We began with a conversation distinguishing Action Research from what many of you were calling "Scientific Research." As I mentioned last night, and as the Hendricks' book points out, Action Research is an accepted and legitimate form of educational research, although it requires certain kinds of rigor and certain kinds of limitations that are unique.
Here is the diagram from class that documents our conversation.
As we move along in this first part of the course, we will focus on the Methods relevant to Action Research and the ways that we can have our research be as valid as possible.
We then read a piece of Action Research together.The piece I selected was called "Effect of Technology on Enthusiasm for Learning Science," by Jane Hollis.
First, I had you do an individual close reading of the study. Then, I had you work in groups to address the following questions:
We then had what I called a very fruitful discussion about the study, especially about the weaknesses of the study (and we certainly found the study lacking in a number of ways). I identified two key ways that the study was flawed:
- The research question was not well formulated -- the terms "technology" and "enthusiasm" were neither well defined nor measured properly.
- The study did not do all it could to consistently look at the results -- What this really a study about science learning or about stuff that happened during science class? Was the survey well defined? Is there any connection between enthusiasm and learning at all?
The goal of all this was to assess your proficiency with designing studies and to wade deeply into the world of Action Research.
Formulating Research Questions
Next, as we discussed, you are going to begin formulating some possible research questions. To do this, I encouraged you to look at the following questions:
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At this point, try to keep you areas of interest broad.
And bring in your work next week. Your colleagues will help you refine your research questions.
Starting to Review the Literature
We spent some time at the end of class discussing how to start reviewing the existing research in the areas you are seeking to investigate in this course.
I suggested two resources you can use to start this process:
Google Scholar -- This is a specific search engine tied to academic publications. As I mentioned, pay attention to the "Cited by" link. It will allow to easily find related research.
ERIC Database -- ERIC (Educational Resource Information Center) is a database that has an educational focus. You can access it from the Pace Library website. If you are off campus, you will need to sign in to access it.
Keep track of the articles you look for AS WELL AS the keywords you used for your search(es).
Next week, I will spent some time in class training you to use this material effectively.
One last thing, as James suggested, Zotero is a good bibliographic tool that you can use if you wish. I can spent some time on that next week as well, if you'd like.
Enough? Enough for now.
Onward and upward!
