How to Carry Out Teacher Action Research Projects

~ Setting Up a Teacher Action Research Project in Your Classroom ~

Every teacher can conduct educational research to help refine what to teach one’s students. You can work on your own or better yet with another colleague or group of colleagues. If working with a group, set up a regular meeting time at which you can share successes and difficulties. Consider visiting each others’ classrooms to provide other viewpoints.

STEP 1: Frame the Question

Action research is intended to provide data on which the researcher intends to take action. For a teacher this means researching one’s own classroom in order to teach better.

To start your research, select a question that you have about your students, about the materials you are using, or about how you personally teach. The question should be focused on process and relationships. It should not be a yes or no question or be looking for a numerical answer.
Here is a list of characteristics of good questions.

  • It should be open-ended and allow for possibilities you haven’t thought of.
  • It should be something you wonder about and start with how or why or what.
  • It should be adaptable. Remember you can modify the question as you go along.
  • It should be based on something you wonder about your particular teaching situation in your classroom.

Some Examples:Teacher Action Research

I wonder if bullying is a problem in my classroom.

I wonder about how my students are affected by the kind of institutional racism they see in the media where black and Latinos are often shown in menial positions or as criminals. 

I wonder how my students feel about people with skin darker or lighter than theirs?

STEP 2: Gather Baseline Data

Find out where your students are now.  (This can be part of finding your question). If you think about it, you may discover you already have this data. Here are some data sources:

  • Survey
  • Interview
  • Writing piece
  • Sociogram
  • Recording classroom conversation
  • Book response

STEP 3: Determine how you will collect your follow-up data

teacher action research Teach Peace NowWhat do you already have in place or do? What is most easily added to a busy class room schedule?

  • Drawings
  • Student journals/ Teacher journal
  • Book responses
  • Follow up surveys
  • Interviews
  • Observation
  • Writing samples
  • Recorded discussion

STEP 4: Determine Your Procedure

What will you do first?

How will you schedule the activities?

How will you organize your data?

STEP 5: Analyze the Data

 This is the interesting part. You will, of course, start analyzing as soon as you collect any data. Comparing what you thought to what you actually observe. However, it is helpful to sort information into similar groupings and create charts and graphs and the patterns you find.

For example, you can track individual student learning overtime, or compare students to a standard you have set.

STEP 6: Share

Share what you learn with colleagues in your own school and district. Also consider posting a report on this website to inform and inspire other teachers.

For more specific information on conducting a research study see:

Teacher Research by Sharon Palmer http://www.accessexcellence.org/LC/TL/AR/