The focus of this course is on the process of inquiry into educational situations. Emphasis will be placed on approaches for the systematic study and analysis of educational situations in order to improve practice and identify possible courses of action.

Reflection:

The idea of Action Research was new to me when I came to this course.  I was very engrossed in the process of doing research in “life’s laboratory”, as I came to think about it.  Understanding how to pull together information from so many sources for the purposes of improving teaching and learning is wonderful!  I am excited about the many ways these research methods might be integrated into classrooms.

The project I completed for this course was conducted as team.  Sharing the effort to undertake the research and writing tasks offers many opportunities for interesting insights, and this was no exception.  As we proceeded through the process of data collection and literature collection, I began to see how considering these in advance of the actual research was important.  We are all familiar with doing background research when we are conducting formal investigations, however it is easy to overlook these steps when the research in your own classroom.  Likewise, strategizing about data analysis in advance of having all the data in place helped us keep a clear focus about what we wanted to learn.  Since the object of Action Research is more to understand how a process is working so that it can be improved, knowing what you are looking for is very helpful.

The culmination of the research my team undertook was to consider the introduction of a Virtual Field Trip into a course. This was a wonderful topic to study because virtual field trips are still so unique in traditional classes.  This method of having children experience a place virtually offers so many possibilities for learning, it is staggering to imagine. I look forward to having an opportunity to continue my investigation of virtual field trips so that I can begin finding ways to incorporate them into learning environments.

Artifacts and Standards:

Data Collection Matrix | IVB
Literature Collection Matrix |IB
Data Analysis Strategy| IIC |IVA
Action Research: Virtual Field Trips | IIC | IIIA | IIIC