Madison Metropolitan School District
Five Phases of Action Research
Phase I - Problem Identification:
Why do you want to do it? Is it an important and practical problem, something worth your time and effort, something that could be beneficial to you, your students and others?
Is the problem stated clearly and in the form of a question? Is it broad enough to allow for a range of insights and findings? Is it narrow enough to be manageable within your timeframe and your daily work?
Phase II - Plan of Action
Will you develop and implement a new strategy or approach to address your question? If so, what will it be?
Will you focus your study on existing practices? If so, which particular ones?
What is an appropriate timeline for what you are trying to accomplish?
Phase III - Data Collection
What types of data should you try to collect in order to answer your question?
How will you ensure that you have multiple perspectives?
What resources exist and what information from others might be useful in helping you to frame your question, decide on types of data to collect, or to help you in interpreting your findings?
Phase IV - Analysis of Data
What can you learn from the data? What patterns, insights, and new understandings can you find?
What meaning do these patterns, insights, and new understandings have for your practice? for your students?
Phase V - Plan for Future Action
What will you do differently in your classroom as a result of this study?
What might you recommend to others?
How will you write about what you have learned so that the findings will be useful to you and to others?
- Adapted from the St. Louis Action Research Evaluation Committee
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We have had
since March 2001
Last Updated: March 5, 2001
Editor & Publisher: Melanie Donner
mdonner@madison.k12.wi.us
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