Digging Deeper Into Action Research

A Teacher Inquirer's Field Guide
Nancy Fichtman Dana - University of Florida, Gainesville, USA
Digging Deeper Into Action Research
February 2013 | 120 pages | Corwin
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Description

Take your great idea to the next level with action research

How—and when—can we find time to conduct meaningful action research? Great ideas and thought-provoking questions can only blossom through methodical inquiry. Nancy Fichtman Dana steps in as your action-research coach and leads you on a journey through wonderings to real change in your classroom.

From framing your question to presenting your research, this guide will encourage, challenge, and ultimately lead you through the action research process. Teachers, students, and action-research coaches alike will learn how to:

• Reframe initial wonderings into pointed inquiries
• Creatively analyze both qualitative and quantitative data
• Draw action-research topics out of ordinary discussions with colleagues
• Share findings with others to help them improve as well

With real-life vignettes, self-guided worksheets, and an included DVD, Digging Deeper into Action Research is your go-to guide each time you embark on a new journey toward professional growth.

"This field guide will undoubtedly make a valuable contribution to the larger project of practitioners engaged in the work of reflecting on, studying, and interrogating their own practice in order ultimately to improve the social life of classrooms and the learning opportunities and life chances of children."
—Marilyn Cochran-Smith, Cawthorne Professor of Teacher Education
Boston College

"This is THE book to read for any educator who ever found themselves asking, 'What just happened?!?' If you like finding your own solutions to your teaching problems, this is the key to your freedom and to satisfaction in your teaching career!"
—Mary K. Culver, Associate Clinical Professor
Northern Arizona University

Contents

List of Figures

List of Figures

Foreword by Marilyn Cochran-Smith

Foreword by Marilyn Cochran-Smith

Preface

Preface

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments

Introduction to the Inspire to Inquire DVD

Introduction to the Inspire to Inquire DVD

About the Author

About the Author

How to Use the Inquiry Books

  • 1. Why Do Teacher Research Anyway?
  • Teacher Research Defined
  • How to Define Your Research
  • Why It's Important: The 5 Es
  • 2. Developing and Fine-Tuning Your Wondering
  • Wondering Defined
  • How to Define Your Wondering
  • The Wondering Litmus Test
  • 3. Developing and Fine-Tuning Your Research Plan
  • Research Plan Defined
  • How to Define Your Research Plan
  • The Inquiry Plan Litmus Test
  • 4. Analyzing Your Data
  • Data Analysis Defined
  • How to Avoid Data Analysis Paralysis
  • The Data Analysis Litmus Test
  • 5. Presenting Your Research
  • Presentation Defined
  • How to Define Your Presentation
  • The Presentation Litmus Test
  • 6. On Your Way: Teacher Research as a Way of Being in the World
  • Inquiry Stance Defined
  • How to Define Your Stance
  • Living the Life of an Inquirer

References

References

Index

Index

Description

Take your great idea to the next level with action research

How—and when—can we find time to conduct meaningful action research? Great ideas and thought-provoking questions can only blossom through methodical inquiry. Nancy Fichtman Dana steps in as your action-research coach and leads you on a journey through wonderings to real change in your classroom.

From framing your question to presenting your research, this guide will encourage, challenge, and ultimately lead you through the action research process. Teachers, students, and action-research coaches alike will learn how to:

• Reframe initial wonderings into pointed inquiries
• Creatively analyze both qualitative and quantitative data
• Draw action-research topics out of ordinary discussions with colleagues
• Share findings with others to help them improve as well

With real-life vignettes, self-guided worksheets, and an included DVD, Digging Deeper into Action Research is your go-to guide each time you embark on a new journey toward professional growth.

"This field guide will undoubtedly make a valuable contribution to the larger project of practitioners engaged in the work of reflecting on, studying, and interrogating their own practice in order ultimately to improve the social life of classrooms and the learning opportunities and life chances of children."
—Marilyn Cochran-Smith, Cawthorne Professor of Teacher Education
Boston College

"This is THE book to read for any educator who ever found themselves asking, 'What just happened?!?' If you like finding your own solutions to your teaching problems, this is the key to your freedom and to satisfaction in your teaching career!"
—Mary K. Culver, Associate Clinical Professor
Northern Arizona University

Contents

List of Figures

List of Figures

Foreword by Marilyn Cochran-Smith

Foreword by Marilyn Cochran-Smith

Preface

Preface

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments

Introduction to the Inspire to Inquire DVD

Introduction to the Inspire to Inquire DVD

About the Author

About the Author

How to Use the Inquiry Books

  • 1. Why Do Teacher Research Anyway?
  • Teacher Research Defined
  • How to Define Your Research
  • Why It's Important: The 5 Es
  • 2. Developing and Fine-Tuning Your Wondering
  • Wondering Defined
  • How to Define Your Wondering
  • The Wondering Litmus Test
  • 3. Developing and Fine-Tuning Your Research Plan
  • Research Plan Defined
  • How to Define Your Research Plan
  • The Inquiry Plan Litmus Test
  • 4. Analyzing Your Data
  • Data Analysis Defined
  • How to Avoid Data Analysis Paralysis
  • The Data Analysis Litmus Test
  • 5. Presenting Your Research
  • Presentation Defined
  • How to Define Your Presentation
  • The Presentation Litmus Test
  • 6. On Your Way: Teacher Research as a Way of Being in the World
  • Inquiry Stance Defined
  • How to Define Your Stance
  • Living the Life of an Inquirer

References

References

Index

Index

SAGE Publishing Logo

Digging Deeper Into Action Research

A Teacher Inquirer's Field Guide


February 2013 | 120 pages | Corwin

Format Published Date ISBN Price

Take your great idea to the next level with action research

How—and when—can we find time to conduct meaningful action research? Great ideas and thought-provoking questions can only blossom through methodical inquiry. Nancy Fichtman Dana steps in as your action-research coach and leads you on a journey through wonderings to real change in your classroom.

From framing your question to presenting your research, this guide will encourage, challenge, and ultimately lead you through the action research process. Teachers, students, and action-research coaches alike will learn how to:

• Reframe initial wonderings into pointed inquiries
• Creatively analyze both qualitative and quantitative data
• Draw action-research topics out of ordinary discussions with colleagues
• Share findings with others to help them improve as well

With real-life vignettes, self-guided worksheets, and an included DVD, Digging Deeper into Action Research is your go-to guide each time you embark on a new journey toward professional growth.

"This field guide will undoubtedly make a valuable contribution to the larger project of practitioners engaged in the work of reflecting on, studying, and interrogating their own practice in order ultimately to improve the social life of classrooms and the learning opportunities and life chances of children."
—Marilyn Cochran-Smith, Cawthorne Professor of Teacher Education
Boston College

"This is THE book to read for any educator who ever found themselves asking, 'What just happened?!?' If you like finding your own solutions to your teaching problems, this is the key to your freedom and to satisfaction in your teaching career!"
—Mary K. Culver, Associate Clinical Professor
Northern Arizona University


Table Of Contents:

  • List of Figures
  • Foreword by Marilyn Cochran-Smith
  • Preface
  • Acknowledgments
  • Introduction to the Inspire to Inquire DVD
  • About the Author
  • How to Use the Inquiry Books
  • 1. Why Do Teacher Research Anyway?
  • Teacher Research Defined
  • How to Define Your Research
  • Why It's Important: The 5 Es
  • 2. Developing and Fine-Tuning Your Wondering
  • Wondering Defined
  • How to Define Your Wondering
  • The Wondering Litmus Test
  • 3. Developing and Fine-Tuning Your Research Plan
  • Research Plan Defined
  • How to Define Your Research Plan
  • The Inquiry Plan Litmus Test
  • 4. Analyzing Your Data
  • Data Analysis Defined
  • How to Avoid Data Analysis Paralysis
  • The Data Analysis Litmus Test
  • 5. Presenting Your Research
  • Presentation Defined
  • How to Define Your Presentation
  • The Presentation Litmus Test
  • 6. On Your Way: Teacher Research as a Way of Being in the World
  • Inquiry Stance Defined
  • How to Define Your Stance
  • Living the Life of an Inquirer
  • References
  • Index

Recent Product Reviews:

Good tools, just not the right fit for the course.
Mrs Andrea Wange, School of Education: Curriculum and Instruction, University Of South Dakota
Good supplementary reading for teacher education programs
Dr Zsuzsanna Szabo, Social Behavioral Science Div, Marist College
I really like this book but think that the earlier book would better suit my class needs. This does not delve into the creation of questions/problems as thoroughly as I would like. It is broader, not quite as specific.
Dr Emily Daniels, Education, Health and Human Services, Suny College at Plattsburgh
"Digging Deeper into Action Research can be used as both a trusted guide, and as a provocateur. Educators need both as they develop an inquiry stance and embrace the complexity of teaching, with all of the inherent tensions and dilemmas. Truly transformational learning—the kind that results in improved learning for students—requires that the learner be transformed him or herself. Engaging in the process of quality action research as described by Nancy Dana will lead to such transformation."
Gene Thompson-Grove, Education Consultant and Facilitator, Coach, The School Reform Initiative (SRI), Denver, CO
"Dana has created a smart go-to field guide that offers busy practitioners an inspiring, yet practical, approach to thoughtful pursuit of questions that drive effective teaching and learning. She has crafted a powerful argument for why teachers must understanding inquiry as stance and then she shows teachers how to develop this stance as a foundation for their own self-directed, systematic, job-embedded professional learning. Digging Deeper into Action Research offers deeply grounded and inspiring support for teacher to learn from and with each other in the context of their everyday contributions to student learning."
Lauren Childs, Consultant for School Quality and Teacher Leadership, Oakland Schools, Waterford, MI

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