the action research guidebook 2nd edition

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Hands-on, Practical Guidance for Educators

From math, literacy, equity, multilingual learners, and SEL, to assessment, school counseling, and education leadership, our books are research-based and authored by experts on topics most relevant to what educators are facing today.

The Action Research Guidebook

Learn how to use a four-stage action research process, reflective practice, qualitative and quantitative methods, and culturally responsive teaching to improve the success of all students.

Full description

• Grade Level: PreK-12
• ISBN: 9781506350158
• Published By: Corwin
• Page Count: 288
• Publication date: November 01, 2016

Price: $44.95

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Description

Think of yourself as an educational architect

Action research is your essential tool for designing and building a better classroom or school. You know your students best, and by digging deeper into a challenge or research question and then taking informed action, you can achieve far more than any cookie-cutter curriculum or canned program. This empowering introduction to action research is ideal for new and veteran teachers, as well as principals, counselors, and other educators who are committed to school improvement. In the third edition of this bestselling guidebook, you’ll find:

• New insights on how to use reflective practice, qualitative and quantitative methods, and culturally responsive teaching to improve the success of all students
• A field-tested, four-stage action research process to lead you from brainstorming to breakthrough, with step-by-step instructions in plain English
• More illustrative examples, charts, handouts, worksheets, and sample action research reports to demystify and simplify the action research process

By tapping into the power of action research, you can improve overall student performance, eliminate achievement gaps, and enhance your own efficacy and morale.

"The most successful educators are those that purposefully reflect on their practices, with a focus on how and to what degree these practices impact student learning. This book provides a four-stage structured approach for teachers and administrators to engage in action research, with the ultimate goal being to move our schools and classrooms closer to universal student success.” Eric Carbaugh, Associate Professor of Education James Madison University "I love the four-step model and how it is emphasized throughout the text. This approach clearly makes the text unique and a 'must read' for all teachers wanting to enhance their teaching through action research ." Christopher J. Maglio, Professor of Education, Research Methods, and Design Truman State University

Richard D. Sagor

Richard Sagor recently retired from his position as professor and director of the Educational Leadership Program at Lewis & Clark College. In 1997 he founded ISIE (pronounced “I see”), the Institute for the Study of Inquiry in Education, to work with schools and educational organizations on the use of action research and data-based school improvement while he was a professor of educational leadership at Washington State University (WSU).

Prior to his work at the university level, Sagor had 14 years of public school administrative experience, including service as an assistant superintendent, high school principal, instruction vice principal, disciplinary vice principal, and alternative school head teacher. He has taught the entire range of students, from the gifted to the learning disabled, in the areas of social studies, reading, and written composition.

Educated in the public schools of New York, Sagor received his BA from New York University and two MA degrees as well as a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Oregon.

Beyond his work as a teacher and administrator, Sagor has had extensive international consulting experience. He served as a site visitor for the United States Department of Education’s Secondary School Recognition Program and has worked with the Department of Defense’s overseas schools, numerous state departments of education, and over 200 separate school districts across North America. His consulting has focused primarily on leadership development, the use of data with standards-based school improvement, collaborative action research, teacher motivation, and teaching at-risk youth.

His articles on school reform and action research have received awards from the National Association of Secondary School Principals and the Educational Press Association of America . Sagor’s books include The TQE Principal: A Transformed Leader; At-Risk Students: Reaching and Teaching Them; How To Conduct Collaborative Action Research; Local Control and Accountability: How to Get It, Keep It, and Improve School Performance; Guiding School Improvement With Action Research; Motivating Students and Teachers in an Era of Standards; and Collaborative Action Research for Professional Learning Communities.

Sagor can be contacted at the Institute for the Study of Inquiry in Education, 16420 SE McGillivray, Suite 103–239, Vancouver, WA 98683, or by e-mail at [email protected].

Charlene Williams

Table of contents.

Preface to the Third Edition

Publisher’s Acknowledgments

About the Authors

1. Introduction to Action Research

Why Conduct Action Research?

The Complexity of Routine Instructional Decisions

Key Terms and Concepts

Universal Student Success

2. Finding a Focus

Zeroing in on Your Priorities

Using Reflective Writing to Find a Focus

Performance, Process, and Program Targets and Action Research by School Leaders

Using a Journal to Identify Action Research Foci

Reflective Interviews

Reflective Interviewing and the Problem of Isolation

Analytic Discourse

Team Reflection

3. Refining the Focus

Visualizing Success

Conducting an Instructional Postmortem

Taking Stock of One’s Recent Leadership Experience

Comparing Your Experience With the Experience of Others

Developing Criteria to Measure Changes With Priority Achievement Targets

Creating Performance Rating Scales

Rating Scales and Program Action Research

The Special Problem of Long-Range Goals

Assessing Rate of Growth

Determining Adequate Yearly Progress in Real Time

Producing Your Own Rate-of-Growth Charts

Ascertaining Rate of Growth in Leadership Projects

4. Articulating a Theory of Action

If Not Us, Who?

An Adequate Knowledge Base Already Exists

Going Beyond Proven Practices: Building a Theory of Action

Two Kinds of Variables

Creating Mileposts on the Route to Mastery

Inferring Independent Variables

Using the Priority Pie to Identify, Clarify, and Weigh Independent Variables

Using the Priority Pie With Descriptive Research

5. Drawing a Theory of Action

European Explorers as Action Researchers

Building a Graphic Reconstruction

Graphic Reconstructions for Quasi-Experimental Research

Graphic Reconstructions With Descriptive Research

Proofing a Theory of Action for Leadership Projects

6. Determining the Research Questions

Three Generic Action Research Questions

Developing Your Own Research Questions

Two-Step Walk-Through

Drafting the Questions

Surfacing Research Questions for Leadership Projects

7. Building a Data Collection Plan

Data Collection and the Competing Demands for Your Time

What Qualifies as Teaching?

What Things Qualify as Data?

Data in Descriptive Research

Data in Quasi-Experimental Research

Data Collection and Concerns About Precision

Fishing in a Sea of Data

Securing Research Assistants

Building a Triangulated Data Collection Plan

Data Collection Planning for Leadership Projects

Integrating Efficiencies Into Your Data Collection Work

Using Technology to Compile and Assemble Action Research Data

Keeping a Researcher’s Journal

8. Analyzing the Data

Trend Analysis

Organizing Data to Help Answer the Three Generic Questions

ACR Question 1: What Did We Do?

ACR Question 2: What Changes Occurred Regarding the Achievement Targets?

ACR Question 3: What Was the Relationship Between Actions Taken and Any Changes in Performance on the Targets?

Drawing Tentative Assertions

Using Member Checking to Add Credibility to the Tentative Assertions

Additional Tools for Qualitative Data Analysis

Qualitative Data Analysis Using Bins and a Matrix

Low-Tech Strategies for Bins and Matrixes

Using a Computer for Bins and Matrixes

9. Turning Findings Into Action Plans

Modifying Your Theory of Action

Data-Based Decision Making

Turning Your Findings Into Ed Specs

Solicit and Brainstorm Action Alternatives

Using Ed Specs to Evaluate Action Alternatives

Using Ed Specs to Evaluate Action Alternatives for Schoolwide Projects

Completing the Cycle: Revised Theory of Action 2

10. Reporting and Sharing Action Research

Common Issues

Formats for Reporting

Creating a Bank of Abstracts

Creating a District Archive

11. Conclusion: The School as a Learning Organization

The Two Keys: Coherence and Congruence

Putting the Pieces Together

Resource A: How to Use the Feedback Forms and Summary Reports

Resource B: Five Characteristics of a Quality Action Research Project

Resource C: Applications for Leadership Projects

Resource D: Sample Abbreviated Action Research Reports

"I love the four-step model and how it is emphasized throughout the text. This approach clearly makes the text unique and a 'must read' for all teachers wanting to enhance their teaching through Action Research."

"The most successful educators are those that purposefully reflect on their practices, with a focus on how and to what degree these practices impact student learning. This book provides a four-stage structured approach for teachers and administrators to engage in action research, with the ultimate goal being to move our schools and classrooms closer to universal student success.”

Other Titles in: Staff Development & Professional Learning | Action Research/Practitioner Inquiry | Action Research

Action Research in Education

Second edition a practical guide, sara efrat efron and ruth ravid.

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Action Research in Education: A Practical Guide Second Edition

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Items related to Action Research: A Guide for the Teacher Researcher...

Action research: a guide for the teacher researcher (2nd edition) - softcover, geoffrey e. mills.

• 3.29 3.29 out of 5 stars 196 ratings by Goodreads

• About this title
• About this edition

Born of the author's own experience working with teachers and principals, this book provides a step-by-step outline of how to “do” action research—backed by the most extensive theory and research coverage on the market today. The author guides future educators through the action research process via numerous concrete illustrations and a wealth of on-line resources; positioning it as a fundamental component of teaching, alongside curriculum development, assessment, and classroom management. This book guides readers through the writing process from getting started to getting published. It covers how and when to use computer software to assist with qualitative data analysis and ensures understanding of the crucial importance of thorough data collection to the success of any research. For professionals in the field of teaching.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author

A native of Australia, Geoff Mills moved to the USA in 1986 to undertake doctoral studies at the University of Oregon. After completing his PhD in 1988, Geoff accepted his first teaching position at Southern Oregon State College (now Southern Oregon University). After 12 years of teaching, Geoff moved in to university administration where he served as Dean and Professor of Education in the School of Education at Southern Oregon University. Most recently, Geoff has returned to the faculty in the School of Education as a professor of education. 

Geoff has traveled extensively and given invited action research presentations in Australia, New Zealand, Greenland, United Kingdom, Canada, and many states in the United States. In addition to Action Research: A Guide for the Teacher Researcher , 5e, Geoff is also the active author of Educational Research: Competencies for Analysis and Applications (2012; with L. R. Gay and P. Airasian), now in its 10th edition.

Excerpt. � Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The Role of Action Research in Effecting Educational Change

Action research has the potential to be a powerful agent of educational change. Action research helps to develop teachers and administrators with professional attitudes that embrace action, progress, and reform rather than stability and mediocrity. In addition, the action research process fosters a democratic approach to decision making while, at the same time, it empowers individual teachers through participation in a collaborative, socially responsive research activity.

Commitment to action research positions teachers and administrators as learners rather than experts. Those committed to action research will willingly undertake continued professional development because they believe that there is a gap between the real world of their daily teaching practices and their vision of an ideal one.

Incorporating action research into preservice teacher education programs and professional development programs for inservice teachers will help make action research an ongoing component of a professional teacher's practice. Such action will ultimately help teachers to incorporate action research alongside other critical components of teaching, such as curriculum development, authentic assessment strategies, classroom management strategies, teaching strategies, and caring for children. Such actions will encourage teachers to embrace change.

It is my hope that this book will, in some small part, help us all to move forward in difficult times. Action research is an invitation to learn, a means to tackle tough questions that face us individually and collectively as teachers, and a method for questioning our daily taken-for-granted assumptions as a way to find hope for the future.

Conceptual Framework and organization of the Text

This book has emerged over a number of years and is based on my experience of doing and teaching action research. During this time, I have had the opportunity to work with some outstanding teachers and principals who were committed to looking systematically at the effects of their programs on the lives of children. This book's organization has grown out of these experiences and has been field tested by numerous students and colleagues.

Each chapter opens with an action research vignette that illustrates the content that will follow. These vignettes, most of which have been written by teachers and principals with whom I have worked, illustrate who does action research and what action research looks like in practice. The order of these chapters roughly matches the action research process, an approach that I have found very successful when teaching action research.

Contents of this New Edition

Chapter 1 defines action research and provides historical and theoretical contexts for the rest of the book. The chapter also reviews various models of action research and concludes with the four-step process (identifying an area of focus, collecting data, analyzing and interpreting data, and action planning) and the dialectic, model upon which this book is based. The remaining chapters mirror these steps.

Chapter 2 helps action researchers choose an "area of focus." Guidelines for selecting an area of focus are offered along with new and expanded step-by-step directions for how to do a literature review using on-line resources "such as ERIC. The chapter culminates with an action research plan that provides a practical guide for moving teacher researchers through the action research process.

Chapter 3 offers a comprehensive discussion on qualitative data collection that covers the "3 Es" of data collection: experiencing, enquiring, and examining. New to this edition are more coverage of interviewing guidelines and a data collection matrix for researcher use.

Chapter 4 addresses important data collection considerations, such as validity, reliability, and generalizability, to ensure that the data collected will be "trustworthy." The chapter also offers ethical guideposts and poses an ethical dilemma vignette to spark teacher researchers' thinking about how best to resolve ethical dilemmas if and when they arise.

Chapter 5 describes selected techniques of data analysis and data interpretation and distinguishes between the goals of the two processes. New to this edition are (1) guidelines and an example of coding qualitative data and (2) a new section and an illustration of using computer software to assist with data analysis.

Chapter 6 helps teacher researchers take action using a helpful Steps to Action chart. The chapter also discusses the potential obstacles to change that teacher researchers might face and suggests strategies for overcoming these obstacles.

Chapter 7 discusses the importance of bridging the gap between research and practice and following through with the complete action research cycle to ensure that the findings of the research have an impact on student learning. The importance of sharing, critiquing, and celebrating action research is also covered, along with valuable guidelines for using the action research resources offered on the Internet, including expanded coverage of action research web sites, listservs, and on-line journals.

Finally, Chapter 8, a new chapter, provides practical guidelines for writing up action research and ways that teacher researchers can "get the word out." A reprinted action research article with marginal annotations gives researchers an example of the general structure and components of written action research. A selfevaluation rubric helps teachers make sure their write-up is ready for publication.

Appendix A contains an extended example of action research through a case study of Curtis Elementary. The case study follows the process described throughout the book and includes an evaluation of the project on the basis of criteria for judging the quality of action research. New Appendix B contains a brief discussion of descriptive statistics (mean, mode, median, and standard deviation) and an illustration of how they can be applied to the analysis and interpretation of teacher research. New Appendix C, "Displaying Data Visually," presents a variety of examples of visual displays of data—bar graphs, tables, and a concept map—from action research projects. Using these display techniques helps teachers "see" data for better analysis and more effective communication of their findings.

Features of the Text

The text's user-friendly format includes chapter objectives, Key Concepts boxes, Research in Action Checklists, chapter summaries, and questions for further thought. The text also includes many practical illustrations of the action research process that will help teacher researchers apply the process in their own school or classroom setting. The unique information in Chapter 7, which provides on-line action research resources, will be a welcome feature to teacher researchers who wish to interact with other action researchers and access the plethora of action research resources available on the Internet.

Accompanying the text is a Web site at www.prenhall.com/mills , providing resources for students and instructors. For students, tasks provide action research practice opportunities, Web links provide handy access to relevant Web sites, and summaries of key concepts help researchers understand important chapter concepts. For instructors, PowerPoint Slides are available for use with each chapter.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

• Publisher Prentice Hall
• Publication date 2002
• ISBN 10  0130422541
• ISBN 13  9780130422545
• Binding Paperback
• Edition number 2
• Number of pages 256

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