A colleague asked me for some examples of action research, or “teacher experimentation.” She used the word “snippet,” which is a fantastic word.
snippet (n.) – “small piece snipped off,” 1660s, from snip (n.) + diminutive suffix -et.*
So here are eight snippety examples of real teacher projects illustrating what I consider the Most Needed Professional Learning Practice: action research and teacher experimentation.
- Experimental Archaeology
What do you do when you have a staff member who is into early Scandinavia, the Middle Ages, and padded combat? You support his efforts to smelt iron, prepare food with the ingredients and technology from hundreds of years ago, and start boffering (the padded combat part). Ever had a student serve you mead and flatbread during a demonstration of the Celtic carnyx, a medieval war horn? Pretty cool stuff.
Why is this teacher experimentation particularly interesting?
Travis is an activity leader at the boarding school, teaching students what he himself is interested in and currently learning about. Together they are building an after-school curriculum in history, archeology, and sport, pushing the limits of what is possible at school.
- Curriculum Revision for a Grade 11 and 12 English Course
A few years ago, Hatty began teaching a high school English class new to her. In the first year she noticed that the curriculum could fit the students’ interests and abilities better, that there was room for improvement. So she set about doing something about it by experimenting with new units, reflecting about them as she taught them, and documenting what she did.
Why is this teacher experimentation particularly interesting?
Hatty and I had several email exchanges over the course of the year as she worked on her new curriculum. She introduced something new, then reflected about it in an email to me (and no doubt in conversations with other teachers as well). I (we) then got to reflect further about her reflections, carrying the conversation forward. The resulting exchanges were deep, meaningful, and sometimes quite emotional. To emphasize a theme that you’ll see runs through all these snippets, teachers need to know that (1) they are encouraged to experiment and that (2 they have the time and the venue to share their reflections with other teachers.* The formula for professional growth is really that simple.
- Teaching through Simulations
For three years, Brian created and tried out several simulations in his tenth grade history class. I watched and participated in simulations about trade between China, India, and Africa and the fall of Constantinople (in a simulation that included a bombardment of a Lego wall with increasingly large projectiles). A colleague and I wrote about Brian’s work under the title Simulating to Get Real. The “real” part is the unfolding of events, instead of the teacher telling about events, as well as the emotions one has as a player of a game in which you reach a goal or are thwarted by the complex interactions of the competing interests of other players.
Why is this teacher experimentation particularly interesting?
Professional learning takes a lot of time. One reason that one-shot PD sessions have such little impact on teacher practice and even less on student learning is that they rarely play out over any significant period of time. Personally introducing and refining a new approach to teaching over three years is vastly different from hearing about it for an hour or two. Real improvement takes real time, that’s just the way it is. Brian took real time—and created memories for his students that will last a lifetime.
- Tools for Supporting Neurodiverse Multilingual Students
Mari is particularly interested in the intersection of multilingual students with special needs. From what she could tell in her own English as an Additional Language class, there were perhaps more than a few unmet needs among her students. So she collaborated with the Multilingual Learning Research Center from the University of Wisconsin*** to train on using action research. She then set up a study that included other teachers and staff at her school.
Why is this teacher experimentation particularly interesting?
Action research is really what we as teachers always do, informally. We recognize an unmet need or an issue in curriculum, instruction or assessment that could work better. Then we try things out. Sometimes we find good partners to help us. Mari formalized her experimentation further, eventually publishing her research in a curriculum journal. For Mari, who is enrolling in a PhD program next fall, this was a logical way to leverage her personal experimentation in the classroom.
- A Small Business Website
I was reminded of this project yesterday when I saw Vanessa driving her company van, Pattes et Pic, in town. She is a dog trainer. When she was teaching business at our school she collaborated with a student who was learning to build websites. They created her first website together.
Why is this teacher experimentation particularly interesting?
Vanessa had a real need and reached out to one of her students to help. The student gained real world experience in an area he was interested in. Since Vanessa’s project I’ve noticed that many teachers are interested in turning their action research projects into small businesses. Just last week a science teacher piloted the latest version of her simulation with several of us teachers. A colleague of hers has created an app for IB and AP biology review based on student needs in his classes, and another teacher has created online training for PE teachers from what she has learned over years of experimentation with student agency.
- IB Math Studies: A Challenge Based Approach
Rob leveraged two years of action research at our boarding school to further develop an idea he and a colleague initiated in Washington DC public schools. He created resources and practices in the evening and tried them out in class during the school day. This is, in fact, what teachers regularly do: Create new methods and materials, usually small variations from what they have previously tried, to see what might work better.
Why is this teacher experimentation particularly interesting?
Rob and his business partner Karim eventually launched Modern Classrooms Project, a professional development program that has reached tens of thousands of teachers around the world. While teacher action research and experimentation is important solely for the impact on the teacher doing the action research, from time to time, the scope of a project exceeds everyone’s wildest dreams.
- Leading Professional Learning (Helen)
Leading professional learning that respects practices associated with effective adult learning (autonomous and collaborative projects taking place in the classroom over a long period of time) also requires experimentation. Helen organized teacher volunteers so they could pursue their own passion projects, essentially making sure they knew that administrators “had their back” for experimenting and learning in the classroom.
Why is this teacher experimentation particularly interesting?
Helen is learning, through doing, how best to support individual teacher interests, how to bolster motivation, and most importantly, how to demonstrate to teachers that what they are experimenting with is important and valued by her school.
- Leading Professional Learning (Néhemie)
Like Helen, Néhemie is leading a group of teachers who have volunteered to work on their own professional learning. Unlike Helen, they are all exploring one theme: creating greater student agency. They experiment in their classrooms and then share with each other what they have done, how well it worked, and what they might change next time.
Why is this teacher experimentation particularly interesting?
Néhemie’s approach is a nice example of working in small iterations in an action research cycle of Plan-Do-Reflect. Their learning unfolds as they try things out and talk to each other. Simple and effective.
*from the app “Etymonline”
**for more, see Justin Reich of the Teaching Systems Lab at MIT.
***for more, see mlrc.wisc.edu.