Teachers Doing Research: Practical Possibilities

Teachers are often reluctant to change their practices in response to each new staff development workshop that appears on the horizon. What then compels a teacher to explore teaching and learning in his or her own classroom and then implement change that affects the life of that classroom? What is the nature of the collaborative process that can engender teacher research leading to subsequent change? How can educational leaders facilitate this process? These are central questions addressed in Teachers Doing Research.The process and application of developing, implementing, and evaluating teacher action research in collaborative group settings is explored. A practical approach to doing teacher research -- including descriptive analysis of initiating the inquiry, gathering data, analyzing results, and evaluating the project -- is set within the larger context of qualitative research, and draws on the research and literature of teacher as researcher coupled with that on staff development in school and university settings.In this text: