5A1-9 - Program Evaluation - Analysis of Data Collection

WRITING AN ACTION RESEARCH DISSERTATION: PART TWO

INTRODUCTION Welcome to the second part of our two-part media presentation. In the first part, we talked about key tools for successful academic writing and gave an example of how these tools can make your dissertation writing process faster and help you create a stronger dissertation document. This second part of our two-part media presentation applies those key tools to the specific challenges of writing an action research dissertation.

PROCESS OF WRITING The process of writing the research dissertation involves finding ways to help your readers understand both the philosophy of research underlying the study and the methods employed in the study.

ACTION RESEARCH ROLES It will be important to help your readers to understand the roles of the Principal Investigator and the participants in your Action Research study. Rather than the "all-knowing" researcher who controls conditions and conducts an experiment on or to someone or something else, Action Research assumes that the participants themselves have insight and an important perspective and role.

ACTION RESEARCH METHODS As a writer, you will want to help your reader understand that this idea of democratizing the research process applies regardless of the research methodology used. Action Research involves methods that would be familiar in both qualitative and quantitative types of research, and it would be very common to find mixed methods in a particular study. Regardless of the methodology used, the participants can and will play an active role at each step of the research process.

Help your readers to understand that the participants are active in the research process of planning, deciding, and helping to shape the implementation of the study protocol and analysis of the findings. Also, help your readers to understand that findings are interpreted or understood in part based on "meaningfulness" to the participants engaged in the work.

An example might be a study on abusive behavior in hospitals among nursing and other staff. Members of the study team could help refine the survey instruments, later take the survey themselves as part of the participant pool, and help to interpret the findings.

IMPLICATIONS FOR WRITING... In the next few minutes, we will discuss four elements of writing the action research dissertation. You will want your dissertation to clearly explain the following:

1. How the research questions that you asked led you to decide to use action research. 2. How the research questions that you asked informed they way in which you organized and presented

your discussion of prior research. 3. How you balanced the two goals of being of service and avoiding risk to participants within the action

research paradigm. 4. The reporting of outcomes and analysis of outcomes.

ACTION RESEARCH DISSERTATIONS Action Research dissertations are, by their nature, research studies in which the roles of the Principal Investigator and the Participants are key. Rather than the "all-knowing" researcher who controls conditions and conducts an experiment on or to someone or something else, this assumes that the participants themselves have insight and an important perspective and role. Action Research studies privilege the process of reflection. They seek to be of service.

Most dissertations, of any sort, are concerned with exploring the relationship between "x" and "y." We sometimes see dissertations that present research questions in two tiers.

THIS DISSERTATION WILL EXPLORE... The top tier says something such as, "This dissertation will explore the relationship between x and y." Then the second tier says something such as, "This dissertation will explore this relationship by examining the following three (or two or one or four) specific research questions."

In many cases, the same top-tier question could lead to a variety of different dissertation studies. The lower-tier question or questions, though, will be different for quantitative studies, in which we expect to see yes/no questions, and qualitative studies, in which we expect to see "how" questions rather than "yes/no" ones. With Action Research studies, either is possible. In addition, the research questions provide the answer to the question, "Why did you choose Action Research?" When we choose Action Research, we do so because it provides the best way to answer the questions that we've asked.

Remember that the research questions always drive the choice of methodology.

DECISION TO USE ACTION RESEARCH As you read examples of Action Research in the journals and research reports from the links following this presentation, look particularly at the research questions being asked. In each case, ask yourself how the questions being asked lead to the selection of research methods and, within those, specific activities.

ORGANIZATION OF YOUR DISCUSSION The research questions also drive your review of literature. A trick of the trade is to think of your review of literature as focusing on your research topic and being made up of several sub-topics. Review each of those topics as separate, but related, literature reviews.

SUGGESTION Here is a suggestion. After you have agreed with your mentor on your research question but before you begin your full review of literature, you may want to suggest a list of literature review sub-topics to your mentor. Your mentor may agree with your topics, combine some of your sub-topics, or suggest new sub-topics. If you and your mentor have an initial agreement on the sub-topics you will use in your literature review before you begin, you can expect to cut significant time and frustration from your dissertation writing process.

Remember that, as a writer of an Action Research Dissertation, you will organize and write your literature review to reflect the research questions that led you to choose an Action Research Methodology. There are many ways to organize your review of literature. The worst way is usually chronological. You will end up with some chronological ordering organically, in a natural way, but it's a stronger choice to conceptualize the organization of your review of literature by considering ideas. Let the organization of your review of literature reflect the substance of the study you plan to conduct.

NOTICE PRIOR RESEARCH As you read examples of Action Research in the journals and research reports from the links following this presentation, notice how the discussion of prior research is organized and presented. Consider whether the organizational structure that the writer used reflects the research questions and whether it works well in helping you, as a reader, follow what is being presented.

ENGAGING IN ACTION RESEARCH By engaging in Action Research, you accept both the opportunity to be of service and the challenge of responsible involvement in a social research process.

RISK AND SERVICE As you read the journal articles and research reports provided in the links at the end of this presentation, be aware of the ways in which the studies explain the balance of service and risk that Action Research involves. As you plan your own dissertation research, draw on your mentor, Capella's Institutional Review Board, and other resources to be sure that your study will, in the end, provide increased understanding in the ways that you intend.

OUTCOMES AND RESULTS Dissertations normally have a chapter devoted to reporting the results of the research and another chapter discussing those results.

UNDERSTANDING THE WRITING PROCESS Understanding the differences between these two chapters can cut significant amounts of time from your writing process and result in a superior dissertation. With a quantitative dissertation, the chapter reporting results may be comparatively easy to write, since it may focus on presenting numerical outcomes and the results of statistical tests. On the other hand, learners who write qualitative dissertations or mixed methods dissertations containing qualitative methods sometimes struggle because with qualitative methodologies it may not be clear what should go into the chapter reporting the results, and what should go into the chapter analyzing those results. A trick of the trade is to begin discussing this early on in the dissertation process with your mentor. If you have parameters in mind as you shape and conduct the study, writing these chapters may go more smoothly.

This is true for journal articles and research reports as well as for dissertations.

USING LANGUAGE TO SHOW DISTINCTION As you read examples of Action Research journal articles and research reports, consider how easy or difficult you find it to distinguish between sections that report study outcomes and sections that discuss and analyze those outcomes. Be aware of whether and how the writer uses language to help you, as the reader, make that distinction. If you are reading a study that employs mixed methods, be aware of how the reporting and discussion of the multiple methodologies are organized and presented. Think about elements of the journal article or research report that makes it easier or more difficult for you, as the reader, to follow the writer's presentation.

CONCLUSION This concludes the media presentation on writing the Action Research Dissertation.

We have discussed what you should look for while reading examples of Action Research in the journals and research reports from the links following this presentation. Those four elements include:

1. How the research questions asked led to the decision to use action research. 2. How the discussion of prior research is organized and presented. 3. How the study being reported balances service and risk within the Action Research paradigm. 4. How the writer separates reporting of outcomes and analysis of outcomes including how the writer uses

language to show the distinction.

Now, please look at the links to sources of academic writing related to action research. These links include examples of (1) journals carried in the Capella library, and (2) university centers conducting and reporting Action Research. The links to the academic writing tools that were introduced in the first part of this presentation such as Reverse Outlining, the MEAL Plan, and the Writing Feedback Tool are repeated here so you will be able to use them as you consider the material.

When you are ready, engage your fellow learners by responding to the discussion question in the courseroom.

Thank you for listening.

SCREEN 18 Overview of the Writing Center: http://media.capella.edu/CourseMedia/XX7010/WritingCenterOverview/wrapper.asp

Academic Integrity: http://media.capella.edu/CourseMedia/DrPH8005/AcademicIntegrity/animation_wrapper.asp

Smarthinking: http://media.capella.edu/CourseMedia/DrPH8005/Smarthinking/smarthinking_wrapper.asp

Peer Review: http://media.capella.edu/CourseMedia/DrPH8005/PeerReview/animation_wrapper.asp

SCREEN 19 Journals in the Capella library that publish action research articles:

• Action Research International • Journal of Action Research

SCREEN 20 University research centers conducting and reporting action research:

Pepperdine University: Center for Collaborative Action Research http://cadres.pepperdine.edu/ccar/ http://cadres.pepperdine.edu/ccar/define.html

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: East St. Louis Action Research Project http://eslarp.illinois.edu/ http://eslarp.illinois.edu/view/about.aspx

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