Action Research Masterclass: The Complete 7-Step Framework

Traditional research is trying to reach a conclusion. It's trying to give us a yes or a no on is my hypothesis correct, right? Or incorrect. Whereas action research is conducted mainly to help you make decisions. Basically, it's to resolve problems. Hi, this is Tracy Teahome Espinosa and this is a video for module four on how to conduct action research. Today we're going to look at action research in context understanding what does it mean within the broader categories of quantitative qualitative research. Then question ourselves about why we do action research. look at some of the visual models that we have for the steps in action research and then actually disagregate each of those steps in in a plan so that we make it manageable to follow. So globally now don't get scared by this kind of complicated slide but I wanted to share this idea with you. The research onen came out in 2015. So it's kind of new and then it was terrific because it took all these different layers of research and put it into one single graphic which hadn't been done before which was pretty smart idea here. So on this most outer level researchers are asked to think more about their paradigm that they're using their points of reference. What is it that they believe in before they even begin? So this is almost at a philosophical level. Researchers are asked to think you know how am I approaching this topic? Am I doing this from a critical feminism perspective or am I being very pragmatic or realistic? Right? At a second level though you have these approaches to reasoning. You know how do you think about the world? So practically what kind of reasoning am I going to use? Will it be deductive or inductive reasoning? So these are kind of broader questions which are really really helpful over time. So for researchers, for example, writing a PhD dissertation or something, this is really fundamental because it really points to some of the belief systems that people have that influence or can bias some of the things that they find. So in our research within our course, we're going to be looking at this just to be aware of it. You don't have to really apply it but to think a bit about it because we don't have enough time to really dig deep enough and to think about this but it is very important because we will talk about how some of the research findings that we look for um are biased by our own belief systems. At the next level though a little bit more inwards are things that we call methods. And this is asking us to determine if we're going to be approaching the problem through a quantitative or a qualitative or a mixed method structure. Okay. So, do I want to measure something or do I want to describe something? So, basically coming to that decision before you launch into the research and collect data. So, in order to collect data, you have to have a strategy or a design of how you're going to do that. And what's so interesting is these break down into basic tools. You know, am I going to use a survey or am I going to do an experiment? Uh shall I use a case study of an individual person? Right? If you use something like grounded theory, it's because you're thinking of something nobody else has thought of before and you're coming up with something from the ground up. You're basically collecting a lot of information and saying how this points to something new that hasn't been thought before. So these are strategies or research designs. And then at the next level we have the big job of data collection. And we know there's a lot of errors that can occur as you collect data. And there's also a lot of errors that can occur when you analyze the data. So when you collect it, you really have to think about you know who, what, when, where, why, how am I going to get the information. So if I'm going to do the surveys, how is it going to be distributed? Um how will I tabulate it? Right? But then there's this next level of analyzing it which is also very complicated. Once you've got that data and you've collected it, now what are you going to do? Are you going to apply a formula to get a number or are you going to, you know, code all the words that the kids said to each other to be able to to categorize information? How will you approach the data collection and the data analysis? So these are the different layers of research that are indicated here. Now it's clear that something this is not a totally even though it's complicated it's not a complete uh model because it is missing certain types of strategies or experimental designs for example another strategy or experimental design is looking at correlational studies right how two things might happen at the same time or looking at narrative studies which are basically great descriptions of um structures or context or how classrooms might look or whatever right but then there's also action research and action research is a different kind of design uh research design that we're going to be focusing on today. Kurt Leuen who was a professor at MIT coined this phrase when he was looking at a specific problem within the MIT context which had to do with um looking at minority problems within the MIT structure. So he described extern research as being a comparative research on the conditions and effects of various forms of social action and research leading to social action. So or change right so basically how does something occur within a social context that we take actions upon or that actors act upon and that change that other thing. Okay. So that was the first time back in 1940s and that was something um that over the past almost 80 years has really evolved into really getting uh into very defined areas. And so the biggest uh clear definition we have is that traditional research is trying to reach a conclusion. It's trying to give us a yes or a no on is my hypothesis correct right or incorrect. Whereas action research is conducted mainly to help you make decisions. Basically, it's to resolve problems as opposed to draw a conclusion about something. And many people are motivated to do action research for various reasons, right? Some people believe that it is the the way to develop a reflective practitioner. And this is why we have a lot of new models these days called the teacher uh researcher practitioner model. Right? So is the it's the researcher practitioner means the person who is a researcher, but they're actually the practitioner. they're the teacher in the classroom doing things right. So the need to have reflective practice within that context. How do I stop at the end of every day and say what did I do well? What did I do wrong? What could I do better tomorrow in order to improve continually improve my practice? Other people do action research because it helps promote schoolwide priorities. For example, if we're all trying to reduce bullying or enhance social emotional awareness or get our test scores up or something like that, different teachers might take on different types of initiatives to meet those shared goals, schoolwide goals. It also in some school contexts builds professional cultures. In many schools, action research is required of teachers every single year. This also professionalizes teachers. Instead of just saying, well, I had a gut feeling I did this. um you can say well actually I did a research project last year that really confirmed this um hunch I had about the way kids interact or whatever it is right so there's a professionalization element to this because of the documentation that's involved we also think that it enhances the motivation and efficiency of people who might just be getting tired and worn down by their practice it's very rejuvenating and and interesting to follow up on something that we're curious about you know that that pushes us to be students as well, right? So, it's another way of energizing maybe people who have uh who've gotten tired of the same old same old teaching routine to have research in there really adds a new dimension to the job. Other people think it meets the needs of an increasing diverse student body because we're able to address multiple questions that can arise from different types of learners. And yet others think it uh achieves success um by sort of aiming towards standardbased reforms. How can we have evidence in in our pockets when we now approach different types of policy decisions? So what I'd like to ask you to do is to think, you know, why are you doing the action research? Um that's a really important thing to sort of own this process and decide well, you know, if I'm doing this for myself or for the group. So when we think about that, there's basically three types of researchers, right? There are some people who are driven by their students. They're looking at their own agenda and they see that there's a need here. There's a problem I'm addressing. There's also people who are out to change the the world. Sometimes these are things as as lofty as goals of, you know, I'm going to transform society. I'm trying to create better people who are better society members and who care for each other. or it might just be out for um a type of instrumental goal attainment like I need to score five points better on a specific standardized test or something like that. Right? A third way would be to look at this is a reflective process for personal change or for changing for example the goals that we have as our department or a group that we're working within right for personal change. So think about that. Decide which of these types of a researcher you are when you're doing action research. Are you driven by your students? Are you driven by this maybe greater goal that's been um probably something extrinsically imposed upon you? Or are you doing something very internal for personal change and growth? And at the end of the day, what ends up happening is that you are doing both things, right? You're doing things for yourself, but also for the collective good. you are all taking on some research that may very well improve the chances that other teachers in the future can learn from the things that you've learned. So, while it's addressing a particular personal need that you've identified, a problem issue for you, it's also something that will largely benefit the community at the end of the day once it's shared. So, to be clear, we've been using this word generically, action research, but there are different types of action research, right? So, as I go through this list, try to identify which one you are, right? Are you doing collaborative action research? This is means that you're working with at least one other person, maybe another teacher or TA, um, on a shared goal. Are you doing participatory action research, which tends to be the most used within schools? It's where the teacher is actually part of the entire learning process and their actions are also measured um, as they go through the process as well. Are you doing communitybased action research? This is where um different stakeholders from the community structure are also involved throughout this entire process. Are you doing youth action research? This is something where maybe your students have uh laid out a plan for you that they're going to do something, but you're going to be doing the documentation of all of this. Are you doing action research for action learning? This is if you were somebody going out to the fish pond and teaching wine culture based education based on contact with your local environment for example. So experiential learning are you doing something that's called paral right now this participatory action learning and action research which really hovers around 21st century soft skills right are you looking into lifelong learning or collaborative learning structures or um ways to do leadership skills with students right or are you doing collective action research where um maybe your entire department has a single goal about doing things for example we want to enhance uh social emotional learning or reduce rates of bullying or whatever. But different teachers will have different things they do, different types of interventions and then after a certain period of time, people get together and they share the results of their collective efforts to reach that specific goal. Think about the type of action research that you're doing because the more specific, the more precise you are with the type of research you're doing, the easier it is to choose the right kind of tool to gather the data and to measure things. So we go back to our onion again. Okay. So in action research, we're going to um not specifically address those first two layers of philosophically how am I approaching this? Although at the end of the day, of course, this does come out and it is a big part of the discussion. We haven't done this explicitly enough because this structure is also designed for things like you know five-year long PhD thesis study things. So they're really long-term things where you are able to take a lot of good time uh to reflect and think about that philosophical approach and also to decide and look at multiple ways of approaching you know the reasoning that you're going to be using. What we will be asking you though is to decide now are you going to be approaching this quantitatively or qualitatively and are you going to use a strategy or design that is pretty much we're believing it's action research but some of these can also be tools for action research. So we're going to talk about that in just a second right and then when you think about how you're collecting the data make sure you go through those processes really clearly and how we analyze that. We're going to look at those in the steps in just a second. Okay. So globally, if we skip those first two steps, the very first thing we're asking you to do is think about is this quantitative or qualitative. And a quantitative question is going to have a hypothesis and it's out to show X or Y is true or not, right? Whereas qualitative is out to do a lot of problem solving kind of things. It's anticipating answers, but it's not not out to measure but out to more or less to describe the actual process. So this means in our very first step then when we're looking at this idea are we looking for quantitative or qualitative or mixed level data. This graph is is a pretty straightforward look at this. You know, it comes from Nicholas. And the first level is okay, are we doing this quantitatively? You know, am I measuring something? I want to measure something I can count. Okay? Are we doing this qualitatively? I want to measure something I can describe. Right? So, think about that to yourself. What is it that you're out to do? And make that first big decision. And if you say to yourself both, then that's called a mixed methodology. Okay? The second question then is what methodology is best for my question. Okay, so that means you have to look at the second step and decide at the technical level then um how can I measure this? You know, how am I going to gather the data? How can I measure this? Which tool is really the right one? Same thing with the qualitative, right? Which of these tools best measures what I'm out to measure? So, if I think that I'm going to increase critical thinking skills, um I should not use a multiple choice test to do that because the tool is totally incompatible with what I'm trying to measure, right? And we'll get to that in a second. It has to do with um validity of the data that we're gathering because when you say something is measuring something and it's really not, that's not valid. Okay? So, we'll talk about that in a second. But think now to yourself, what kinds of tools exist? Is a questionnaire a good thing? Should I interview students? Um, should we have small groups work on things? Can I do a pre or post test kind of a thing? Think about all the different tools that might exist that might be appropriate for your question. When you get down to it, and I will be sharing this in class, I just think this is very pretty. Okay. Uh, Jansuit, she came up with this pretty cool idea of plotting out all these different types of tools. There's lots of different types of things that help us test or evaluate or explore or describe or gather data, elaborate, experiment, analyze. There's a lot of different sub elements here that she's sort of put on this beautiful, beautiful graphic here. This is not to scare you. It's just to sort of remind you there are a whole lot of tools out there. And the big idea to carry away from this is that you can do action research with just about any one of these tools. Okay, the type of research, the fact that you're doing action research as as opposed to an experimentation or other things like that doesn't exclude the tools. Okay, so just be clear on that. And we have done a lot of mixing and matching. She's called this 50 research methodologies. I would actually call this outer circle tools. These are different ways of doing things, right? You can have uh case studies or you can use systematic literature review. You can uh observe people doing uh brainstorming or or you can have roleplaying. All of these things to me are the activities. Those are tools you can use to gather data. But it's just best to know that as you're doing action research, you're not excluded from any of these interesting tools. You can use questionnaires or interviews and you can use other types of experimentation. All of that can be within action research. Okay. So then the third level question is really how do I gather this data and how do I analyze it right? So if you're doing the quantitative uh the quantitative data at the end of the day, you may just be asking yourself, okay, what's my formula? Um so am I just subtracting pre-est scores from post- test scores or to find a difference or you know what am I trying to do here? And if qualitative data, believe it or not, the analysis of qualitative data is really really probably a lot more time consuming than quantitative data because you may have to do things like coding. I'm listening to the dialogue of the students and seeing how they interact. And I've got my own notes and interpretation, but I've also coded for the number of times that they've used specific uh key emotional vocabulary words or something like that. Right? So the coding you can use actually quantitative structures within a qualitative analysis. So that's another complicated thing to think about. But just the idea is how will I gather the data and what would be the most appropriate tool and then understanding that the process of analysis is one step further. It's not just that I have all this cool data now. How do I actually analyze it will be based on another step. It's uh either a formula tool uh it's looking at coding or something like that. So now let's look at a bunch of models about action research. This is a very student- centered model. You know, I'm thinking about my kids. I've created this great classroom, but I see that there may be some problems going on there still that I want to fix. Right? So, I have this hypothesis that, you know, some of these kids are, you know, grouping together and there's this, you know, negative clicks forming and they're starting to bully each other. And so, I'm going to look at the literature on this and, yeah, fourth grade kids sometimes do that. And I'll look at all the things and I'll come up with maybe a different kind of a hypothesis based on all of this new information. And all of that may just very well change my question. Remember, in the prior class, we talked about radical neurocctivism. It's the way that we interact with our world is changed each time. Even if we're having the same experience, we're actually interpreting it different because we already had that experience once before, right? So, the more ways we take in information, now we're going to look at our research question differently because we've had a lot of different literature. So, this is what's going to happen during your literature review. You're going to begin to rethink your question maybe in a different way, right? So, then we're going to revisit that question and look at our context again and maybe formulate an even better question. We're going to bounce this around with our peers and get some feedback and then we're going to have this interaction in a class and we're going to see if that fixes anything. And the likelihood is because of the great nature of teaching, it just goes on. Now we'll have a new kind of a question, a new kind of a problem and this will continually be cyclical. Okay. Another model, as Bond puts it, it's it's pretty much you have a plan, you put that plan into action. uh even the act of putting it into action might make you change your plan, but then you're going to get some results from that intervention you did with a kid, right? I plan to uh read out loud to the kids for 20 minutes a day. Uh you put that into action, but then you realize that maybe it's better if they read to themselves instead of you read to them. And so maybe you're changing your ideas here. Then you get some results. Oh, it does seem like they're reading more for pleasure. But then you have to rethink this. And this is a a general again cyclical process. Even though Bon chose to make it with little squares. And I put his in here, his model in here. There's thousands of them. But I put his because it's one of the few that doesn't try to go in a circle because most of the models will basically say, you know, you have a plan. Let's put it in. Let's put our plan into action. Let's observe what happens. Let's think about what happened. Let's reflect on that. And then let's have a new plan and let's put that into action and then see what happens. Let's observe. Let's reflect on that. And then we have a new plan. So this is cyclical. The idea of action research is that this is an incredibly uh ongoing iterative process that never has an end because each of our problems just becomes different and more sophisticated. And that's the art of teaching basically, right? Others um you know identify the problem, they develop their plan, they collect the data, they analyze, they report these things and then they adjust and then they begin again. So this describes the same cyclical process but sort of in an ongoing way here. Other models are very very similar. Um the biggest difference here is that the arrows go in the different directions. So you identify a problem, you plan the research, you collect the data, you analyze, you reflect, you share this, you take action and then you have a new problem. That's the way it goes, right? But these four key stages of planning, acting, observing and reflecting are basically the classic steps of u action research, right? So we plan, we implement or act, we observe what happens, we reflect on this and then we start again. We plan, we implement, we observe, we reflect, right? Plan, act, observe, reflect. All of this is basically an ongoing process, right? Probably one of the most seinal articles ever written on this was done by chemist and McTagard in 88. Here's a concrete explanation here of, you know, this is my plan. This is the background information I had. Uh this is the action I put into place. I observe what happened with the kids. I think about, you know, how they reacted to that particular teaching and then I've revised my plan and now I have a new one. So his is kind of a little bit different, but it was one of the first to get out there, right? Same thing here. Identify problems, reconnaissance, factf finding and analysis. This is basically what we're calling the literature review. You make a plan about what you're going to do. You implement it and observe what happens here and then you think about what happened there. And all along the way we have basically adjustments to our own teaching practice based on the results that we have at each of these different stages. And that's the real beauty of teaching is that we do this every single day for 20 30 kids in our class over and over and they're almost unique to the individual kid. We'll have a global plan, but some of the kids we're going to need to adjust this and do things slightly differently based on the entire dynamics of the class. And that is part of the beauty of teaching. and one of the the reasons it's so hard to document our practice. So last part here, let's look at seven steps in action research. Now there were multiple steps. We said that there were those four core ones there. Let's just look at this as seven steps to follow to make sure that we've created a great action research project. The very first thing we asked you to do u when we met you was to come up with a problem or identify things. What do you want to know? Right? And identify something that you would like to conduct your action research on. So what is it that you would like to improve or understand uh a little bit better to be able to be a better teacher? The second step we had in our process was to connect what you wanted to know to a research question. In this sense, we've incorporated here this onion level which was basically saying also think about your philosophical approach to this whole thing. What theoretical frameworks are you using to approach this? This is important mainly because we want you to have a balance of thinking. So as you were doing your literature reviews, we really wanted to push you to think about finding things that maybe disagree with what you think is true mainly because these different theoretical frameworks, the different approaches will expand the way that you can now understand that problem, right? And so this is a very important step. It's one that takes a lot more time and that oftentimes in action research design in teaching and classroom settings, we don't spend enough time doing it. But we throw this in as another step that we hope that you are able to take. though we are not doing it um actively within this classroom structure. Okay. So then you come up with your research question and after you've reviewed the literature, we want you to revisit that question. Okay. Think about how your question might be changed by some of the new things that you've learned through the literature and to rethink that research question. Has your question changed now? Has it been modified by the new information that you now have? And again reframe it in that structure if possible. you know how and to what extent does X influence or change Y because isolating those variables gets more and more important the more information we have. Classroom settings are incredibly messy and the reason that research is so difficult to conduct is that it's very very difficult to pinpoint what is actually influencing what else. So in order to do this clearly and cleanly, we really want to force you into this research structure if possible, this questioning structure. The fourth step has a couple of different stages. The main idea here is that before you collect your data, before you launch out there and just apply the tool, think about your plan. What is it you're going to do? How are you going to approach this? Who is going to be involved? What's the timing of it? The main idea is that the data collection process of this stage is is pretty much the most complicated. But if you have a good plan, it works out really easily. So, this is the big idea is let's take a step. Let's think about this. I'm going to do a pre-EST and I'm going to do a post- test and that's going to be my data data gathering. Or I'm going to uh collect journal entries digitally throughout the semester and then I'm going to compare the growth in their writing as far as number of words or new vocabulary whatever it is. Make a plan about how you're going to do it and when you're going to do it and that will save you a lot of problems in the long run. The good news is that uh classrooms are datari environments. Um the bad news is that we really have to take this time to purposely and conscientiously identify how we are going to be collecting that data. Um but the good news again is that once you've got that plan, it's really easy to follow. So hopefully we'll take the time to do that planning when we're together in class. Okay. Another thing to take into consideration is sort of looking at that uh research onion model but looking at it as more graphic form here is take into consideration as you create that plan other things uh the theoretical frameworks that you have in mind ethical considerations what your topic is the nature of your topic and how that might lend itself to a specific tool but more than anything be very practical in the sense of how much time you actually have to gather that data if you have access to those data sources that you're looking for if you're depending on other people to be able to collect that data or not. So make sure that those things are all taken into consideration as you choose your tools. So once you've chosen the methodology, once you're clear on the data tools that you're going to be using and you've implemented the plan, make sure that you're thinking about the data collection at least on two different levels. All great data collection has at least two things in common. First, uh the data is is valid. That means that the information that you think is represented by what you've collected is so right and that it's reliable. Uh meaning the researchers are confident about the accuracy of their data meaning it can be replicated by other researchers. So validity for example you may have a huge mistake when a researcher might presume that they have shown that mathematical reasoning in students has increased because test scores in a specific test increased. Well, that's not exactly true. There's a lot of interpretation there, right? Or uh you might presume that since you increased uh total number of school days from 180 a year to 200 that students are learning more. Well, the truth of the matter, they're just going to school more. It doesn't mean that they're learning more, right? So, you can't use one type of data to come to conclusions that don't bear the weight of that data. Okay? And in terms of reliability, this basically means that anybody could take your research protocol and if they followed it, they'd get the same results. So the idea of reliability means that what you are putting forth is something that could be replicated by other researchers. Okay? So all of this hinges on the right tool, choosing the right tool to measure and to gather the data that will give us the evidence that we are able to respond to the research question that we've planted in the first place. The fifth step then once we've gathered all that data, what we have to do is now take that big collection of information and organize it, analyze it, and interpret it. And this is probably the greatest stage of research because it's the point where you stop reporting what you found from other people. And now this is really a lot higher order thinking. It's one thing to report. Children's test scores appeared to go up and students reported they liked the intervention. Well, that's reporting and that's nice and that's good information. But the why uh their test scores went up and why did they enjoy that particular type of teaching activity or learning activity more that is higher order thinking. So remember to go back to Bloom and Bloom's taxonomy and remember these different levels here. Reporting just understanding is is a very base level, right? But to get to this level where you can analyze and interpret and explain the why behind the findings is a much much higher level of thinking. And that's really the beauty of most of the research is to get to that why. That also means taking not only the data that you've gathered but combining that with the uh review of the literature that you did beforehand and looking what past people have also found in similar contexts. Combine that with your now your own data and now what is your vision on your problem. So the key idea here is once you've resolved or identified or analyzed the information, now you can actually grow that problem to a different level. It becomes something different now that you've had this new interpretation of the information. So the penultimate step is reporting your results. So once you've got all this great information, you've got the wise behind all this information, it's not only important to you, it's great that you know the information, but sharing it with others is huge. So come up with a plan about how you're going to be sharing these results and how you're going to be intellectually generous, how you may be saving somebody else from similar problems in the future because you can explain to them within maybe the Kamehameha Kong tech seems to be true for 10th and 11th graders. This is what I found with my data. Hope you can try to replicate it as well. It'd be great because it may change certain policies about the way we interact with our kids, for example. Okay. So, you're asked in this course to prepare a way to share your results. It can either be a video recording or it can be a paper. But what we want to do is to share and give back to the community because this is another step in your own thinking process. You had an idea. You had a problem. You're going to take the time to do research on it. You're going to do an intervention. You're going to have data. And you're going to come to now a new understanding of that particular problem. And once you put that out to the world, it again will change uh people's feedback, the way they see it. They might find other types of um wise or analysis that maybe you didn't see. This will add to your growing understanding of your particular topic. Okay. And the last step is to take action. Now that we've had that entire feedback loop, now that we've had this problem, this intervention, we have our our findings, we understand the information better, we've shared it with the outside world, we have a new vision. Now, now what do we do? This is basically backward design thinking, right? Go back to the original objective of your work. What was it that you wanted to know? Now look at the tools that you used to gather data and how did you evaluate and answer your research question? And now, now that you have all of this information, where does that take you? How do you do something different or new within your own class structure? Do you want to recommend a different kind of a policy? Will you just change your interaction with the students? Do you want to recommend that everybody uh teaches science by going out to the fish pond? I don't know. There's maybe a hundred different things that will come out of this. But the idea is to now take action. The key idea of action research is that you act upon information that you have interpreted and now you're going to do something even better the next time. That's the beautiful scientific background in this art of teaching. We continually do action research on a daily basis in our heads. The big idea is to now share it with the rest of the world and maybe carry it to that next level of thinking. So that's action research in a nutshell. I hope there were things that you didn't know beforehand. I hope there's things you're going to continue to to research and talk about and things that you may do differently now in your action research project that will improve it even further. Okay, come ready to talk about this with all of your different questions. Uh looking forward to seeing you in class. Thanks.