Action research allows one to evaluate specific, local, relevant problems through a four-stage process. Through planning, acting, developing, and reflecting stages, action research enables exploring solutions to assess their effectiveness.
The Planning Stage
The first step of action research is identifying a specific topic. The process of consulting with other advisors (step 2) and reviewing existing literature (step 3) help in the identification of specific “problems of practice” (Mertler, 2019, p. 15) for further study. Some potential topics of interest related to the innovation of advising are:
- Student preparedness for advising appointments
- Student ownership of their college experience
- Student responsibility for choices available within degree requirements
- Student exploration of career paths, projections, and interests based on their major selection
- Student meaning-making throughout the college experience
- Student control over decisions and actions, as well as the corresponding outcomes
An overarching theme of student agency permeates this list. Finally, considering how to measure this identified topic is an essential final step in the planning stage (step 4).
What is the topic of your action research?
- The topic of my action research seeks to evaluate the impact of flipped advising on student agency for first-year university students through the use of an ePortfolio resource that flips advising.
- Employing the tenants of blended learning, flipped advising assigns homework to advisees in various formats.
- Flipped advising allows an alternative or supplement to traditional advising on various topics typically addressed in one-on-one advising sessions.
- Since flipped advising covers many topics, the module on accessing degree audits to review the plan of study requirements, research corresponding prerequisite requirements, and evaluate course sequencing is the focus of this action research study.
- Since student agency encompasses many aspects of college students’ lives and advising interactions, this initial phase of my action research journey will focus on accurate curricular selections to indicate preparation for course registration advising.
What is the purpose of your study?
- As the time-sensitive necessity of course registration combines with limited advising resources (time/staffing), course selection all too often becomes the focus and primary function of advising.
- However, research shows effective advising guides students through the metacognitive meaning-making process of academic pursuits.
- These critical advising functions often fall secondary to transactional interactions, and advising appointments become information transfer sessions.
What is your research question?
In what ways does a flipped advising module on degree planning facilitate student agency in making curricular choices during the first year of college?
What is your research design?
- Quantitative research design
- Descriptive design
- Correlational study
Why did you choose this design?
- An unlimited number of variables undoubtedly impact student agency, and correlational studies enable the “[examination] whether and to what degree a statistical relationship exists between two or more variables” (Mertler, 2019, p. 99). Therefore, a correlational study allows the examination of what, if any, relationship flipped advising has on first-year university students’ course selection accuracy.
The Acting Stage
The acting stage of the action research process is where the “actual research activities take place” during this stage, it is essential to (step 5) implement the plan, collect data and (step 6) analyze it (Mertler, 2019, p. 41).
What data will you collect?
- During the advising for course registration advising cycle, students will complete a rating scale (via Google Forms) of Likert and Likert-like questions upon arrival and check-in (before the advising session). Students will indicate which sections of the flipped advising module on degree requirements were completed, including the option of none. The Google Form will also ask the student to indicate the coursework they plan to register to take, including an “I don’t know” option.
- Upon the conclusion of each advising appointment, advisors will complete a post-advising rating scale (via Google Forms) of Likert and Likert-like questions. The advisors will indicate their perceptions of the student’s preparation for the registration appointment, the course selections made on the pre-appointment survey (both accuracy and applicability to degree plan requirements), and the advisor’s perception of the depth of the overall interaction.
What types of measurement will you use?
- Inferential statistics for comparisons
- Independent-measures t test to evaluate the relationship between variables
- Degree of predictive accuracy of flipped advising on course selections
What is the focus of your literature review?
Since information and research on my specific topic for action research are limited, I have broadened the scope of my literature review to include the following focuses:
- Flipped Advising/Flipped classroom
- Blended advising/Blended learning
- Asynchronous Advising/Asynchronous learning
- E-advising/E-Learning
- Student agency
Reference
Mertler, C. A. (2019). Action research: Improving schools and empowering educators (6th ed.). SAGE Publications, Incorporated.
The Advisor That Cares 