MB 7220 - Advancing STEM in Schools

• Design an action research model to address the formulated research question
• Address key ethical and legal issues surrounding action research in the classroom, and in the research design of own project in particular
• Identify, adapt, and justify new STEM curriculum and/or teaching techniques as the intervention to be investigated in the research model
• Implement the classroom research protocol defined in the model, typically including pre-measures, intervention, and post-measures
• Apply appropriate statistical analysis methods to evaluate data gathered in research effort
• Document and present results of research with an emphasis on findings, implications for student learning, and factors for further consideration
• Communicate positive findings to peers and school leaders in a compelling and persuasive manner
• Evaluate the action research of others to determine validity

• None

• Introduction - course overview
• Review of action research project & timeline
• Role of school leaders in school improvement
• Developing formal hypotheses
• Using research for school improvement
• School-level action research
• Instruments for data gathering
• Gathering data from staff and other stakeholders
• Statistical methods - quantitative and qualitative
• Analyzing cause-effect experiments, correlations, survey research, qualitative studies
• School-level action research teams
• Case study: decreasing the performance gap
• Independent action research project work
• Complete and submit final report