Research

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Introduction, Design an Action Research Project, Some Questions, Your Action Research Project
media type="file" key="Research intro.mp3"

How to Read Research Efficiently
media type="file" key="Reading Academic Research Articles.mp3" =Introduction= Given a set of 25 responses to something in a classroom, how do you know what is going on? If the responses are feedback of some kind, and you have a vested interest in that feedback, your brain is going to focus on a particular type of feedback. For example, if you have asked students to evaluate a course they have been taking, you may have a tendency to focus mostly on either those providing positive feedback or those providing negative feedback, depending on how you are emotionally connected with the course and its context. Within that given set of responses, how do you know which characteristics students particularly liked or disliked?

Research techniques and methods help us to figure out what is going on in such a way that our personal tendencies do not cloud the data we are dealing with. In a set of class evaluations, for example, it is helpful to count positive and negative responses so you can see some overall trends to what students thought of a class. Within each category (positive or negative), it is helpful to divide the responses by topic. For example, suppose the class takes place at 8 am. Within the negative category, there are likely to be several complaints about the time of the class. Or, suppose the room in which the class takes place is drafty in the winter. If you are vested in teaching the best class possible, you may realize that a significant number of complaints were about things that you could not change.

Positive comments, grouped by topics that arise across that set of evaluations, can help you to understand things to keep or build upon in a given course.

Like everything else in our field, research in education is complex. For every possible teaching method, there is some piece of research out there that supports that method. As part of professional development in any field, you will be presented with the "new" "best practices" way of doing things. In fact, you may be required to adopt this "new and better" way of teaching. Being able to critically read research will help you to identify strengths and weaknesses of new-to-you things and to mitigate those weaknesses and build on the strengths in your own work.

This unit explains the types of research that are typically done in educational settings. It also provides you with information on how to read published research articles quickly so that you can decide how relevant they are to whatever you are doing, from writing a paper in college to deciding how you will approach a task in your job.

=Types of Research= The following power point explains types of research: media type="custom" key="18968910"

Flashcards on terms: http://quizlet.com/_7fo6f

=How to Read Research Efficiently=

=Design an Action Research Project=

An Example
Tobie Sanders and I were asked to evaluate the effectiveness of a special program in the Groveport schools. We created an action research project designed to answer the question, "How effective is this program in helping children learn to read?" Here is the actual report, if you choose to read it. I'm going to summarize what we did below.



We had access to assessments that were done on the students at the beginning of their kindergarten year, at the end of the kindergarten year, and, for some, at the end of the first grade year. These were, in our minds, appropriate performance-based assessments rather than standardized test results. For example, one assessment was of children's recognition of lower case and upper case letters. Another was an observation that determined what youngsters understood about books and reading ("Concepts of Print").

Because this was a large project, we also interviewed all the teachers involved, and some parents and children. We tape recorded the interviews and these were transcribed and analyzed.

The scores on the various assessments gave us statistical information that suggested that the program was very effective. We took each statement made in the interviews and categorized it, using categories that arose from the actual data rather than ones we thought of in advance. The interviews made it clear that all people involved (teachers, parents, and children) valued the program and thought it was helpful. We also learned from the interviews exactly what people liked and did not like about the program. This gave us a rich understanding of why the program seemed to work.

Some Questions
Here are some possible questions to prime your thinking "pump:" Did this work? Why? (The questions behind the Groveport project) What are the characteristics associated with success in a given activity? How did participants feel about their involvement in a given activity? What are the problems with....? This is just a handful...you are welcome to think of your own.

Your Action Research Project
Think of a specific situation where you want to know what is going on. What is your question? Design a research project you could do in order to answer that question.