An Integrated Research Course Sequence: Empowering Teacher Candidates to Become Researchers in their Classrooms

Abstract

This article examines one attempt to empower teacher candidates to become researchers in their own classrooms through an integrated research course sequence in the Masters of Arts in teaching program at Quinnipiac University. The author first outlines a number of teacher education programs that have shown some success in preparing new teachers to acquire the knowledge and skills to engage in action-based teacher research. The author then describes the three-semester research course sequence at Quinnipiac while highlighting what students learn and are expected to do in each semester. The author analyzes the surveys and interviews he conducted with some recent graduates of this program who reported that they had already began doing action research in their own classrooms, while highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of the research course sequence. The final part of this article discusses some implications that can be gleaned from this example of those teacher education programs that are attempting to cultivate teacher-researchers.

Notes

¹The relatively few number of responses I received can be attributed, in part, to the fact that the questions pertained to those individuals who were already working as teachers and that a significant number of our 2007/08 graduates had not yet found jobs at the time I contacted them. Moreover, the contact was made through an email list I had obtained from our certification officer. Thus, it is certainly possible that some of the emails on that list were outdated. All of the respondents put their names on the surveys.