Afrodita Fuentes – S08/SED697
5/7/08
RESEARCH SKILLS – SLO3
Action Research Project
Assignment Description
The action research in the science masters program was a comprehensive project that
required an extensive literature research, the planning and implementation of a teaching strategy,
and a written research paper that reported the findings of the research. In the first semester of the
program, I had the opportunity to become familiar with researching science and education
literature. I explored peer reviewed articles and books that dealt with different issues about
learning and science. I used some of that information to come up with a strategy to try in my
classroom. I continued researching the literature to shape my idea of the strategy I was planning
to implement for the action research and presented a proposal for approval. In the third semester
of the program, I was supposed to implement the strategy as well as collect and analyze data of
the research. And in the fourth semester of the program, I wrote the action research paper
following guidelines provided in the program.
Connection to SLO
Reviewing the literature in education and science education was definitely an
overwhelming experience and a learning process. I had a clear idea of what I wanted to do in my
action research, but I did not have the right words to give it a name. A reason for this, I feel is
my limited vocabulary in English, as I came to the US without knowing a word of it at age
sixteen. Nonetheless, I spent hours researching, getting hundreds of articles about the topic I was
researching, but finding only two or three descent articles. I wish I had more guidance and time
to do literature research. Unfortunately, I was not very successful finding enough information
Afrodita Fuentes – S08/SED697
5/7/08
that supported my idea, which I thought was reciprocal teaching at the end of the first semester
into the program.
Planning the implementation of a strategy for research turned out to be a bit difficult
and ambitious because I had to modify a lot my idea to fit the literature I found on reciprocal
teaching. But I still planned to implement my student presentation idea most of the semester after
doing reciprocal teaching. Implementing my plan was disastrous for two reasons: 1) reciprocal
teaching is a very descriptive and time-consuming method that bored students, and 2) the topics
covered in biology A (basic chemistry, biochemistry, cellular biology, and genetics) are too
abstract and conceptual. Students could not produce the type of presentations I had envisioned
without much teacher guidance and a lot of time we did not have. It was painful to make my
students do what I wanted, so I did not complete the implementation of my action research in the
third semester of the program. I did more literature research about teaching to learn and finally I
gave my idea a name, student-led presentations. I felt confident that the presentations were
going to work in the second semester because I had tried them the year before resulting in
success. So, I implemented student-led presentations in the last semester of the program and I
am satisfied to report positive results, student-led presentations had a positive impact on student
motivation and achievement.
Reflection and Influence on Teaching
I realize now that research takes lots of time, skill and experience that I did not acquire
in a timely manner, but that I now feel comfortable with. The unfortunate result of falling behind
was not analyzing my data on time and not turning in the written portion of the findings section
and not submitting the action research paper on time. I wish I had made the literature fit my idea
of presentations and not the other way around. After lots of reading, many projects, and lots of
Afrodita Fuentes – S08/SED697
5/7/08
thinking in the past two years, I can say I have made many ideas my own. I will end this
reflection by quickly listing several of these ideas that come to mind as these are the ones that I
have been putting into practice and I will continue to do so while teaching and learning with my
students:
1. Create a student-centered classroom where students feel safe, comfortable, capable, and
unleashed to reach their full academic potential
2. Find any talent or ability in any student and capitalize on it
3. Value students as academic contributors and capable learners – I definitely realized the
importance of this when I read my students’ surveys on their perception about how their
classmate and their teacher valued them
4. Provide students with tools and opportunities to construct their knowledge
5. Teaching to learn: why should teachers have all the fun? – definitely confirmed by my
students
6. Allow student to experience hard-work along with savoring success like tasting candy for the
first time because they will become eager for more