In the Module 1 Analysis assignment, you selected a problem (issue, concern, problem, or need) as an aspiring school administrator. You translated this into a problem statement and wrote questions to guide your research. You began searching the professional, peer-reviewed literature for relevant information and research studies and described at least one of your sources in the literature review. You presented your purpose and problem statement and followed this with a portion of the literature review section. For the Module 2 Application assignment, you will complete the literature review and carry out additional action research tasks. You will add to or extend your Module 1 Analysis assignment paper. This may include additions/revisions based on your faculty member’s feedback. Access the Formative Action Research Paper Outline (Links to an external site.) for use in this assignment. Organize your research paper in this format (headings, subheadings, etc.).

Directions:

1. Retrieve your action research paper from the Module 1 assignment. Continue adding to and expanding the paper with the additional components. Remember to update the references page in APA format as you make your additions.
2. Use APA format for the paper, references, and in-text citations.
3. Follow the Formative Action Research Paper Outline for headings and subheadings (link above).
4. Follow the directions to complete Part 1 and Part 2.
5. Before you submit your document, save a copy to your desktop. You will refer to this document in Module 3-4 assignments.
6. Follow the directions to submit your final 4- to 5-page Word or text document.

The purpose of a literature review is to know what others have discovered about your topic before you begin your own investigation. A literature review grounds your study in what is known about a topic and establishes a foundation for the research question(s) you will answer. Relevant, peer-reviewed articles will help you better understand the problem (issue, concern, problem, need) and may introduce either data collection techniques you may want to use or intervention ideas you may want to incorporate into an action plan. You will discover information that will help you compile a promising action research project.

1. In Module 1, you included one peer-reviewed article in your literature review. In this module, continue working on your literature review by adding two additional, peer-reviewed articles.
2. In your literature search, place a check in the box for “peer reviewed,” so you are sure to use only peer-reviewed studies.
3. Describe each article or study using at least two well-developed paragraphs, and include information about the purpose, problem statement, research questions, theory, methodology, results, and conclusions.
4. Using the three articles from Modules 1-2, organize and integrate the information as appropriate based on common themes. A good literature review compares and contrasts as well describes. It may be good to mention more than one source or set of findings in a paragraph if they are related. Articles that report on one or more empirical studies will likely be the most useful, but theoretical articles and articles describing programs, interventions, and methodologies may help you decide on the appropriate action to take or propose.
5. Follow your literature review with an explanation of how your action research relates to the studies you reviewed. Pull together ideas about what is known and what you still need to find out. This literature review should set you up for your subsequent planning for data collection and action.
6. Cite your articles using APA, and reference all three articles in an APA-formatted references list at the end of the paper. Place titles in your reference list only, not in the paragraphs of your paper.

In Part 2, you will describe the methodology/research design you will use in your formative action research including the existing data you will collect.

Methodology/Design. When conducting formative action research, your methodology/design will essentially be your formative data collection plan, but you should describe your research methodology/design using terms such as descriptive, formative, case study, observation, correlational, phenomenological, naturalistic, open-ended research questions, etc.

Data Collection Plan. You will choose three data sources appropriate for the stated purpose, problem, research questions, and methodology. You will describe the three data collection sources in this module. For each source, include a description of how the data was collected, processed, organized, and analyzed. Use the subheading, Data Collection, to report your data collection activities.

Note: You will be collecting data from existing records, but will not engage in collecting any new data.

Use the following questions to guide your organization of the Data Collection planning section of your action research paper:

• What data will you collect?
• Will the data you collect be qualitative, quantitative, or both?
• How will you collect the data?
• How will the data help you answer the research question(s)?
• How do you plan to analyze the data once collected?

Data Collection. In this module, you will describe the data from only one of the three sources in the data collection plan. You will describe the data from the remaining two sources in Module 3. Use the following questions to describe the results of your first data collection activity:

• What data did you collect? (from existing records)
• What kind of data did you collect? Was the data qualitative, quantitative or both?
• How did you collect the data? (from existing records)
• How did you analyze the data you collected? (from existing records)
• How does the data help you answer the research question(s)?
• In an actual research project (one in which you would have Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval, what new data would be helpful to collect?

Prior to starting your data collection section, review the Thinking it Through – Leading Change resource in the Module 1 Analysis assignment, especially the section on data collection. If you recall, the data source was a survey. For your formative action research, consider the following data collection options, or develop your own.

Note: You need to limit your review of data to existing data.

• Review existing school, district, or state achievement data.
• Review existing school, district, or state discipline data.
• Review existing school, district, or state data concerning teacher performance and evaluation.
• Review existing national data related to schools.
• Review existing office referral data.
• Review existing data from previously administered surveys.
• Review any other relevant existing data.