate
strategies” ct
Creswell & Clark (2007). Designing and conducting mixed methods research.
20. 1. Exploratory 2. Explanatory
a) Qual a)Quant
b)Quant b) Qual
3. Embedded 4. Triangulation
a) Complementary
Supported Qual &
by
b) Quant
21. Break for 10 minutes. When we
come back, we’ll…
o Collect data
o Analyze data
o Continue talking to our collaborators
21
22. ACT
22
• Collect data
• Analyze data
• Continue to talk to collaborators or friends about
your findings to get different perspectives on your
process/methods and what you’re discovering
42. Types of Statistics
42
Descriptive statistics Inferential statistics
Describing the numerical Using the sample you
data you have by have to make inferences
organizing, graphing, or or hypotheses about a
tabulating. larger population.
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
62. Your Turn: Data Analysis
Task: Analyze data
Select a recorder and timekeeper for this task.
Work with your group to begin analyzing datasets
You’ll find electronic copies of some datasets, along data
analysis tools on our blog:
http://alaworkshopdata.wordpress.com/carl-
preconference-2012/
62
63. Task: Your Turn to Reflect
Were you able to learn
something about the
instruction program in this
scenario?
What was a successful
approach to the data?
What was frustrating?
How else could you
investigate the
problem/issue?
63
67. 67
What did you learn about
Task: Share the instruction program in
this scenario?
How could you use what you
learned about the program?
Changes?
68. Your turn:
Plan your own
project
How might
you analyze
that
information?
Identify or
collect the
information
you need
Identify
potential
collaborators
What
problems
are you
having?
68
70. Thank You
70
April Cunningham
acunningham@saddleback.edu
Stephanie Rosenblatt
srosenblatt@fullerton.edu
Notas do Editor
Three types
Some people describe AR as a type of EBL. EBL was first described in early 90s. Came out of Evidence Based Medicine/Evidence Based Healthcare which began at the same time. Those research paradigms sought to empower medical practitioners/ doctors in the same way Action Research empowered teachers, but seems to limit itself to the technical and practical level as the goal of EBM and EBL is to make current practices more efficient. As David Loertscher states in a 2009 essay in Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, EBL works as long as “antecedents or foundational inputs remain the same.” More credence given to quantitative data, formal data analysis with goal that results will be applicable beyond a specific workplace -- findings can be generalized, can be published in peer reviewed journals. Requires more rigorous methods. In Library Science, doesn’t seem to require collaboration, although this is required when used in other fields. Both data driven, practitioner-concern driven, ethics-driven. But EBL doesn’t have the same emancipatory possibilities.
This is the time in the action research process when you decide what you’re going to research and how you think you’ll do it. Usually identify the problem by reflecting on your work or through conversations with colleagues or friends. After you’ve thought about what you’d like to investigate, you develop a research plan. This plan will include lists of people or resources you think you’ll need, ideas about the types of data you can collect or that you’ve already collected, and ideas about how you think you’ll analyze your data. You can generate these ideas through conversations with colleagues or by looking at the literature. The main thing to understand about this time in the process is that this is what sets action research apart from being simply reflective practice. You’re going to systematically look at your issue and this is where you set that system into place.
This is where we can jot some of the problems we’ve overheard as we walk around the room.We can keep this up: Scenario: Virginia thinks of a question and brainstorms types of data/evidence she can collect. But how can she analyze it? She asks April and Stephanie for help. (VA, April, SRR, 5 mins)
First video: http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=5778656&height=267&width=200Second video: http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=5778765&height=267&width=200
4 mixed methods designs3. ex. is demographic survey during a qual study or an interview with the circ manager to prep for analyzing circ statsActivity: consider the problem you described to your group or the problem that we introduced and draft a study plan using one of these designs, and if one of the other designs was more appealing to you, sketch out a study plan using that one, too.
Review what can be done in Excel. MS Excel is a great statistical tool – good for quantitative analysis.
You can use EXCEL for descriptive and inferential statistics. DEFINE both with examples of types of tests.
There are 4 levels of quantitative data: nominal, ordinal,interval, and ratio. A lot of the data we get in library instruction is nominal or ordinal, and ocassionaly interval. Nominal – male or female – exclusive catergories that don’t have a “value”Ordinal – likert scales, strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagreee – exists in catergories that are ranked or related to each other by more/lessInterval – grades – data that is related or ranked like ordinal data, but the assumption is made that there is equal distance between the scales, but there isn’t ameaningful 0.Ratio data – 0 is meaningful. Like no money in your pocket. HELP APRIL.The types of tests you run on your data are determined by the type of data that you have, and how your data is distributed, and then what you want to find out. Much of the time, we only need descriptive statistics to answer the questions we have in libraries. But, no matter what, you have to start with descriptive statistics: namely measures of central tendency (mean or average, median, mode) and find out if the data is skewed or balanced, in order to determine if you can run further tests.
You can run specific formulas in EXCEL which you can find under functions or more functions, statistical. One you’re probably already familiar with is Average, but you can also run STDEV or standard deviations from this menu. You can also create Pivot Tables, which are also known as cross tabs, and look similar to what April ran in many eyes. You would use that to find out if there is a correlation between data points, so, as in our example if more students who attended a library workshop met or exceeded a professor’s bibliographic requirements. If you are using a PC, you can download the analysis toolpak add in for EXCEL. This will enable you to select a set of data and ask EXCEL to run standard statistical tests on it.However, you will need a good guide so you can understand what kind of data you have, and what tests to run and how to run them. We’ve recommended some in the bibliography.
Mean is the average – you can only use this if you have at least interval level data, median is the middle value when you place all of the values in order (ordinal) and the mode is the most frequently found value (nominal).Skewness is how far off the range of values is from a perfect, balanced curve.Standard deviation – standard amount of distance between interval scores, kurtosis, how peaked or flat the curve will be.
Rubrics are used to analyze qualitative data. They list criteria and levels of achievement, then specify what the evaluator should see in order to rank or score what is being analyzed. They can be honed as the researcher analyzes data.They are tested through use and should probably be tested with a second evaluator (interrater) and over time with the same evaluator (intrarater) : inter and intra-rater reliability,
some resources for finding rubrics already created AAU, RAILS etc.
So I hope that today you’ve gained some confidence in your ability to plan out your own action research study in to investigate and use new methods of collecting and analyzing data. I also hope that you’ve begun to realize the power of conversation with your peers and colleagues and gained some habits of mind that can enable you to approach change with less trepidation and perhaps foment change with authority.
