SDARA
SAN DIEGO ACTION RESEARCH ASSOCIATION Summer 2011 Issue
Second Edition
M a k i n g t h e A cMaking t i o n R ethe s e aAction rc h N eResearch t - WO R K !Net-WORK! Upcoming Events/ Important Dates:
Frank Cornelissen and Marieke Cornelissen | Active Members Action Researchers from Rotterdam , Holland
September 9th, 2011
In March we were so privileged to join a meeting of the San Diego Action Research Association (SDARA). We were impressed by the excitement and the passion for action research that brought this diverse group of teachers, school counselors, Master‟s students and university staff together. We were intrigued by their goal to provide a space outside formal university programs for practitioners in which they can develop, share and use their knowledge and experiences with respect to action research. We consider that such a space is often lacking and frequently students experience that they are left on their own after finishing their action research and graduating from the program. Practitioners who start conducting action research outside the program often miss the support and exchange with critical friends who are involved in action research too. We believe that developing a network such as SDARA can fill this void and can create a sustainable network which fosters the development of professionals, organizations and communities. In this short article we use our background in action research, appreciative inquiry, and network learning to share some of our thoughts on making an action research net-WORK.
Action Research Study Day @ University of San Diego 5:OO– 7:OO pm Topic of Discussion: “Educators Take Action” Fall 2011 Minato School Open House @ Eastlake High School Chula Vista, CA Lesson Study Forum TBA November 4th-6th 2011 Collaborative Action Research Network’s 2011 Annual Conference “Bringing a Different World into Existence - Action Research as a trigger for Innovations” Hosted by University of Klagenfurt in Vienna, Austria
Fall 2011 Action Research Consultations @ University of San Diego SDARA Members will be invited to visit research classes where students are in the beginning stages of forming research in their practice. Members are encouraged to support and participate. For More Information On Events Please Email: sdara.network@gmail.com
Lets think about the way processes such as developing, sharing or using knowledge related to action research can take place in a network. We then first start by noticing that a network can be found all places where people are in some way related to each other, for example in universities, schools, or communities. These networks are not necessarily bound to the formal structure of an organization; often these networks are informal and do not care for hierarchical organizational charts or artificial boundaries of organizations. Such networks consist of people who are in some way connected to each other through their relationships and meet each other during all kinds of events. These three elements are key to what happens in the network: (1)relationships, (2)individual network members, and (3) context of events Relationships-Most of us will recognize the importance of relationships from our own practice. You often have a couple of people in your practice that you really trust and feel comfortable in sharing things with. However, you also have people you rather avoid, because you do not trust them and if you tell them your story then the next day everybody knows. People you have strong relationships with and want to collaborate or exchange knowledge with can be anyone that you personally consider suitable. The informal social network structure which is created in this way often looks very different from the formal (organizational) structure.
Figure 1. Basic network structure
Individual network members- Individual people decide for themselves with whom they want to interact and no formal structure or management member can prevent them from doing so. If the formal structure does not work or is not connected to the individuals‟ purposes then people go „underground‟, meaning that they start using the informal social structure to collaborate with the people they want to and to get the things done that they consider important. These kind of „guerilla‟ activities can be very effective. Many of use have become masters in them and the informal social structure beats the formal structure all the time… ...This story is continued on page 3...
A Letter from our President Ann Trescott, M.Ed. | President If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples, then you and I will each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas then we both have two ideas. This saying from George Bernard Shaw comes to mind when I think of using action research within the context of a collaborative professional learning environment. As I work with teacher teams on action research projects I see exchanging of ideas and new schemas developed from those ideas. From these ideas new, more effective pedagogy and content knowledge is often observed. My current research involves a teaching team of four 6 th grade teachers. This research is focused on creating effective collaborative student groups with a diverse range of student abilities. After the teaching of a recent lesson involving the surface area of a cylinder was completed and the students had left the room, one teacher posed a question to the others she had regarding finding the surface area of a cylinder from its net (the two-dimensional representation of a space figure). She was asking about different ways to approach this and if those ways would yield the same surface area. All the teachers worked on this to see if the two approaches were the same. This investigative, collaborative, and safe atmosphere for the teachers to explore the math they teach created new ideas and content knowledge. Creating these types of public forums for teacher sharing, dialoging and critiquing can contribute to best teaching practices (Lieberman, 2008). The sharing these four teachers are experiencing within this action research project does not develop only two new ideas, rather it can be of an exponential magnitude. References Lieberman, A. (2008) University of San Diego Summer Institute: Enhancing school success through teacher leadership (July, 2008).
Email Ann Trescott @ anntres@san.rr.com
The Power of Observation Nicole Schiffer, M.Ed. | Vice President During phase 1 of my action research, I tried to use observation to capture the effectiveness of my workshops. I held workshops for museum educators on how to better connect with the museum visitor. At the time, I thought my plan for observation was savvy and precise. However, when reflecting after my phase 1, I realized that my observations lacked consistency. In order to develop a better observation standard, which I called my “Observation Protocol”, I reflected on the optimal interaction between museum educator and museum guest. I used these guidelines and figured out how to assess the museum educators more accurately. I implemented the following components into my newly defined “Observation Protocol”: - Observed educators for the same time increments and at the same exhibition - Incorporated quantitative data (i.e. length of interaction, rating system with defined categories, number of interactions, age range of guests, etc.) - Interviewed the museum guest after their interaction with the museum educator - Developed and utilized a rating system for interaction content Using a stronger “Observation Protocol” helped me see the true impact of my phase 2 action. I learned what the museum educators needed to improve on and used this information to develop my next set of workshops. My “Observation Protocol” was one of my favorite lessons learning during action research. It helped guide my phases and added to my data triangulation - keeping my action research reliable and valid. Try reflecting on your own data collection method and see what new plan emerges! Email Nicole Schiffer @ nschiffer@gmail.com
Making the Action Research Net -WORK ...Continued from front page... Context of events-The difference in these two structures becomes even clearer if we look at the context in which people meet each other in the network. Of course there are the formal meetings in a team or project group, but there are also the (unplanned) moments in which people informally meet at the coffee machine or in the hallway. While the first moments are visible and easy to plan many of the important interaction happens in the latter. Again, many of us have become masterful in creating our own spaces for interacting with the people we want to and coordinating our „guerilla‟ activities. Burn to learn- As the graphic in figure 1. (page 1) shows, the three network elements are interrelated and together they create a network. We will illustrate this with an example from a Dutch Master‟s student (i.e. in-service teacher) who was doing action research and tried to involve others in her research and share what she was doing. This particular teacher did not get extensive support or opportunities in her school, but she told how she had succeeded in accomplishing this on her own in an unexpected context, i.e. the room for smokers in school. In the Netherlands many schools have such a room (which often resembles a dark dungeon and has the size of a closet) to give their employees the opportunity to smoke indoors. The teacher was a smoker herself and everyday she met in this room with a couple of colleagues from other teams who were also smoking. She met them often and they shared their experiences, listened to each others stories and developed trusting relationships among each other. At the time she was doing her action research she talked passionately to them about the things she was doing and explained that these things were also useful for their teaching practice. While smoking her colleagues listened, gave feedback and one colleague from anoher team became very enthusiastic; she decided to participate in her action research and they started to collaborate. Together they succesfully designed research instruments and conducted part of the action research in the other teacher‟s classroom too. This short example clearly shows the importance of the three elements for developing, sharing and using knowledge based on action research with others in the network: (1) the individual teacher was so passionate about her research topic and considered it so useful for the practice of her colleagues that she started to involve them in her action research; (2) the relationships with the other colleagues were trustful and she felt safe enough to openly share her experiences and thoughts; (3) the context of the smokers‟ room gave her a space in which she could regularly meet colleagues from other teams and start collaborating with them. This dark smoker‟s room was not only illuminated by the many cigarettes that were lit, but also by this teacher‟s burning passion for her action research topic which set other teachers on fire too. Making the net-WORK- In making SDARA or any other action research net-WORK, we want to encourage people to look at their practice from each of the three aforementioned network elements. We believe this network perspective connects very closely to the purposes in action research. In this network approach you start involving more and more people from the practice that you are studying in your action research. The input from this diverse group of people will strengthen the quality and validity of your outcomes, because each of the people involved will provide another perspective and new information about the practice in which the action research takes place. Moreover, it will also increase the buy-inn of your results and change efforts; the people involved will feel more ownership of the action research and its outcomes, because they have contributed to it too. Subsequently, it will be easier to share what you have found in your research and people will be more willing to use your findings. We want to recommend every action researcher to take their individual passion as a starting point for their action research and to choose topics that are useful to their own practice as well as those of others. Furthermore, we want them to think outside their organizational boundaries and its formal structures about the people they would like to involve in their action research. If necessary, we want to encourage them to go „underground‟, undertake some guerilla activities and create their own contexts in which they can continue developing, sharing and using valuable knowledge. Finally we want to invite everyone to describe his/her most succesfull moment in which you felt you were very successful in developing, sharing or using knowledge from your action research. What did you think, feel and do? How did the context and the relationships look like? We and many others are eager to hear these important stories and believe SDARA is the right place to share them and learn from them!
Omoi vs. Thinking in Action Research Noriyuki Inoue, Ph.D.| SDARA Advisor In many Western cultures, thinking is generally considered to be superior to other types of psychological functioning such as emotion and feeling, and thus action research projects often focus on thinking of practitioners, educators, students, and leaders. However, contemporary neuroscientific research indicates that even our higher order thinking does not take place in isolation of other functions of our brain. We now know that thinking is not something that ultimately controls or manages our psychological functioning, but something that is a part of a wide variety of mental processes such as emotion, passion, and empathy. Thinking is simply one dimension of our personal growth. This view of our mind is best captivated by a Japanese term “omoi”. Omoi is an integrated form of thinking, feeling, passion, and the sense of commitment that comes from your experiences and penetrates your life and work. The picture to the right represents omoi in Japanese. The main character consists of two parts. The upper half represents rice field, (田) and the lower half represents mind (心). One interpretation of this is that omoi is an organic field that your mind carries. Just imagine a rice field. It has rice plants in the water that comes from a river, insects that lay eggs there, and frogs and microorganisms that create the unique complex system. If seen from this angle, each individual mind carries and nurtures omoi just like this, which could define the directions that you are going in your life.
思い Japanese Representation for “Omoi”
This way of conceptualizing mind makes quite a good contrast with the traditional Western approach to learning that is mainly focused on rationale thinking. Just imagine how our action research projects would look different if we place identifying and sharing omoi at the center. What if we consider thinking, logic, and rationale are not isolated from our emotion, feeling, empathy and passion for our growth? What if we view psychological functioning as something that is more organic and complex than we currently envision in our action research projects? One way to learn about this unique aspect of action research is to interact with action researchers in Japan Association of Action Research (JAAR) who are participating in Action Research Conference at USD this May. Just share your omoi with them in action research. It will become a unique opportunity for you to stretch your mind beyond your thinking. Email Noriyuki Inoue @ inoue@sandiego.edu
Note From the Editor Angel Chavarin | Graduate Student Representative | Editor As we continue to hit the ground running with the second edition of the SDARA Newsletter, I begin to wonder what may be ahead as we begin sailing into unchartered territories. As our organization continues to grow, so does our newsletter and with the help of others, I hope practicing action researchers from around San Diego can begin to share their stories of passionate work being done in educational settings. I am aware that action research is much larger than just San Diego. So I hope educators from all around the world who read this can also begin sharing their valuable experiences in action research as well. If you are a passionate educator, I hope to interest you in submitting a short article about the work you are doing by sending them to our email sdara.network@gmail.com (Subject: My Action Research Story). Articles submitted can range from how you network, what actions you have taken to improve your practice, your “omoi,” how your research has evolved, or any other interesting features that educators may see as useful to their practice. My vision is to create a space for people to share ideas, generate feedback regarding questions in their practice, and continue to build using action research to transform their practice. I would like to thank all the people involved in the creation of this newsletter. Your contributions are amazing and greatly appreciated. Another group of people I would like to thank are our newest members of SDARA; as we continue moving forward we hope to see more new faces at our events in order to continue building on our goals of establishing a solid action research network here in San Diego. A special thank you also goes out to the School of Leadership & Educational Sciences (SOLES) at the University of San Diego who regularly provide us with space to host our events. I am excited to see what the future has in store for our next newsletter; I hope that with the help of others, SDARA can begin to blossom into a great space for educators worldwide. Thank you for taking time to read our newsletter and we hope to see you at our upcoming events. Email Angel Chavarin @ achavarin-11@sandiego.edu
The Benefits of Second -Hand Research Susan Naujokaitis, M.Ed. | Active Member Every semester at the University of San Diego, graduate students are looking to find a classroom to do their action research projects. Inspired by their research and fired up by their omoi, they venture into the classrooms of friends, acquaintances and sometimes strangers. They negotiate schedule and existing programs before quickly assessing their student subjects. Bringing relevant research to bear, they design large and small adjustments to classroom routines, curriculum, processes or management. The benefit of this work for these graduate students is obvious when we see their enthusiasm for these projects and the cogent presentation of their findings. But the benefits to the host teacher often go unnoticed. The essence of action research is reflection and revision. Even a casual visitor to a classroom causes a teacher to reflect on his or her practice. Action researchers can bring new ideas, the latest research, a fresh point of view and boundless enthusiasm to promote student learning. The action researcher may be asking questions that the classroom teacher has not considered, or he may be working on a persistent difficulty in that classroom. In either situation the question and the answer can be the impetus for meaningful reflection and positive change for the classroom teacher. Having hosted guest researchers in my classroom on two separate occasions, I have experienced these benefits personally. For classroom teachers this can be a great opportunity not only for reflection, but also for finding research based solutions to the challenges we face every day in our classrooms.
What’s in a Research Question? Sarah Trueblood-Luke, M.Ed. | Active Member Phase one of my first action research project as a graduate student at the University of San Diego began with a research question that eventually evolved and reshaped itself. At first I had the feeling of self-doubt and confusion about the intervention my students needed which lead me to ask a broad and open-ended question. Later, I came to understand just how necessary the transformation of my research question was to the transformation of my teaching practice. My initial research question developed after an attempt at leading elementary students through the process of preparing for a science fair. After analyzing the student work, which served as the needs assessment for this research, I developed my first draft of the action research question: How can I help my students become better scientific thinkers? While researching for the literature review, I found that one way to help students become better scientific thinkers was to allow students the opportunity to engage in metacognitive learning experiences (Donovan & Bransford, 2005). Thus, I needed to find a way to create the context for students to reflect on their own learning process. Deciding how to provide the opportunity within the science classroom led me to the first revision of my research question: How can I facilitate instruction to improve scientific thinking? Continued inquiry led me to a study that analyzed how digital stories offer the opportunity for students to interact with the content by using a higher level of the cognitive domain (Cambre & Fletcher, 2009). Additionally, according to Ohler (2006), digital stories are an opportunity for students to authenticate their learning through critical thinking. Therefore, I began to consider utilizing digital storytelling as a pedagogical strategy to provide students a framework for recording and documenting reflective thinking. The final revision of my research question evolved out of the research brought to light during the writing of the literature review: In what ways does digital storytelling develop metacognition around the scientific process? It was imperative for my research question to reshape itself as I found research studies that provided me with evidence based strategies to support my students as they worked to become better scientific thinkers. The initial research question was very broad and open to a wide range of interventions that could have been implemented. My final research question was focused and specific to the intervention that I used to help my students. Developing a precise research question helped me to stay focused in phase one to collect and analyze the data specific to my action research question. References Cambre, C., & Fletcher, C. (2009, Winter). Digital Storytelling and Implicated Scholarship in the Classroom. Journal of Canadian Studies. 43(1), 109-130. Donovan, M., & Bransford, J. (Eds.). (2005). How Students Learn Science in the Classroom. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. Ohler, J. (2006, January). The World of Digital Storytelling. Educational Leadership. (pp. 44-47).
The Little Conference That Could . . . . By Lonnie Rowell, Ph.D. SDARA Advisor
SDARA
I remember loving the story of The Little Engine That Could when I was a child. I thought about this story recently as I worked with a group of determined folks in USD‟s School of Leadership & Education Sciences (SOLES) to prepare for the upcoming 8th Annual Action Research Conference on May 12,13, and 14. It has been a hard pull up the steep hill of establishing an annual event that gains traction in a community of practice. Truly an “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can” experience. When I founded the conference in 2004 it was a pretty simple labor of love. My students in the Counseling Program had just completed yearlong action research projects at school sites around San Diego County, and I wanted them to be able to share the results of their work. I think we had about 40 people at the conference the first year, and half of them were my students. Yet, the event (held in USD‟s Hahn University Center that first year) was successful, and that initial success encouraged me to continue. Now the conference has reached the “I know I can” moment in the classic children‟s story. We have cleared the top of the hill and are picking up speed as we enter the valley on the other side. More importantly, the action research conference has become an “I know we can” phenomenon for SOLES, and the significant number of faculty and students who participate in planning and running the event and presenting their action research work. I am thrilled that this year we have added SOLES‟ alums and that SDARA is now part of the “we.” The addition of SDARA to the conference line-up is one of the most significant developments for this year‟s event. The association‟s contributions to the 8 th Annual Conference include organizing and facilitating Magical Mystery Tour II, the pre-conference event featuring visits to school sites engaged in action research. MMT is funded by the European Collaborative Action Research Network (CARN), and we are thrilled that Dr. Alana James from Ireland will be our guest expert on the tour and will co-lead a debriefing of the tour when the group returns to SOLES in the afternoon. In addition, SDARA will present a session during the conference on sustainability of action research – a crucial topic for all engaged in action research in schools.
Email:_________________________ Field of Specialization: ________________________
The practice of action research in education carries few external rewards at this point in its history. Because as a nation we are still intoxicated with the false notion of educational accountability equating with high test scores, the process of action research in classrooms and schools often seems like too much work with not enough return on the investment of time and effort required to „pull off‟ a successful project.‟ In that context, those who engage in action research need support and encouragement to keep at it, and providing that support and encouragement is a major part of the purpose of our annual conference. A Japanese proverb reminds us that life has its ups and downs: “Fall seven times. Stand up eight.” For our developing action research community here in San Diego, perhaps this is a most fitting reminder as we prepare for the 8th Annual Action Research Conference: let‟s keep standing up! Hope to see you all at the conference: I think we can.
Current School/Organization: ________________________________________________
Email Lonnie Rowell @ lrowell@sandiego.edu
Contact Information Mail:
San Diego Action Research Association - MRH 143 5998 Alcala Park, San Diego, CA 92110
Email: sdara.network@gmail.com Phone: 619-260-7708 Fax: 619-849-8143 Follow us on twitter: @sdara_network
Membership Information We are currently looking to expand our efforts by inviting professionals, scholars, students, and community members interested in action research to join our association. Our organization has a small fee of $15.00 for one year of membership. This membership includes local action research events, newsletters about San Diego‟s latest and greatest action research work, and a network of practitioners currently working in the field using action research. If you would like to join please contact us with the following information: Name :__________________________________Phone:__________________________ Address:________________________________________________________________