Mills Chapter 01

Mills
Action Research: A Guide for the Teacher Researcher, 5e
© 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Action Research
Geoffrey E. Mills
Fifth Edition
© 2014, 2011, 2007, 2003, 2000
Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
A Guide for the Teacher Researcher

Mills
Chapter 1
Understanding Action Research

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Mills
Traditional Educational
Research
 Studies that explain, predict,
and/or control educational
phenomena
 manipulate and control variables
 test a hypothesis
 Researchers separate from
classroom setting

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Mills
Quantitative Research
 Collection and analysis of
numerical data to describe,
explain, predict, or control
 Tests hypotheses in controlled
ways

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Mills
Qualitative Research
 Uses narrative, descriptive
approaches to data collection
 Goal is to understand the way
things are and what it means
from the perspectives of the
research participants

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Mills
Mixed-Methods Design
 Studies that combine
quantitative and qualitative data
collection techniques in a single
study

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Mills
Action Research
 Any systematic inquiry conducted by
teacher researchers, principals, school
counselors, or other stakeholders …
 in the teaching/learning environment …
 to gather information about how their
particular schools operate, how they
teach, and how well their students learn.
 Research done by teachers for
themselves

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Mills
Brief History
 Lewin (1934) coined “action research”
 America: Dewey & progressive
education movement
 United Kingdom: Curriculum reform
 Australia: Collaborative curriculum
planning

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Mills
Critical Action Research
 “Emancipatory action research”
 goal is liberation through
knowledge gathering
 Draws heavily from postmodernism
 truth is relative, conditional,
situational
 knowledge is outgrowth of
experience

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Mills
Socially Responsive
Action Research
 Democratic
 enabling participation of people
 Participatory
 building community of learners
 Empowering
 providing freedom from oppressive,
debilitating conditions
 Life-enhancing
 enabling expression of full human
potential

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Mills
Practical Action Research
 Emphasis on “how to” teach
 Assumptions
 teachers are autonomous
 teacher researchers are committed to
professional development and school
improvement
 teacher researchers want to reflect
systematically on their practices
 teacher researchers will design their own
research focus and methods

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Mills
Goals of Action Research
 To improve the lives of children
 To learn about the craft of teaching

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Mills
Credo for Reflective
Practice
 Everyone needs opportunities for
professional growth.
 All professionals want to improve.
 All professionals can learn.
 All professionals assume responsibility
for professional growth and
development.
 People need and want information about
their performance.
 Collaboration enriches professional
development.

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Mills
Justifying Action Research
 Action research is persuasive and
authoritative.
 Action research is relevant.
 Teachers have access to research
findings.
 Action research challenges the
intractability of educational reform.
 Action research is not a fad.

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Mills
Incorporating Action Research
into Daily Teaching
 Try it!
 Be convinced that the time and energy
is worth it.
 Know that the process can be
undertaken without negative impact on
your personal and professional life.
 Ask for support from your professional
colleagues.

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Mills
The Process of
Action Research

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Mills
Mills’ Dialectic Action Research
Spiral

Mills Chapter 01

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