Framework for Reading Appendices B & C
TEAC 888 Fall 2008 Fowler/Smith/Pierce
Mills’ Action Research Guide
We want you to begin thinking ahead to the kinds of data you might be collecting for your action research project. The reading this week is a way for you to begin to think about quantitative data and help you think about whether there will be aspects of data collection for your study that will be quantitative in nature. We will be encouraging you to gather both quantitative and qualitative data, when possible. Of course, what data you collect will depend on your questions, which we haven’t yet asked you to clearly identify. You should be thinking through possible questions and kinds of data at this point and making some notes for yourself.
Appendix B: Descriptive Statistics
This should be a review of your M2 stats class. There is no need to use complicated statistical tests (as long as you set your action research project up carefully). Pay attention to the warning on pg. 230 about how to interpret statistics. If you’re describing responses to surveys, for instance, using mean, median, mode, and standard deviation is appropriate. If you’re trying to compare pre- and post-tests, you’ll need more complicated statistics (We can help with this if you get to that point). Remember that for many statistics, you need n 30 to make statistically significant claims.
Appendix C: Displaying Data Visually
As you may have noticed in reading action research and other educational research, graphs and tables are a vital part of a research paper. Play around in Microsoft Word with the Draw function (Insert… Picture… New Drawing). Practice making diagrams (such as the four stages in the action research cycle). You can “send to back” your drawing to allow text to show up on top of it (or insert a text box within your drawing). Also try to insert a Chart; play around with making different types of charts (bar, circle, etc.) and changing the scale, axes labels, title, etc. Can you reproduce any of the charts shown in this appendix? These are good things to figure out now and not next summer when you’re on a deadline for getting your final paper done (and taking concepts of calculus ;)