Question+6

How do you develop an action research proposal?

Megan Nelson In order to develop an action research proposal, you should find a colleague to work with you. In addition, you need a place to record your thoughts before and during your action research, such as a journal or notebook. When you are ready to create your question, meet with your colleague and brainstorm interests, curiosities, and questions about students or curriculum. It is helpful to write your question as a why statement. For example, why are my students having difficulty writing stories during writing workshop? After you and your colleague create the question, brainstorm ways to collect data. During the data collection phase, you should write in your journal. Keeping thoughtful records of student learning is valuable. As teacher researchers, you will gather multiple forms of evidence, consider multiple perspectives, and examine research literature.

Elyce Rickerl How do you develop an action research proposal? There are many ways to approach the development of a self-study research proposal. The Self Study text outlines several different approaches for creating one’s proposal, such as a narrative format, a visual format, or even a concept map. However the researcher goes about organizing his or her information for the proposal, a strong design is necessary for successfully enacting and analyzing a study. Developing a research proposal begins with first authoring the research question (as discussed in question 2). Then, researchers need to establish a sound “critical friend team” that will support the study. Teachers then need to observe their classrooms, questioning the status-quo of their teaching and the politics of schooling in order to improve and impact learning for themselves and their students. Articulating a strong rationale is the next step in creating a research proposal. This rationale then needs to be supported by literature. A comprehensive review of the literature related to the research topic allows researchers to see what others have done in that area of study and connect them to reaching research goals. Using this information, researchers then need to align research with a self-study method that will maximize the researcher’s understanding. The researcher must then plan purposeful, managable inquire given the time they have to conduct the study. Strategies and pedagogical strategies enacted must be reasonable and likely to yield information. Throughout the entire development of a research proposal, self-study researchers must constantly look back and revisit assumptions and understandings reached during the process. Self-study research involves constant reflection and a willingness to adapt and revise in order to impact learning and make the study meaningful. Elyce Rickerl