The Reflective Educator's Guide to Classroom Research: Learning to Teach and Teaching to Learn Through Practitioner Inquiry

by Nancy Fichtman Dana, Diane Yendol-Hoppey

Overview

Harness the power of data to transform classrooms through inquiry and analysis with this updated, best-selling resource

When teachers examine the simple but complex act of teaching, the power yielded can be transformative. For three editions, teacher preparation and professional development providers have turned to this bestselling how-to guide for an authentic clear description of teacher inquiry and how to harness it for greatest effect.

In this 4th edition, readers will journey toward understanding the link between teacher inquiry and the creation of data-driven classrooms by walking through some of today’s most relevant scenarios as well as timeless and enduring examples. Featuring helpful exercises and step-by-step instructions, this edition includes:

• A head on discussion of equity and social justice and the role inquiry plays in tackling it
• A look at professional practice doctoral programs as ripe context for inquiry
• A complete chapter on the role literature plays in teacher research
• A more seamless integration between the text and accompanying website 

Grab this text, raise your voice at the table of educational reform, and transform assumptions for more impactful teaching.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781544352213
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	07/31/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	9 MB

About the Author

Nancy Fichtman Dana is professor of education and distinguished teaching scholar at the University of Florida, Gainesville. She began her career in education as an elementary school teacher in Hannibal Central Schools, New York. Since earning her PhD from Florida State University in 1991, she has been a passionate advocate for teacher inquiry and has worked extensively in supporting schools, districts, and universities in implementing powerful programs of job-embedded professional development through inquiry across the United States and in several countries, including Belgium, the Netherlands, China, South Korea, Estonia, Slovenia, Spain, and Portugal. She has published 12 books and more than 100 articles in professional journals and edited books focused on her research exploring teacher and principal professional development and practitioner inquiry. Dana has received many honors for her teaching, research, and writing. Among them are the Association of Teacher Educators Mentoring and Distinguished Research in Teacher Education awards, the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate’s David G. Imig Distinguished Service Award, the National Staff Development Council (now Learning Forward) Book of the Year Award, and was one of three finalist in Baylor University’s prestigious Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching 2020 competition. Before joining the faculty at University of Florida in 2003, she worked at The Pennsylvania State University for 11 years, creating and launching their award-winning inquiry-based Professional Development School program with the State College Area School District. At the University of Florida, she worked to embed inquiry as a signature pedagogy into the undergraduate teacher education program, as well as developed and taught three popular classes on inquiry at the master’s and doctoral levels. In  partnership with the Lastinger Center for Learning, Dana led the development and implementation of inquiry-based professional development for teachers across the state that included  several of the nation’s largest school districts.  Further, she was instrumental in the development of UF’s Teacher Leadership for School Improvement Program and Professional Practice Doctorate in Teachers, Schools, and Society, both national award winning programs that highlight inquiry as a signature program feature and have been recognized by U.S. News&World Report as the #1 Online Graduate Education Programs in the nation.
Diane Yendol-Hoppey is professor of teacher education in the College of Education and Human Services at the University of North Florida. She has served as dean, associate dean of educator preparation and partnerships, department chair, and center director. She taught for many years at the University of Florida where she was the evaluator of numerous district, state, and national professional development efforts. Before beginning her work in higher education, Yendol-Hoppey spent 13 years as an elementary school teacher in Pennsylvania and Maryland. She holds a PhD in curriculum and instruction from The Pennsylvania State University. Yendol-Hoppey’s current work explores national and international research focusing on teacher education clinical practice, job-embedded professional learning, and teacher leadership. Yendol-Hoppey has received the AERA Division K Early Career Research Award and the ATE Distinguished Teacher Educator Award for her ongoing commitment to researching innovative approaches to teacher learning. She has published six books, more than 60 articles in professional journals, and secured 20 million in external funding to support teacher learning.

Table of Contents

Preface
About This Book
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
How to Use the Inquiry Books
Chapter 1. Teacher Inquiry Defined
What Is Teacher Inquiry?
What Is the Relationship Between Teacher Inquiry and Teacher Professional Growth?
What Evidence Exists That Teacher Inquiry Is Worth Doing?
How Is Teacher Inquiry Different From What I Already Do as a Reflective Teacher?
Why Inquire? Inquiry as a Pathway to Equity
What Are Some Contexts Ripe for Teacher Inquiry?
How Does My Engaging in Teacher Inquiry Help Shape the Profession of Teaching?
Chapter 2. The Start of Your Journey: Finding a Wondering
Where Do I Begin?
Where Do I Find My Wonderings and Questions?
What Happens If I Still Cannot Locate My Wondering?
Chapter 3. Learning With and From the Literature: The Importance of Reading
Why Read?
Where and How Do I Find Readings to Inform My Inquiry?
A Few Words of Literature Wisdom
Chapter 4. Learning With and From Your Colleagues: The Importance of Collaboration
Why Is Collaboration So Important?
What Are the Possibilities for How I Might Collaborate?
Chapter 5. Developing a Research Plan: Making Inquiry a Part of Your Teaching Practice
What Do Data Look Like, How Do I Collect Them, and How Do They Fit Into My Work as a Teacher?
When Do I Collect Data and How Much Do I Collect?
Chapter 6. Considering the Ethical Dimensions of Your Work as an Inquirer
What Should I Consider When Thinking About Ethics in Relation to Practitioner Research?
What Role Do School District Research Policies Play in the Inquiry Process?
What Role Do University Institutional Review Boards Play in the Inquiry Process?
Chapter 7. Finding Your Findings: Data Analysis
What Is Formative Data Analysis?
What Is Summative Data Analysis?
What Might Summative Analysis of Qualitative Data Look Like?
Chapter 8. Making Your Inquiry Public: Publishing and Presenting
Why Is It Important to Share My Work With Others?
How Do I Present My Work?
How Do I Write About My Work?
What Might My Writing Look Like?
Chapter 9. Contributing to the Creation of More Equitable Schools and Classrooms: The Why of Inquiry
Coming to View Inquiry as a Pathway to Equity: A Teacher Researcher’s Story (Mickey MacDonald)
Informing Thinking, Teaching, and Teacher Education: The Power of Equity-Focused Inquiry (Paige Bildstein, Mikhayla Kruse-Meek, Jillian Pohland, Nicole Snitkey, and Hilarie Welsh)
Chapter 10. On Your Way: Becoming the Best Teacher and Researcher You Can Be
What Is an Inquiry Stance?
Why Is It Important to Assess the Quality of My Work?
What Is the Difference Between Generalizability and Transferability?
How Do I Go About Assessing Teacher Research Quality and Why Is It So Difficult to Do?
What Are Some Quality Indicators for Teacher Research?
What Are Some Ways to Enhance Inquiry Quality?
Where Do I Go From Here?
References
Index

Editorial Reviews

"This text provides teachers with easy to follow steps to conducting their own teacher inquiry. The authors provide examples throughout the chapters that illustrate the steps and their explanations. Teacher inquiry has the potential to be a powerful change agent in education. This text empowers teachers to become classroom researchers. "

Virginia Harder

This book makes a distinct contribution to the field by providing teachers with a step-by-step approach to teacher inquiry. It is also a great resource for teachers who want to conduct their own inquiries in schools. It is comprehensive, easy to read, and rich with examples and exercises that model the process of teacher inquiry for every stage.”

Suha Tamim

"This thoughtful and well crafted guide to classroom research is, quite simply, the best book on the topic I have encountered. It is clearly written and jargon-free; it de-mystifies the process of discipline inquiry without sacrificing its complexity and power. I will use this volume in my graduate classes and recommend it to others. "

Lynne Miller

This book is a wonderful guide for teachers conducting research in their schools. It clearly explains the process and guides teacher researchers through with well thought out activities combined with ample rich examples to enhance understanding.”

Diane Barrett

"This book is a practical step-by-step guide to get you started on a journey of investigating your own practice. The exercises and examples will carry you through the process of inquiry and support and guide you along the way to a successful ending. "

Rita Hagevik

"Like all illuminating teacher inquiry, this book asks relevant and intriguing questions, the very questions teacher researchers ask most often. The authors offer a step-by-step guide to answering those questions, deeply grounded in the work of elementary, middle, and high school teacher researchers. "

Jo Beth Allen

The Fourth Edition of The Reflective Educator's Guide to Classroom Research presents the crucial field of teacher research in an engaging and positive manner, with many explanatory examples and scenarios. True to its title, "reflective," the narrative highlights the importance of the qualitative approach to research in which the researcher looks at personal and experiential qualities that affect educational change.”

Harriette L. Spiegel

"Building on the awareness that teachers have an enormous amount of knowledge that they have accumulated through their years of teaching, the authors show how this knowledge can be mined by teachers studying their own practice, making visible the complexities of teaching. Readers of this book experience not only what it is like to do classroom research, but perhaps as important, gain an understanding of how teachers can become scholars of their own practice. "

From the Foreword by Ann Lieberman

"Authentic and practical, this book demystifies classroom research without making inquiry overly simplistic. Loaded with examples from actual inquiries and drawn from experience working with hundreds of teacher researchers, the authors' advice is refreshingly jargon free and clearly explained. "

Betty Lou Whitford

“This book is an essential tool in the effort to construct teaching on a foundation of thought and care. Rejecting the simple, connect-the-dots view of teaching so prevalent today, Nancy Fichtman Dana and Diane Yendol-Hoppey invite us into a world of teaching that is deeply intellectual and fundamentally ethical. They show us how to achieve this, offering practical, concrete steps any teacher or group of teachers can take as they work to transform what they already do informally and privately into something intentional, systematic, and public.”

William Ayers

Stop and look no further: The Reflective Educator’s Guide to Classroom Research, 4E is the definite text on teacher inquiry. Inside these covers you will find answers to what teacher inquiry entails, why the inquiry process is vital to a healthy teaching profession, and how teachers can translate their wonderings into a systemic form of study that informs classroom change and improvement. Happy inquiring!”

Dr. Cynthia Carver Associate Professor & Chair of Teacher Development

"Whether you are a preservice, beginning, or veteran teacher or teacher educator, this is the perfect resource for deepening your understanding of teacher inquiry. "

Kevin J. Berry

Teacher inquiry is a catalyst for change, but the process can be intimidating. This text has a different feel to it. It is reflective in nature, which adds a personal touch to the research process. While it hits on all the same points as someone engaging in action research, the change to an inquiry stance reflects what teachers currently experience in their classrooms. Multiple examples throughout provide the support necessary and the text is useful for both an action research course and a teacher wishing to make systematic, deliberate improvements to his/her teaching. I highly recommend The Reflective Educator’s Guide to Classroom Research, 4E to anyone interested in using data to inform and strengthen their instruction and provide a more equitable classroom.”

Terri Duncko

The Reflective Educator’s Guide to Classroom Research, 4E is a practical volume that can be used as an interactive guide for university supervisors to facilitate teacher candidates in engaging in inquiry-based reflective practices while gathering data during their field-based experiences.”

Rebecca J. Blankenship

"The Reflective Educator’s Guide to Classroom Research is the best step-by-step (but non-prescriptive) action research guide I have come across. This book guides teachers to ask important questions about their own teaching while empowering them to affect change through teacher inquiry. The authors engage the reader in thought-provoking exercises through which an action research project is designed – a great guide through a truly transformative process. "

Emily Bonner

"Makes classroom-based research understandable and doable as an integral part of teaching. From finding a wondering to developing a research plan to data analysis and sharing findings, the authors support teacher researchers at all levels of experience. "

Gail V. Ritchie

"The Reflective Teacher's Guide to Classroom Research is a refreshing text that provides the tools for both novice and experienced teachers to evolve from mere technicians to reflective, inquiry-oriented professionals. It views teaching as a transformative, exciting venture and should be required reading in all teacher education programs. "

John Mc Intyre

"This book is both scholarly and practical, offering university and school-based researchers a comprehensive, theoretical, and practical foundation for teacher inquiry. Dana and Yendol-Silva have written a book that is a 'must have' for all those who are interested in bridging the gap between theory and practice. "

Frances Kochan

"Like all illuminating teacher inquiry, this book asks relevant and intriguing questions, the very questions teacher researchers ask most often. The authors offer a step-by-step guide to answering those questions, deeply grounded in the work of elementary, middle, and high school teacher researchers."

JoBeth Allen

"The Reflective Teacher's Guide to Classroom Research is a refreshing text that provides the tools for both novice and experienced teachers to evolve from mere technicians to reflective, inquiry-oriented professionals. It views teaching as a transformative, exciting venture and should be required reading in all teacher education programs."

John McIntyre

"Building on the awareness that teachers have an enormous amount of knowledge that they have accumulated through their years of teaching, the authors show how this knowledge can be mined by teachers studying their own practice, making visible the complexities of teaching. Readers of this book experience not only what it is like to do classroom research, but perhaps as important, gain an understanding of how teachers can become scholars of their own practice. "

Ann Lieberman