Taking a Chance: Action Research

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Taking a Chance Action Research

• West Virginia University at Parkersburg
• Williamstown Elementary School

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Presenters

• Mr. Keith Enoch, Principal
• Mrs. Esther Lauderman, Assistant Principal
• Dr. Cynthia Kelley, Associate Dean of Education
• Mrs. Cynthia Gissy, Associate Professor,
  Coordinator of Field Placement

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WVU at Parkersburg

• Community college in Parkersburg, WV
• Established in 1961
• Approximately 3900 students
• Commuter campus

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Williamstown Elementary

• Community School
• 530 Students
• 33 Classroom Teachers
• 100 year old facility
• Parent Community Involvement
• Pilot for Response to Intervention
• Pilot for DIBELS
• WV Exemplary School, 2 years

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Education Division

• Elementary Degree K-6
• 5 Faculty
• 360 Students
• Specializations
• English
• Math
• Science
• Social Studies
• K-4 Math Specialist
• Early Childhood

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The Williamstown Partnership

• One of 9 schools in the Partnerships Project
• Began Fall 2002
• Continuously evolving and expanding
• Began with teacher candidates spending 20 hours
  in a classroom at random times
• Evolved into College course being taught at
  Williamstown, 1 day/week, 3 hrs
• Practicum scheduled one day/week, 3 hrs.

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The Partnership Continued..

• Education 100 200 field placements
• Student Teacher placements
• Educational rounds instituted
• Debriefing with classroom teachers
• Catalyst for Action Research
• Strong reflective journaling at every stage of
  program

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Our Road to Action Research

• Attended Initial PDS Conference sessions on
  rounds action research
• NCATE continuing accreditation success
• Lee Teitel introduced action research
  assessment
• Research committee formed with representatives
  from Partnerships schools
• Continuous attendance at PDS conference
• MUCH discussion with Esther Cindy G.

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The Road Continued

• Individual research by Esther Cindy
• Took a deep breath and .. jumped in!
• First semester instituted was fall 2006
• 15 teacher candidates
• Used info from South Florida Center for
  Educational Leaders, from previous conferences,
  Delta Kappa Gamma BULLETIN article (Summer 2006)

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Fall 2006

• Esther gave brief presentation to WES faculty
• Esther gave brief presentation to teacher
  candidates
• Provided handouts to teacher candidates
• Copy of article shared
• Worksheet/Project Plan created
• Final presentations

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Spring 2007

• Esther up-dated faculty on changes with project
• Reiterated what their roles would be
• Meeting with Esther and first-year teacher for
  information sharing, handouts, and possible
  resources for beginning
• Discovery paper assigned
• Students met principals
• Turned in progress reports

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Action Research A Definition

• A disciplined process of inquiry conducted by
  and for those taking the action. The primary
  reason for engaging in action research is to
  assist the actor in improving or refining his or
  her actions
• Sagor, 2000

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Why Conduct Action Research?

• To address the complexity of teaching (Sagor,
  2000)
• As a powerful source of professional development
  (Osterman Kottkamp, 1993)
• To improve student performance, close the
  achievement gap (Little, 1982 Rosenholtz, 1985)

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Beginning the Process Stage One

• Identify a goal, a focus for your project
• Include the classroom teacher as a member of your
  team
• Make sure the focus is something your team cares
  about
• Identify how performance can be improved
• Identify the actions your team will need to take
  to improve performance

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The Action Research Process Continues

• Begin Stage Two Exploring research and best
  practices to provide a strong rationale for the
  design of your project
• Begin Stage Three Implementing the strategy or
  strategies you identify and collecting data that
  will help you see what effect the action is
  having
• Begin implementing the project taking action
  and collecting data

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The Action Research Project Continues

• Work with your team to analyze and reflect on
  data that has been collected
• Reflect on the data and your goal to revise your
  action plan
• Complete progress report
• Finalize project

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Spring 2007 Continued

• Final presentation due at end of semester
• Principals will attend
• This semester will provide video showcase for
  sharing with Williamstown faculty at a later date

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Discovery Paper

• ACTION RESEARCH
• Discovery Paper
• Education 401
• Spring 2007
• Your assignment for this paper is to see what
  you can discover about Action Research. You will
  be expected to use at least four sources. The
  paper should be four pages, minimum. This is due
  at the beginning of class on January 30th.

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Obstacles

• Variety of perceptions
• Time, time, time
• Teacher candidate buy-in
• Teacher buy-in
• Lack of enough guidance for teacher candidates

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Lessons Learned

• Different degrees of Action Research
• Practical
• Doable
• Embedded in practice
• More guidance was needed
• Discovery paper involved them in literature
  review
• Timeline was very helpful
• Progress report

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Lessons Learned Contd ..

• Teacher candidates received 2 ½ hr. introduction
• Examples could be given from previous semester
• Teachers knew more of what to expect and what
  their roles would be
• Teachers were challenged and became team members
  with teacher candidates

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Differences

• Stress vs. Understanding
• One more thing vs. Something I can use
• Negative attitude vs. Positive attitude
• Trepidation vs. Enthusiasm
• Incomplete Reports vs. Cohesive Project

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Next Steps

• Time in classrooms still an issue
• Including teachers in final presentations
• Developing files of past projects
• Developing rubrics for assessment
• Extending time for final presentations
• Do we want to continue through student teaching?

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Wrap-up

• Partnerships Project Goals
• 1. To better prepared new teachers
• 2. To offer meaningful professional development
  for teacher candidates, teachers, and
  college faculty
• 3. To enhance academic achievement for public
  school students
• All stakeholders benefit in a positive way

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Questions?
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• THANK YOU!