Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/teacher-as-researcher--getting-started-in-your-own-classroom/5018956/
“. . . I pursue questions that I find relevant within the context of my own teaching in order to better understand and respond to the dynamic individual learning processes that my students and I engage in every day” (Avery, 1990, p. 33).Classroom research is a planned “systematic intentional inquiry by teachers about their own school and classroom work” (Lytle & Cochran-Smith, 1990, p. 83). The questions arise from what is happening in their classrooms; the data collection method designed can be easily undertaken in the classroom; and the findings can be used immediately to make improvements in their classroom (Flake, Kuhs, Donnelly, Ebert, 1995, p. 405). The central question asked by teachers is: How can I change what I’m doing in the classroom to bring about change in my students? Classroom research is one strategy.
Briefly, classroom research involves the following steps:
• identifying a problem
• developing questions and examining your assumptions
• gathering, analyzing, and interpreting data
• taking action.
In the classroom research process you are both the teacher and the researcher.
Why is classroom research important?
Classroom research has immediate applicability because the research stems from a teacher’s own questions and reflections on his/her classroom practice. Teachers really get to know ...