ACTION RESEARCH for SCHOOL TEACHERS

DR. NGEOW YEOK MENG SKET, Universiti Malaya 5 March 2011

Learning Outcomes:

Definition of Action Research The need for better teaching & learning How to start? Research procedures / cycles Research designs Some ideas to start off with Literature review on action research

What is Research?

We search and re-search to gain better knowledge and insights We research. when we go shopping, watch movies, buy a property, choose a school, select a course for our children, start a business, choose our spouse etc.

Definition of Action Research

A new approach in teaching, focusing on the outcome of certain actions we implement in class Discovery into own practices with (a lot of) self-reflections A series of investigations to examine own actions implemented in research

The need for better teaching & learning

Teaching as research

Teachers who teach with an impact often examine their own practices

Excellent teaching is excellent research (with or without teachers knowing it)

The need for better teaching & learning

Research as teaching

The ultimate purpose of all research and/or knowledge creating activities is to help others learn.
Excellent research is excellent teaching

Activity Time
Give teachers the appropriate tools, knowledge & skills and they can do miracles to their students. Think-Pair-Share Have you experienced it as a student? As a teacher? As a parent?

How to start?

Is there a problem? No problem? this is a big problem What action can I implement to address the problem? How can I measure my own action in class? Will this affect my schedule in teaching and learning?

Prior to conducting research

IMPORTANT: Review before we start

1.IDEA Come up with original idea What are the problems that arise? How do others solve these problems? 2.INTEREST What interests you? Students learning style? New pedagogy?

Prior to conducting research

3.THEORY Which theory that you know best explain the scenario/issue?

None that we know of? Do the theories exist without our knowledge?

Do some literature review to see whether they truly exist.

Prior to conducting research

4. With idea, interest and theory, we can conceptualize using certain keywords in mass comm. studies

5. We can now operationalize own definition to be used in the study 6. We are able to determine our population and sampling method

Research Procedure 1
1. 2. 3.

4.
5.

Select a topic Identify the problem Determine research design Implement the action Collect data

Research Procedure 2
1. 2.

3.
4.

Analyze & interpret the results Present findings and outcome of our action Draw conclusions Provide useful suggestions & recommendations

Choice of research design

1) Qualitative
Intensive interview Focus group Field observation Comparative research Case study Ethnography

Choice of research design

2) Quantitative
Content Analysis (to measure certain aspect of students original work) Experiment (to measure what varies before and after the experiment) Survey (using questionnaire as the main tool)

Are you ready for it?

Do you recognize the needs to examine own teaching practices? Are you open-minded about making public own teaching practice?

Activity Time: Think-Pair-Share

1. Name two (2) teaching methods used by your favourite teacher(s); 2. Find a partner, compare these with his/her favourite methods; 3. Do you want to implement such techniques in your class? Share with the rest of us, if your name is being called.

Consider these ideas

Story telling Drama Debate Think, pair, share Start, stop, continue Minute paper Jigsaw

My own research with Dr Reza

Sensors, sensibility, sensitivity Objectives: to help poor achievers gain confidence and knowledge Outcomes: only students who are willing to get help, can be helped 5 out of 60 students with low CGPA improved in terms of confidence and knowledge level

If you wish to read on further

Some renowned practitioners Ernest Boyer Lewis Elton Lave and Wenger Tony Harland Schon, D.A. Shulman Stenhouse
among others:

What we have learnt today

Action Research (AR) AR procedures AR designs The need for better teaching & learning Some ideas to start off with Literature on action research

THE END

Teachers, THANK YOU for your attention!

Any questions?

Reliability

To be useful a research instrument must possessed two factors as follows: Reliability is an instrument to measure what is supposed to measure, dependable. Validity the instrument is stable & consistent over time.

Validity

Are the results accurate? What about the factors of validity? Is it sound and valid in reasoning?

Validity is a valid measuring device that measures what is supposed to measure.

Internal Validity

A property of a research study such that results are based on expected conditions rather than on extraneous variables. Internal validity such as history, maturation, testing, instrumentation, statistics, experimental mortality, sampling, demand characteristics, biasness etc. Internal validity rules out plausible but incorrect explanations of results.

External Validity

External Validity such as: how well the results of the study can be generalised across population, setting & time. External validity is the degree to which the results of a research study are generalisable to other situations

Validity
Cook & Campbell (1979) make 3 suggestions to overcome the question of validity: 1. Use random sample. 2. Use heterogeneous sample or replicate study several times. 3. Select the sample that is representative of the group so that the results could be generalised.

Validity

1. Face validity is achieved by examining the measurement device to see whether on the surface of it, it measures what it appears to measure. 2. Predictive validity result of the scores is capable to predict the outcome with high degree of accuracy.

Validity

3. Concurrent Validity the measuring instrument is check against some criterion imposed on it.

4. Construct Validity it involves the measurement related to some overall theoretical framework to ensure that the instrument is logically related to the other concepts in the framework.

Concept

The essential elements of research are concept & construct A concept expresses an abstract idea formed by generalizing from particular observations.

e.g. advertising effectiveness, readability, ownership and control, media usage.

Concepts

Concepts are important for two reasons: 1. to formulate ideas into general categories. 2. To communicate a shared understanding of something of specific meanings.

Concept

Watchdog refers to the role of media Agenda setting refers to a complicated mindset of media owners or practitioners

Construct
A construct has three characteristics: 1. An abstract idea broken down into several dimensions. 2. Cannot be absorbed directly. 3. Designed for a particular purpose.

Construct

advertising involvement: a construct that encompasses three other concepts, i.e. attention, interest, & arousal. authoritarianism: a construct that describes a certain type of personality in oneself.

Variable

Variables are important in observations as they link with the empirical world (observations). It is a phenomenon that can be measured.

Variable can have more than one value in a continuum from a positive to a negative responses.

Variables

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

satisfaction with TV programme can be measured as: most satisfied somewhat satisfied satisfied somewhat not satisfied most not satisfied.

Variables

Variables are classified in terms of their relationship with one another. It is customary to talk about independent variable and dependent variable.

The dependent variable is what the researcher wishes to explain.

Independent Variables

Independent variable is considered as causation factor. Dependent variable is considered as effects factor. They are observed as a result of the independent variables.

Dependent vs. Independent

Education will result in upward social mobility and increase in income. Education = independent variable Upward social mobility & Increase in income = dependent variable.

Dependent vs. Independent

The dependent variables to be measured than is the evidence of the kinds of upward mobility or increased in income measured. Then in this case, if the researchers assumption is correct those with better or higher education resulted in higher paying jobs or increased in their income.

Dependent vs. Independent

Note: please keep in mind that the distinctions between types of variables depends on the purpose of the research. In many cases research involved examining more than single dependent variables. In example no. 1, the researcher could also study newscasters mannerism, style, closing programme other variables, other than just camera angle.

Discrete Variables

Discrete variables are often used in mass media investigation. A discrete variables include only a finite sets of values and it cannot be divided. E.g the number of children in a family is a discrete variable. It does not make sense to say the family size is 2.4. Because how do you conceptualize 0.24 of a person? Other example political affiliation, gender, population these are all discrete variables.

Continuous Variables

Continuous variable on the other hand allow take on any value (including fractions and decimals). E.g. height is a continuous variables. You can say that the average age of the undergraduate at UTAR is 21.5 years old. Other examples time spent watching TV. Number of hours listening to the radio and so on.

Variables

Other types of variables:

Predictor variables (causal variables) Antecedent variables (predicted variables) Criterion variables (causal variables) Control variable (i.e the variable that is used to ensure that the result of the study are due to the independent variables & not because of other factors. e.g. in studying the relationship between newspaper readership and reading ability, researchers knew that IQ will effect the relationship and therefore must be controlled. Thus subjects must be selected based on IQ scores.

Measurement

Research rely on measurement. The idea of measurement is simple. A researcher assigns numbers to objects, events or proprieties (or in short variables) according to certain rules. E.g no 1. Unemployment increased by 1 %. E.g. no. 2. Geogjakarta experienced an earthquake measuring 8.5 Richer Scale.

Measurement

Note that measurement contains three central concepts: a. numbers b. assignment c. rules Firstly: numbers In example no 1, 1 % is a measure of unemployment. In example no 2, 8.5 Rechter scale is a measure of how strong the earthquake is.

Measurement

Secondly: assignment In e.g no. 1 it implies that number/s are attached to the variable with some meaning. In e.g no 2, it implies some form of a quantum of the earthquake. Third, rules In e.g. No. 1 & 2 numbers signify a system of counting i.e. the lower the number the smaller or less significant the variables are. The higher the numbers the more significant the variables are.

Measurement

A numerical has no implicit quantitative meaning (mathematical or statistical meaning). Assignment is allocation of numbers to variables (events / objects). E.g. 1 is assigns to people who obtain most of their news from TV.
2 is assigns to people who obtain most of their news from a newspaper.

3 is assigns to people who obtain most of their news from some other sources.

Measurement

Therefore a number is used to associates to a type of descriptions that you are trying to measure.

Numbers can be easily sed for calculation or statistical computation. Numbers can be attached to rules. Rules are the heart of any measurement system. E.g. rules use for positive and negative responses. no. 1 is assigns to positive (+) strongly agree while (-1) is assigns to negative (-) strongly disagree.

Measurement

Measurement system is said to be isomorphic (identity / similarity) to reality. This is because there is a direct relationship between the variables being measured and the numbers assigned to them. E.g. imagine a researcher is trying to develop a scale to measure persuasibility of an advertisement. A test is developed and given to 5 people (A,B,C,D,E). Result of the scores are as follows:

Measurement

Person A B C D E

Test score 1 3 6 7 8

True score 0 1 6 7 12

In this data two people (C,D) test scores correspond exactly to the true scores. The other scores (A,B,E) miss the true scores but there is a correspondence between the rank orders. Note that the persuasibility scores range from 0 to 12 and the measurement scales ranges from 1 to 8. Summary: thee is a general correspondence between test and reality, but the test is far from an exact measure of what actually exist. In other words in this case a VALIDITY is involved.

Levels of Measurements

There are four levels of measurements: A. Nominal level B. Ordinal level C. Interval level D. Ratio level

1. Nominal Measure (label only)

Nominal level is the weakest form of measurement. It is used to classify people, objects, or characteristics. E.g. rock can be classified into three types: 1 = igneous rock 2 = sedimentary rock 3 = metamorphic rock Note that numbers are simply labels that stand for specific category of rock. A rock that is placed in category 3 did not have more rockness as compared to category 2 & 3. It is just a label.

Nominal Measure
E.g. 1 = viewers depended on TV as the main source of news. 2 = viewers depended on newspaper as the source of news. 3 = viewers depended on other sources as the source of news. In this example you will find that the numbers are just simply identifying the type of news received. Nothing more.

Nominal Measure

Therefore nominal data can be said that it is a measure that is exhaustive and mutually exclusive. However, nominal measurement may be used in higher order statistics if it is converted into another form. The result of this conversion is known as dummy variables.

Nominal Measure

E.g. political party affiliation such as: UMNO 1 MCA 2 MIC 3 Other 4 This measurement scheme could be interpreted to imply that a person classifies as other is three units better than a person classified as in 1 or 2 or 3.

Nominal Measure
To avoid this problem we have to assign an equivalent value to each category and to record it as dummy variable that create the category other as the same as the rest. We then change it to: UMNO 001 MCA 010 MIC 100 Other 000 This scheme treats each affiliation equivalenty and allows the variable to be used in higher order statistical procedures.

2. Ordinal Measure

Ordinal measure is usually rank along to some dimension such as from smallest to the biggest. E.g. one might want to measure the variable socio-economic status of the respondent different category as: 1=lower 2=lower middle 3=middle 4=upper 5=upper middle 6=upper Note that there is some form of order is established.

Ordinal Measure

An ordinal scale possesses the property of equivalence. Ordinal scales can be use for ranking (from lower to higher) and rating (most important to least important) variables.

3. Interval Measure

When a variable is involved in some form of intervals of equal value between items measured, then interval measurement is applied. E.g. a simplest measure of temperature. i.e. the same amount of heat is required to warm an object from 30 to 40 degrees, or from 50 to 60 degrees. Here it applied equal differences.

Interval Measure

One disadvantage of an interval scale it lacks a true zero point. E.g. a person with an IQ of 100 is not twice as smart as someone with an IQ of 50. or a person who scores 30 in a test of aggression is not three times as aggressive as a person who score 10.
Despite of this advantage interval measurement is often used in measuring frequency scales.

4. Ratio Measure

Ratio measurement have all the properties of interval scale plus one more. That is the existence of a true 0 point. e.g since time and distance are ratio measures, one can say that a car traveling 50 miles per hour is going twice as fast as a car traveling 25 miles mph.

Measurement Scales

A scale represents a composite measure of a variable and it is based more than one item. Not all variables can be measured using scales. E.g. age, newspaper circulation, number of radio in the house can be measured without using scaling.

Rating Scales

Selecting the type of scales is largely a matter of personal preference. The type of scale can be: 1 to 2 scale (yes /no) 1 to 3 scales (yes /dont know / no) 1 to 4 scales (s. agree/ agree /disagree / s. disagree) 1 to 5 scales (s. agree / agree / dont know disagree / s. disagree) 1 to seven scales (1-------7) Osgoods scales. 1 to 10 scales 1 to 100 scales 0 to 9 scales

When selecting scale one must consider the following: 1. A scale with more points rather than fewer points allows for greater differentiation on the item being measured. E.g the higher the number the more important the scale will be. Which one would be better 1to 3 or 1 to 10? Broader the differentiation in opinions, perceptions, feelings the is important because it gives the researcher more information which is known as (factor fusion which means that opinions, perceptions and feelings are squeezed into smaller space.

Rating Scales

2. The use of 1 to 10 scales refer to 10 is a perfect or highest scores and 1 is the lowest

3. When using the simple rating scales scores it is useful to tell the respondents that the higher the number the more you agree and vi-se-vis.

Types of scales

1. Thurstone scales uses equal interval scales. 2. Guttman scales is based on the idea that items can be arranged along a continuum in such a way that a person who agrees with the items will also agree with all other items. Indecent TV programme is harmful to society. Children should not be allowed to watch indecent TV shows. TV station managers should not allow indecent programme on their station. Government should ban indecent TV programme. Note a person agrees with statement no 4 will also agree to other (1-3) statements.

1. 2. 3. 4.

Types of scales

3. Likert scales with range of five scaling out of which one of the item is neutral. E.g. 1 Strongly agree 2 Agree 3 Neutral 4 Disagree 5 Strongly disagree 4. Semantic Differential Scales also known as Osgoods scale. e.g. Biased ____:____:____:____:___:___:___ Unbiased Unfair ____:____:____:____:___:___:___ Fair Valuable____:____:____:____:___:___:___Worthless