Author : Meghan Manfra
Publisher : SAGE Publications
Page : 185 pages
File Size : 50,64 MB
Release : 2019-12-20
Category : Education
ISBN : 1506316034
Action Research for Classrooms, Schools, and Communities is a core book for action research courses. The book also emphasizes using action research to understand community impacts on schools, acknowledging the complex ecology linking classrooms, schools, and the community, especially regarding issues fundamental to school reform.
Author : Craig A. Mertler
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 135 pages
File Size : 30,86 MB
Release : 2017-09-01
Category : Education
ISBN : 1351674544
Action Research Communities presents a new perspective on two current and proven educational practices: classroom-/school-based action research and professional learning communities. Implementation of one or the other of these practices often results in a variety of possible benefits for the teaching–learning process, for student achievement, and for overall school improvement. While these might seem to be separate, isolated practices, the author has taken the beneficial aspects of each practice and merged them into a cohesive and potentially powerful concept, coined "action research communities." Each of the two concepts or approaches (action research and professional learning communities) is presented and discussed in detail. Because they both focus on local-level improvement of educational practice and share several overlapping features, the two concepts are then merged into a single entity—action research communities, or ARCs. These professional learning communities, with action research at their core, hold an immense amount of power and potential when it comes to enhanced professional growth and development for educators, increased student achievement, school improvement, and educator empowerment. ARCs essentially capitalize on all the individualized benefits and strengths of action research and of professional learning communities, and merge them into a single educational concept and practice. ARCs have the potential to help educators everywhere experience: •a common and collective focus and vision; • sustained collaborative inquiry; •individualized, customizable—and meaningful—professional growth; and •true empowerment that comes with this form of collaborative, inquiry-based, and reflective practice. Practical guidance for the development and implementation of ARCs is also provided, by focusing on ways in which professional educators (teachers, administrators, support staff, etc.) can implement, sustain, and extend the impact of their respective action research communities. Specific roles for district administrators, building administrators, and teachers are presented and discussed in depth, as are ways that ARCs can be used both to deepen professional learning for educators and to improve student learning.
Author : Mary Lynn Redmond
Publisher : IAP
Page : 160 pages
File Size : 10,36 MB
Release : 2013-06-01
Category : Education
ISBN : 162396203X
The current thrust in the field of education is to improve teachers’ understanding of how research on best practices can improve student learning. The field of world language education introduces a double, perhaps a triple, bind: teachers must be able to design and deliver instruction that aligns with national expectations for developing students’ language and intercultural abilities for success in the global workplace, yet in schools across America, all K-12 students do not have the opportunity to study languages, even though research supports their astonishing facility for acquisition. Schools and teachers without resources, including time to investigate and implement evidence-based best practices, are ultimately held accountable for student performance. If world language teachers are to advocate for languages, they must use their expertise and share evidence of their students’ progress. The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) recently began development of a national research priorities agenda for grades preK-16. Action research, which is classroom-centered and inquiry-based, can contribute to our profession’s efforts, as it helps us to increase awareness of the critical need for language study in grades preK-16. World language teachers can become teacher-researchers in their own classrooms, gathering deeply meaningful insights into their students’ progress that they can share with others. Teacher-researchers investigate innovative approaches in response to their questions about teaching and learning, which are rooted in daily experience. They engage their students in fresh learning activities, and student feedback helps them to make better decisions about instructional and assessment strategies. Results can be shared with stakeholders, including parents, administrators, school board members, and guidance counselors, as evidence of what all kinds of students can do in languages. At a time in our history when we are striving to prepare teachers for 21st-century schools that prioritize global competence, Action Research in the World Language Classroom is a timely resource for the profession. It describes a natural, engaging, motivating way to contribute, particularly for preservice teachers who are shaping their views and understanding about world language instruction and the connections between research and best practices. The book includes four studies conducted by preservice teachers during their student teaching internships in North Carolina public schools. The editor hopes that their work and observations will inspire and assist world language educators at all stages of their careers.
Author : Craig A. Mertler
Publisher : SAGE Publications
Page : 525 pages
File Size : 18,24 MB
Release : 2016-06-29
Category : Education
ISBN : 1483389073
Craig Mertler’s Action Research: Improving Schools and Empowering Educators introduces practicing educators to the process of conducting classroom-based action research. Practical and comprehensive, the book focuses on research methods and procedures that educators can use in their everyday practice. This Fifth Edition adds enhanced coverage of rigor and ethics in action research, means of establishing quality of both quantitative and qualitative data, as well as strengthened pedagogical features. New material includes discussions of social justice advocacy as an application of action research and the inclusion of abstracts in research reports.
Author : Jal Mehta
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 465 pages
File Size : 29,49 MB
Release : 2019-04-22
Category : Education
ISBN : 0674988396
"The best book on high school dynamics I have ever read."--Jay Mathews, Washington Post An award-winning professor and an accomplished educator take us beyond the hype of reform and inside some of America's most innovative classrooms to show what is working--and what isn't--in our schools. What would it take to transform industrial-era schools into modern organizations capable of supporting deep learning for all? Jal Mehta and Sarah Fine's quest to answer this question took them inside some of America's most innovative schools and classrooms--places where educators are rethinking both what and how students should learn. The story they tell is alternately discouraging and hopeful. Drawing on hundreds of hours of observations and interviews at thirty different schools, Mehta and Fine reveal that deeper learning is more often the exception than the rule. And yet they find pockets of powerful learning at almost every school, often in electives and extracurriculars as well as in a few mold-breaking academic courses. These spaces achieve depth, the authors argue, because they emphasize purpose and choice, cultivate community, and draw on powerful traditions of apprenticeship. These outliers suggest that it is difficult but possible for schools and classrooms to achieve the integrations that support deep learning: rigor with joy, precision with play, mastery with identity and creativity. This boldly humanistic book offers a rich account of what education can be. The first panoramic study of American public high schools since the 1980s, In Search of Deeper Learning lays out a new vision for American education--one that will set the agenda for schools of the future.
Author : Gerald J. Pine
Publisher : SAGE
Page : 417 pages
File Size : 42,72 MB
Release : 2008-10-31
Category : Education
ISBN : 1452278741
"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
Author : Richard Sagor
Publisher : ASCD
Page : 231 pages
File Size : 43,88 MB
Release : 2000-05-15
Category : Education
ISBN : 1416615903
Action research, explored in this book, is a seven-step process for improving teaching and learning in classrooms at all levels. Through practical examples, research tools, and easy-to-follow "implementation strategies," Richard Sagor guides readers through the process from start to finish. Learn how to uncover and use the data that already exist in your classrooms and schools to answer significant questions about your individual or collective concerns and interests. Sagor covers each step in the action research process in detail: selecting a focus, clarifying theories, identifying research questions, collecting data, analyzing data, reporting results, and taking informed action. Drawing from the experience of individual teachers, faculties, and school districts, Sagor describes how action research can enhance teachers' professional standing and efficacy while helping them succeed in settings characterized by increasingly diverse student populations and an emphasis on standards-based reform. The book also demonstrates how administrators and policymakers can use action research to bolster efforts related to accreditation, teacher supervision, and job-embedded staff development. Part how-to guide, part inspirational treatise, Guiding School Improvement with Action Research provides advice, information, and encouragement to anyone interested in reinventing schools as learning communities and restructuring teaching as the true profession it was meant to be.
Author : Joyce L. Epstein
Publisher : Corwin Press
Page : 508 pages
File Size : 31,98 MB
Release : 2018-07-19
Category : Education
ISBN : 1483320014
Strengthen programs of family and community engagement to promote equity and increase student success! When schools, families, and communities collaborate and share responsibility for students′ education, more students succeed in school. Based on 30 years of research and fieldwork, the fourth edition of the bestseller School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Your Handbook for Action, presents tools and guidelines to help develop more effective and more equitable programs of family and community engagement. Written by a team of well-known experts, it provides a theory and framework of six types of involvement for action; up-to-date research on school, family, and community collaboration; and new materials for professional development and on-going technical assistance. Readers also will find: Examples of best practices on the six types of involvement from preschools, and elementary, middle, and high schools Checklists, templates, and evaluations to plan goal-linked partnership programs and assess progress CD-ROM with slides and notes for two presentations: A new awareness session to orient colleagues on the major components of a research-based partnership program, and a full One-Day Team Training Workshop to prepare school teams to develop their partnership programs. As a foundational text, this handbook demonstrates a proven approach to implement and sustain inclusive, goal-linked programs of partnership. It shows how a good partnership program is an essential component of good school organization and school improvement for student success. This book will help every district and all schools strengthen and continually improve their programs of family and community engagement.
Author : JoAnne Ferrara
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 221 pages
File Size : 22,83 MB
Release : 2019-05-24
Category : Education
ISBN : 1475831420
Ferrara and Jacobson go inside community schools across the country to explore the different roles that make this collaborative education reform work. This book provides practitioners, policymakers, family members, youth, and local leaders a greater understanding of the different roles that make up a community school and tools for action. Built on years of practice, research, and continuous improvement, community schools are an innovative, effective, and grassroots strategy for bringing schools and communities together in order to improve outcomes for students, families, and communities. This education reform is growing as school site, local, and state leaders seek collaborative solutions to our schools’ most persistent challenges. The contributors, experts in the field, represent a diverse group of people with longstanding commitments to the community school strategy. From principals to family members, from community partners to teachers, this book illustrates how together, we all have a part to play in the development of successful community schools.
Author : Alex Shevrin Venet
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
Page : 210 pages
File Size : 45,73 MB
Release : 2023-09-01
Category : Education
ISBN : 1003845118
Educators must both respond to the impact of trauma, and prevent trauma at school. Trauma-informed initiatives tend to focus on the challenging behaviors of students and ascribe them to circumstances that students are facing outside of school. This approach ignores the reality that inequity itself causes trauma, and that schools often heighten inequities when implementing trauma-informed practices that are not based in educational equity. In this fresh look at trauma-informed practice, Alex Shevrin Venet urges educators to shift equity to the center as they consider policies and professional development. Using a framework of six principles for equity-centered trauma-informed education, Venet offers practical action steps that teachers and school leaders can take from any starting point, using the resources and influence at their disposal to make shifts in practice, pedagogy, and policy. Overthrowing inequitable systems is a process, not an overnight change. But transformation is possible when educators work together, and teachers can do more than they realize from within their own classrooms.
