research Action Research:
Improve Your Teaching and Help Others Do the Same Tobin Shucha, WMEA State Chair, Research
Many teachers view educational research as an “ivory tow- er” thing, largely divorced from the day-to-day lives of working teach- ers; I was one of those teachers. Quite frankly, they have a
point: research is often conducted from a detached place of observation, written up in a format that makes it difficult to find the main ideas, and with findings that seem to never quite answer the question, “So what should I do with this information?”
This is not a condemnation of such re- search: I could fairly make these criticisms of my own work. Academic research papers are mostly written for a target audience of other researchers, which can make them less useful (or at least harder to use) for practitioners.
What if there were a form of research more directly aimed at improving teaching with real-world practices and suggestions? What if that research could be written up so as to more readily help practicing teach- ers apply the results to their own teaching?
Action research can provide this kind of “real world” practicality. At its essence, action research involves practitioners gathering data from their own practice in the hopes of improving it. Because teach- ers doing action research gather data from their own teaching, they are able to carry out research while they teach:
Common approaches to academic research focus on experimental and quasi-experimental processes in which researchers deliberately exclude themselves from active participation in the research set- ting. Action researchers, however,
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take quite a different stance, which highlights the desire to work col- laboratively with participants to achieve practical solutions to is- sues and problems they experience in their everyday lives.” (Stringer & Aragón, 2020, p. 1)
In some ways, action research is what all good teachers already do: examine their own practice and find ways in which they can improve. However, when teachers take the extra steps of carefully planning their research, recording their data, and then potentially publishing (please see Step Six on next page) that data, they can share their learning with the rest of their community of practice.
How Do I Get Started?
Starting any research project can feel daunting. With some careful thought and preparation, however, designing and carrying out a research project is a very “doable” thing. I recommend reading this blog post by Life LeGeros to help break down some of the intimidating jargon into everyday language. Then, get started!
Step One: Choose something you want to improve, and an intervention to try out. From the aforementioned blog post, here are some prompts to help in brainstorming:
• A problem – What are your main day-to-day dilemmas? What keeps you up at night? What do you re- peatedly puzzle over?
• Something cool you are trying – Why do you get up in the morning? What is most exciting to you about your work right now? What risks are you taking?
• A question/curiosity – What do you wonder about? When do you find yourself commenting “well, that’s
“At its essence, action research involves practitioners gathering data from their own practice in the hopes of improving it.”
interesting…”? What practice(s) do you want to try?
Teachers often skip ahead to “What do I need to do better?” Avoid jumping to this question, as it can short-circuit the process! Once you have a specific area to improve, and you have an intervention (a change in your practice) to try, it’s time for…
Step Two: Craft your research question.
This seems like a simple thing, but asking the right question makes all the difference. Get specific: “How does implementing daily note-naming drills impact the sight- reading accuracy of my piano students?” is a question for which you can design a project. “How can I make my band play in tune?” is far too broad for a meaning- ful study.
Step Three: Choose your data collection method. You may already be gathering the kind of data that you need! Any assessment data that you record can be a data source, as can student interviews, surveys…even a daily log of your own observations and/or feelings can be a legitimate source of data. Just be systematic: if, for example, you don’t have time to test every student, find a means to sample truly random students.
April 2021
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