How to Use Action Research in the Self-Renewing School


Book Description

Learning to inquire together, to generate knowledge and action simultaneously-that's action research. This book provides practical guidance for conducting schoolwide action research to improve student learning. Emily Calhoun, a co-author of the ASCD book, The Self-Renewing School provides detailed instructions for conducting schoolwide action research. School staff should begin with a broad assessment of the health of the school or with the perception of a problem in one area, such as students' achievement in mathematics. Staff should obtain input from parents, community members, and students as the school begins the 5-step cycle of action research: *First, seek agreement with others in your school community on what to study. *Second, collect and share information about students' knowledge, skills, and attitudes. *Third, search your own experiences and examine educational research for strategies and programs that will improve your students' math understanding. *Fourth, collaborate to improve curriculum and instruction in math. *Fifth, collect data on results, study effects, and begin the cycle all over again. Calhoun provides background information on the origins of action research, examples of data-collection forms and results of data analysis, and answers to commonly asked questions. Note: This product listing is for the Adobe Acrobat (PDF) version of the book.




Practical Action Research


Book Description

'Practical Action Research' is a compilation of critical commentaries that offer practical steps for understanding and implementing action research. The contributors demonstrate how educators can reflect, collect data, and create alternative ways to improve their practice in the classroom and schoolwide.




The Wiley Handbook of Action Research in Education


Book Description

Comprehensive overview of the theoretical, conceptual, and applied/practical presentations of action research as it is found and conducted solely in educational settings The Wiley Handbook of Action Research in Education is the first book to offer theoretical, conceptual, and applied/practical presentations of action research as it is found and conducted solely in educational settings. Covering primarily PK-12 educational settings, the book utilizes a cross-section of international authors and presentations to provide global perspectives on action research in education. Part I of The Wiley Handbook of Action Research in Education focuses on various foundational aspects and issues related to action research. Part II is centered on chapters that present theories and principles that help to guide the use of action research in educational contexts. Part III focuses on specific applications of educational action research in practice. Part IV provides an outlet for seven educational practitioners to share their experiences in conducting action research. Each of these authors also discusses the importance and value that action research has had on him or her, both professionally and personally. Discuss action research in PK-12, as well as in higher education settings The first book to focus on the importance and application of action research exclusively in educational settings Offers world perspectives on action research in education Written by a team of international scholars The Wiley Handbook of Action Research in Education is an excellent book for advanced undergraduate students, graduate students, and scholars studying and/or researching educational action research.




How to Conduct Collaborative Action Research


Book Description

This book details a five-step process to creating a positive climate for school restructuring by conducting collaborative action research, shows eight ways to gather valid and reliable data, explains techniques for identifying and understanding problems, and illustrates four basic strategies for managing conflict and changing the status quo.




Teacher Action Research


Book Description

"This is a wonderful book with deep insight into the relationship between teachers′ action and result of student learning. It discusses from different angles impact of action research on student learning in the classroom. Writing samples provided at the back are wonderful examples." —Kejing Liu, Shawnee State University Teacher Action Research: Building Knowledge Democracies focuses on helping schools build knowledge democracies through a process of action research in which teachers, students, and parents collaborate in conducting participatory and caring inquiry in the classroom, school, and community. Author Gerald J. Pine examines historical origins, the rationale for practice-based research, related theoretical and philosophical perspectives, and action research as a paradigm rather than a method. Key Features Discusses how to build a school research culture through collaborative teacher research Delineates the role of the professional development school as a venue for constructing a knowledge democracy Focuses on how teacher action research can empower the active and ongoing inclusion of nontraditional voices (those of students and parents) in the research process Includes chapters addressing the concrete practices of observation, reflection, dialogue, writing, and the conduct of action research, as well as examples of teacher action research studies




Teachers Investigate Their Work


Book Description

Teachers Investigate Their Work introduces the methods and concepts of action research through examples drawn from studies carried out by teachers. The book is arranged as a handbook with numerous sub-headings for easy reference and fourty-one practical methods and strategies to put into action, some of them flagged as suitable `starters'. Throughout the book, the authors draw on their international practical experience of action research, working in close collaboration with teachers. It is an essential guide for teachers, senior staff and co-ordinators of teacher professional development who are interested in investigating their own practice in order to improve it.




Making a Difference


Book Description

Volume V of The Handbook of Research in Middle Level Education highlights action research in middle grades education. As a method of inquiry, action research compels educators to take action and think reflectively about those actions in order to effect positive educational change (Mills, 2000). Teachers, administrators, university professors, and other professionals conduct action research in different ways to examine classroom practices and school issues. Educational action researchers initiate their inquiries in various contexts: alone, in small peer teams, or larger faculty groups (Zeichner, 2001). Using individual and collaborative approaches, educators gain insights into teaching and learning processes. As evidenced throughout this volume, action research in the middle grades occurs in a variety configurations. This volume examines the dynamic ways that preservice and inservice teachers, school administrators, university faculty, and educational consortia use action research.




Behaviour and Discipline in Schools


Book Description

First Published in 2000. This handbook is designed to support schools in the process of devising and revising their approach to managing the behaviour of pupils at a whole-school level. It is concerned primarily with the development and implementation of a whole-school behaviour policy. The handbook describes a process of development that, it is suggested, schools will find helpful in achieving good behaviour.




Professional Development


Book Description

This top-selling book will serve as the compass and road map to your school’s professional development journey. A comprehensive and authoritative resource you will go to again and again, this book helps guide principals, directors of professional development, school/district committees, and other leaders in creating an effective professional development program that moves ideas from knowledge to action. Topics include: Learning Communities Job-Embedded Learning Coaching Teacher Study Groups Critical Friends Lesson Study Portfolios And more! Additionally, this book features helpful case studies, useful forms and templates, sample agendas, and other invaluable resources for professional development. The second edition contains the following enhancements: Expanded coverage of job-embedded learning, which is a cost-effective way for administrators to enhance professional development with their staff More information on the theoretical grounding of professional development with applications that can be readily adapted for use in schools Updated references and figures to reflect newly published literature on the topics covered User-friendly tabs, so you can find and return to your favorite sections time after time




Empowering the Voice of the Teacher Researcher


Book Description

Empowering the Voice of the Teacher Researcher through a Culture of Inquiry is essentially a description of one school's initiatives to use collaborative communities and action research to empower teacher research and a culture of collective inquiry. It is written by teachers primarily for teachers and teacher educators. Of course, none of the initiatives described in the text would be possible without the visionary leadership of school and district administrators. Because administrative support is foundational to the process, school and district administrators and staff developers will also be interested in reading about how this school's principal and assistant principal set the stage for developing their community of learners. There are many sound action research texts on the market. What sets this text apart are the first-person accounts of teachers' experiences with action research as examples of profound possibilities for professional growth. As such, this book, written by teachers for other teachers and then contextualized by the Editors so that the relevance is clear to a broader audience, fills an important niche in the literature.