EARCOS Teachers’ Conference
28-31 March 2012
Donna Kalmbach Phillips, Ph.D.
Pacific University, OR USA
This interactive workshop is designed to guide
participants through the first stages of
developing an action research project:
problelmatizing practice, finding a topic,
developing a critical question, choosing a study
design, and connecting critical literature to an
action research study.
Participants will work towards designing a draft
action research proposal.
Teacher Action Research: Process Workshops
Framing the
Study
Trustworthy
Action Research
Design
Data Analysis,
Interpretation
Discover an Area of
Focus
Criteria for
Trustworthiness
Data Analysis
Fundamentals
Develop a critical
Question
Research Design
Ongoing Analysis:
Cycle & Strategies
Research Design
Triangulation
Final Data
Interpretation
Literature Review
Researcher
Dispositions
Going Public
………………………………………………………Critical Questions……………………………………………………………
Finding a Topic
Problematizing Practice – Cluster 1
Problematizing Practice – Refining Cluster
Problematize the Cluster:
Critical Colleague Interview
•Share your cluster with a critical colleague.
•Describe an experience that might best illustrate the
focus behind your cluster.
•Critical Colleague listens hard for the following:
• Assumptions
• Beliefs, biases
• What might be missing or may be overlooked.
(What other problem sources, possibilities may
exist?)
• Synthesize what you hear as the “real” focus or
question.
Developing a Critical Question
Important to you
Within your sphere of influence
Contains a good idea
Authentic
Focused
Compelling
Supports a mission/belief/value
Benefits students
Informs your work
Is your work – not outside your work;
will be meaningful to you and your
students
Evolution of a Critical Question
How can high school chemistry students
learn to study more effectively?
The question is too broad.
How would you define study skills?
What does effective look like?
Why do you want students to study more
effectively? For what purpose?
Will teaching my HS chemistry students
study skills enrich their understanding of
the content area?
Getting closer…
Study skills is a broad area that has
different meanings for different people.
Define “study skills.” Why these skills?
What is within your sphere of influence?
How might the use of graphic organizers,
Question is more focused. Specific study
quick draw chalkboards & review games
skills are identified. Purpose is clear.
increase my HS chemistry students’ content Possibility for meaningful results.
vocabulary?
How will this question guide the study?
Give it a try:
Draft a possible critical question
based upon one of your clusters.
Sharpening the Critical Question
What attributes of an
What factors
online small group
contribute to
learning environment
engaged online
engages students most
small group
effectively?
What
learning?
characteristics must
What factors
be present to foster
work together to
engaged small
What makes EDUC 632
create an
group learning in
click or not click?
environment
an online
where
discussion course?
individuals in an
What factors work
What factors work
online course
together to create an
together to create an
engage in active
environment where
environment where
and meaningful
individuals engage in an individuals engage in
discussion?
online course to foster
online discussion in
meaningful discussion
critical and informative
and learning?
ways?
Sharpening the Critical Question
1. Write your current CQ in the middle of the page
or workspace.
2. Identify 1-2 words or terms in the CQ that seem
ill-defined, vague, too broad, or otherwise
problematic. Circle.
3. Start with one of the words/terms. Draw a line
away form the word/term. Brainstorm about
the word/term. Clarify, question. Narrow or
broaden. Rewrite. A CQ should act as scaffold,
not a fortress.
4. Continue to work through the question.
Research Design & the Critical Question
Integrated Action
Self-Study
Ethnography
Curriculum Analysis
To specifically “try
out” a teaching
method, practice or
approach in order
to address a
concern or to
improve student
learning: an
intervention
To deliberately
focus on self as the
teacher (role, talk,
actions) in order to
address a concern
or to improve
student learning.
To better
understand an
issue, dilemma,
situation – a study
of culture and/or
dynamics.
To analyze
curriculum, based
upon the literature
in the area, to
ascertain strengths,
weaknesses that
can be addressed
during
implementation.
Ethnography
What factors work together to create
an environment where individuals in
an online course engage in active
and meaningful discussion?
How does my online talk,
individual and group
responses, and emails
influence an online
discussion course?
Self-Study
?
Will the inclusion of online live
small group chats serve to further
engage and sustain an online
course?
Integrated Action
What text
qualities most
encourage small
group online
discussions?
Curriculum
Analysis
Research Design & the Critical Question:
Revise CQ according to design-type
Integrated Action
Self-Study
Ethnography
Curriculum Analysis
To specifically “try
out” a teaching
method, practice or
approach in order
to address a
concern or to
improve student
learning: an
intervention
To deliberately
focus on self as the
teacher (role, talk,
actions) in order to
address a concern
or to improve
student learning.
To better
understand an
issue, dilemma,
situation – a study
of culture and/or
dynamics.
To analyze
curriculum, based
upon the literature
in the area, to
ascertain strengths,
weaknesses that
can be addressed
during
implementation.
What gets to the heart of what you want to study?
Paradigm (beliefs):
It influences CQ, theory & research
consulted, research design & data
analysis & interpretation
(Make your paradigm transparent!)
Teacher Talk in the Teacher-Student Writing Conference
Paradigm
Critical Question
Research Design
Focus
Research Design
Humanistic
(fixed identities)
How does teacher talk Teacher’s talk
influence student
writing success?
Specific kind of talk to
remedy deficient
student writing.
Postmodern
(constructed
identities)
How is dialogue in the
teacher-student
writing conference
socially constructed?
Teacher’s talk
Student’s talk
Power Discourses
Social factors
Identify discourses;
clarify how power
works; adapt talk to
construct students as
writers
Post-MaterialFeminist
(entangled identities)
How is the teacherstudent writing
conference a
construct of discourse
& the material?
Teacher’s talk
Student’s talk
Power Discourses
Social factors
Schedule, class
arrangement, writing
tools, etc.
Identify
entanglements.
Consider any
intervention as it
reacts with discourse
& matter.
(Paradigm, Beliefs, Teacher Experience)
Literature (distant colleagues), the CQ &
the Research Design
Refines CQ
Literature:
Theory
Research
Context
Informs Research
Design
Guides Data
Analysis/Interpretation
Drafting an AR Direction
Working draft
Critical
Question
Research
Design &
How This
Reflects My
Beliefs
Theory/Researc
h I Need to
Read
What factors work together
to create an environment
where individuals in an
online course engage in
active and meaningful
discussion?
Ethnography:
Study will analyze
entanglement of attitudes
towards technology;
discourse; texts as
intervention; technology as
active agents; teacher input,
all as intra-action.
Clusters of research to read:
Online learning research –
specifically, “discussion”
Some research on social
networking applied to
education
Theory: post materialism
Drafting an AR Direction
Working draft
Critical
Question
Research
Design &
How This
Reflects My
Beliefs
Theory/Researc
h I Need to
Read
Where we are in the
AR Process
Critical
Questions
Becoming a
Teacher
Action
Researcher
AR Design
AR Data Analysis
AR Data Interpretation
What I will
do in my AR
Project?
Collect Data Set
Interpretation Scaffold
Observations
Artifacts
Interviews
Revisit, review:
reread ongoing data
analysis & memos
What data
will I collect?
Researcher’s Journal
Discover an
area of focus
How will I
collect the data?
Literature
review
How will I
organize
the data?
Clarify
Critical
Questions
AR Plan
&Timeline
Going Public
Expand your interpretation
Apply layers of
interpretation
Return to the questions
Write AR memo
Draft synthesis statements
Questions
Critical Questions
Prewriting
Audience
Key Points
“Thick
Description”
“Results”
Lingering
Questions
Create mind maps,
charts, and/or timelines;
generate categories
On-Going Analysis
Organize and read
the data
Think about the data
Chart, free write,cluster
process the data in the
researcher’s journal
Use AR question as
guide
Telling
the Story
Draft synthesis
Statements
Web page
Blog
Conferences
Practitioners’
Journals
Newspaper &
Letters
Practicing
AR
Teacher Action Research: Process Workshops
Framing the
Study
Trustworthy
Action Research
Design
Data Analysis,
Interpretation
Discover an Area of
Focus
Criteria for
Trustworthiness
Data Analysis
Fundamentals
Develop a critical
Question
Research Design
Ongoing Analysis:
Cycle & Strategies
Research Design
Triangulation
Final Data
Interpretation
Literature Review
Researcher
Dispositions
Going Public
………………………………………………………Critical Questions……………………………………………………………