Personal Action Research Plan
How to Avoid the Common Pitfalls
Use this to guide you in App3 (Parts A - C)
And in App5 (Parts D – H, plus the corrections made to A – C)
My mission: this document is meant to not only assist you in this course, BUT also with your ProblemBased Research (PBR) major assessment. As an assessor for that MA, I see the things that are most often
lacking. I have your best interests at heart and I want you to pass the PBR the first time.
Part A: Introduce yourself, your context (which may include but is not limited to information about your school, district,
classroom, students, content, and curriculum) and describe the process of deep reflection on classroom practice you used
to define your passion and topic of study. This background information will provide relevant information to the readers of
your plan.
Kathryn’s Notes:
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A common error that students make is that for school/districts stats (i.e. demographics, etc.) they do not include
in-text citations and reference entries. Lesson: Do not forget the needed documentation for all sources.
Regarding student and school names – all need to be changed for privacy purposes.
Student work samples can be described or added as an Appendix.
Be sure that your rationale directly aligns with the topic of your wondering. I often have people describe, in
detail, their work environment, but at the end of Part A, it is not at all clear what the wondering will be.
This Part A can be used as your Part 1 of the PBR major assessment. In order to score a Target Level
(score =5) you MUST include source support AND past student work samples to illustrate the wondering.
See the PBR rubric for more detail.
Part B:
Literature Review- this is the ONLY part NOT written in first person. It needs to be written in THIRD person. Example:
instead of “I think the research was saying……” you would use “The authors of the research came to the conclusion
that……”
Kathryn’s Notes:
Checklist: Did I do/include the following?
Look over the brown-colored tab titled Week 2 at this Walden Library page
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http://libraryguides.waldenu.edu/content.php?pid=175823&sid=1480744
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Used the Walden Library databases to locate my 3-5 sources that are 5 years old or less
Used primary research studies for my 3-5 sources……the authors of the article conducted
research themselves. The AUTHORS conducted the research and are not merely discussing
someone else’s research. This is not just an article about my topic, but this is a research study.
My Part B is written objectively in third person.
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My Part B presents each of my 3-5 sources ONE at a time and I used transitions between each
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of the sources. And I related each source back to my wondering topic.
Evaluated the literature and related to my own wondering.
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Included what I learned about my wondering during my review of literature.
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Paraphrased to avoid excessive quoting.
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Heads up! For the PBR major assessment there are 5 parts. Parts B & C can be used as your Part 2
(Review of Literature & Wondering). It cannot receive a Target Level (score=5) unless more than 3
sources are used. If you desire Target Level, use at least 4 sources. See the PBR rubric for more detail.
Avoid excessive quoting. Here is a tutorial by Walden – paraphrasing info begins on slide 13:
http://mym.cdn.laureate-media.com/2dett4d/Walden/EDUC/6610/01/mm/educ6610_scholarly_writing/index.html
Below is an example of presenting a source in an unbiased manner:
Logan and Johnson (2009) explain that “the more positive the attitude, the more likely one will engage
in reading activities” (p. 199). This study was conducted by looking at two hundred and thirty-two
students from eight primary schools. Each participating student completed a Group Reading Test II to
determine and measure their reading competency. The students also completed a questionnaire
gathering information on “frequency of reading, frequency of borrowing from a library, attitude to
reading, attitude to school, competency beliefs, and perceived academic support” (Logan & Johnston,
2009, p. 204). A correlation between students’ attitude to reading and their ability beliefs was found to
be stronger among the boys than the girls. The findings of their study and many others found that girls
have a more positive attitude for reading for enjoyment than boys do. One reason that is cited for the
negative reading attitude in boys is the feminization of the teaching profession (Logan & Johnston,
2009). Many of our elementary schools, where students begin their journey in reading, are staffed with
female teachers and are unintentionally associating reading as a female activity. One strong suggestion
made by this study is to use praise and encouragement to increase the positive reading attitudes of boys
and therefore, increase their success (Logan & Johnston, 2009).
Next, you will see the first sentence of the paragraph is the transition between the Logan & Johnson source (above) to the
next source - Cavazos-Kottke.
While finding a study, such as the previous one, is important to show that there is certainly a concern for
the reading gap between boys and girls, I was also looking for information on what can be done to
increase the enjoyment reading done by boys. I came across a study completed by Sean Cavazos-Kottke.
Cavazos-Kottke (2005) was compelled to find a way to engage his male high school English
students………….
Part C: In this week’s Resources you learned that defining your wondering can be the most difficult, yet rewarding,
aspect of your teacher inquiry process. It is driven by your professional teaching experience combined with real-world
dilemmas.
 State your initial and revised wondering question.
 Include how your colleagues’ feedback and/or the literature review led you to the revised version.
 Also, include any sub-questions that you may have added to increase the depth of your wondering.
 How did the literature help you refine, reframe, or validate your wondering?
 What contribution to the current body of knowledge do you hope to make after completing your study?
Kathryn’s Notes:
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The final wondering is often left out! Be sure to include the original wondering, the thought process and the final
wondering in the format of a question.
 Make connections between the literature and the revisions made to or validation of the initial wondering
question(s) and includes the refined, reframed, or validated question(s).
 Be sure the wondering question meets all of the requirements of p. 58 in our text. Does it pass the test?
 If a cohort member’s suggestion influenced you, cite them! See example below.
o Citation: (Swan, 2010, September 22)
o Reference entry:
Swan. D. (2010, September 22). Reading literature to develop & refine a wondering. Message posted to EDUC
6673 discussion board, Week 2.
Part of App5 is to be sure you corrected any needs areas from App3! This IS part of the App5 score.
Submit App3 (and App5) to one of the DRAFT Turnitin entries before submitting to the dropbox. This
way you are able to ensure your match percentage is low. You can access the draft entries by going to
Academic Integrity in the left column inside our classroom.
Part D: Articulate your plan for working with teaching colleagues and/or administration throughout the action research
process. Make it clear in this section that you understand the importance of collaboration and apply the reading from
Week 3 in the articulation of your personal plan.
Kathryn’s Notes:
 The planner clearly states that week 3 resources are required to show how important collaboration is……at least
1/3 of papers, I see, do not include support.
 Also, use the article you posted to DB3 as support! Don’t let good work go to waste.
Part E: State at least three different ways you will collect data to gain insights into your wondering. Be sure to apply
what you have learned about data collection in your personal plan.
The following data collection methods are not pre-approved by Walden’s IRB and cannot be used for the ProblemBased Research (PBR) major assessment. If you elect to implement this plan, to eventually become the PBR, do not
include surveys, video as data, focus groups or interviews. The rest of the data collection methods described in the
text have been approved for use for the PBR major assessment.
Kathryn’s Notes:
 Use chapter 4 to guide you
 You are NOT ALLOWED to use 4 data collection methods for this particular inquiry based upon a decision by
Walden’s IRB –see the list here: http://www.professorarnold.net/educ6733/IRB_preapproved_data_collection_tools.docx
Part F: Articulate a specific plan for how you will analyze multiple sources of data. Include the process of using
triangulation and how you anticipate finding discrepancies of the data. Include evidence of learning about data analysis
from this course’s weekly Learning Resources.
Kathryn’s Notes:
 Chapter 5
 Using the 4-steps of data analysis is a big help! See text pp. 120 – 122
 Triangulation is often not included at all! – see the two articles from Week 4 reading about triangulation
 Support and triangulation must be used in this part.
Part G: Articulate a plan for sharing your learning with others, applying what you have learned.
Kathryn’s Notes:
 Who will you share with? When?
 How??? What is the format of your write up? Blog? Brochure? Multimedia presentation? Refer to Chapter 8 for
ideas but don’t necessarily let that limit you! Be creative.
 PLC? Faculty? Admin? – list who and the order in which you will share….
Part H: Articulate a month-by-month or week-by-week plan or timeline for implementing your action research plan (see
example in course text).
Kathryn’s Notes:
 Example in text pp. 113 – 114 – This is a monthly example. For your purposes you will most likely need a weekly
timeline as you will need to have your research implemented AND the write up completed within about 24
weeks by the end of course 9 for your portfolio.
Other: If you complete Parts A, B & C fully, there will be little need to make adjustments, when they become Parts 1 & 2
of the major assessment. Then all you will need to focus on is writing Parts 3, 4 & 5 (which is NEW material and does not
come from Parts D – H).
I created this document out of a desire to see each of you succeed and I continually revisit it and update it. Suggestions are
always welcome.