Research Findings: Three former teaching colleagues at the University of California's Harold E. Jones Child Study Center discuss an interpretative approach to child observation and assessment and how this approach was developed (1970s-2005) within this lab school's early childhood education setting. With teaching practice shaped and driven by a…

This resource guide looks at new classroom-based literacy research that supports "all" learners, including culturally and linguistically diverse students. The authors demonstrate how teachers and researchers develop instructional practices based on multiple languages and the literacy contexts of their schools. They describe classrooms where…

Defined as "any systemic inquiry conducted by teachers... for the purpose of gathering information about how their particular schools operate, how they teach, and how their students learn" (Mertler, 2009), "action research" is empowering and professional research done by teachers to inform and improves their own practices. Although there are many…

This article presents a framework for establishing inquiry as a foundation of a teacher education program to help prospective and practicing teachers view inquiry not as a project but as a stance. Cochran-Smith and Lytle (2009) assert that "working from an inquiry stance involves a continual process of making current arrangements problematic,…

This article explores how classroom-based teacher inquiry research supports teachers in constructing understandings about teaching and learning that are uniquely applicable to their own contexts in American urban schools. This study was conducted by two teacher educators in their year-long classroom-based inquiry research classes with…

This paper examines the teacher research process from two points of view: that of a university-based researcher and that of a school-based classroom researcher. Speaking from the experience of engaging in research from both perspectives, the paper presents six reflections on teacher research that describe the special nature of inquiry as conducted…

This paper reviews methods for conducting and reporting teacher research. Through three cases, the paper explores common and diverse methods employed in classroom inquiry. The paper recounts the history of teacher research and discusses common methodological characteristics as well as context-specific features of teacher research. The first case…

In this book, two teachers share their experiences as researchers to confront and address the current disagreements about whether empirical research or narrative recounting is a better research model. In the book they seek to transcend these disagreements by endorsing an integrative approach that covers all aspects of practitioner inquiry, joining…

Addresses problems and possibilities in development of practitioner research stemming from a semester-long master's level research course. Presents course context; outlines the four classroom studies that examined journal writing; explores commonalities among studies; shares conversations among researchers on issues of systematic inquiry,…

This paper brings into focus what can happen when a person is both a researcher and a teacher in two different classrooms almost at the same time. In the two classrooms project work is the subject of inquiry and the working method used. The aim of the research was to figure out how group work and collaborative processes function during project…

Describes the author's year-long analysis of one student's work to demonstrate her larger and ongoing research process in her classroom, as she investigated whether and how students were taking up the key inquiry-based processes that serve as a foundation for learning across disciplines in her classroom. (SR)

Describes a high school composition teacher's research comparing researchers' observations on students' composing attitudes and habits against those of her own students. Emphasizes the importance of classroom teachers' involvement in research. (ARH)

The article reports work over one year by three teachers from the Milton Keynes Primary Schools Learning Network. Their collaborative classroom-focused action research investigated the limits and possibilities of pupils' and teachers' learning through self-evaluation. In phase one the teacher researchers used questionnaires, interviews and…

Presents an action-research study of student scientific literacy that is analyzed by two metaphors of learning: students working in science as if they follow recipes, and students working in science as if they devise recipes. Considers the usefulness of the metaphors as a framework to provide common ground for otherwise divergent views on…

Describes the research process engaged in by a group of teacher researchers as they examined students' historical and multicultural understanding. Explores the complex and messy nature of the relationship of teaching and researching. Describes how research questions and methodology were developed. Discusses development of categories to examine how…