Syllabus

Course objectives are aligned with the Maine Teacher Certification Standards (MTCS) as well as the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC).

• Determine the importance and value of teachers becoming action researchers (MTCS 1,2; ISLLC Standard 2)
• Examine the relationship between action research and traditional educational research (MTCS 1,2; ISLLC Standard 2)
• Explain the characteristics of action research useful in the teaching profession (MTCS 1,2; ISLLC Standard 2)
• Apply collaborative inquiry skills and engage in reflective practice (MTCS 1,2, 3, 7, 10; ISLLC Standard 2)
• Utilize the principles of action research to define problems and identify appropriate data-driven solutions to address the problems (MTCS 4, 5, 7, 8, 10; ISLLC Standard 2)
• Clarify ethical issues involved in conducting action research and recognize the challenges and procedures for obtaining Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval. (MTCS 4, 5, 7, 8, 10; ISLLC Standard 2)
• Apply the process of action research to your own educational setting (MTCS 1,2; ISLLC Standard 2)
• Understand the mechanics of writing a graduate-level research report (MTCS 10; ISLLC Standard 2)
• Use appropriate technology in the data collection and analysis process (MTCS 11)

Assignment 1 Action Research Concept Form

After discussing your concept with classmates in Discussion 2, complete and submit the Action Research Concept Form for faculty feedback and approval. Although this assignment is not graded, it is an important step in gaining preliminary approval of your Action Research Concept. In Week 3 you will submit a draft of your Problem Statement, Research Questions, and Hypothesis that is a more comprehensive write-up of this information.

Complete and submit the Action Research Concept Form for faculty review and approval.

Week 2 – No assignment due

Week 3

Assignment 2 Submit Problem Statement, Research Questions & Hypothesis

Now that you have had the opportunity to discuss your area of focus in your small group discussion, present your Problem Statement, Research Questions and Hypothesis(es) as Assignment #2. In the final project, these three elements are included in the Introduction section of your proposal.

Week 4

Assignment 3: Complete CITI Training and Submit CITI Training Certificate of Completion

(Introduced in Lecture Notes in Week 2 as follows:)

Sound research practice (and many Research Review Boards) requires any researcher engaging in human subject research to complete Human Subject Research Protection training to ensure the researcher clearly understands and follows ethical guidelines in their research projects. The University of New England like many other colleges and universities uses the online Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) training to ensure those doing research are appropriately informed regarding Human Subject Research Protection.

Assignment 3 is the completion of this training and submission of the Certificate of Completion. On average the training takes new users between 2.5 and 4 hours to complete, but it does not need to be completed in a single session. You can log out and return where you left off without losing what you have done.  At the completion of the training you will receive a certificate of completion that is valid for two (2) years.  

Week 5

Assignment 4: Submit Title Page and References Page(s)

This assignment is an opportunity for your faculty member to provide additional guidance about the nature and appropriateness of the sources you are working with.

The Literature Review process often refines the researcher’s thinking about the project and provides additional focus.  It also provides the greatest number of source materials that need to be referenced. Now is the time to create a title page and reference list for your study.   

You will be submitting one document containing your title page (with a proposed title for your study, not the assignment name) and a reference list. Both should be formatted in proper APA style (see the Action Research Report Template for guidance).

Week 6

Assignment 5 : Submit Literature Review

Literature Review

The Literature Review provides justification and a theoretical foundation for your research project.  

Begin the Literature Review section of your report with an introduction—a transitional narrative that tells the reader how the search was conducted and what is coming in this section of the report.  The Introduction is placed just below the section’s Level 1 heading (Literature Review) without an additional heading (“Introduction”).

The Literature Review is more like a typical research paper synthesizing the material and should include appropriate citations in APA format.  The majority of the sources listed in your references section will come from your Literature Review. Remember that only the sources actually cited in your Literature Review (or other portions of the paper) should appear in the final version of your References list and that your final References list must have a minimum of 10 sources that were used in your Literature Review.

Week 7– No assignment due

Week 8

Assignment 6: Submit Methodology Section

The Methodology section of your proposal describes in detail your action research plan. Your Assignment 6 submission needs to begin with an explanation of the purpose of the study and a restatement of the Problem Statement, Research Questions, and Hypothesis even though these elements will still appear in the introduction to your entire report.

The type of research chosen (quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-method) and the rationale for that choice should be clearly stated in the Research Design section along with a thorough description of the intervention(s) you plan to test in your study.

Your Data Collection Plan should describe how you intend to collect your data and include a detailed description of the data collection instruments which should be included as appendices to the study if they are instruments you developed yourself (i.e. quizzes, surveys, etc.). Therefore, your submission should include samples of each instrument as an Appendix. A Triangulation Matrix based on Mills’ example (2014, p. 105) but formatted in APA format should be included in the Data Collection Plan to demonstrate the relationship between the data collection instruments and the research questions. Week 7 lecture notes have an example of how a properly formatted triangulation table should look. You will also want to address the question of data validity.  In addition to consulting with your peers through the Discussion forum, make an opportunity to get some reflective feedback from informed colleagues regarding your data collection plan. An informed colleague is one who is familiar with the academic subject and/or skill that you are assessing. For example, if your action project involves improving reading comprehension of your fourth grade students, experienced reading teachers or a reading supervisor in your school district may be an informed colleague. It is also recommended that you have an administrator (e.g., dept head or principal) review your data collection plan to ensure there are no procedural or ethical issues associated with your data collection.

Having consulted at least two informed colleagues, write up what you have learned. This description should address the validity of your procedures and sources. As part of your narrative description, be sure that you also respond to these two considerations: (1) Did your colleagues agree that the data collection sources will be a valid way to collect the data? (2) Did you make some changes in the data collection sources based on their comments and if you did, what were they?

A Data Analysis Plan describing your preliminary plan for displaying and analyzing the data you will collect in your study should be included as well.

Finally, a comprehensive description of the study’s population should be included in the Sample Selection section that describes the participants and explains how the participants were chosen for the study.

The Methodology as a whole is a cohesive presentation of the methods used to conduct the study. Submit the Methodology and Appendices in a single document that includes the earlier assignments all in proper sequence as shown in the EDU690 Action Research Report Template

Weeks 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 – No assignments due

Week 14

Assignment 7: Draft Results and Discussion

Submit a draft of key findings of your data. This need not include, at this stage, a complete analysis of the data, but should capture all of the results you consider to be critical for further analysis in order to ultimately arrive at preliminary answers to your research questions.

Week 15 – No assignment due

Week 16

Assignment 8: Submit Final Report

Action Research Study Report

For your final assignment, you will submit a completed Action Research Study Report that incorporates writing from earlier assignments and some new writing organized into a comprehensive and cohesive report of the study you conducted during EDU690. This final version should reflect careful attention to any and all feedbackyou received during the course and represent your best work. This assignment is due by Thursday midnight during the final week of the semester.

Submit the assignment as a single PDF file that includes all of the elements:

·      Title Page;

·      Abstract (APA 2.04);

·      Table of Contents;

·      Introduction with Problem Statement, Research Questions, and Hypothesis(es) (APA 2.05);

·      Literature Review;

·      Methodology with Research Design, Data Collection Plan, Data Analysis Plan, and Sample Selection;

·      Results with Findings, Discussion, Limitations, and Summary and Further Research;

·      Action Plan;

·      Conclusion to the Study;

·      References; and

·      Appendices.