4-1MillsAction Research: A Guide for the Teacher Researcher, 5e © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Action Research

Geoffrey E. Mills

Fifth Edition

© 2014, 2011, 2007, 2003, 2000Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

A Guide for the Teacher Researcher

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Chapter 4

Data Collection Techniques

4-3MillsAction Research: A Guide for the Teacher Researcher, 5e © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Data Collection

Largely determined by the nature of the problem qualitative quantitative mixed method

4-4MillsAction Research: A Guide for the Teacher Researcher, 5e © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Qualitative Data Collection Techniques

4-5MillsAction Research: A Guide for the Teacher Researcher, 5e © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

4-6MillsAction Research: A Guide for the Teacher Researcher, 5e © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Interviews

Informal ethnographic Structured formal Focus group E-mail Questionnaire

4-7MillsAction Research: A Guide for the Teacher Researcher, 5e © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Questionnaires

Proofread carefully. Avoid a sloppy presentation. Avoid a lengthy questionnaire. Do not ask unnecessary questions. Use structured items with a variety

of possible responses. Whenever possible, include an

“Other Comments” section. Decide whether you want

respondents to include names.

4-8MillsAction Research: A Guide for the Teacher Researcher, 5e © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Using and Making Records Archival documents

attendance and retention rates discipline referrals standardized test scores

Journals Maps, video and audio recordings,

photos, film Dictation software Other artifacts

4-9MillsAction Research: A Guide for the Teacher Researcher, 5e © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Digital Research Tools for the 21st Century

Wikis Blogs Skype

4-10MillsAction Research: A Guide for the Teacher Researcher, 5e © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Quantitative Data Collection Techniques

Teacher-made tests Standardized tests School-generated report cards Attitude scales Likert scales Semantic differential

4-11MillsAction Research: A Guide for the Teacher Researcher, 5e © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Online/Web-based Surveys

User-friendly online survey providers SurveyMonkey Zoomerang LimeSurvey eSurveysPro

4-12MillsAction Research: A Guide for the Teacher Researcher, 5e © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Triangulation

Use of multiple sources of data “multi-instrument” approach

4-13MillsAction Research: A Guide for the Teacher Researcher, 5e © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Triangulation Matrix

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Realigning Your Focus

Other directions appear more interesting, relevant, or problematic

That’s fine — Action research is intimate, open-

ended, serendipitous Action research is done to benefit

you and the students