GRDG690 Action Research: Literacy

1. GRDG690Action Research: Literacy Week 3: Methods, Data Collection & Ethics Gloria E. Jacobs, Ph.D.

2. Agenda • Ethics • Methods & Data Collection • Writing the methods section • Context of the study • Participants • Data collection methods • Ensuring trustworthiness

3. Ethics • Respect for Persons • Informed consent/ parental permission/ child assent • Trust • Anonymity & confidentiality • Beneficence • Do no harm • Never deceive your participants • Justice • The research will help the people with whom you are working • Your action research ethics should reflect the principles of your teaching • Data should reflect what really happened

4. Permissions – Keep it Simple • Parental permissions from any students you’ll be working with. • Consent from any adults you’ll be interviewing or observing • Assent from children you’re working with. Verbal assent is ok with young children. A written assent form is good for older children • Sample consent/permission/assent letters are online.

5. Online Ethics Course • The main thing to keep in mind is the rights of the participants supercede your needs as a teacher researcher. The right to know/no • Questions?

6. Methods: Issues Quantitative/Experimental Qualitative/Action Research • Triangulation • Validity • Reliability • Generalizability • Bias • Guba’sapproachp. 103-105 • Triangulation & Dependability p. 104 • Credibility p. 103 • Transferability p. 104 • Confirmability p. 105 • Transparency (being candid)

7. Wolcott’s Approach (pp. 110-112) • Talk little/listen a lot • Record observations accurately • Start writing early • Show, don’t tell • Report fully (do not be afraid of that which doesn’t fit) • Be candid – what biases do you have? • Seek feedback – use your critical colleagues

8. Methods: Data Collection p. 89 • Enquiring • Interviewing • Informal • Formal • Email • Focus Groups • Questionnaires • Take notes during interviews and focus group meetings even if recording Experiencing • Observation • Participant Observation • Active • Privileged • Passive • Field Notes pp. 76-78 • How to observe • What to take notes on • Anecdotal record forms p. 80 Examination • Journals (teacher & student) • Maps • Video recordings • Audio recordings • Photos • Artifacts (district data, student work, test results, reading inventories)

9. Organizing your data • Date / Time • Location • Participant names & demographic information • Code names

10. Planning Your Research • Identify Data Collection Techniques (p. 89, Box 4-4) • How will you be experiencing, enquiring, and examining? • Identify Data Sources: (p. 97, Figure 4-4) • Strive for multiple forms of data for each subquestion • Identify the actual documents you’ll be collecting

11. Planning Your Research II • How will you ensure the validity of your research? (Mills, Box 5-1, p. 105).

12. Sample Action Research Cycle • Based on your reading, select a method you would like to learn more about. • Try it in your teaching • Observe, keep field notes, collect student work, interview student(s) about their experience • Analyze the data – How did the method impact student learning? • Adjust the method based on what you learned from the analysis • Go back to step 2 • Do this cycle at least three times • Analyze all the data and determine the outcomes

13. Sample Passive Observer Action Research Cycle • Identify a teacher or teachers who use the method you are interested in (based on your reading) • Observe them use the method and take field notes • Collect samples of student work • Interview the teacher(s) about what they did • Interview the student(s) about their learning • Analyze the data to see what emerges. • Share what you learned with the teacher and get their feedback • Repeat with the same method or different methods as appropriate for your question.

14. Contents of Methods Section • Write in future tense – you will change it after you are done to reflect what you really did • Context • Describe the school or location • Participants • Describe each participant (age, race/ethnicity, gender, years of teaching, reading level, etc.) • Your role (as teacher, observer, etc.) • Method • What you are going to do (did) • Credibility, transferability, dependability, confirmability (see Mills) • Be specific and concrete. • Data Collection • What tools did you use to collect data (active observation, field notes, interviews (how many), questionnaires (how many), artifacts, video recording etc. • If you are using interviews and questionnaires, include copies of the questions in your appendices. DO NOT INCLUDE RAW DATA!

15. Next Steps • Draft of methods section due on 2/23 (1-1 meeting week) • Begin data collection as soon as you have the consents/permissions • Next Class meeting 3/16– Data Analysis • Read Mills chapter 6 & 8 • All data must be collected by this time. • Bring whatever data you have to class for workshopping • Revised intro, theoretical framework, literature review, methods combined into one document due on 3/16. You can send it in earlier if you wish.