Action Research - Planning for the Final Project

Planning for The Final Project

Requirements & Timeline for the Final Project

The final project for the Educatore School of Education's Masters in Education degree is an action research project, where, by completing the project, students are able to increase their knowledge of an educational topic of their choosing while improving their teaching, and developing skills they can use for future activities. The final product may take many forms, but it must:

• be original work that requires critical analysis;
• include an analysis of previous research done in the field;
• require some application that involves the collection and/or analysis of data;
• include an analysis of findings;
• focus on some aspect of globalization or international mindedness relevant to education in general or your specific situation;
• be in the form of a written report (in Word format).

While there is no limits on the length of the report, it must be comprehensive enough to meet the above and generally runs between 20 and 30 double spaced pages and broken down into the following sections:

• Introduction & Statement of Problem/Question;
• Literature Review;
• Proposed Methodology;
• Analysis of Results;
• Summary & Consideration of Next Steps/Action Plan;
• References;
• Appendices (if necessary)

This will be done throughout the months of November, December, and January, with completion expected by no later than the end of January.

Action Research - A Summary

According to Sagor (2001) action research is "a disciplined process of inquiry conducted by and for those taking the action.  The primary reason for engaging in action research is to assist the “actor” in improving and/or refining his or her actions".  Rigsby (2005) makes it even simpler by stating that "action research is a fancy way of saying let's what's happening at our school and decide how to make it a better place".  

While much of the details of action research have been highlighted in the above section covering the requirements for Educator's MEd program, Padak & Padak (2017) unpack the four stages of action research by asking researchers to think about the following questions/ideas for each section:

1. Identifying questions to guide the research.  Think about what makes a good research question (Is it important?  Is is directly related to the issue/problem?  Is it answerable?);
2. Collecting information to answer the questions.  The key thing to remember here is that any information that can help answer your question is data and can be treated as such.
3. Analyzing the information that has been collected.  Think about this section like this:  when the data no longer brings surprises, you know that you have collected enough.
4. Sharing results with others.  Research can lead to more research and therefore it is key to share so that others learn and you get feedback for perhaps further study.

Ideas for Action Research

The first ideas that come to mind for my topics would be:

1. The impacts on monocultural settings on non-national student socioemotional development.
2. An exploration of the teaching of international mindedness and measurement of understanding, application, and attainment of true international mindedness.

More might come to mind, but for now these are the ones that jump out for me and my context.

Potential Challenges & Successes

Obviously, as a father of 2 who has a full time job and it currently looking for a new school to work at in the 2018-2019 school year the greatest challenge I can see is finding the time to get this done.  In addition to time, as I am living in a foreign country, finding the research for Korea in English will also present a sizable challenge.  As for the successes that I see in this process, or at least the things that I think will make it easier for me.  Since I currently work at an International school and wish to focus either on cultural impacts on education or how we can better promote international mindedness in an IB school, I would think that I have fairly easy access to the base for data.  Additionally, since my school is an IB World School I would like to think that there would be a sense of cultural diversity and understanding at the school as well as a basic understanding and practice of international mindedness.

References:

Guidelines and Rubric: Final Project. (n.d.). Retrieved on November 19, 2017 from https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HENDXgi7azEuAJiwYTWzdhE07p9jRnYHL6nDwg5N_Oo/edit

Padak, Nancy & Padak, Gary. (2017, September 28).  Research to Practice: Guidelines for Planning Action Research Projects. Retrieved November 19, 2017 from http://literacy.kent.edu/Oasis/Pubs/0200-08.htm

Sagor, Richard. (2001). What is Action Research. Retrieved November 19, 2017 from http://literacy.kent.edu/Oasis/Pubs/0200-08.htm

Rigsby, Leo. (2005, March). How is Action Research Defined? Retrieved November 19, 2017 from http://gse.gmu.edu/assets/media/tr/ARRigsbyppt.htm