AEE
578
Scientific Inquiry in Agricultural and Extension Education
Scientific Inquiry in Agricultural and Extension Education
| AEE
578
Scientific Inquiry in Agricultural and Extension Education |
Class 10:  |
Action Research |
Introduction:
 |
The
North Carolina Department of Public Instruction has a number of
standards
that are to be met in graduate programs for teachers. One of the
standards
that universities must meet in their graduate programs states:
Reflective Practice: Professional Growth:
The teacher is a reflective practitioner who continually evaluates the
effects
of his or her choices and actions on other students, parents, and other
professionals
in the learning community and who actively seeks out opportunities to
grow professionally.
How does a teacher become a reflective practioner and how does a teacher evaluate the effects of his or her choices and actions? One way to accomplish this is for the teacher to conduct action research. Several extension agents have been turned down in their quest for promotions recently because they did not adequately document the impact of their programs. How could the agent document the impact? The answer is the same as in the previous paragraph -- conduct action research. In this lesson we will learn more about action research. |
Learning
Objectives:  |
 State
the value of conducting action research; Describe
the main characteristics of action research; List
the procedures used to conduct action research; State
the value of conducting evaluation research; Describe
the main characteristics of evaluation research; and List
the procedures used to conduct evaluation research. |
| Instructional Activities:  |
Just what is Action
Research?
Florida Atlantic University gives four definitions. Read the article TEACHER RESEARCH
by
Sharons Parsons from San Jose State University to get a good overview
of
action research. Read Chapter 24 "Action Research" in How
to Design
and Evaluate Research in Education (Fraenkel & Wallen) Read Teacher as
Researcher. The May-June 2004
issue
of The Agricultural Education
Magazine
was devoted to Action Research. Read the following articles from that
issue
(this looks like a lot, but these are short articles):
Networks
is an on-line journal for teacher research. Click on several of the
past issues
and peruse the type of articles published. Many are qualitative in
nature.
 Read USING
CONCEPT MAPS TO AID READING COMP. IN A H.S. BIO
CLASSROOM
(Vol. 5 # 1, Mar 2002). This is a neat little example of
quantitative
research conducted in the classroom by a teacher. This article was
written
by a high school science teacher in FL. Nearly everyone in this
class
could do something like this and publish it in this journal. The literature on
action
research describes the process as a spiral. This PowerPoint
presentation
illustrates the action research spiral.
Download
the presentation on the action research spiral. |
Preparation:
 Additional Activities: |
Go to
the text web site and complete the multiple choice review questions for
chapter
24. From the text site: CHAPTER 24: Chapter Outline Main Points Interactive Activities IF you want to see more (NOT required):View another PowerPoint for Chapter 24 or download it- Chapter 24 - Additional Web Links- |
Assignments:
 |
Complete
Worksheet 10. And turn it in
through Vista.
|