Home PublicationsL&LIssuesVolume 27 (1999-2000) April (No. 7)

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Dr. Painter served on a teacher research group in her school that made many improvements in the school’s technology goals and plan. Read more about how teachers can become researchers.

One way to assess the effectiveness of technology in schools is through teacher research. The primary purpose of teacher research is for teachers to learn more about themselves as educators and how they teach as they observe their students, as well as to reflect on how they deliver instruction and what their students learn. Through regular recording of those observations and reflections, teachers systematically engage in the process of inquiry, discovering how to address student needs and improve their own instructional programs. Teacher-researchers who meet regularly with colleagues see many benefits. They:

• develop research questions based on their own curiosity about teaching and learning in their classrooms;
• systematically collect data and methodology;
• analyze and interpret the data and the research methodology;
• write about their own research;
• share findings with students, colleagues, and members of the educational community;
• discuss with colleagues relationships among practice, theory, and their own research;
• examine their underlying assumptions about teaching and learning; and
• assume responsibility for their own professional growth.

MacLean and Mohr (1999) define teacher research as a process of inquiry that is “conducted by teachers as they go about their daily work. It is enmeshed in the context of the classroom.” It is an “open inquiry, not a hidden agenda. It is based on teacher and student knowledge and thinking as a source of information.” Furthermore, they define teacher research as “professional development that respects the knowledge and experience of teachers involved. It is also a form of curriculum development, school planning and program evaluation, teacher preparation, and school reform” (pp. viii–ix).

Effects of Teacher Research

The work of teacher-researchers enriches the school community in many ways. In schools with teacher-researchers, administrators and teacher-researchers engaged in the process report the following changes in teacher activities:

• increased sharing and collaboration with other teachers,
• increased dialogue about instructional issues and student learning with enhanced communication between teachers and students,
• revision of practice based on new knowledge about teaching and learning,
• development of priorities for schoolwide planning and assessment efforts, and
• contributions made to the profession’s body of knowledge about teaching and learning.

Teacher-researchers’ work often complements the goals and objectives set forth in school plans, such as looking at instructional programs and how to improve them. Betsy Sanford at Lemon Road Elementary School in Fairfax County, Virginia, addressed her school board in February 1997:

At this time, the third year of our Lemon Road teacher research group, teachers have pursued such varied topics as how students develop spelling strategies, the inclusion of students with learning disabilities in the regular education program, and how we develop a schoolwide vision of technology use. The program at Lemon Road is beginning to benefit from the hard look we’ve taken, singly but in a collaborative setting, at instructional issues. Not one of us has all the answers, but together we have a way to search for answers.

Find out more about teacher research in the online supplement.

Answers from Teacher Research

At my school, Deer Park Elementary School in Centreville, Virginia, a dozen or so teachers form a teacher-research group each year to investigate a variety of topics. They voluntarily join the Teacher Research Team (TRT) committing to one school year of research, which entails meeting once a month for half-day sessions, analyzing data, and writing a paper on their findings after school and on weekends. The paper is presented at an annual round-table presentation session for the entire staff during the last month of the school year. Substitute coverage for the half-day meetings and one full day for revising and publishing the final paper is provided by grants the TRT members receive from various educational organizations. In the past few years, the TRT has been supported by grants from The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), Virginia Council of Teachers of English (VATE), and several Impact II Inquiry Grants provided by our school system. Because we integrate technology into all subject areas, many of our research projects involve the effective use of that technology. We develop questions based on our own curiosity about our teaching and how our students learn in the classroom.

For example, during the 1996–99 school years, four teachers investigated student learning teams and multimedia research presentations. Working in pairs or groups of three, students used a variety of electronic media, including the Internet, to research topics and produce presentations such as HyperStudio stacks, AppleWorks slideshows, Kid Pix slideshows, and Web pages using Claris Home Page. We systematically collected data by keeping journals on our impressions as students worked and often by videotaping student interactions. Examples of data included statements from students and observations of students as they worked together, which indicated planning the project together, and the different roles students assumed while constructing stacks. Roles such as building the stack components, researching, typing, and proofing the information presented in the textboxes, creating and incorporating designs into the stack cards were noted in the teacher-researcher journals. We surveyed the staff and students to determine their attitudes about working in partner groups. The staff was asked to respond to open-ended comments about what they felt about the project, and students were given a 12-question Likert survey as well as individual interviews of selected students. We assessed the quality of the multimedia projects using a rubric that determined several aspects of stack design, content, and accuracy of information (See Sample Teacher Interview, Rubric, and Attitude Scale.)

After analyzing and interpreting the data, we discovered that for the most part, students enjoyed collaborative work. They said they liked working with partners because (1) they learned more working with a partner, (2) completing the project was easier because a partner shared the work, and (3) using technology allowed them to be more creative in how they presented their research findings.

Each teacher-researcher wrote a reflection paper (see Guidelines). The data collected were generally similar to the data we collect in the normal course of teaching such as portfolio assessment items, test scores, observations of students, and interviews. The additional data came from videotaped sessions that were transcribed and analyzed and the Likert survey, which was administered to the students. Before the project began, we notified parents about the project and got the necessary permissions to use photos of students in the end-of-year report to the staff.

Recommendations Based on Findings

First, we recommended that independent learning be made one of the goals in our school plan. Teachers now make careful considerations when grouping students to create project teams, keeping in mind strengths, weaknesses, temperament, and independent working skills.

We also asked teachers to address keyboarding skills in the primary grades, because our findings indicated that many students struggled when typing information into text boxes. Third- and fourth-grade students now complete Type to Learn keyboarding lessons during the first half of the school year so that they are more proficient with keying in text when they begin projects in the second semester.

The difficulty many students faced when researching information was another concern identified during our research. Our library specialist now teaches students in Grades 2–6 guided reading and note-taking lessons using structured note-taking forms.

Students told us during interview sessions that they needed more time to complete their projects. Teachers now allot more independent work time at computer stations in the classroom. We hope this will help students be more creative with their projects in ways such as providing more details to text information as well as creating their own designs for the stacks rather than just incorporating images from the Internet and graphic libraries.

In addition, students said they liked to use rubrics because they helped them better understand what was expected in terms of stack design and content. Our teachers are developing and using new rubrics to assess the quality and content of the presentations as well as students’ independent working skills.

Conclusion

As school administrators investigate instructional programs and strive to find ways to improve student achievement, they often look at “what happened” as a result of implementing a program. They use traditional educational research methods such as standardized testing, surveys, and other quantitative methodologies. Teacher-researchers’ work often helps explain why something occurred, because it provides interpretive research through its qualitative approach. Teacher-researchers assume responsibility for their own professional growth as they make valuable contributions to the teaching community.

There is little disagreement that teachers who engage in self-directed inquiry into their own classrooms find the process intellectually satisfying; they testify to the power of their own research to help them better understand and ultimately to transform their teaching practices. (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1993, pp. 18–19).

At the same time, teacher-researchers collect

rich data about classroom life that can be used by academics to construct and reconstruct theories of teaching and learning (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, p. 20).

Although teacher-researchers are intimately involved in the inquiry process as participant-observers in their own classrooms, they work in a group that “challenges each other’s assumptions, proposes alternative interpretations, offers suggestions about research methodology, responds to drafts, and often lends personal as well as professional support” (MacLean & Mohr, 1999, p. 21). Therefore, the work that teacher-researchers do can be of real value to the academic community as well as to their own teaching community.

Resources

AppleWorks is available at your local software reseller or directly from Apple at www.apple.com/appleworks.

Home Page is from FileMaker, Inc. at www.filemaker.com.

HyperStudio is from Knowledge Adventure (www.hyperstudio.com).

Kid Pix is available from Mattel (www.shopmattel.com).

Type to Learn is from Sunburst Communications (www.sunburst.com) Dept. DW, 101 Castleton St., Pleasantville, NY 10570; 800.321.7511; 914.747.4109.

References

Cochran-Smith, M., & Lytle, S. (1993). Inside outside: Teacher research and knowledge. New York: Teachers College Press.

MacLean, M., & Mohr, M. (1999). Teacher-researchers at work. Berkeley, CA: National Writing Project.

Copyright © 2000, ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education). All rights reserved.