Field Study

Guidelines for Writing your Field Study

To complete your Master's Degree, you will probably wish to select the "course" option. This means you sign up for CI 596 Field Study. You will work independently, but under the guidance of your advisor, to complete a study of your teaching. This kind of research, where the intent is to improve your teaching practice, is referred to as "Action Research."

The Action Research Collaborative of Greater St. Louis has been in operation since 1992. Their web site contains a wealth of information for you about action research, including definitions and example of action research projects. Many other web sites and resources exist on action research. Remember, if you quote any of this material you must cite is accurately. See recommendations for Electronic Reference Formats from the American Psychological Association [APA] web site. Many web sites offer advice on APA formatting in general, e.g. http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_apa.html#Your%20Reference%20List

The particular format of any action research project is determined by the research questions you are asking. The either or both of the following texts are recommended to help you with this process:

McNiff, J., Lomax, P., and Whitehead, J. (1996). You and your action research project. New York: Routledge.

These UK authors have produced a very helpful book to guide students through action research and report writing. You could use this book and pair up with someone else who reads Mills (below) to broaden your understanding of this kind of research.

Mills, G. (1999). Action research: A guide for the teacher researchers. New York: Prentice Hall.

This is another excellent book that guides teachers through action research projects.

However, here are some guidelines to give you a sense of what you might do:

Guidelines for a typical Action Research Study

	Identify a problem or question in your current practice
	Gather data
	Reflect on the data
	Make teaching decisions grounded in this evidence and reflection, rather than on hunches
	Throughout, read what others have to say about your problem. Comment on the significance of your work in relation to what they say.
	Assess the results and revise the question you are studying ready for another cycle of research.

In terms of your written report, you can adapt this process to provide you with Chapter titles if you wish. Note, in this suggested outline, you need to INTEGRATE your reading and literature search throughout your study. Although this makes more sense in terms of your overall project than having a separate chapter reviewing literature, it is easy to OMIT this step altogether. Remember, that your project is not complete, until you have shown how your work relates to the important published ideas in the same area. If you have problems, then add a separate literature review as an appendix at the end. All references should be in APA format.

Here is a sample outline for you:

Cover Page	Project Title, Your full name. Submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for the Masters of Science Degree in Elementary Education at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Advisor's name, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Date.	The rest of your Project should be double spaced, with pages numbered top right, and a running header throughout.
Contents Page		Most word processors will do this automatically if you use the formatted heading system.
Chapter 1	Rationale for Study/Introduction	Who are you? What issue/problem/question do you have about your current practice? What is the context or setting for this problem? Are there any particular definitions, specialist terminology your reader will need to know about? Is there any history or background to the general subject you need to include?
Chapter 2	Methodology	What is action research? What do other authors say about this method of research? What specific processes will you use to collect data? what it is? when did you collect? why? How will you use this data to inform your practice?
Chapter 3	The story of your project	What happened? Is there a story that your data tells? How did you make sense of this? How does literature and research from others help you understand what you are seeing?
Chapter 4	Interpretations/ Recommendations/Conclusions	What do you know now as a result of your investigation? Have your questions changed? How is your practice different? What further investigation would you recommend to yourself or others? How does the writing of other authors relate to your findings or your questions? Where does your work sit within other literature?
References	References	Formatted accurately in APA format.
Appendix A. (Optional)	Literature Review	If you have not done so throughout your paper, go back and read important works on some of the key ideas you encountered and worked with in your project.
Appendix B.	Other Relevant Material	Is there other essential material you need to include for the reader to understand your project. E.g. Sample lesson plans?