Action Research for Language Teachers

Workshop for Multiʻōlelo

April 24, 2026

Betsy Gilliland

What is action research?

Theoretical Foundations of Action Research

Burns, 2013

Plan

• Needs analysis
• Identifying focal instructional points
• Pre-testing to gauge students’ proficiency in that skill
• Developing SLOs around skill
• Lesson plans and materials development

Act

• Carry out intervention
• Teach new content and skills
• Scaffold students’ learning
• Give students activities, tasks, and assignments

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

Observe

• Take notes while teaching
• Collect students’ in-process and finished products
• Audio or video record lessons, student groups, presentations
• Talk with students about their experiences and learning
• Write frequently in your researcher journal

Reflect

• Review all the data, including your journal
• Revisit your inquiry questions, SLOs, and instructional plans
• Analyze data using qual and quant methods
• Write about what you are seeing and how you are feeling
• Think about possible causes, intra- and extra-classroom effects
• Ask yourself: How well did the intervention work? Did my students learn what I had hoped they would learn?

Revise

• Modify (or completely change) your intervention and lesson plans
• Prepare to continue another cycle

What makes action research different from other forms of research?

What makes action research different from reflective teaching?

Action Research in an L2 Writing Classroom: An Example AR Study

Lucas Edmond

Process

AR is an iterative process and consists of a cycle of five main steps:

1. Plan
2. Act
3. Observe
4. Reflect
5. Revise

Teaching and Research Context

• 2016: Taught 1 section of ESL 100 (Freshman Composition for Second-language Writers)
• 2017: Taught 2 sections of ESL 100

Plan: Identifying Problems

• Start by thinking about something in the class that could be improved
• Consider the root cause of that problem to begin considering ways to solve it

Problem Phase

• Research Paper: In most freshmen composition classes, students write a research paper, but I had noticed:
• Students struggled to find an “academic topic” to research
• Students felt disconnected from the topics they had to write about
• Students found it difficult to add their voice into the writing process

Question

• How can I teach the genre of the research paper in a way that is engaging and meaningful to students while still incorporating fundamental writing skills?

Act: Interventions and Action Plans

What is an intervention?

“a ‘new’ approach to some aspect of instruction, adaptations of curriculum or strategies documented as effective in at least some settings, integration of effective strategies in new ways with different types of students, or testing out a new idea informed by theories of learning and teaching.”

From UC Davis School of Education, “What is teacher research?” http://education.ucdavis.edu/credentialma-program-info/what-teacher-research

Intervention: Design

• Based on research and my own experience, this led me to design the research paper as a field-research project unit, where students would identify problems and collect their own data to analyze.

Relevant Theories

• Action-based pedagogy (Van Lier, 2007) - takes student agency and values as a core component of the design
• Critical literacy (Benesch, 2008)
• Language Learning Ethnographies (Roberts et al., 2000)

Field Research Project: Goals

• Goal: Help students not only develop academic writing skills, but also the ability to think critically and intellectually engage with social and academic issues
• Product: An organized portfolio including a ten page research report, a two page reflection, reflective worksheets, and original field research data

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Field Research Project: Learning Outcomes

• By conducting and writing up original research, students will:
• Engage with a variety of academic texts
• Work through the process of writing and research
• Read, summarize/paraphrase, and properly cite relevant work from others to offer background and theory to support their papers
• Analyze their own data to develop grounded claims, backed up by the research and ideas of other scholars

Field Research Project Unit (8 Week)

• Section 1: Introduction to Field Research (~1 week)
• Exploring the scope of research
• Developing research contexts/topics
• Section 2: Field Research Methods (~1-2 weeks)
• Ethnographic observations and field notes
• Interviews
• Surveys
• Section 3: Writing the report (~2-3 weeks)
• Reading and summarizing sources to give context to the study
• Synthesizing and analyzing data
• Putting it all together
• Section 4: Presenting on the results (~1 week)

The initial unit was not this organized; this was the result of a second round of improving this unit.

Observe: Types of Data

For Action Research, anything related to class can be a source of data!

Data Collection

• In my case, the data included:
• Student work (including reflections)
• Student feedback
• Classroom observations
• Recordings of individual meetings with students, some in-class assignments, and student presentations

Reflect: Analyzing AR Data

• I piloted the project in the Fall of 2016.
• Based on my first round of notes and student feedback, I updated the unit in the Spring of 2017.

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Reflection

• I kept copies of all of the data in a binder.
• I focused particularly on student work and student reflections in order to see how:
• Students were improving and applying skills covered in class to their writing
• Students felt about the project and their own progress

Outcomes

• Students engaged in researching topics meaningful to them, developing unique projects from start to finish
• Students collaborated both with me and each other, demonstrating the social aspect of research and writing
• Students worked through the entire process of research and writing, organizing and reflecting throughout
• Beyond reading and writing, students sharpened their overall communication skills through interviews and observations, as well as engaged with the local place

Sample Student Topics

• Beach Erosion and Tourists’ Understanding of this Issue
• Difficulties faced by Freshmen Engineering Students
• Japanese Identity in Hawaiʻi
• International Students and Homesickness
• Community Efforts to Help the Unhoused Population

Student Comments: Students’ Orientation towards Research and Writing

“One thing I learned was that the resources or data is not only from academic things…So from daily conversation or daily life, this was the most surprising for me and very new knowledge cause I thought the data for the research must be from very academic resources like books or papers.”

“I think research is looking at something that is not too special, like culture is nothing special to people in that culture, but just looking at it from a different perspective, even as an insider, to observe it as a researcher is like a different perspective. And creating something from that is research.”

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Repeat the Process

• AR is a cyclical approach, so after analyzing the results, you can make changes, update your intervention, and repeat the process.

Ongoing Developments

• After leaving the ELI, I taught composition in various programs (IEPS, international universities, etc.) where I continued to develop, update, and adapt this unit for different student writers (levels, backgrounds, contexts, etc.)

Action Research Process Benefits

• I have since used the principles of action research to develop other projects, courses, and curricula.
• Benefits:
• Organized approach to improving classes
• Leads to a clear rationale for changes
• Makes me more observant and reflective as an instructor

References (related to AR)

Burns, A. (2010). Doing Action Research in English Language Teaching: A Guide for Practitioners. Routledge.

Levitan, J. (2019). Ethical relationship building in action research: Getting out of western norms to foster equitable collaboration. Canadian Journal of Action Research, 1.

Wallace, M.J. (1998). Action Research for Language Teachers. Cambridge University Press.

Additional Resources on Analysis

Rymes, B. (2008). Classroom Discourse Analysis: A Tool for Critical Reflection. Hampton Press.

Zhang, Y. & Wildemuth, B.M. (2009). Qualitative Analysis of Content. In B. M. Wildemuth (Ed.), Applications of Social Research Methods to Questions in Information and Library Science (pp. 1-12). Libraries Unlimited.

What Action Research Could YOU Do?

Slides: https://go.hawaii.edu/xDi

Is Action Research Right for YOU?

• Make a copy of the Google Doc (save to your own account)
• Answer YES or NO to each question
• Reflect on your answers: If you answered NO, is there a way you could make it a YES?

https://go.hawaii.edu/UYD

Finding a Topic

• Reflect on what you know about your students and what you still want to learn about them
• Think about challenges in your teaching situation
• What are pressing needs in your program?
• Where do students struggle with learning?
• What have you noticed isn’t working well in your teaching?

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Identifying an Intervention

• Given the “problems” you’ve noticed in your teaching, what potential interventions might you try in response?
• Ideas you’ve read about
• Ideas you’ve heard colleagues discuss
• Ideas you learn about at this conference!
• How would you need to adapt them to fit your teaching context?
• To make it appropriate for your students
• To make it work within your curriculum

Data Collection: Naturally Occurring Forms

• Student work
• Project final products
• Drafts, peer feedback, other commentary
• Presentation slides
• Essays
• Exercises and Worksheets
• Observation notes
• Quick notes while teaching
• Field notes observing students in action
• Audio and video recording of classroom
• Small group discussions
• Presentations

Data Collection: Research Specific

• Surveys
• Interviews with individual students
• Focus groups with several students
• Tests of specific constructs (pre/post)
• Observations by others (notes, video)

Choosing Research Methods

• Consider what data sources will best help you answer your research question
• Think about what you can realistically collect/document while teaching
• Integrate data collection with teaching when possible
• Plan ahead if you want to measure language development!

Plan your AR study

https://go.hawaii.edu/XM4

Ethical Approval for AR

Proposing a Study to the IRB

Ethical Considerations in AR

• Dual roles of teacher and researcher
• Reflect on how to balance for your own comfort
• Be alert to perceptions of coercion due to dual roles
• Collecting research-specific data
• Think carefully about what is necessary (vs. desired but non-essential)
• Monitor impact on students
• Be flexible: modify your research approach if you see negative effects on students

Explaining AR to the IRB

• Include “Action Research” in your protocol title
• Focus on what you will be doing as research
• The IRB does not need to know anything about your teaching plan or the intervention
• Clearly state:
• What forms of research-specific data you plan to collect
• How you will explain your study to students (include a recruitment script)
• How you will ensure students that you will treat them all equally
• What you will do with students who do not consent to participate (if you are doing research-specific activities during class time)

Model IRB Protocol and Consent Form:

https://go.hawaii.edu/iDP

Use IRB’s most recent templates!

Finding Research Support

• Take a class or professional development workshop about action research
• Attend conferences with sessions about action research
• Read books and articles about action research (methods and project reports)
• Reach out to a mentor (experienced teacher-researcher or professor)
• Recruit some colleagues to work together with you
• Build time into your schedule for research

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

Mahalo! Questions?

Betsy Gilliland

betsy.gilliland@hawaii.edu

Slides: https://go.hawaii.edu/xDi