teacher action research projects

TeachPeaceNow

Teacher Action Research Projects

Every teacher can conduct educational research to help refine what to teach one’s students. You can work on your own or better yet with another colleague or group of colleagues. If working with a group, set up a regular meeting time at which you can share successes and difficulties. Consider visiting each others' classrooms to provide other viewpoints.

1. Frame the Question

To start your research, select a question that you have about your students, about the materials you are using, or about how you personally teach. The question should be focused on process and relationships. It should not be a yes or no question or be looking for a numerical answer.
Here is a list of characteristics of good questions.

It should be open-ended and allow for possibilities you haven’t thought of.
It should start with how or why or what.
It should be adaptable. Remember you can modify the question as you go along.
It should be based on something you wonder about your particular teaching situation in your classroom.
Examples:

I wonder if bullying is a problem in my classroom.
I wonder about how my students are affected by the kind of institutional racism they see in the media where black and Latinos are often shown in menial positions or as criminals.
I wonder how my students feel about people with skin darker than theirs?

2. Gather Baseline Data

Find out where your students are now. (This can be part of finding your question). If you think about it, you may discover you already have this data. Here are some data sources:

Survey
Interview
Writing piece
Sociogram
Recording classroom conversation
Book response

3. Determine how you will collect your follow-up data

What do you already have in place or do? What is most easily added to a busy class room schedule?

Drawings
Student journals/ Teacher journal
Book responses
Follow up surveys
Interviews
Observation
Writing samples
Recorded discussion

4. Determine Your Procedure

What will you do first? How will you schedule the activities? How will you organize your data?

5. Analyze the Data

This is the interesting part. You will of course start analyzing as soon as you collect any data. Comparing what you thought to what you actually observe. However, it is helpful to sort information and create charts and graphs. For example, you can track individual student learning overtime, or compare students to a standard you have set.

6. Share

Share what you learn with colleagues in your own school and district. Also consider posting a report on this website to inform and inspire other teachers.

For more specific information on conducting a research study see:

Teacher Research by Sharon Palmer http://www.accessexcellence.org/LC/TL/AR/

Home * Issues * Groups * Activities * Contact Us* About Us