This teacher professional development course will provide you with a plan for implementing action research into your classroom. You will learn about the purpose of action research in education and evaluate the six-step process to utilizing it for your own classroom. You will identify a problem in your classroom and craft a research question. Then, you will learn how to select appropriate sources and conduct a literature review.
As you consider how to implement your action plan, you will learn about evaluating its effectiveness using qualitative and quantitative research methods and explore data collection and analysis techniques. Finally, you will learn how to form a conclusion and identify next steps, which you can share with others on your campus.
The course provides you with all the planning resources you will need to get started and supports you in designing an action research project ready to be implemented in your classroom.
Instructor(s):Self-Study
Requirements:
Hardware Requirements:
- This course can be taken on either a PC, Mac, or Chromebook.
Software Requirements:
- PC: Windows 10 or later.
- Mac: macOS 10.6 or later.
- Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox is preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
- Microsoft Word Online
- Editing of a Microsoft Word document is required in this course. You may use a free version of Microsoft Word Online, or Google Docs if you do not have Microsoft Office installed on your computer. Model Teaching can provide support for this.
- Adobe Acrobat Reader
- Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.
Other:
- Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.
Instructional Material Requirements:
The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.
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Lesson 1
- Section 1 – An Introduction to Action Research
- The definition of action research
- The six action research steps
- How action research can be applied to any aspect of teaching
- Section 2 – Identifying a Problem and Posing a Research Question
- Example problems and questions for action research areas of interest
- The characteristics of a strong research question
- Section 3 – Literature Review
- The purpose of a literature review
- How to select appropriate resources for a literature review
- How to conduct a literature review
- Section 4 – Choosing a Solution
- How to choose one solution to implement in your action research
- How to change your research question if necessary
- Section 5- Collecting Data
- The difference between qualitative and quantitative research methods
- Examples of data that can be collected for each method
- Considerations for collecting reliable and valid data
- Section 6- Analyzing Data
- How to analyze qualitative and quantitative data
- The importance of data validity and reliability
- Considerations for forming a conclusion from the data you have collected
- Section 7- Communicate the Results
- Considerations for choosing an audience with whom to share your research
- How to create a presentation for sharing your results
- Your next steps after completing your first cycle of action research
- Putting it All Together
- Using the sample provided, build your own action research plan.
- Applying What you Have Learned
- Get ideas on how to implement the concepts into your classroom, find a list of online resources that teach you about action research and evaluate the research behind its effectiveness.
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