Action Research: Improving Schools and Empowering Educators, Fourth Edition (2014) by Craig A. Mertler
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Although action research has become one of the major methods employed in educational research, there has always been a scarcity of solid informational textbooks and journal articles outlining and giving in-depth information about this trendy research methodology.However, it is a well-accepted research methodology and has become one of the most critical research approaches that can be used by educators in order to improve their knowledge and practices (Tekin & Kotaman, 2013).Therefore, it is considered a method of inquiry especially suitable for practicing teachers.Today's teachers are not only expected to teach students but also to act in many areas related to education.They are burdened with many responsibilities such as administrative tasks, advocacy for children, and fundraising.Beyond these duties, teachers have been increasingly seen as researchers as they are expected to constantly improve their teaching practices for the benefit of children's education.Therefore, action research provides them with a methodology they can use while they are working on their regular duties as it is a practical approach conducted with a focus on the teaching and learning process.They can blend research and practice since the researchers draw their findings and conclusions predominantly on their own experiences and observations from their practices.As the author states, "A main focus of action research is the improvement of classroom practice" (p.23).Therefore, this research experience can contribute to teachers' own and other teachers' practices when they design and revise curriculum.It can also help them make the whole educational process more meaningful for themselves, students, and the school community.The author also identifies clear pathways that have the potential to improve teachers' practices, such as systematic reflections about how teachers would improve their practices with action research methodology.Any research approach excluding the related practitioners' perspectives and contributions should not be seen as a complete process since it is the practitioners who are expected to apply the implications and suggestions drawn by the studies.Action research methodology provides these opportunities and fills a huge gap that needs attention in educational research.To benefit from this experiential methodology, teachers should understand the action research approach.Action research books currently on the market contain too much theoretical information and have a philosophical background, which makes it hard for a practicing teacher to understand.They also provide too few meaningful examples.Most books about action research also suffer from a lack of good quality organization, which can make curious future
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.014 | 0.017 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.003 | 0.002 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.005 | 0.005 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.002 | 0.007 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.009 | 0.010 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.006 |
| Research integrity | 0.005 | 0.013 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.017 | 0.014 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".