A Practical Guide to Action Research for Literacy Educators

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................................................1
A BRIEF HISTORY OF ACTION RESEARCH ....................................................................................................................4
What is Action Research?..............................................................................................................................................4
Principles of Action Research.......................................................................................................................................6
WHY SHOULD I DO ACTION RESEARCH IN MY CLASSROOM? ................................................................................9
WHO USES ACTION RESEARCH? ...................................................................................................................................12
THE ROLE OF ADMINISTRATORS IN ACTION RESEARCH.......................................................................................15
A Culture of Research.................................................................................................................................................16
THE ACTION RESEARCH PROCESS...............................................................................................................................18
The Action Research Cycle .........................................................................................................................................19
IDENTIFY A PROBLEM AND ASK A QUESTION..........................................................................................................21
How to Form a Research Question ............................................................................................................................26
Example: How to Form a Research Question ............................................................................................................27
CREATE AN ACTION PLAN..............................................................................................................................................28
Seek Knowledge ..........................................................................................................................................................28
Organizing Your Information ....................................................................................................................................29
Summarizing Your Information.................................................................................................................................30
Developing the Action Plan........................................................................................................................................30
Checklist for the Action Plan......................................................................................................................................33
ENACT THE PLAN AND COLLECT DATA.......................................................................................................................34
Quantitative and Qualitative Data .............................................................................................................................35
Data Sources ...............................................................................................................................................................35
Reliability and Validity of Data ..................................................................................................................................36
The Triangulation Method .........................................................................................................................................37
Example: Triangulating Data for Action Research on Literature Circles ..................................................................39
Interview Techniques..................................................................................................................................................40
Observation Techniques .............................................................................................................................................42
Checklist for a Discussion Group...............................................................................................................................43
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