Far West GREAT Center ABE/GED Master Teacher Action Learning Academy

1. Far West GREAT CenterABE/GED Master Teacher Action Learning Academy December 9, 2006 Facilitator: Barbara Baird bbaird@elp.rr.com 831-5105

2. Action Learning: A Quest for Knowledge As teachers, we learn from our past experiences in the classroom

3. What is Action Learning? • It is a deliberate, structured plan that is personally owned and conducted • It is disciplined inquiry to inform and change teaching practices in the future (Action Research by Eileen Ferrance – Northeast and Islands Regional Educational Laboratory at Brown University)

4. What is Action Learning? • Teachers trying out ideas to increase professional knowledge • Working on problems they have identified for themselves • Examining and assessing the impact on learners and their own practice

5. Principles of Action Learning • Our memories are unreliable • We need to look at familiar situations more closely • We need to “intend to remember”

6. Principles of Action Learning • Action learning is a cycle of: • Planning a course of action • Gathering, analyzing, and reporting data • Reflecting on outcomes

7. Criteria for a Good Research Question • The question should • Be a higher-order question – not yes/no • Be stated in common language • Be concise • Be meaningful • Not already have an answer • Challenge you to question your assumptions about teaching and learning

8. Criteria for a Good Research Question • “What happens when I try a new strategy, technique, or approach?”

9. “What Happens When” Questions • What happens when the learners attend an orientation class? • What happens when students are taught basic computer skills? • What happens when adults use children’s literature as their reading material?

10. 1. Reflect on your practice and identify an instructional approach, strategy, or technique that you would like to try in your classroom to meet the needs of your students. 2. Develop an "Action Learning Plan” to implement between now and March 3, 2007. 3. Make sure that your plan is “SMART” Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic Timeframe with target dates Today’ s Action Learning Project Assignment

11. 4. Complete an Action Learning Plan to discuss at the Master Teacher Academy Session 2 on December 9, 2006 . Your plan should include the following components: your Research Question the Action Steps of what you propose to do a detailed Timeline with target dates for carrying out each of the activities Data Collection Strategies you propose to use to collect information and document results, such as: - Student work and other documentation - Interviews - Observations - Surveys - Journals Resources and References needed and/or used Today’s Action Learning Project Assignment

12. Resources • Practitioner Research as Staff Development: A Facilitator’s Guide - Virginia Adult Learning Resource Center http://www.aelweb.vcu.edu/publications/research/index.htm • Action Research by Eileen Ferrance – Northeast and Islands Regional Educational Laboratory at Brown University http://www.alliance.brown.edu/pubs/themes_ed/act_research.pdf • Action Research In Workplace Education - A Handbook for Literacy Instructors by Maurice Taylor – Partnerships in Learning http://www.nald.ca/CLR/action/cover.htm