FETC+2008+Session

** FETC**
January 24th -25th Orlando, Florida [|Link to FETC Program]

Concurrent Session 1 Thursday, January 24, 2008 9:15 AM - 10:10 AM
 * Description of Our Session in the Program**

Online Learning and Action Research: Taking the University to School Presenters	Margaret Riel with Paul Sparks and Panel of Action Researchers Description	Action research is an effective way to solve problems teachers care about using evidence-based reasoning and reflection. Come discover how a learning circle of critical friends can enrich your practice. The session features a panel of action researchers and online resources for beginning your own cycles of innovation in teaching. Focus Area	Professional Development Room	330F

Here is a revised plan of what we did last year. We don't have to do it this way but it is one possible way. This plan is open for fresh ideas and different ways of using our resources.

Goal

This session should help people think through action research for themselves. The should leave the session with a working notion of action research --why you do it and what you can expect from it.

We need your help to think about the best way to accomplish this. Here is some thinking from the past year...


 * 1) Introduction to Action Researc**h

Welcome: What is action research... might ask the audience for definitions and it is fine for some of you to reply. Be ready with clear short statements.

When we say we take the university to work...it is because we understand that learning is most effective when it transfers from the classroom to context that are important for you. ...(the five minute university...I will teach you in 5 minutes everything you will remember 5 years after your college education).

Activity: Then we could  begin by asking people to think about their workplace and their practices. Now think about your values, goals, and visions for your workplace. What would it look like if there was a perfect alignment with your values? How close are you to effectively accomplishing the goals you set for youself? What are your visions of what it could be like? Now what is the distance or gap between them?

The work of action research is to experiment by taking action to reduce that gap. Think of your actions as a a rubber band with just the right about of tension to pull you and others toward a workplace that you can envision. What would that action be? We will have some audience participation. We ask them to propose action research ideas. If none of the participants respond...then some of you might raise your hands to get things started.

( The purpose is to get the audience thinking about action research for themselves.This could take  about 10 minutes.)


 * 2) Panel of Pepperdine Alumni**

Depending on the size the the group, we could then take questions from the audience which will be answered by people on the panel.

Then we will turn to some of the Experts in Action research--past students who are with us at FETC. I am not sure of the set of people who will be there, but I know that Karen Elinich, Robert Martellacci, Mitch Townshed  Paul Reynolds, and perhaps others will be there.

Or we could go through the process of action in a temporal fashion with a different person giving an example of each of the phases.

What helped you find your issue or problem? How did doing action research change the way you viewed your workplace? What do you do differently now that you have gone through this experience? What advise to you have to people who are thinking about doing action research? What was most difficult about the process?

Each panelist might respond to 1 or  2 questions and with short ( 2 minutes ) statements. So if there were 5 panelists, each answering 2 questions for 2 minutes that would take about 25 minutes.


 * 3) Small Groups Faciliatated by Alumin Current Students**

Then what we could do is put the audience in groups with pairs of current Pepperdine students who are engaged in action research as small group discussion leaders. If the pairs students can disperse themselves throughout the audience sitting next to strangers, this will help. Then, each small group should have one or more Pepperdine student(s) in it. The goal would be to address the questions of the audience in a personal way. to help the attendees to understand how they might engage in action research.

Resources for Action research (demo)

The session can end will a quick demo of the website and wiki site and we should have flyers that they can take with links to resources to CCAR and to Pepperdine.