Teaching and Learning
Professional Development of Teachers
Action Research

How does action research work in a team-based model?

1. Collaborative teams are created.

2. Problems or challenges are identified.

3. The context of the problems or challenges are studied.

4. Data is collected.

5. Action is taken it may be changes in instructional strategies, resources,
time used, personnel, etc).

6. Teams engage in discourse and reflection around the results of these
actions.

7. Innovations may then be adopted, or discarded, based on the teams judgments.

8. A new cycle begins (see step two above).


Benefits

  • provides a way to encourage and organize collaborative work
  • encourages the sharing of professional expertise
  • provides an alternative to the one-shot workshop
  • builds a strong learning community
  • leads to improvements in student learning

 

Challenges

  • time for teams to meet
  • time to collect and collate data
  • findding professional expertise to help the teams
  • finding resource materials and research on best practices
  • staff leadership capacity


The School-Wide Action Research Matrix
School Focus: To improve ________________________________
Learners
(Students)
Learning Environment
(District/School)

1. Current student data and information:

 

 

Teacher, parent or business leader perceptions

 3. Set measurable goal for student performance and response we would like to see:

4.Information about the current learning environment in our school/district (programs, stadff, instructional strategies used, resources):

 

 6. Set measurable goals for student environment we would like to see (programs, staff, resources)

2. External Information About Students:

 

 

5. External Information About Learnng Environment (study of literature, standards, best practices)

 

(adapted from Action Research for School by Emily F. Calhoun, March 2002, pp.18-24,
Educational Leadership)
Online Learning for Administrators
Copyright 2003 Regina Public Schools and Saskatchewan Learning