TLC Hot Take March 2022
Posted: March 1, 2022
To clarify the many activities associated with Educational Research, over the next several months we will explain common terminology you may hear during the TLC Spring Seminar Series and new TLC Podcast.
Action research is a form of scholarly activity used by educators in higher education as a way to efficiently 1) investigate one’s own teaching and facilitation practice, with the dual purpose of 2) contributing to theoretical knowledge to the benefit of student learning. Action research is worthwhile for ATSU educators interested in enhancing their instructional skills, at the same time furthering their own research productivity. Action research is a broad term incorporating many different research approaches and methods. For instance, Teaching as Research (TAR) involves applying a research-based approach to one’s teaching practice. The TAR process includes developing a hypothesis for a practice that seeks to improve an aspect of the teaching and learning experience in one’s classroom, implementing that practice, analyzing learning outcomes, and finally reflecting and iterating. Generally, TAR projects are small-scale and exploratory, seeking to explore what can improve student learning in a given course rather than creating widely generalizable knowledge. As such, TAR projects are often not designed with the intention of producing peer-reviewed outputs, but rather to continually improve one’s own teaching. This brief video provides more information on TAR and examples of TAR projects can be found here.