Solving Problems Through
Action Research
R. Jack Hansen
(OLLI at Furman)
E. Michael Brady
(OLLI National Resource Center
University of Southern Maine)

What is Action Research?

Basic Characteristics (and Strengths) of
Action Research
• Practical and directly relevant
• Focus is on solving problems and/or advancing practice
• Empirical
• Participatory
• Welcomes “mixed methods”
• Is often iterative (reflection-action cycle)

Limitations of Action Research
• While still “systematic” it is often less rigorous than other types of research
• Can sometimes get “messy” (product of democratic and participative processes)
• Findings are not generalizable to other contexts and therefore may not be deemed worthy of publication

Survey Question:
Age Range

Survey Question:
Commute Time

Survey Question:
Summer Term

Course Evaluation Survey
• How do you rate the course “Introduction to
Shakespeare?”
– 1 Poor
– 2 Fair
– 3 Good
– 4 Very Good
– 5 Excellent

Course Survey Results
• Typical: average of all responses
• But, same result can have very different meanings
– One possibility: every respondent rates the course as a 3
– Other extreme: half rate it as 1 and other half as 5
– Same average, very different interpretations

Characterizing the Average
Sample Standard Deviation (SD)
“STDEV” in Excel Formula Builder
• SD=Square Root{Sum[X-M] 2 /(N-1)} for all values of X in the survey
– X is the value for a given response
– M is the average of all responses
– N is the number of responses
• SD for all responses of 3 = 0
• SD for half responses 1 and other half 5 is 2.19
• Bottom line: look more fully at results if SD is large

Standard Deviation
Using Excel

Identifying Relationships in Survey Results
• Action research often benefits from understanding how two quantities are related, e.g.,
– Relationship between number of courses taken and distance driven
– Relationship between number of courses taken and years since retirement
– Relationship between number of courses taken and price per course
• Requires cross correlation coefficient to quantify

Notional Example
• Question 1: How many courses did you take last term?
• Question 2: How far do you drive one way to get to class? Respond 1 if 0-5 miles, 2 if 5-10 miles, 3 if 10-15 miles, 4 if over 15 miles
• Question 3: How long have you been retired?
Respond 1 for 2 years or less, 2 if 3-5 years, 3 if 6-
10 years, and 4 if over 10 years.

Student 1
Table of Responses
Courses
1
Distance
4
Student 2 2 4
Student 3 2 3
Student 4 3 2
Student 5 4 1
Yrs. Retired
1
4
3
2
1

Correlation Coefficient
• Two common definitions in use (R and R 2 )
_________
• R= (S
XY
)/√(S
XX
)(S
YY
)
• S
XY
= SUM[(X-X
AVE
)(Y-Y
AVE
)]
• S
XX
=SUM[(X-X
AVE
) 2 ]
• S
YY
=SUM[(Y-Y
AVE
) 2 ]

Correlation Coefficient R
Possibilities

Back to Our Example
• Correlation Coefficient, R, between courses taken and distance driven is -.942 (very high and negative)
• Correlation Coefficient between number of courses taken and years retired is -.235 (very low)
• So what?

EXCEL CALCULATION OF
CROSS CORELATION COEFFICIENT
(PEARSON PRODUCT MOMENT)

Focus Groups
• Usually involve 6 – 10 people
• Often multiple groups are used
• This is a data collection procedure
• While not exclusively the data are primarily qualitative (open-ended questions)
• The goal is a focused discussion (not a “freefor-all” or “anything goes” conversation)

Some Key Issues
• Recruitment
• Moderator (facilitator)
• The Questioning Route
• Recording data
• Analyzing data
• Communicating results

Example of Questioning Route: Study of
Peer Teaching in LLI’s
• Round Robin Introductions (including brief statement of background; which course(s) do you teach?)
• What is your preferred method of teaching?
• When you volunteered to teach at OLLI what did you expect? How did your expectation match up with your actual experience?

Questioning Route (cont.)
• How is teaching older learners similar to and different from other teaching experiences you may have had?
• What are the greatest challenges you face teaching your peers?
• In what ways might the university provide greater support for OLLI faculty?
• Is there anything else you’d like to share about your experiences teaching older learners?

Intensive Interview
Purpose
• In-depth exploration of a particular topic, experience, or feeling
• Concentration on intense interactions with a smaller number of people than survey
• Allows identification of key themes or attitudes, but not quantitative assessments
(e.g., a certain percentage of people hold a certain attitude or have had certain experience)

Intensive Interview
Characteristics
• Focus on thoughts or feelings at depth seldom experienced in everyday conversation
• Few open-ended questions
• Explore subjects statements in depth (“that’s interesting, tell me more”)
• Return to earlier statements or ask for clarification if helpful to the participant in expressing feelings, events, views

Intensive Interview
Challenges
• Formulating helpful questions
• Selecting participants
• Deciding when enough interviews have been conducted
• Identifying from all interviews together what the key themes and subthemes are

Intensive Interview Questions
(Hansen and Haas)
• Retirement, e.g., how did you feel as the time approached?
• Retirement and relationships, e.g., how has retirement impacted family relationships?
• Retirement and feelings of self worth, e.g., now that you are retired what are some things that make you feel good about yourself?
• Retirement and spirituality, e.g., what are some spiritual or emotional challenges you face now?

Intensive Interview
Categories and Subcategories
• Impact of retirement on friendships (a theme we thought might be important and turned out to be so)
• Subthemes
• Dynamics altering friendship network drives need for making new friends
• Challenges of relocation
• Value of long-term friendships
• Challenges for individuals in certain vocations (e.g., clergy)

Intensive Interview
Categories and Subcategories
• Giving care to a loved one in retirement (theme that emerged in response to question of how time is being spent)
• Subthemes
– Aging parent
– Spouse
– Sibling
– Adult child
– Young grandchild or grandchildren

Potential Research Topics
• Popularity of various types of course offerings and
other programs: kinds of courses or programs that are growing in popularity among OLLI participants.
• Emerging retirement trends: How retirees of the babyboomer generation might approach this phase of life differently than their predecessors
• Personal dimensions of retirement: impact of retirement on such personal matters as family relationships, friendships, personal growth, and feelings of self worth

Potential Research Topics (2)
• Variability in retirement attitudes among different ethnic and other groups of retirees and pre-retires very little understood about this topic
• The potential for electronic course delivery and
community building among retirees may well be of growing importance as OLLI participants become more computer literate

References
• Standard deviation and correlation
– Wikipedia
– Wolfram MathWorld
• Intensive interviews
– Constructing Grounded Theory, Kathy Charmaz, Sage
Publications, London (2006)
• Interview-based study
– Shaping a Life of Significance for Retirement, R. Jack
Hansen and Jerry P. Haas, Upper Room Books (2010)

References (cont.)
• Overview of Action Research
- Action Research (3 rd Edition) by
T. Stringer (Sage Publications,
• Primer on Focus Groups
- Focus Groups by Richard Krueger
Mary Anne Casey (Sage
Publications, 2009)
2007)
Ernest and