The Teacher Researcher

1. Hazlet Township Induction Program:Year Three The Teacher Researcher Choosing Your Topic Ada Marie McCradyEnglish Teacher, Raritan High School

2. A Repetitive, Cyclical Process LOOK Identify an issue or problem and gather relevant information (data) Analyze, identifying key concepts and ideas Take action based on the analysis THINK ACT LOOK THINK ACT

3. 5 Phases of Inquiry • Identification of problem area • 2. Collection and organization of data • 3. Interpretation of data • 4. Action based on data • 5. Reflection

4. It All Begins With A Question Identify a Problem Area • Reflect! • Limit your question to one that is meaningful and doable in the confines of your daily work. • When you choose your question, be sure that it is something over which you have influence.

5. Categories of Topics • Classroom environment - Topics in this category include the various aspects of the physical and psychosocial environments in classrooms and school buildings and their impact on student learning. • Instructional materials – Topics might include the appropriateness of textbook and other printed materials with respect to gender and ethnicity, the extent to which teachers find the materials useful and to which they support the curriculum, or the perceptions that students have of those materials. • Classroom management – Possible research topics might include the level of satisfaction that both teachers and students have with the methods of managing student behavior, the degree to which the methods of managing behavior allow students to learn without unnecessary distraction, or how limiting those methods are with the respect to the ability of teachers to teach as they would like.

6. Categories of Topics • Instructional methods – Topics might include the effect of a given teaching method on student learning, the impact that different teacher personality styles can have on student learning or motivation to learn, or methods of providing effective feedback to students on their academic performance. • The relation of human growth patterns to education – Possible topic might include ways to incorporate individual students’ interests and learning preferences, teaching strategies that support self-regulated learning, of those that support individual rates of learning.

7. Categories of Topics • Grading and evaluation – Teachers often have questions about the effects that grades and other forms of evaluative decisions have on student motivation, stress, achievement, and attitudes or on effective methods of incorporating authentic assessment and other nontraditional means of assessing students. • Conferencing – Possible topics might involve (a) the ways in which parents and teachers value individual conferences or (b) strategies for improving the effectiveness of parent-teacher conferences.

8. Sample Questions • How many of my students read the assignments before coming to class? • Do students who participate frequently in class do better on the exams? • How does X affect student learning? • Are students’ test scores higher when I use case studies? • Do students pay more attention and perform better on exams when I use presentation software (such as PowerPoint)? • Do interactive word walls improve the quality of writing journals for my students? • How can I better communicate with my students’ parents? • Will the use of graphic organizers help improve my tenth grade students’ performance on Social Studies unit tests?

9. Sample Questions • Why don’t my students take better notes? • Will I be able to raise oral language skills by having my students create podcasts about the book of the week and posting on our class website for review? • How can I provide an extension writing program through the use of a wiki? • Would implementing audio-books increase student retention? • How can using concrete objects (manipulatives) improve my students’ ability to identify and extend patterns in Mathematics? • How can I help the students in my classroom feel comfortable working with diverse groupings of classmates and overcome, at least part of the time, their desire to always be their friends? • How can I more effectively facilitate independent writing in my kindergarten classroom?

10. Sample Questions • How can fifth grade students be encouraged to write thoughtful inquiry questions for a science fair? • What kinds of assessments best help me understand and teach a particular learner with autism? • What changes in our teaching styles, curriculum design, materials and professional support are needed to implement a new math program in our inclusive classroom? • How does the direct teaching of anger management skills affect the classroom climate in primary-age school children? • What classroom strategies are effective in developing student self-evaluation of their learning? • How does the Writing Workshop approach affect my students' writing and their feelings toward writing?

11. Sample Questions • What is the impact of a study skills program on student achievement? • How does an elimination of number and letter grades throughout the year (with the exception of quarter and semester grades) impact student attitude toward learning? • How does an elimination of number and letter grades throughout the year (with the exception of quarter and semester grades) impact teaching styles, use of assessments, and choice of curriculum materials? • How can technology be used effectively in the classroom? • Has student achievement increased as the result of technology being integrated into the classroom? • How has the implementation of state assessments changed teaching strategies?

12. Formulating An Effective Question • For example, suppose a person has been holding family math night for years and sees an effect on parent participation. A weak question for action research would be: Will holding a family math night increase parent participation?Questions with known answers where the goal is to "prove" it to others are not effective. • This might be a useful evaluative research question where a controlled study could be set up to explore the connection. But evaluative research is different than action research. Action research is an experiment in design, and involves implementing an action to study its consequences.

13. Formulating An Effective Question • Avoid questions that can be answered yes or no. These are questions that will not encourage paying attention to the many nuances of the setting and the social interactions. This type of question is a good point to start with. • For example: Will the introduction of project-based learning lead to more student engagement?The question might be reworked to, How will the introduction of project-based learning affect student engagement in my classroom? The first one, the researcher can answer the question with yes (an outcome that they might have expected). The second question guides them to look for the possible mechanism of project-based learning (maybe ownership, collaboration, or self-assessment) that have been found to be related to increased engagement.

14. Formulating An Effective Question • Avoid forming questions that can be answered by reading the literature. • This might be a question that the researcher needs to answer, and can do so by reading more readily than by engaging in action research. • A better formulation for action research might be: How will increasing the time for teacher collaboration in grade level teams affect the development of a community of practice at our school?

15. A Good Action Research Question • Gets at explanations, reasons, relationships. "How does….?" "What happens when….?" • Is manageable and can be completed. • Is close to your own practice. • Provides you an opportunity to stretch. • Provides a deeper understanding of the topic and is meaningful to you.