Dr. Lois McFadyen Christensen in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction in the UAB School of Education has co-authored a newly released book entitled Integrating teaching, learning, and action research: Enhancing instruction in the k-12 classroom.
“Assisting teacher and teacher candidates to engage K-12 students as participatory researchers is the integral thrust of this text while immersing them in highly effective lessons as a means to authentic learning outcomes.”
This book “offers examples, most all transformative, social studies, social justice in nature, lessons demonstrating how readers of the text can implement action research as an essential, dynamic of teaching and learning. In 1931, Lucy Sprague Mitchell, foundress of Bank Street School and College, established that the first principle of education is creating and promoting social justice and encouraging participation in democratic processes. Alfie Kohn (2009) believes that a sense of community and civic responsibility for others isn’t limited to classrooms. Students under the masterful guidance of teachers extend care . . . into the school, community, city, state, nation, and beyond. Students engaged with teachers locate themselves in places of citizenship to which we all belong. Opportunities are offered not only to learn in depth, but to put into action. This is a commitment to diversity and to improving lives of others. (Alfie Kohn, 2009)”
Key guidance for teachers include:
- “Guide teachers through systematic steps of planning, instruction, assessment, and evaluation, taking into account the diverse abilities and characteristics of their students, the complex body of knowledge and skills they must acquire, and the wide array of learning activities that can be engaged in the process.
- Demonstrate how teacher action research and student action learning – working in tandem – create a dynamic, engaging learning community that enables students to achieve desired learning outcomes and
- Provide clear directions and examples of how to apply action research to core classroom activities: lesson planning, instructional processes, student learning activities, assessment, and evaluation.”
“The steps of action research are embedded within the Learning Cycle model and the . . . recursive LOOK, THINK, ACT sequence to further the depth and breadth of teaching, learning, and documenting learning.” Figure 3.1 Lesson Planning Steps illustrates this sequence:
“LOOK – Review Instructional Elements
- Student prior knowledge
- Student capacities
- Community context
- State standards
- Teaching materials
- Learning resources
THINK – Analyze: Select Lesson Components
- Identify learner outcomes
- Select specific state standards
- Select content areas/topics
- Identify instructional strategies
- State learning activities
- Specify assessment processes
ACT – Organize Lesson Plan
- Standards
- Objectives/Outcomes
- Topics
- Procedures
- Materials
- Assessment”
Young adult literature: Exploration, evaluation, and appreciation