EDTE 712 Action Research in Teaching I. Descriptive Information A. Course Number and Title: EDTE 712 - Action Research in Teaching B. Catalog Description: Introduction to action research through the investigation of a significant question or issue related to teaching in pre-K through 12 schools. C. Course Credit: Three (3) graduate credit hours. D. Prerequisites: EDTE 710, EDTE 711, and EDRM 700 or an approved education research course. E. Intended Audience: Certified teachers and candidates in the M.Ed. in Teaching Program F. Instructors: Graduate faculty from the Department of Instruction and Teacher Education. II. Course Goals and Objectives: Participants in this course will engage in explorations of action research in theory and practice in relation to teaching in public schools. Participants will make connections between their theoretical understandings of research and their own emergence as practitioner researchers in educational settings who view themselves as producers of knowledge who can learn about their teaching and their students' learning by studying their own experiences. They will have an opportunity to identify a problem in their practice, make a plan, gather and analyze data as they carry it out, report results, and develop implications for their future teaching practice and action research. This class will serve as a foundation for EDTE 713. Objectives The graduate students will: • Explore action research in theory and practice by reading widely so as to understand and use core concepts and findings from action research literature in their field • Conduct an action research project • Keep an action-research journal of observations in their educational settings • Reflect on the ethics of action research • Use data collection and analysis methods appropriate to action research • Participate in a community of practice as they grow in their understanding of action research, reflect on their research project, and the research projects of others. III. Required Textbooks and Articles Required texts: To explore educational theory and practice about action research, students will read from:

Mills, G.E. (2003). Action research: A guide for the teacher researcher. Second Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill /Prentice Hall. Hubbard, R. S. & Power, B.M. (1999). Living the Question: A Guide for Teacher-Researchers. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Required articles and chapters: To extend educational theory and the political nature of action research, students will read from articles posted on Blackboard that address the theoretical underpinnings of action research, such as: Articles about Action Research: Anderson, G. & Herr, K. (1999). “The New Paradigm Wars: Is There Room for Rigorous Practitioner Knowledge in Schools and Universities?” Educational Researcher, 28 (5), pp. 1221. Cochran-Smith, M. & Lytle, S. (1993). “Research on Teaching and Teacher Research: The Issues that Divide.” In M.Cochran-Smith & S. Lytle, (Eds.), Inside/Outside: Teacher Research and Knowledge. (pp. 5-22). New York: Teacher College Press. Corey, S (1953). Action research to improve school practice. New York: Teachers College Press. Elliott, J. (1991). Action research for educational change. Milton Keyes: Open University Press. Frank, C. (1999). “Ethnographic Perspectives.” In C. Frank, Ethnographic Eyes. (pp. 1-14). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Frank, C. (1999). “Ethnographic Interviews for Teachers.” In C. Frank, Ethnographic Eyes. (pp 27-39). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Herr, K. (1999). “Unearthing the Unspeakable: When Teacher Research and Political Agendas Collide.” Language Arts, 77 (1), 10-15. Hobson, D. (2001). “Action and Reflection: Narrative and Journaling in Teacher Research” In G. Burnaford, J. Fischer, & D. Hobson (Eds.). Teachers Doing Research, 2nd Edition. (pp. 727). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Hole, S. & McEntee, G. (1999). Reflection is at the heart of practice. Educational Leadership, 56 (8) http://www.ascd.org/readingroom/edlead/9905/hole.html Hopkins, D. (1993). A teacher’s guide to classroom research. (Second edition). Bristol, PA: Open University Press.

Hubbard, R. H., & Power, B. (1993). “Finding and Framing a Research Question.” In L. Paterson, C.M. Santa, K. Short, & K Smith (Eds.), Teachers are Researchers: Reflection and Action. (pp. 19-25). Newark, DE: International Reading Association. Hubbard, R.H. & Power, B. (1993). “The Artists Tool Box.” In Hubbard & Power (Eds.) The Art of Classroom Inquiry. (pp. 9-49). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Hubbard, R.H. & Power, B. (1993). "Pentimento: Strategies for Data Analysis." In Hubbard & Power (Eds.) The Art of Classroom Inquiry. (pp. 65-99). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Lewin, K. (1946). Action research and minority problems. Journal of Social Issues. (2) 34-46. Long, S. (2002). Reflections: What made the difference? Primary Voices, 11 (2) 48-52. Power, B. (1996). “What To Do With What You’ve Written.” In B Power, Taking Note: Improving Your Observational Notetaking (pp. 47-57). Portland, ME: Stenhouse. Shannon, P. (1996). “Teachers Researching During Troubling Times.” Teacher Research 4 (1), 12-23. Rapoport, R. (1970). Three dilemmas in action research. Human Relations, 23 1- 11. Richardson, V. (1994). Conducting research on practice. Educational Researcher 23, 1-11. Schatzman and Strauss (1972) Strategy for entering. In Field Research. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Stenhouse, L. (1975). An introduction to curriculum research and development. London: Heinemann. Shulman, L. (1987). Knowledge and teaching: foundations of new reform. Harvard Education Review, 57, (1), 1-21. Waters, R. (1999). “Teachers as Researchers: Making Sense of Teaching and Learning,” Language Arts, 77 (1), 44-46. White, J.J. War stories: Invitations to reflect on practice. In Issues and practices in inquiry oriented teacher education. B.R. Tabachnick & K. Zeichner. (Eds.) 226-252. New York: The Falmer Press. To extend their understandings of action research in practice, students will read from articles posted on Blackboard, such as: Examples of Action Research: Bigelow, B. (1997). “On the Road to Cultural Bias: A Critique of The Oregon Trail CDROM,” Language Arts, 74 (2), 84-93.

Dabisch, D. (2001). From Desks to a Quest: Understanding the Process of Teacher Research. (Online) http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/~ctd/networks/journal/Vol%204(2).2001sept/article1.html Fowler, Jennifer (2000). "Finding Time for Cooperative Learning." DCI 510, Spring 2000, Arizona State University. Green, P. (1995). What types of learning activities are more likely to increase the involvement of non-participating students? Chapter Two. Pp. 17 – 32. & Thompson, S. (1995) Equality in the classroom: An attempt to eliminate bias in my classroom. Chapter Six. (pp. 63-72.) In Action research: Perspectives from teachers’ classrooms. SERVE Southeastern Regional Vision for Education: Science FEAT Science for Early Adolescence Teachers. Heath, S.B. (1987). A lot of talk about nothing. Reclaiming the classroom. Teacher research as an agency for change. D. Goxwami & P. Stillman Eds. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Boynton/Cook Publishers. Joanos, L.G. (1997). First graders’ beliefs and perceptions of “What is science?” and “Who is a scientist?” Chapter One. (pp 9 – 20.) In Science in the elementary school classroom: Portraits of action research. SERVE Southeastern Regional Vision for Education: Science FEAT Science for Early Adolescence Teachers. Kent, L. Arnosky, J. & McMonagle, J. (2002). Using representational contexts to support multiplicative reasoning. In Making sense of fractions, ratios, and proportions. 2002 Yearbook. 145- 152. Reston, VA: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Long, S. (2004). Separating rhetoric from reality: Supporting teachers to negotiate beyond the status quo. Journal of Teacher Education, 55 (2): 141-153. Miller, S. (2001). "Lessons from Tony: Betrayal and Trust in Teacher Research", The Quarterly of the National Writing Project, Spring. Online: http://nwp.edgateway.net/cs/nwpp/view/nwpr/149. Nickel, J. (2001). “When Writing Conferences Don’t Work: Students’ Retreat from Teacher Agenda.” Language Arts 79 (2), 136-147. Styslinger, M. E. (2002). Tell me what you want, what you really, really want: Student preferences about literacy and learning. Carolina English Teacher, 1-4. Veldman, P. M. (1997). Changing a teacher’s role to evoke meaningful learning behaviors. Chapter Three. (pp. 33-43.) In Science in the elementary school classroom: Portraits of action research. SERVE Southeastern Regional Vision for Education: Science FEAT Science for Early Adolescence Teachers. Wauch, J. (2001). Becoming reading researchers. Chapter 7 in From the ground up: Creating a culture of inquiry. H. Mills & A. Donnelly Eds. (pp. 104- 121). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

White, J.J. (1993). Teaching for understanding in a third grade geography lesson. In Advances in research on teaching: Case studies of teaching and learning in social studies. J. Brophy, (Ed.)Vol. 4. Greenwich, CN: JAI Press. IV. Course Requirements A. Reading and Admit Slips: Reading in this course is CRITICAL. You are to respond to each weekly reading assignment by underlining, tabbing, highlighting key ideas in texts and then recording key reflections on Admit Slips. Please design your own admit slip and make enough copies so that you will have one or more to complete for each week's reading assignment. You will turn in your Admit Slip each week. Your Admit Slip should include your reflections on that week's readings in the following areas: • A bulleted list of key learning from the reading that week • Key lines that you want to share with every teacher you know • Implications that you see for action research in your teaching life • Questions and confusions prompted by any part of the reading; ideas that need clarification Please keep a folder in which you file your Admit Slips chronologically. You will be asked to turn them all in again at the end of the semester. B. Being a part of the Community of Practice: Using admit slips and class notes, students will meet regularly in small groups to articulate their understanding of action research in theory and in practice. Later in the class, as students define their areas of interest for research, they will work together in small groups to provide support through the research process, e.g., framing their questions, collecting and analyzing data, finding materials to support their understandings, etc. C. Initial draft of an Action Research Project: Students will engage in a mini-action research project in which they will frame a question based on questions they have about their students' learning or their teaching. Students will write a research plan, collect and analyze data, and write up their research story including possible implications for their teaching. D. Reflection Paper: At the end of the semester, students will use their action research project and the course readings to consider what both might mean in terms of teaching and learning in their own educational site. In this paper, students will explain how their theoretical stance toward action research and their classroom practice support each other as well as possible plans for future action research currently and for EDTE 713. V. Course Requirements: A. Admit Slips

100 points

Weekly written assignments that reflect the students' understanding and reflection on the readings B. Community of Practice 25 points Brainstorming; class discussions; critique of participants’ work; working together in communities of practice for presentations of research question, data collection and analysis, project results, conclusion and implication including written class assignments. C. Initial draft of an action research project

125 points

D. Reflection paper

50 points

Paper on how the action research project has changed/will change their teaching practices and theory, courses they will take in the future in the M.Ed. program and research questions that they will ask. Total possible points:

300 points

A = 280- 300 B+ = 270-279 B = 260-269 C+ = 250-259 C = 240-249 D = 200-239 F