Final Action Research Proposal
[WLO: 1, 2][CLO: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
The summative assignment for ECE 660, the Final Action Research Proposal, will consist of five major sections that you have constructed throughout the course. Based on the feedback you have received each week from classmates, colleagues, and your instructor, you are expected to continuously refine, revise, and “polish” each section to include in the final proposal.
The required sections for your Final Action Research Proposal are as follows:
- Heading 1: Introduction
- Heading 2: Literature Review
- Heading 3: Intervention Planning and Ethical Considerations
- Heading 4: Data Collection, Instruments, and Procedures
- Heading 5: Author’s Reflection
- References
- Appendix A: Instrument
When putting together your Final Action Research proposal, be sure to use the appropriate APA format for your headings for each section. You may want to review the anchor paper in the course or the to ensure you are organizing and formatting your paper correctly.
*Reminder to Students: Remember to save all copies of your work throughout the course as you will use each assignment as part of the Final Action Research Proposal. For many of the discussions and assignments, you are building on your work each week, so it is appropriate to use content from your discussions in your weekly assignments, generally expanding and extending concepts and sections as you progress from week to week. You will have the opportunity to make revisions to each section of your proposal based on instructor and peer feedback prior to your final version in the Final Action Research Proposal, so be sure to revisit the feedback you have received from your instructor and classmates each week to continuously refine your proposal throughout the course.
- Content Expectations
- Introduction (revised and refined from the Week Three assignment)
- Context for the Proposed Study: In one paragraph, describe your current professional role and setting. If you are not working in early childhood education at this time, you can use a previous or future role that aligns with your career goals and interests.
- Purpose and Educational Significance: In one to two paragraphs, explain the purpose of your study and the student outcomes you want to influence. Further, discuss the literature or research that indicates why this is an important area to address in education.
- Explanation of Problem: In two paragraphs, explain a statement of the problem or situation that led to this interest or why you want to pursue this topic.
- Population: In one paragraph, describe the target population (age/grade, quantity of participants, students or adults). Explain why you have chosen this target population for the study, including details about why this population is appropriate for the study.
- One Research Question: Develop one research question that aligns with your area of focus and clearly addresses what you hope to answer and influence in this proposed study. The question needs to be answerable and it must appropriately represent the population/participants you identified. Be sure to review the readings related to developing good research questions to inform the development of your question.
- Locus of Control: In one paragraph, evaluate whether your idea is within your locus of control. If you are using a past experience or contrived topic because you are not currently working in ECE, please explain locus of control as related to your previous position or anticipated future position.
- Literature Review
- Research Summary 1: Choose one of the articles from your Literature Evaluation to explain the intervention, strategies, procedures, and instruments used in the chosen study that have been found to be productive in investigating your topic and area of focus.
- Research Summary 2: Choose one of the articles from your Literature Evaluation to explain the intervention, strategies, procedures, and instruments used in the chosen study that have been found to be productive in investigating your topic and area of focus.
- Application of Findings and Author’s Position: Based on your review of the literature, determine the intervention that you will use to address your area of focus to influence the situation you want to improve. Discuss why you feel this is the best approach for your particular action research study and why you believe it meets the needs you have outlined in your introduction. Explain any changes you will make to the intervention you identify from the literature, based on your own classroom, school, center, or organizational needs.
- Intervention Planning and Ethical Considerations (revised and refined from the Week 4 assignment)
- Intervention Description: In one to two pages, explain your proposed intervention for influencing your area of focus. Explain why you think your population will benefit from the intervention and how it could result in improvements in the area or variable you want to influence. Ensure your explanation draws on the literature you are using to support this choice of intervention.
- Intervention Plan: In one to two pages, describe in chronological order how you will implement your intervention and provide a hypothetical yet practical timeframe for these steps. You may include a chart that organizes how you would implement your intervention from week to week.
- Ethical Considerations – Informed Consent and IRB Approval: In one to two paragraphs, discuss how you would approach informed consent and IRB Approval if you were to implement your action research study. Explain how you would ensure that participants enter the research of their free will and with an understanding of the study and any potential dangers.
- Ethical Considerations – Freedom from Harm: In one to two paragraphs, explain how the literature you reviewed and your plan for implementation leads you to believe what you are doing is an appropriate intervention and not exposing your participants to risk.
- Ethical Considerations – Anonymity and Confidentiality: In one paragraph, explain your planned measures to use anonymity and confidentiality to avoid privacy invasion and potential harm.
- Data Collection, Instruments, and Procedures (revised and refined from the Week 5 assignment)
- Data Collection – Qualitative: In one to two paragraphs, justify one qualitative (experience-based) instrument that would be used in your proposed study to collect data on the effectiveness of your intervention in answering your research question(s). Provide support from the research, literature, and textbook to explain why this would be an effective method for collecting data.
- Data Collection – Quantitative: In one to two paragraphs, justify one quantitative (number-based) instrument that would be used in your proposed study to collect data on the effectiveness of your intervention in answering your research question(s). Provide support from the research, literature, and textbook to explain why this would be an effective method for collecting data.
- Data Collection Considerations: Credibility, Transferability, Dependability, and Confirmability: Using Guba’s Criteria of Validity of Qualitative Research, determine how you will establish trustworthiness of your action research study.
- Data Collection Procedures: In conjunction with your intervention plan, formulate your procedures for collecting data in your proposed action research study. You may use the chart you created for your intervention plan to add in the data collection procedures, or provide a narrative description of your procedures. Be sure to also address how your data collection will reflect trustworthiness and the ethical considerations related to anonymity and confidentiality.
- Author’s Reflection (additional section added in Week 6)
- Author’s Reflection: In this section, critique your own understanding of action research as a result of constructing your action research proposal. Discuss how action research can strengthen your practices in your current or future role as an early childhood professional. Forecast how you could use action research in being a change agent and leader in early childhood education.
- Appendix A (revised and refined from the Week 5 assignment)
- Instrument: Design one instrument, either quantitative or qualitative, that you could use to collect data to answer your research question(s) and to determine the effectiveness of your intervention.
- Research and Resource Expectations:
- A minimum of six scholarly, peer-reviewed sources, in addition to the course textbook (include all sources referenced in the Week One, Two, Three, Four, and Five assignments), are required.
- Writing and Formatting Expectations:
- Title Page: Must include a separate title page with the following:
- Title of paper
- Student’s name
- Course name and number
- Instructor’s name
- Date submitted
- Academic Voice: Academic Voice is used (avoids casual language, limited use of “I” or first person, it is declarative).
- Purpose and Organization: Demonstrates logical progression of ideas.
- Syntax and Mechanics: Writing displays meticulous comprehension and organization of syntax and mechanics, such as spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
- APA Formatting: Papers are formatted properly and all sources are cited and referenced in APA style as outlined
- Title Page: Must include a separate title page with the following:
- Suggested Assignment Length
- This assignment should be about 20 double-spaced pages in length (not including title and reference pages).
I will upload all the research assignments