Using Action Research to

Improve Literacy
Dr Eileen Honan
The University of Queensland
e.honan@uq.edu.au
The focus of this workshop

This workshop will focus on the collection and

analysis of qualitative data within the action
research cycle. These processes provide
teachers with strategies and ideas for
assessment of literacy teaching and learning
that moves beyond the measurement of
performance associated with administration of
tests.
By the end of the workshop

Participants will:
 Investigate the data collection processes within an
action research cycle
 Gain an increased understanding of the collection and
analysis of qualitative data and its usefulness in assessing
literacy learning and teaching
 Learn about a range of strategies and processes for
collection of qualitative data to assess literacy teaching
and learning
The importance of formative
assessment
Assessment of student learning takes place at different
levels and for different purposes, including:
 ongoing formative assessment within classrooms for the
purposes of monitoring learning and providing
feedback, for teachers to inform their teaching, and for
students to inform their learning
http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/overview/implications-for-teaching-
assessing-and-reporting
The importance of qualitative data

 The quantification of everything- “to datafy a

phenomenon is to put it in a quantified format so it can
be tabulated and analysed” (Mayer-Schonberger &
Cukier, p. 78)
 Tabulation, measurement, rankings, categories of best
and worst
 Qualitative data describes but does not measure,
observes what is there (naturalistic), can explain (why?
and how?)
The Teaching of Reading: Responses
9 from rich homes find it easier to learn
Children
101 199 112
to read 26
If you surround children with lots of reading
50 165
materials they will learn to read
115 101 16

The Teaching of Reading

59
Good teachers 173
can teach 115
anyone how to read 86 13

Schools should teach reading the traditional ways

57in the past
they used 109 200 67 11

Children need to learn the alphabet before they

can read a 100
book 185 86 68 7
Level of
Schools should use the internet to help with the
41 187 149 62 6
agreement
teaching of reading
Strongly
The most important factor in a child learning to
113 180 89 58 6 agree
read is having a good teacher
3
Agree
Teachers are professionals. We should let them
get on with84
their job of teaching215
reading 101 38
Neither
Schools should involve parents more often in 2
reading in80
classrooms 214 118
32
Disagree
Schools should use good literature when teaching 2
190 214 29
children how to read 11 Strongly
disagree
Schools should146 238
focus on teaching grammar 50 13

Much more must be done to improve children's 1

reading
149 220 67
8
There is more to a school than the results of 2
196
national reading tests 212 30
7
It is not just the school’s responsibility to 2
teach children to read –281 parents have a role to 156 5
play too 4
Children learn to read in different ways at 2
227 211 7
different rates 1

0 20 40 60 80 100
Percent of Respondents
 ACTIVITY
 WHAT IS YOUR INTERPRETATION OF THESE RESULTS?
 COMPARE YOUR INTERPRETATION WITH MINE
 WHAT IS MISSING? WHAT CANNOT BE ANSWERED?

 Nearly all items have high level of agreement

 The message about parent involvement seems to have worked- all those take-home readers, and parent
reading programs may have influenced the strong agreement to parental role.
 There is a strong agreement with the statement about individuals learning at different rates – I wonder if
this reflects theories about the teaching of reading, but I am also thinking that maybe the responses are
sending a message to schools and teachers- don’t try to put everyone into the same box, or into the
same box of levelled readers!!
 There seems to be a strong sense that the respondents have embraced the front page of the courier
mail’s message about must do more must do better.
 Level of disagreement strongest around item about rich kids finding it easier to read – why? Because the
community thinks all kids should have the same opportunities? Because the community are reflecting the
egalitarian myth of ‘all Australians are equal’?
 There is also quite a large number of responses in this question that are ‘grey’ that is, neither agree nor
disagree with the statement – so does this mean that not everyone has an opinion about these debates?
 But then if you look at the statement about teaching using traditional methods – large number of grey
responses – but then there are quite strong opinions expressed about the teaching of grammar and the
use of literature – which are the specifics of a so called traditional approach.
 We cannot make sense of the clustering of the items. And are still working on that interpretation so have
not included the clustering of these items in the presentation.
Using the action research cycle in your
classroom
Data
collection
Purposes for collecting qualitative data

To investigate issues related to:

Teacher practice
Teacher knowledge
Student learning
 ACTIVITY
SOME EXAMPLES OF QUESTIONS THAT CAN BE ANSWERED
THROUGH COLLECTING QUALITATIVE DATA:
 How is reading comprehension taught in this class, school,
district, state?
 Why do the boys in Grade 3 complain about reading
lessons?
 How are digital texts used in literacy classrooms?
 Why is there a gendered difference in NAPLAN spelling
results in Grade 5 classrooms?
 How does an understanding of the reading process
impact on student performance on standardised reading
comprehension tests?
DEVELOP A QUESTION THAT COULD BE ANSWERED THROUGH
COLLECTING QUALITATIVE DATA IN YOUR CLASSROOM
Collecting data about Student learning- WHY AND
HOW?

WHY?
 Recording the interactions and behaviours students have with texts
 The knowledge children have about literacy can be demonstrated
in observable ways
HOW?
 Documentary/observation- running records, anecdotal records,
checklists, portfolios
 Collecting data about teacher practice-
Why?
• Demonstrate effective teaching practice

• Model new strategies

• Appraisal and promotion

• Identify strengths and weaknesses

• Demonstrate impact of professional development on

practice

• Reflect on own pedagogy

• Inform and answer research questions

Collecting data about Teacher practice-
how?

 Classroom observation tools

 Interviews – pre and post observation
 Video and audio recordings
 Ethnographic observations –rich and thick, using templates
 Stimulated recall and reflection
 Reflective journals
ANALYSING QUALITATIVE DATA: What data can be
qualitatively analysed?

 Surveys
 Tests
 Timetables
 Lesson plans
 Units of work
 Letters to parents- newsletters
 School policy documents
 Classroom texts
 Lesson observations
 Interviews and conversations
 test results, anecdotal
records, the teachers’
own reflective journal

informal focus colleague to observe

group discussion Why do the reading lessons using
in the classroom boys in Grade 3 a simple observation
where the boys complain about schedule that
could take notes reading tracked boys’
lessons? engagement and
or even record this
interactions.
discussion

write a
letter
home
Organising qualitative data

 What are the important data you have collected?

 Patterns, themes, categories
 What are the stories about literacy being told in these texts?
 What counts as literacy in these texts?
Qualitative data activity

 Use the data in the handout to practise and experiment with analysis
1. Analysing interview data- Year 7 students
What are the key messages about the use of technology in this data?
2. Using interview data – student views of assessment
What are the key messages about assessment from this summary of interview data?
3. Analysing classroom observations – the classroom
What counts as reading in this classroom? What do we do when we read?
 One reading of the classroom observations
 Reading involves being organised into small groups
 Teachers read to whole class, children read aloud in small
groups
 Reading is writing words beginning with the same
consonant
 Reading is colouring in pictures of words beginning with the
same consonant
 There is a connection between ability to read, and ability to
listen to instructions, recall previous activities, and sit with
straight backs and crossed legs (see Kamler et al, 1992)
 Reading is about reading the same text repeatedly until you
are completely familiar with the text
 Reading is about gaining operational skills, or being able to
draw on codebreaking resources to make meaning from a
text (Freebody and Luke, 2003).
 When we talk about reading, we talk about what do with
texts, rather than our feelings or understandings of the
content of the texts
What is going on here?