ED 110 Spring 2020 Martinelle

Practitioner Inquiry1 – Final Project and Presentation Instructions

Background and Rationale: While traditional university-based research has made

invaluable contributions to the field of education, the problems routinely encountered by
classroom teachers often defy any application of universal principles or “best practices.”
What is effective in dealing with one classroom situation may fail to work in a different
situation; what works with one student may fail to work with another (Efron & David,
2003). Classroom teachers, with their intimate knowledge of their students and local
context, are uniquely qualified to research problems of significance to their practice and
their students. Through practitioner inquiry, teachers take on the role of researchers
and study their own sites of practice with the goal of generating knowledge to transform
themselves, their students, and their schools. Practitioner inquiry challenges the notion
that educational change can only occur through a top-down (university to K-12) process,
positioning teacher and school improvement as a bottom-up process driven by the
voices of teachers.

Directions and Requirements: Throughout the semester, you will research and
systemically reflect on an authentic question/problem that arises from your initial
experiences in your field placement. This question should address a topic and
classroom phenomenon you are very passionate about understanding more deeply.
Once you’ve established your question, you will use your field placement as a site for
data collection and reflect on your findings each week through your teacher research
journal. For your course final, you will present the findings and conclusions of your
research to your discussion section through a website.

What is the practitioner inquiry cycle? The process of practitioner inquiry typically
involves the following steps: (1) Choosing a question, (2) Gathering data, (3) Analyzing
data, (4) Reporting Findings, (5) Offering Conclusions, (6) Reflecting and Planning New
Inquiries, and (7) Sharing findings with the broader community. These steps are
described in more detail below.

1. Choosing A Question. Our essential questions for the course are: What does it
mean to be “educated” in a democracy? What is required of teachers, schools,
and society to cultivate an educated citizenry? These questions act as an
umbrella under which you will explore additional questions grounded within the
classroom and institutional context of your field placement. In ED 110, Quality
practitioner inquiry questions should:
a. Be of significant interest to you (and possibly your cooperating teacher)
b. Be focused on issues of practice (e.g., teacher beliefs, knowledge, and
decision-making, student thinking and learning, school policies,
curriculum, issues of equity and inclusion)
c. Be open-ended; questions you truly don’t have the answer to
d. Arise from problems you are seeing/experiencing in your field placement
classroom/school

1 Adapted from materials created by Professors Megina Baker and Chris Martell
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e. Be realistically researchable over 6-8 visits (e.g. should require only 30

minutes of intense focus per visit)

In the table below are some examples of quality researchable questions and typical
language used to start such questions.

Question Starters Example Questions

How do/can I…
What happens when…
How does X
impact/influence Y?
What can I learn
about/from…
What’s going on with…
What strategies are most
effective with helping
students…
How do
students/teachers…What
explains…
 How can I help my straight students accept and be
more respectful of LGBTQ students?
 How do I move beyond “foods and festivals” when
discussing diversity with students?
 What happens when students are allowed to use
their home language during free-writes?
 What happens when I ask students questions
about their interests during circle time?
 What happens when I read more books focused
on social justice during story time?
 How does the use of visuals impact my bilingual
students’ comprehension of primary sources?
 How does the use of visuals impact my bilingual
students’ comprehension of primary sources?
 What can I learn from students’ discussions during
cooperative group work?
 What can I learn about students during recess?
 What’s going on with students’ focus during
independent reading?
 What’s going on with the
 What strategies are most effective at helping my
students think metacognitively? Why?
 What strategies are most effective at helping my
students think critically about racism? Why?
 What classroom management routines are most
effective with my special needs students?
 How do students understand the purpose of
learning math? What explains the similarities and
differences in their ideas?
 How do students define “good” teaching? What
explains the similarities and differences in their
ideas?
 What explains my teachers’ curricular-instructional
decisions when teaching science?

2. Gathering Data. In order to explore or answer your practitioner inquiry

question(s), data must be collected. Valuable data sources can include: samples
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of student work, surveys, observation notes, teacher reflection journals,

transcripts of/notes from interviews with teachers or students, and classroom
artifacts (e.g. teacher handouts, textbook excerpts, assessments etc.). The
types of data you need to collect depends on your inquiry question(s). See table
below:

Inquiry Question(s) Possible Data Sources

What can I learn from students’
discussions during cooperative group
work?
What explains my teachers’ curricular-
instructional decisions when teaching
science?
What happens when students are allowed
to use their home language during free-
writes?
How does the use of visuals impact my
bilingual students’ comprehension of
primary sources?
Observation notes, teacher reflection
journals
transcripts of/notes from interviews with
teachers after lessons, science
curriculum used during lessons
Samples of student work, teacher
reflection journal, Observation notes,
Student surveys
Samples of student work, teacher
reflection journal, Observation notes,
Student surveys

IMPORTANT: As a guest in your cooperating teacher’s classroom, it’s important that

you share with them your inquiry question(s) and your plan for data collection so they
may weigh in on its appropriateness and, in cases where it may require interviews with
them, work out appropriate times for discussion.

3. Analyzing Data. Data analysis in practitioner inquiry involves (re)examining

your data over time for the purpose of finding themes and/or patterns related to
your inquiry question(s). Data analysis is also a highly subjective process and
therefore requires considerable reflectiveness and collaboration. Your TR
journals will serve as a valuable space for analyzing and reflecting on how your
background and previous experiences are influencing your analysis, while your
time in discussion section and with your TF will afford you opportunities to hear
alternative interpretations of your data.

4. Reporting Findings. The findings of your inquiry represent the fruits of your
final data analysis or the “answers” to your questions. These findings should be
substantiated by a good amount of evidence in order for the audience to find it
trustworthy. As such, when reporting your findings, you will need to include
excerpts of your data (e.g. photos of student work, interview excerpts, results of
surveys, original observation notes) to bolster your claims.

5. Conclusions. In concluding their research, practitioner researchers get to

answer the following questions: What does it all mean? What is the significance
of your findings to other teachers or school personnel? What action, if any, does
it suggest? To what extent can your findings be applied to other settings? To
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what extent do your findings build upon, confirm, and/or contradict ideas
encountered in our course readings?

6. Reflecting and Planning New Inquiries. Inquiry is a cyclical process. More

often than not, when teachers investigate their practice, it gives rise to new and
better questions. In conducting your research, it is likely that you discovered new
problems that warranted further investigation. Here is where you’ll outline your
plans for future research and reflect on what your practitioner inquiry: (a) taught
you about yourself, (b) informed your thinking about how and why you (or
teachers) teach, and (c) addressed our big question: What does it mean to be
“educated” in a democracy? What is required of teachers, schools, and society
to cultivate an educated citizenry?

7. Sharing Findings. The findings of practitioner research stand to make little

impact beyond teachers’ classrooms if kept private. As such, it is crucial that
your final conclusions be shared and discussed with your classmates. To do
this, you will create a website on a platform of your choice (e.g., Weebly, Google
Sites) to display your research and present it to your discussion section and TF
as your final project for the course. The contents of your website must include
the foregoing steps as separate pages (e.g., Question, Methods, Findings, etc.).
As a guide, you can use the following URL as a model: http://ed110-
inquiry.weebly.com/ . Specific requirements are detailed on each page.

Practitioner Inquiry Project and Presentation Rubric (20 pts)

I: Presentation – 2 pts

_____/ 2 Points
Student prepared an organized and well-paced 15-minute presentation about their
research; Presenter was audible, articulate, engaging and did not just read slides/web
pages to the audience; As audience member, students appeared respectful of and/or
interested in the presenting student’s work and asked thoughtful questions of other
students.

II: Professionalism & Ethics – 4 pts

Writing Clarity and Presentation: _____/ 3 Points Student’s web pages are well written and
follow the conventions of good academic writing. All pages follow an organized structure, are
easy to read, and citations, word choice, and grammar do not detract from the flow or clarity of
the narrative on each page; Word count met on every page; Discussed readings are properly
cited in APA format with references listed on either a separate page or the page(s) in which
readings were cited.

Aesthetics & Visuals______ / 0.5 points Aesthetics of website complement (not

detract) from the arguments and overall readability of the website and its pages; Page
content is well-organized; Visual themes, photos, and graphs/data are all relevant to the
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author’s research and findings.

Ethics and Confidentiality______ / 0.5 points Student assigned pseudonym to all

teachers, students, schools, and the communities in which their research was situated;
Website is free of any pictures that would identify students, teachers, schools, and
community; If used, pictures of student work have been anonymized

III: Web Pages – 14 pts

Page – Question(s)______ / 1 point All page requirements were met; Student

carefully documented the evolution of their question, explaining how and why (if it all)
their question was modified; final inquiry question was clear, framed in a way that was
practical and allowed for data collection; Student demonstrated how own background
and/or initial field experiences influenced the formulation of their question.

Page – Methodology______ / 1 point All page requirements were met; Setting in

which study took place was described; Student carefully explained what data sources
were used, how and when they were collected throughout their field visits, and how it
was analyzed; If applicable, data collection instruments were included; Student outlined
the steps they took to ensure their findings were trustworthy and minimize researcher
bias

Page – Findings______ / 3 points All page requirements were met; Data was
appropriately compiled and connected to the inquiry question; Student consolidated
information and inferred larger themes from data in ways that were clear to the reader.
Student presented the data accurately and, when appropriate, provided excerpts of data
within and/or outside the narrative to support claims

Page – Conclusion______ / 4 points All page requirements were met; Student

demonstrated depth of thought in interpreting the data collected; Student showed
understanding of the practical implications of their findings as well as limitations within
their conclusions; Student clearly explained how their findings built upon, confirmed, or
contradicted ideas from a minimum of 2-4 course readings from 2-4 different classes.

Page – Reflection______ / 5 points All page requirements were met; Student

demonstrated reflectiveness on future research, detailing new (possibly researchable)
questions that were raised from research; Student was thoughtful and articulate in
describing what they learned about the inquiry process, themselves, and broader issues
of teaching and education from engaging in this research