In a teaching experiment, I examined a theoretical model of mathematics teaching and learning in practice. In this paper I focus on how the model can guide the teacher's thinking about students' understandings and the generation of activities that foster intended transformations in those understandings. As a research-teacher I taught, twice a week…

This book describes the essential components of any teacher-researcher group. Part I describes an experience, a process, that aids teacher-researchers in completing a study. Part II reexamines the issues and questions surrounding teacher research, as they have both shifted and steadied over the years. Part III consists of research articles written…

This study explored first-year distance education students' experiences in an innovative early childhood "Teachers as Researchers" class that required a collaborative student research project. Distance education students comprised about 25 percent of the total class, and requirements for on-site and distance students were kept as similar as…

This paper describes how Western Washington University's Woodring College of Education designed an elementary Master in Education program to meet the needs of practicing teachers. Data gathering activities included systemic review of the graduate catalog's programs and enrollment; surveys of administrators and educators who completed Master's…

Noting that teachers' research is found in personal journals, professional conversations, computer networking, formal research studies, and publications or presentations, this paper answers, in outline form, a series of questions on the expanding role for special needs educators. These questions are: what "teacher as researcher" means;…

This study examined the beliefs of 21 experienced teachers who implemented individual action research projects as part of a graduate degree program in teacher leadership, focusing on the extent to which they believed that action research is a viable mechanism for change. Participants consisted of primary, middle, secondary, postsecondary, and…

This paper examines systematic studies of teacher research as professional development activity, identifying specific aspects of this experience that relate to positive teacher and student learning. Section 1 discusses variations in teacher research related to motivation, structural conditions and context, study format and content, incorporation…

This paper describes a self-study research collaborative involving college faculty members. It began when members of a dissertation writing group decided to continue working together, focusing on self-study as a way of teaching and learning. In 1999, the group experimented with using teaching portfolios in their graduate education classes to…

Chapters in this book were written by members of the Multicultural Collaborative for Literacy and Secondary Schools (the M-CLASS Project), a national teacher-researcher network of English and social studies teachers and university faculty from four cities. Their essays deal with classroom research on learning, diversity, bias, inequality, and real…

This booklet contains a synopsis of eight action research projects undertaken by educators from various Utah public schools presented at a series of workshops. Twenty-seven educators representing 19 schools, 9 school districts, and the Utah State Office of Education (USOE) attended the series of 4 full-day workshops held during October, February,…

Talk remains by far the most used medium of instruction and classroom action. Classroom talk is typically dominated by triadic dialogue or an I-R-E (Initiate-Response-Evaluation) pattern of talk noted in the literature as consistent across grades and subjects. Studies seem to indicate that teachers utilize traditional forms of talk, even though…

Focuses on student-teacher interaction in one classroom. Discusses different methods for conducting informal classroom research, connecting classroom practices with current theories, and analyzing and interpreting classroom events to improve instruction and learning. (HTH)

Studied classroom assessment events in high school social studies classes using data from 12 assessment events in classes of a teacher researcher. Results for the 96 students involved support the conclusion that student perceptions of the task and self-efficacy, reported mental effort invested, goal orientation, and learning strategy use differed…

Presents a dialogue between an experienced basic researcher and a teacher-researcher following a meeting in which bilingual teachers and university teacher educators discussed a project involving teacher-researchers' attempts to use oral history to incorporate language minority parents' and grandparents' voices into elementary social science…

Action research can take on different characteristics because underlying it are differing epistemological assumptions, which in turn shape methodological choices as well as how problems are formulated. This article examines three perspectives, and their accompanying methodologies, common to action research: positivism, interpretivism, and critical…