• How do inquiry, action research, reflective practice, and lore compare and contrast with teacher research?
• Qualitative vs. Quantitative Research

INQUIRY

• equally questioning
• less rigorous and systematic in connotation, a more general term
• less directed toward findings

EXAMPLE: Several teacher researchers might get together on a regular basis to discuss and analyze their work and call themselves an inquiry group

ACTION RESEARCH

historical term (British teachers investigating curriculum initiatives)

• equally focused on teaching and learning
• research question may not be freely chosen, included as part of curriculum initiative
• less theory based, not striving to contribute to knowledge base · more specifically directed toward changes in practice, therefore may be regarded primarily as professional development

EXAMPLE: A school system decides to begin the use of math manipulatives in the elementary grades. A group of teachers tests out their use and reports to their colleagues on what they found. NOTE: Sometimes this term is used interchangeably with teacher research.

REFLECTIVE PRACTICE

• adapted from David Schon's ideas of the reflective practitioner
• more descriptive of a way of teaching, not a way of researching

EXAMPLE: A teacher-researcher might use this term to refer to his or her work during years when he/she is not conducting research.

LORE

• Term used to describe teacher knowledge
• focused on teaching stories, handed down, may be valuable information
• not reached by a process of systematic investigation
• not valued as theory-based knowledge
• sometimes a way of discrediting teacher knowledge

EXAMPLE: Don't smile during the first month of school if you want to establish who's in control. A teacher researcher might decided to change lore into a research question and investigate it: "What happens during the first month of school?"

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Qualitative vs. Quantitative Research

Teacher research is a type of qualitative research, meaning that it involves the researcher in the lives of his/her subjects- observing, participating and reflecting on what happens within the context of the study environment. The chart below comes from "Understanding and conducting qualitative research" by Stainback and Stainback (1988, p. 8-9). They compare qualitative research to quantitative research (which is a positivistic approach of seeking facts through the collection of objective, quantifiable data under experimentally controlled conditions).