Becoming a Teacher through Action Research

Process, Context, and Self-Study

Donna Kalmbach Phillips, Kevin Carr

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9781317963851
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Becoming a Teacher through Action Research, Third Edition skillfully interweaves the stories of pre-service teaching with the process of action research. This engaging text focuses specifically on the needs of pre-service teachers by providing assistance for all stages of the research experience, including guidance on how to select an area of focus, design a culturally-proficient study, collect and interpret data, and communicate findings.

With an updated introduction and two new chapters, this revised edition fully develops a convincing response to the framing question of the book, "Why pre-service teacher action research?" The new edition continues to focus on elements of trustworthy pre-service teacher action research, and provides a more robust overview of research methodology. Using additional activities, charts, and examples, this book offers support during the steps of writing a critical question, data collection, data analysis and the use of analytic memos.

New Features in the Third Edition include:

• New chapters on ongoing data analysis and final data interpretation, which include practice scenarios and examples to give readers a deeper understanding of doing the work of action research processes;
• An expanded chapter on action research methodology, which includes scaffolds for making methodological decisions, additional practice scenarios, and a revised action research design template;
• New end-of-chapter Content and Process Questions to encourage deeper understanding;
• New examples throughout, expanded additional glossary terms, enhanced literature review guidance, and updated templates to support action research projects;
• An updated companion website with downloadable templates and additional instructor resources;
• A revised interior text design to increase the accessibility of the text.

This one-of-a-kind guide continues to offer invaluable support for teacher-education students during a critical phase of their professional—and personal—lives.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• INTRODUCTION: BECOMING A TEACHER THROUGH ACTION RESEARCH—AN INTRODUCTORY GUIDE AND INVITATION
• Introduction to the Cultural Context Activities
• Introduction to the Self-Study Activities
• 1 BECOMING A STUDENT TEACHER-ACTION RESEARCHER
• 2 DISCOVERING AN AREA OF FOCUS
• 3 ACTION RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
• 4 ACTION RESEARCH DESIGN
• 5 ONGOING DATA ANALYSIS
• 6 FINAL DATA INTERPRETATION
• 7 TELLING THE STORY OF YOUR ACTION RESEARCH
• 8 LIVING ACTION RESEARCH AS A PROFESSIONAL EDUCATOR
• APPENDIX A: Personal Paradigm Self-Test/Scoring Guide
• APPENDIX B: Data Set/Teacher Images
• APPENDIX C: Data Set/Teacher Gifts
• APPENDIX D: Dissecting and Re-Formulating Your Critical Question
• APPENDIX E: Data Collection Tools Explored
• APPENDIX F: General-Purpose Research Design Template
• APPENDIX G: Gaining Permissions/Letter Template
• APPENDIX H: Practice Data Set
• APPENDIX I: Analytic Memos
• APPENDIX J: Strategies for Thinking About Data
• GLOSSARY
• REFERENCES
• INDEX