• Activity 1: Guiding Principles and Major Steps (45 min) Whole group. Introduction to a framework for understanding the research process.
  
  
• Activity 2: Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher (1 hr) Group discussion of pre-meeting reading assignment examines the practice of critical reflection and the rational for practitioner research as staff development.

Activity 1: Guiding Principles and Major Steps: The Penny Activity*
 

Group Process:

Frame the activity: Explain the purpose of this activity is to introduce some of the key principles and major steps that guide the research the group is about to embark upon. Using a penny, this activity provides a metaphor for better understanding the practitioner research process.

Steps:

1.Distribute drawing paper and pencils to participants. Ask everyone to think about a penny. Point out that most of us still encounter pennies most everyday and probably carry at least one around at all times.

2.Tell participants to draw a penny from memory. Have them draw both sides of the coin including as much detail as possible.

3.Before participants begin to draw, suggest they might think of the penny as the 'incident' that you asked them to reflect on and write about in the pre-meeting participant assignment. In that exercise too, you asked them to include as much detail as possible about something they were close to and familiar with -- their classrooms and programs and learners (10-15 minutes).

4.After participants have finished drawing, ask a few volunteers to share their sketches and discuss the process they went through. Ask the volunteers:

• How did you do with your drawings?
  
• Were you able to remember all the details?
  
• Do you feel like the penny you drew matches reality?

5.Ask the group: What are some reasons the reality of a penny and the drawings don't match? Possible answers (and some key messages) include:

• We drew the penny based on faulty memory.
• We take pennies for granted because we're around them all the time.
• We assume we know.
• We haven't had a pressing need, or opportunity, to examine a penny with the care needed to remember more details.

• Our memories are unreliable.
• We need to find other means to remember.
• We make assumptions; therefore, it's important to acknowledge that assumptions exist. And it's important to test the accuracy of our assumptions.

9.Pass around the magnifying glasses. Explain to participants that, in conducting research, we intentionally take a closer look at things we are most familiar with and around everyday. Have everyone look at the penny through one of the magnifying glasses. Ask: What do you see that you didn't see before?

10.Now have everyone look at the penny through a different lens. Ask: What might the different magnifying glasses be a metaphor for? Possible answers include:

• Taking a closer systematic look by conducting research.
• Viewing an issue or incident through different lenses.
• Making adjustments as the research progresses.

11.Close by saying: Today we used multiple lenses to look more closely at one example of a familiar reality (a penny). That will also happen in your research. As you carry out your research you will be looking at familiar situations more closely, and through a variety of lenses. The lenses in this activity might be a metaphor for the different perspectives and perceptions you get through research. Those can come from different places and people. (20-30 minutes)

* The Penny Activity: Transcribed by Cassie Drennon, Georgia Adult Literacy Practitioner Inquiry Group, 1998. Based on an original activity developed by Sandy Harrill, Pennsylvania Adult Literacy Practitioner Inquiry Network, Bureau of Adult Basic and Literacy Education, 1998.

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Activity 2: Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher*

Group Process:

Introduce the activity by telling participants this is an opportunity to further examine some of the guiding principles in practitioner research.

Ask participants to suggest how Stephen Brookfield provides a rationale for much of what a practitioner research group hopes to accomplish. (For instance, one reason to join a research group is to become more critically reflective and develop a more critical stance toward teaching and learning.) Explain to the group that many of the meeting activities are designed to intentionally support their learning how to use critical reflection as a tool for professional development and program improvement. (5 minutes)

Next, divide participants into two groups. Explain that one group will discuss Chapter 1 and the other group will discuss Chapter 2.

Further divide the people who are #1's into smaller groups of four to five participants each; likewise with the group of #2's.

Begin the small group discussions with a sentence completion activity. Pass out the directions or post them on newsprint.

Sentence Completion Activity*

For the chapter assigned to them (one or two) tell participants to silently complete whichever of the following statements seems most appropriate to their group members.

1.What most struck me about the text we read for this discussion is…
2.The part of the text that was the most confusing for me was …
3.The part of the text that made the most sense to me was …
4.The question that I'd most like to ask Dr. Brookfield is…

After participants have written down their individual responses, have them share with the other people in their group. As participants hear one another's responses they should jot down the statements they would like to hear more about. After all the responses have been read, participants begin their discussion by asking other participants about the responses they want to know more about.

About fifteen minutes before the discussion period ends, ask each group to synthesize their discussion and to focus on what they will report back to the larger group. Tell participants to identify someone in each group to give their report. Tell them to write (on a piece of newsprint) the main points their group discussed (no more than three) and one conclusion about the material that they reached.
(40 minutes)

Debriefing:

1.Reconvene the larger group. Ask each group to report briefly (2-3 minutes).

2.Now, facilitate a discussion to summarize the main points or key messages from each chapter in Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher. Point out any similarities or differences across the small groups' reports.

3.Draw out other relevant points or helpful implications for their research that haven't been mentioned yet, including:

• There's a difference between being reflective and critical reflective.
  
• External forces like people or events are necessary to begin the examination of our assumptions.
  
• Our assumptions are always context bound.
  
• There are three sets of lenses (or views) through which we can examine our practice - our own, our colleagues and our learners.
  
• Becoming critically reflective is an ongoing gradual process.

End by responding to participants' comments and questions, as time permits.
(20 minutes)

* Adaptation of an activity developed by Cassie Drennon and Dougie Taylor, Georgia Adult Literacy Practitioner Inquiry Group, University of Georgia, 1998.


Reference Materials

Pre-meeting reading assignment:
Brookfield, S.D. (1995) Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Sentence completion activity:
Brookfield, S.D. & Preskill, S. (1999) Discussion as a Way of Teaching: Tools and Techniques for Democratic Classrooms. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.


Conclusion of session

Session 3: Understanding the Issues for Research

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