research
Don’t choose data to get the results for which you’d hoped.
Also, don’t discount data just because it may not apply to other contexts (i.e., someone else’s classroom). The first goal of action research is to improve teaching and learning in YOUR OWN context. Unlike some other types of research, your results are still valid even if they don’t work for other teachers.
Step Four: Analyze your data.
This needn’t be a complex mathematical process. Perhaps you interviewed students to get their thoughts on the intervention you tried; analysis can be as simple as find- ing common themes in their responses. On the other hand, it could also be calculating the percentage of improvement by quartile of the student population in your choir. Your research question should guide how you look at your data…what will answer that question?
Step Five: Reflect.
Take some time to ruminate on the re- sults…what do they mean? There is no right or wrong answer to this question. The focus might be: did my interven- tion achieve my goal? And: did I learn anything that might help me tweak that intervention, or choose another?
Step Six: Share!
This is an optional step…but if you have interesting results, others may well benefit from reading about them. It is my hope to have action researchers in our organization sharing their results by publishing them on the WMEA Research Connection site. This site is awaiting an in-progress over- haul and update, and I would love to see our members’ action research included!
Final Thoughts
Action research is really just a formalized means of doing what we all already do:
seeing if a new thing that we tried does what we’d hoped it would do. Action re- search helps us get a better handle on the answer to that query, it can help us choose new directions to make more improve- ments, and it can help us share our results so as to help others improve, as well.
Happy researching! References:
LeGeros, L. (2016, December 8). “How to Get Started With Action Research.” Innovative Education in VT. https://tiie.
w3.uvm.edu/blog/how-to-get-started- with-action-research/
Stringer, E. T., & Aragón, A. O. (2020). Action Research. SAGE Publications.
Tobin Shucha is assistant professor of music, di- rector of bands and director of music education at Ripon College. Email:
shuchat@ripon.edu
30 music programs
arts.uwm.edu/music
Wisconsin School Musician
Home to over
Currently accepting virtual auditions!
Scholarship opportunities available. Graduate assistantships including stipend, tuition remission and health insurance also available.
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