Syllabus

Course Description

First note that in this course "educational change" is construed broadly to include organizational change, training, and personal development, as well as curricular and school change. This course builds on the question: "If you have good ideas how do you get others to adopt and/or adapt them?" (in other words, how do you build a "constituency" around your idea). This concern can lead you into evaluating how good the ideas actually are (with respect to objectives you formulate) so you can demonstrate this to others. It can also lead you to work with others to develop the idea so it becomes theirs as well and thus something they're invested in. In any case, the first person in your constituency is yourself! To prepare you for such work, class activities introduce tools for group facilitation, participatory planning, reflective practice, and systematic evaluation. We do all this within a framework of "Cycles and epicycles of Action Research."

Course Objectives

Prerequisites

For CCT students, this course is best taken after the Processes of Research and Engagement.

Required Textbooks

How to Use Action Research in the Self-Renewing SchoolCalhoun. E. F. (1994). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Practical Action Research for Change. Schmuck, R. (either 1997 or 2006). Arlington Heights, IL: Skylight.


Grading

Component Percentage

100%
Written assignments and presentations 67%
Participation and contribution to the class process 33%

 

 

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Copyright ©2007 Peter Taylor, Ph.D
Citation: Taylor, P. (2008, July 02). Syllabus. Retrieved November 06, 2014, from UMass Boston OpenCourseware Web site: http://ocw.umb.edu/critical-and-creative-thinking/action-research-for-educational-professional-and-personal-change/syllabus.
Copyright 2014, Erin O'Brien. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. Creative Commons License