Using Technology to Promote Teacher Action Research

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Learning from Action Research About Science Teacher Preparation

In this article, we present a case study of a beginning science teacher’s year-long action research project, during which she developed a meaningful grasp of learning from practice. Wendy was a participant in the middle grade science program designed for career changers from science professions who had moved to teaching middle grade science. An extended action research experience in the second year of induction proved valuable to her in learning how to modify her teaching to reach her goal, using evidence of student learning as her guide. This article closes with reflections on the value of extended action research within science teacher preparation, particularly early in one’s career, and explores the promise for ongoing practice-based professional development throughout a teacher’s career.     

A Teacher Professional Development Program on Using a Constructivist Multimedia Learning Environment

This paper describes a professional development program using an interactive multimedia program to develop teachers' understanding of a constructivist epistemology in science education. The aim of this study was to describe teachers' reflections on and perceptions of a series of professional development workshops and how teachers changed their classroom practices after having participated in the workshops. The software, developed with the cooperation of teachers and students, is based on the Birds of Antarctica database (Maor & Phillips, 1996). This database was designed as an interactive program which requires teachers to use a constructivist-oriented approach to teaching and learning in order to promote the development of inquiry skills particularly higher-order thinking skills. A series of workshops for teachers was conducted to empower them to become comfortable with using computers in science classrooms and to enable them to enhance their understanding of, and ability to use, personal and social constructivist approaches. Teachers' perceptions of the process of learning with the multimedia program and their reactions to their experiences were assessed using a new instrument, the Constructivist Multimedia Learning Environment Survey (CMLES). The results of the study suggest that teachers who participated as learners in the professional development program became familiar with a constructivist-oriented multimedia learning environment; understood the context, problems, and issues faced by students in the classroom; and were better able to facilitate students' needs and understanding in this learning environment. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Exploring the Connections Between Action Research and Teacher Leadership: A Reflection on Teacher-Leader Research for Confronting New Challenges

ABSTRACT

This reflective article examines the relationship between teachers’ engagement in action research and their ability to lead within their schools. As part of The New Educator’s special issue, “Developing an Inquiry Stance toward Instructional Improvement: Teacher-Leader Action Research,” this article demonstrates the development of an inquiry stance. It shares the story of two practicing teacher leaders within the new and challenging circumstance of adjusting to, and studying, the professional development they provided to help teachers deal with a challenging transition to a radically different school space. This article examines the ways practitioner inquiry supported these teachers to be leaders in the new architectural space designed to promote innovative instruction for twenty-first-century teaching and learning. We posit that coupling teacher leadership and teacher research enables teachers (a) to lead with literature, (b) to lead from data, (c) to lead through sharing, and (d) to lead by example.     

行动研究:教师科研新方法

本文论述了中小学教师应如何使用行动研究的方法进行科研,并认为行动研究可以加速教育科研“产业化”。行动研究以合作的定性研究为主,实地研究和反思是行动研究的关键,日记是重要的环节。本文以笔者正在研究的一个课题为例对行动研究的方法作了详细的介绍。     

Learning Through Reflection in Mathematics Teacher Education

This article is written from our perspective as both researchers and mathematics teacher educators, and describes how our knowledge has grown as we engage concurrently in both teaching and research. Reflection-on-action is a means for us of approaching the relationship between theory and practice that comes out of the development of our work as researchers and mathematics teacher educators. The article presents the different steps we have identified in the relationship between theory and practice during our professional development. In the discussion, we examine the whole sequence of steps showing what we have learnt. Afterwards, we use the sequence of activity of the reflective process as a framework in which we can operate and reflect about our own development.     

有关Mobile Learning学习环境的反思

目前,对移动学习领域的相关分析和讨论可以说是教育技术领域研究的一个热点。但是,在移动学习的开展过程中,势必会带来些问题与争论。针对移动学习的学习环境方面进行相关的反思和探究,以便更为有效地促进移动学习的开展。     

近年来国内教师学习研究:盘点与梳理

在终身学习思潮勃兴、学习型社会构建和新课程改革呼声高涨的时代境遇下,教师学习便成为一个热点研究领域。国内关于教师学习研究内容主要涉及其内涵与意义、性质与特征、内容与方式、内部机制与外部支持诸方面。研究虽然取得丰硕的成果,但尚存在概念模糊、研究内容分散、研究视角与方法单一等不足之处。今后相关研究要厘清基本概念,明确研究范围,拓宽研究视角,丰富研究内涵,并且要进行多种方法的整合研究。     

Technology Integration and the Classroom Learning Environment: Research for Action

This article describes initial results of a collaborative action research endeavor between a regional university and a local school (Grade 6 level) using learning environments research to monitor alignment of classroom learning activities with a constructivist viewpoint while integrating technology into the curriculum. Student perceptions as measured by the Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES) were explored. Teacher logs, teacher interviews, and fieldnotes from team discussion groups and classroom observation provided further understanding of interactions in the classroom. A one-way analysis of variance in which the set of four classroom learning environment variables for the CLES, the set of five variables for each of the CLES-Mathematics and the CLES-Science and time of administration (prior to technology integration and after technology integration) yielded no significant changes in student perceptions of the classroom learning environment over the duration of the academic year. Interpretation of results led teachers to construct a new set of questions and a new plan of action to bring their classroom learning environment into closer alignment with a constructivist perspective for teaching and learning. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Action Learning: A Model for In-Service Teacher Education

Technology has changed the way the world functions on a day-to-day basis, but what about education? Education has been directly affected by the increase of technology in the United States. This change has not been well accepted by some members of the educational community, thus leaving the realm of education behind in the technology era. This article seeks to focus on the benefits of technology in the classroom as well as some of the issues that surround teachers and technology. The article also delves into the future of technology and education and provides some helpful tips for technology use in the classroom.     

移动环境下教师学习共同体的设计与研究

移动学习和学习共同体是当前教育技术领域两个研究的热点,但是对移动环境下的教师学习共同体的研究却不是很多。在移动学习和学习共同体的涵义基础上界定了移动环境下教师学习共同体的涵义,指出了目前教师专业发展的现状,分析了移动环境下教师学习共同体的组成要素,构建了移动环境下教师学习共同体的模型,论述了此模型构建的教师学习共同体内部成员的互动方式以及教师学习共同体的特点。     

行动学习及其在教师培训中的应用

行动学习作为一种新的培训理念和方法,正受到追捧。以团队合作为基础,以解决工作实际中的问题为目标,通过其循环式的学习方式开展学习,从而达到培训的预期目的。行动学习对教师培训具有重要的实践意义。掌握运用行动学习的时机、选择有针对性的问题、有效组织学习活动、合理的反思、培训教师理念和角色的转变、实现培训学员教师观念的转变是取得行动学习成功的关键。     

对教师学习策略的几点思考

教师学习策略的研究是窥探教师学习内在心理机制的有效途径。对教师学习策略的建构必须在教师学习特点的基础上,既要体现教师的职业特征,更要为指导教师有效学习提供可资操作的指标。因此,教师学习策略体系不能照搬一般学习策略的理论,更不能抛弃学习策略理论另起炉灶,而是要形成以知识转化为核心,以调控策略和资源管理策略为辅助的完整体系,从而成为促进教师专业发展的规则系统和调控方式。     

Using a Post‐Experience Questionnaire to Measure the Quality of Student Learning in a Computer Conferencing Environment

A class of second year (age group 19–20), university students used computer conferencing as an alternative to face‐to‐face seminars. A questionnaire based on Garrison's critical thinking model tested their conferencing versus face‐to‐face experiences. Factor analysis using SPSS produced five factors for face‐to‐face seminars and four factors for computer conferencing consistent with deep approaches to learning. One negative factor emerged for computer conferencing which indicated a problem with student use of the technology. The results show that computer conferencing can be a valuable learning environment on campus.     

视频研究在教师学习与专业发展中的运用

视频研究是学习科学研究中倡导的运用视频技术探究学习、教学与教育过程的一种重要方法。通过研究者运用视频研究促进在职教师的学习与专业发展的一个案例,具体描述了该案例中面向4位教师的视频研究活动的设计与实施,并基于对教师视频研究活动中的话语分析,发现有效的视频研究活动设计能够促进教师:(1)转变原有观念,发展教学理解与专长;(2)主动参与学习,对新知的获得持积极倾向;(3)发展视频研究的意识,获得视频研究的方法和策略。最后就视频研究在教师学习与专业发展中的有效设计与运用问题进行了讨论。     

试论行动研究对外语教师职业发展的意义

行动研究对外语教师的自我职业发展具有重要的指导作用,为教师在外语教学理论与实践方面的探索提供了切实可行的方法,外语教师应将这两者有机地结合起来,带着研究者、批判者的眼光去对待教学活动.通过对自身教学行为的反思,外语教师可以改变教学观念,提高教学教育质量.     

Development of a Questionnaire Assessing Teacher Perceived Support for and Attitudes About Social and Emotional Learning

Research Findings: In the past 20 years school districts have increasingly adopted classroom-based social and emotional development programs. The dissemination of these programs, however, has surpassed our understanding of and ability to assess factors that influence program implementation. The present study responded to this gap by developing a questionnaire that focuses on teacher perceptions of implementation support and teacher attitudes about social–emotional learning and by assessing its psychometric properties. One hundred forty-five Baltimore City Head Start preschool teachers completed the questionnaire. Factor analyses suggested 6 underlying constructs, which we termed administrative support, training, competence, program effectiveness, time constraints, and academic priority. Several of these scales predicted teacher reports of program implementation. Practice or Policy: The questionnaire holds significant promise as a tool for assessing readiness and barriers to social and emotional program implementation.     

Teacher Research,Action Research: the Logo Action Research Collaborative

Action research is a form of professional inquiry in which the teacher's role is seen as key to educational improvement. This paper describes methodologies developed by the Logo Action Research Collaborative – a national network linking 100 teachers at nine sites – that facilitate and support collaborative inquiry by teachers into their own teaching practices, in order to understand, improve, develop, and incorporate new forms of student assessment, teaching methods, and curriculum. The project focused on the Logo computer language, a powerful learning environment for problem‐solving and mathematical inquiry. The authors provide background information on action research as an evolving discipline. They identify three phases of a year‐long action research cycle, and describe key strategies developed by the project to support teachers in taking on a research frame of mind, identifying areas of concern, and undertaking and completing action research projects. The paper includes several illustrative examples of action research investigations undertaken by teachers, and demonstrates the benefits to the students and teachers involved. It closes by making a case for the potential contribution of action research to current educational reform initiatives and school restructuring.