Improving Teaching with Collaborative Action Research: An ASCD Action Tool - Softcover

Diane Cunningham (author)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1416611622 ISBN 13: 9781416611622

Publisher: ASCD, 2011

Synopsis

Once you've established a professional learning community (PLC), you need to get this ASCD action tool to ensure that your PLC stays focused on addressing teaching methods and student learning problems. This ASCD action tool explains how your PLC can use collaborative action research to formulate questions about topics of your own choosing, take action, and then collect and analyze data to answer those questions. This action research process helps your PLC unearth the root causes of issues and plan corrective actions while fostering ongoing and collaborative teacher staff development. Dozens of learning activities―checklists, rubrics, planning guides, and reflection prompts―lead your PLC through the steps of:

• Developing a common understanding of effective group process and collaborative action research.
• Identifying a meaningful starting point for inquiry, thinking through a rationale and vision for group work, and generating questions to guide the inquiry.
• Encouraging meaningful and productive discourse among members.
• Promoting the effective use of action planning and data.
• Supporting continuous assessment of results and reflection on effective practices.

Each tool in the collection includes an explanation of why and how to use the tool. Whether your school is new to this action research or is already engaged in the process, this action tool gives you an easy, go-to resource that is perfect for instructional leaders of all sorts―grade-level leaders, department leaders, principals, assistant principals, and staff developers―who are responsible for facilitating improvement.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

The best instructional practices are driven by research, and when educators become researchers who investigate their own methods, struggles, and problems, they can improve their teaching. That's the essence of collaborative action research, or collegial inquiry.

This action tool guides educators through the learner-centered approach to staff development, helping inquiry groups learn to formulate questions about topics of their own choosing, take action, and then collect and analyze data to answer those questions. The action research process is designed to help you identify the root causes of issues and plan corrective actions while fostering leadership qualities, such as intellectual perseverance, reflective practice, and a commitment to collaboration.

Whether you're new to collaborative action research or want to improve the rigor of your existing process, you can use the practical tools, step-by-step quality-assessment rubrics, and reflection prompts in this book to systematically explore any range of topics, from students' questioning practices to the district's science curriculum.

The tools can also help educators learn to support, respect, and listen to their peers and to capitalize on the various perspectives in a learning community, which can improve the professional learning culture of a school and create a foundation for sustainable growth.

By reflecting on practice through pursuing answers to questions about student needs and school and district goals, educators can use this valuable resource to help improve their teaching and most important students' learning.

Edition details

• Publisher: ASCD
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1416611622
• ISBN 13: 9781416611622
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 195