Action Research: Cultivating Research Literacy

One focus area in TESOL’s Research Directions is Research Education and Literacy. Research is often considered an activity for academics, but TESOL professionals know that teachers engage in informal—aka “little r research”—regularly. Exploring classroom practice informally can be a springboard for more rigorous inquiry, or it may be sufficient to better understand and address an issue we’ve identified in our practice. In this post, I’ll describe an action research project from the undergraduate TESOL program at my institution.

Preparing Future Researchers

Throughout our TESOL program, students explore formal academic research that builds their linguistic, pedagogical, and sociocultural knowledge base. To further develop their research literacy, I’ve created an opportunity for them to design and implement a small-scale research study during the TESOL practicum. By this time, they’ve had varied field experiences in other TESOL classes (e.g., teaching grammar labs for international students, hosting online conversation cafés with learners in other countries) and they’ve had multiple opportunities to reflect on what they’ve observed in those settings through class discussions and reflection journals. In the final practicum, they have more time for collaboration with a cooperating teacher, as well as increased opportunities for independent planning and teaching. 

Early in our practicum seminar, I introduce action research through a collection of brief articles and blogs that provide clear explanations and examples. In one assignment, they find and present on a published action research study so they can learn about various approaches to designing and implementing action research in a range of teaching contexts. At the same time, they are getting to know about the learners and classroom culture in their practicum class.

Through observations, conversations with their cooperating teachers, and lesson reflections, they begin to identify an issue they’d like to address during the semester. In our seminar, we discuss potential areas of investigation that can be reasonably explored during the semester. At this critical stage in the project, they work together in small groups to provide peer feedback on lines of inquiry and potential study designs. Over the course of the semester, they implement their study, reflecting on its progress weekly for feedback and to share insights with one another. At the end of the semester, they each give a formal presentation of their study with an academic poster or slides. They also write a brief blog post that could be submitted for consideration as a TESOL blog publication.

Explorations in the Classroom

Following is a snapshot of two projects.

Project 1: Padlet for Participation

Several TESOL students completed their practicum online, teaching learners in Peru. Two of them, Karis and Molly, were grappling with how to increase student participation with a class of 22 young adult learners. They noted that very few students would unmute to say anything when prompted. When students were invited to contribute in the Zoom chat, their comments would get lost in a fast-moving thread.

As a TESOL cohort, we brainstormed ideas to help them get learners more involved in the lesson. Ultimately, they decided to leverage Padlet, an effective educational technology tool, to scaffold learner engagement.

During a lesson about job interviews, they read about an individual, Luis, who interviewed for a job. Karis and Molly wanted the learners to reflect on whether they thought Luis would get the job and why. They also wanted them to share what their ideal job would be in the future. In a reflection on their findings, they shared that

• • 17 out of 22 students posted responses in the Padlet.
  • Padlet provided more structure for students to interact with one another.
  • Students could see one another’s responses, leave comments and reactions, and incorporate multimedia.

These findings were a springboard for Karis and Molly to continue exploring additional tech tools to increase participation in the virtual classroom throughout the semester.

Project 2: Regulation After Recess

One TESOL student, Katrina, worked in a dual immersion (Spanish/English) elementary (primary) school with young learners. Her class period met right after students had recess, so they were always very active and excited at the start of class. Katrina noticed how long it took to regulate the students after break so they could focus on their academic work.

Through a brainstorm with her TESOL peers, she landed on the idea of giving students a simple design to trace with their finger while breathing slowly for 1 minute. She found several simple line drawings of images from nature and animals.

During her first attempt, she saw some success with helping them calm down, but she noted one area for improvement. In giving them different images, some of them were too distracted by other students’ designs to focus on their own. (“Hey, she has a unicorn. I want the unicorn!”) The next time, she gave them all the same image. This worked much better. In fact, it was so successful that it became their daily routine after break for the rest of the semester.

TESOL Professional Learning

Through this class project, I’ve seen TESOL students’ confidence grow as they begin to view themselves as members of a community of TESOL practitioners with insights from their own research to contribute to our collective pedagogical knowledge base. Hopefully you’ll encounter their work through conference presentations or publications in the future!