Action Research within a Graduate Education Course and it’s Impact on Teacher Confidence and Student Motivation

Abstract

The key to quality education is outstanding instruction by highly proficient and effective teachers. Numerous research studies over the last two decades link teacher effectiveness to student learning and achievement. This research study focused on three teacher-researchers that were completing their master’s degree. As a culmination to their degree, these teacher-researchers implemented action research projects in their own classrooms. Over the course of two semesters they completed a series of steps that provided a structure to their research. As part of data collection, each of the teacher-researchers completed a survey and were interviewed. Results from the study showed that teacher-researchers valued and internalized course requirements, improved their own classroom practices and saw an increase in student learning.