- In your personal and professional life, it is important to be a well-informed consumer of research.
- In what ways do you act as a scientist during the course of a workday?
- How do you separate misinformation or unsupported claims (such as those from publishers or advertisers) from research-based information? Trustworthiness vs. non-trustworthiness?
- Describe how you have felt about the topic of research and any changes in viewpoint you are experiencing.
- How have you approached reading research articles?
2.Action research provides the process by which issues and problems specific to schools and organizations can be resolved.
- How can you use action research to study and reflect on your own professional practice?
- What can action research offer or accomplish that other types of research conducted by outsiders cannot?
- What do you view as the major advantages, challenges, and limitations of action research?
3.Researchers must make important decisions about the types of data they will collect. Data may be quantitative, qualitative, or both.
- What data are necessary to your professional practice?
- How do you collect data for decision making?
- Are you more likely to collect quantitative data, qualitative data, or both? Explain.
- Share an example of how you have collected data and the purpose for which you collected the data.
- Researchers must analyze the data they collect.
- What types of data analysis have you conducted alone or with others in your work?
- Are you more likely to rely on quantitative data, qualitative data, or both to make decisions? Explain.
- What process did you use to analyze and interpret the data?
- Share an example of how you have analyzed and interpreted data and then presented it to a specific audience.
5.Action research is considered professional development.
- What school or organization issues would you like to see researched?
- What problems or issues might be appropriately investigated through action research?
- How do you envision action research and reading the research literature promoting your professional development and improvement in your school or organization?
- What had you learned about research ethics prior to this course, and how did you learn it? What new idea(s) did you gain from this course?