Sample Action Research Report Evaluation

The purpose of this assignment is for you to review a FINISHED action research report showing the entire planning process and allowing you to put together visibly, what a finished action research proposal consists of including the planning stage you are responsible for in this course as well as the results portion of the report for which you will be responsible for in EDU675 (MAED students).  Having this exposure to a finished report should help you make connections with what you’ve been planning as well as what you will be actually implementing through your proposed intervention/innovation once you begin EDU675.

According to Mills (2014), “To evaluate a research study competently, you must have knowledge of each component of the research process” (p. 215). For this assignment, you will consider all that you have learned and practiced up to this point in our course and apply criteria for evaluating action research to the following: Sample Action Research Report 1: Effect of Technology in Enthusiasm for Learning Science. Finally, you will include a self-reflection. Note that it is acceptable to write in the first-person voice in the reflection.

Content
The assignment needs to include the following areas of content.

• Area of Focus (1 point): Describe the area of focus and whether it involves teaching and learning. Include support from the literature where appropriate.
• Research Questions (0.5 point): List the research questions and discuss whether the researcher states questions that were answerable given the researcher’s expertise, time, and resources.
• Locus of Control (1 point): Discuss the locus of control and whether the area of focus was within the researcher’s locus of control.
• Data Collection (1 point): Describe the data collection techniques and whether the researcher used appropriate data collection techniques to answer the study’s research questions (e.g., qualitative and/or quantitative). Include support from the literature in your description.
• Ethics (1 point): Describe the ethical challenges the researcher faced and how they were resolved.
• Reflective Stance (1.5 points): Explain the ways the action research effort contributed to the researcher’s reflective stance on the ways teaching and learning are viewed.
• Action (0.5 point): Describe the actions that resulted from the study.
• Action-Data Connection (1.5 points): Describe how the proposed action connects to the study’s data analysis and interpretation.
• Reflection – Learning (0.5 point): Describe what you learned from this study and the process of evaluating it, considering what insight this researcher gave you indirectly regarding the process of action research.
• Reflection – Application (0.5 point): Describe what you have taken away from this experience for use in your Final Project in this course.

Written Communication
The assignment needs to adhere to the following areas for written communication.

 

• Page Requirement (0.25 point): The assignment must be three to five pages, not including title and references pages.
• APA Formatting (0.25 point): Use APA formatting consistently throughout.
• Syntax and Mechanics (0.25 point): Display meticulous comprehension and organization of syntax and mechanics, such as spelling and grammar. Your written work should contain no errors and be very easy to understand.
• Source Requirement (0.25 point): Use no less than two scholarly sources in addition to the sample action research report, which may be your course textbooks. All sources on the reference page need to be used and cited correctly within the body of the assignment.

Prior to beginning this journal entry, read “Problem Solving and Human Expertise” (pp. 104-111), “Problem Solving and Reasoning” (pp. 112-117), and “Knowledge Domains and Domain Learning” (pp. 118-127) in your text and review all of your assigned content for the week. It is important for you to have already completed your initial post in the “Cognitive Neuroscience Research, Intelligence, and Memories” discussion before you compose this journal entry.

Part 1: As you were reading this week, what vocabulary was used that was unfamiliar to you or might be unfamiliar to your peers? Identify three to five words from this week’s content and research each word in the context of learning and cognition. Explain, in your own words, what each word means and how it is used in the context of learning and cognition.

Part 2: Based on the week’s discourse and content, access the Ashford University Library and research one scholarly article pertaining to problem solving that was published within the last 10 years. Provide a summary explanation of the findings on problem solving in the context of your article. What implications should scholars consider based on this information? Support your explanation utilizing your course sources and your researched article.

Part 3: Consider the events from the past week of your life. Did you or someone you know experience anything that supports your conclusions about the effects of problem solving skills on behaviors and knowledge development? Describe one personal real-life example of an occurrence that supports the implications of under-developed problem-solving skills and rigidity (Mayer, 2010) on our behaviors and actions. As you share this information, consider and apply the professional standards found in “12.06 Anonymity of Sources”found in the AERA Code of Ethics to your description.

Part 4: Review “6. Nondiscrimination” in the AERA Code of Ethics. What implications should be considered in your scholarly writing and observations? What can you do each week to assure you are conducting yourself ethically based on this section of the AERA Code of Ethics?

Each journal entry should be 400 to 700 words in length and should establish your understanding of the content, apply appropriate methods of ethical practices, and exhibit appropriate scaffolding of personal experience to the week’s content.

Carefully review the Grading Rubric for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your journal entry.