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Action
The
Research
Guidebook
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CORWIN
PRESS
The Corwin Press logo—a raven striding across an open book—represents the union of
courage and learning. Corwin Press is committed to improving education for all
learners by publishing books and other professional development resources for those
serving the field of K–12 education. By providing practical, hands-on materials,
Corwin Press continues to carry out the promise of its motto: “Helping Educators Do
Their Work Better.”
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Action
The
Research
Guidebook
A Four-Step Process for
Educators and School Teams
R I C H A R D S A G O R
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Copyright ©2005 by Corwin Press.
All rights reserved. When forms and sample documents are included, their use is authorized only by
educators, local school sites, and/or noncommercial entities who have purchased the book. Except for
that usage, no part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic
or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
For information:
Corwin Press
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2455 Teller Road
Thousand Oaks, California 91320
www.corwinpress.com
Sage Publications Ltd.
1 Oliver’s Yard
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London EC1Y1SP
United Kingdom
Sage Publications India Pvt. Ltd.
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Post Box 4109
New Delhi 110 017 India
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sagor, Richard.
The action research guidebook: Afour-step process for educators and school teams / Richard Sagor.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7619-3894-X (cloth)—ISBN 0-7619-3895-8 (pbk.)
1. Action research in education. 2. Teachers—In-service training. I. Title.
LB1028.24.S33 2005
370.’ 7’ 2—dc22
2004008099
04 05 06 07 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Acquisitions Editor: Rachel Livsey
Editorial Assistant: Phyllis Cappello
Production Editor: Melanie Birdsall
Copy Editor: Marilyn Power Scott
Typesetter: C&M Digitals (P) Ltd.
Proofreader: Teresa Herlinger
Indexer: Sheila Bodell
Cover Designer: Michael Dubowe
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Contents
Preface ix
About the Author xiii
1. Introduction to Action Research 1
Why Conduct Action Research? 1
The Complexity of Teaching 2
Key Terms and Concepts 4
Universal Student Success 8
2. Finding a Focus 11
Zeroing in on Your Priorities 11
Using Reflective Writing to Find a Focus 12
Using a Journal to Identify Action Research Foci 17
Reflective Interviews 20
Analytic Discourse 24
Team Reflection 24
3. Refining the Focus 27
Visualizing Success 27
Doing an Instructional Postmortem 28
Comparing Your Experience With the Experience of Others 29
Developing Criteria to Measure Changes
With Priority Achievement Targets 37
Creating Rating Scales 38
The Special Problem of Long-Range Goals 42
Assessing Rate of Growth 44
Determining Adequate Yearly Progress in Real Time 45
Producing Your Own Rate-of-Growth Charts 47
End of Stage 1 48
4. Articulating a Theory in Action 49
If Not Us, Who? 50
An Adequate Knowledge Base Already Exists 50
Going Beyond Proven Practices:
Building a Theory of Action 51
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Two Kinds of Variables 53
Creating Mileposts on the Route to Mastery 54
Inferring Independent Variables 54
Using the Priority Pie to Identify,
Clarify, and Weigh Independent Variables 55
Using the Priority Pie With Descriptive Research 59
5. Drawing a Theory in Action 61
Why a Map? 62
Building a Graphic Reconstruction 63
Graphic Reconstructions for Quasi-Experimental Research 64
Graphic Reconstructions With Descriptive Research 66
6. Determining the Research Questions 75
Three Generic Action Research Questions 76
Developing Your Own Research Questions 82
Two-Step Walk-Through 83
Drafting the Questions 86
7. Building a Data-Collection Plan 90
Data Collection and the Competing
Demands for Your Time 90
What Qualifies as Teaching? 91
What Qualifies as Data? 91
Data in Descriptive Research 92
Data in Quasi-Experimental Research 92
Data Collection and Concerns About Precision 93
Fishing in a Sea of Data 94
Securing Research Assistants 94
Building a Triangulated Data-Collection Plan 95
Integrating Efficiencies Into Your Data-Collection Work 98
Using Personal Digital Assistants and
Personal Computers to Compile and
Assemble Action Research Data 105
Keeping a Researcher’s Journal 108
8. Analyzing the Data 109
Trend Analysis 110
Organizing Data to Help Answer the
Three Generic Questions 113
ACR Question 1: What Did We Do? 113
ACR Question 2: What Changes
Occurred Regarding the Achievement Targets? 118
Disaggregation 122
ACR Question 3: What Was the Relationship Between Actions
Taken and Any Changes in Performance on the Targets? 124
Drawing Tentative Assertions 129
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Using Member Checking to
Add Credibility to the Tentative Assertions 130
Additional Tools for Data Analysis 131
Longitudinal Analysis Using Bins and a Matrix 133
Low-Tech Strategies for Bins and Matrixes 134
High-Tech Strategies for Bins and Matrixes 136
9. Turning Findings Into Action Plans 141
Modifying Your Theory of Action 141
Data-Based Decision Making 145
Turning Your Findings Into Ed Specs 148
Solicit and Brainstorm Action Alternatives 150
Assessing the Action Alternatives 150
Completing the Cycle: Revised Theory of Action 2 153
10. Reporting and Sharing Action Research 155
Common Issues 156
Formats for Reporting 159
Creating a Bank of Abstracts 161
Creating a District Archive 165
11. Conclusion: The School as a Learning Organization 166
The Two Keys: Coherence and Congruence 167
Putting the Pieces Together 168
Resource A: How to Use the Feedback
Forms and Summary Reports 171
Resource B: Five Characteristics of a Quality
Action Research Project 173
Glossary 179
References 181
Index 183
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Preface
T
hank you for choosing education as your career. There is no better way to
make a contribution to society and to our collective futures than investing in
the growth and development of youth. In their book, Good Work: Where
Excellence and Ethics Meet, Howard Gardner, Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi, and William
Damon (2001) begin by defining the concept of good work.They view it as an endeavor
that includes both meanings of the word “good”: a pursuit that simultaneously
results in a product or service that is good for society andthat is done well. They then
proceed to explore the specific conditions that support and occasionally detract from
the ability of practitioners to do good work.
Teaching certainly fulfills the first part of the definition of good work; it is a
pursuit that makes the world better. But for many teachers, the second aspect of it
is hard to obtain. Too often teachers are forced to fight their way through conditions
that make providing excellent instruction difficult, if not impossible. I wrote this
book to contribute to changing this unfortunate state of affairs.
I believe that when and where teachers engage in the processes of action research
and are well supported in their efforts, it is much easier for good work to occur. I
hope you will come to believe this, too. It is my deepest hope that this book will play
a role in helping you, the reader, experience the profound satisfaction that comes
from the practice of this sacred calling.
More than anything, I believe that the practice of education is a thoughtful
endeavor. Consequently, I have an aversion to professional development that is
overly prescriptive and attempts to tell teachers precisely how they should go about
doing their work. Feeling this way made me a bit anxious as I approached the task
of writing this book.
It was my hope to produce a handbook that would provide the busy educator
who wished to experience the action research process with an easy-to-follow tem-
plate, one which could be readily adapted to a variety of professional interests and
foci. I hope I succeeded in accomplishing that goal. But if that were all, I would have
disappointed myself. I would have simply written one more step-by-step how-to
manual. And in doing so, I would not have acknowledged the complexity of the
issues educators confront on a daily basis. Because every educational context and
every learner is different, excellent teaching requires constant creative problem
solving by the expert in the classroom. Any book that contends to provide a one-size-
fits-all prescription for the problems of the classroom teacher ignores this reality and
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