The Teacher Leader Inquiry Proposal: Details and Explanations

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The culminating project of this course is your Teacher Leader Inquiry Proposal. This project does not lead you through the steps of conducting a full research study, but it does guide you in developing a project to conceive of an investigation. This assignment may serve as a first draft of the inquiry project assigned for the Capstone Project, which serves as the final requirement in the EDLDR Master's of Education with a Teacher Leadership emphasis.

Provided for you below is a copy and paste of the section from your Details for Writing Assignments and Assessments document. Please review the assignment and begin brainstorming ideas for a research question to investigate for this project.

Assignment: The Teacher Leader Inquiry Proposal (30% of your final grade)

Overview

One of the essential behaviors of teacher leaders is inquiry. They are curious to know more about their teaching practice in order to improve their instructional quality and student learning. They think creatively about how to attain more knowledge based on careful observation of their classrooms and schools as well as understanding of their students. They design and conduct inquiry aligned to their teaching practice in order to create data that are useful in identifying and solving problems. Because their inquiry is grounded in their teaching practice, teacher leaders can speak with authority on matters of instruction, student learning, and school improvement. No other leaders in the school system have such a direct and substantive impact on teaching and learning.

Through the inquiry process, teacher leaders have an impact in their schools and community beyond their classroom. One reason is that their inquiry makes them credible sources of knowledge, able to speak to specific issues of teaching practice with current and relevant data. Another reason for their impact beyond the classroom is their relevance to other teachers; often the results and realizations of their inquiry can be transferred to other classrooms and other teachers’ practices. The impact of teacher leaders’ inquiries beyond the classroom is visualized in Danielson's framework from Lesson 1.

This assignment, which culminates the course, is grounded in your reading of Dana and Yendol-Hoppey (2014). You will be following their guidelines to design (but not actually implement) a potential inquiry project aligned with a specific problem of practice. This assignment has several components that build on each other, so you will need to complete all of the following steps:

1. identify and describe a “problem of practice” related to your own classroom
2. consider several wonderings that will help you frame an inquiry project related to your classroom or school
3. translate your wondering into an inquiry question that you could potentially investigate through a self-conducted inquiry project
4. describe the steps you would take in order to complete a potential inquiry project and anticipate the obstacles you might encounter
5. write a paper summarizing these steps
6. create a narrated PowerPoint slideshow to present your proposed project

Learning Goals

As a result of this assignment, you should be able to design a potential inquiry project. This includes your abilities to

• describe the components of a teacher leader inquiry project
• identify a problem of practice, contextualize it, and link it to your classroom and school
• determine the kinds of data you need to answer your question
• recognize how those data might inform your practice, improve student learning, and positively impact school improvement
• apply your investigative design skills to think about and draft other inquiry projects that ultimately might become your Capstone Project

Assignment

You will design a Teacher Leader Inquiry Proposal focusing on a practice-based problem with implications for your classroom and school. The assignment has two parts: a paper and a narrated PowerPoint slideshow.

Directions for Part 1: The Paper

The paper is a narrative essay based on the following outline. Give it the title “Teacher Leader Inquiry Proposal,” and include your name, the date, page numbers, and section headings. Note: You will not be actually conducting this inquiry. This in an exercise to practice inquiry design; going through the design helps you understand the process.

1. The Problem. Describe a problem of teaching practice based on your classroom teaching. What do you want to know more about in order to serve your students better? Do you want to resolve a persistent problem impacting your teaching or students’ learning?

   Note: In some cases, you might have already conducted inquiry projects in EDLDR 802 and/or CI 501. For this assignment, you should choose a new topic or one related to your previous inquiry in order to gain practice in designing additional research plans to impact your teaching practice.

2. The Wonderings and Inquiry Question. Describe the wonderings you’ve had about this problem of teaching practice. Show how you thought about this problem and what directions your wonderings took. Then, identify your finalized inquiry question, the guiding question that would steer your inquiry. Explain why you settled on this question. Refer to the readings and video examples, your writing responses, and instructor comments and communications in order to develop a viable inquiry question. In your paper, specifically denote the relevant coursework that has influenced your question development. As Dana and Yendol-Hoppey suggest, make sure your question is narrow enough to potentially study in an inquiry project.

   Note: You will submit your inquiry question ahead of the final paper with the purpose of making sure you have focused on a question that is sufficiently narrow and practical to study. See the Syllabus for the due date. Remember, design your study in such a way that, at the end, you will be able to answer your question.

3. Current Knowledge. Describe what is already known about the problem. Use credible Internet and library resources to describe best practices and scholarly research on the subject. Summarize and cite the research sources. Show us how the answer to your question will fill a gap in what is already known and what we need to further understand, even if it's applicable only to your classroom. Then, based on filling this knowledge gap, discuss why answering this question is pertinent to your classroom, your school, and the profession.
4. Data Collection. Describe the specific data you think you’d need in order to answer your inquiry questions. Be specific about (a) the sources of data (see Dana and Yendol-Hoppey, Chapter 4), (b) how you would go about collecting these data, and (c) how you would organize and store the data—for example, make transcriptions of interviews or create tables or charts for statistical data.
5. Data Analysis. Using the guidelines in Dana and Yendol-Hoppey (Chapter 5), describe how you would analyze the data.
6. Findings. While you cannot know what your findings would be without actually conducting your inquiry, you might already have some ideas about what you would discover. Describe any ideas or intuitions about possible findings and explain why they are noteworthy.
7. Implications for your teaching practice. Even without knowing your findings, you might have some general ideas about how discovering your answer will impact your practice, your school, and even the district and the overall profession. Describe the possible implications of your study. This section is one of the most important ones of the paper. It shows creative thinking regarding how your inquiry will impact yourself and others.

This paper will be 8–10 double-spaced pages (not counting references). Use a 12-point Arial font and one-inch margins all around. Put your name, the date, your instructor's name, and the paper title on the first page, and include both page numbers and section headers throughout the assignment. Use only a current version of Microsoft Word, and upload your paper to the Teacher Leader Inquiry Proposal assignment as directed within Lesson 11. Reference the Syllabus for required due dates.

Use APA citation and reference style. If you don't have a copy of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.), the APA Style Blog can answer most citation and reference questions. In addition, many public and university libraries have a copy of the manual in their reference collections, or you may purchase your own.

Directions for Part 2: The PowerPoint Presentation

Summarize your paper in a 10-minute narrated PowerPoint presentation that you will post for other students to view. Use Bongo to narrate your slideshow. If you use Keynote or any other slideshow program, convert it to Microsoft Office PowerPoint. In general, a 10-minute slideshow uses between 9 and 12 slides, including a title slide with the project name, your name, and your contact email. Avoid overloading slides with text.

Assessment

The Teacher Leader Inquiry Proposal is worth 30% of your final grade. It will receive a letter grade based on the rubric shown in Table 5.1.

Table 5.1. Teacher Leader Inquiry Proposal Grading Rubric

Criteria	Not Acceptable 0	Needs Improvement 1/Grade D	Developing 2/Grade C	Meets Expectations 3/Grade B	Exceeds Expectations 4/Grade A
The Problem	The problem is not addressed. No product.	The problem is not a problem of practice and has little bearing on teaching and learning for yourself or for other teachers.	The problem is a problem of practice whose impact on teaching or learning may not be evident. Relevance of benefit to others is absent.	The problem is a problem of practice having an impact on teaching and learning. Relevance to other teachers’ practice may not be evident.	The problem is a problem of practice, has an important and direct impact on teaching and learning, and has relevance to other teachers.
The Wondering and Inquiry Question	The question is not addressed. No product.	The question, for one more reasons, cannot be adequately studied in a teacher inquiry.	The question’s relevance to the problem is unclear.	The question is relevant to the problem but is too broad to be adequately studied in a teacher inquiry.	The question is relevant to the problem but is too broad to be adequately studied in a teacher inquiry.
Current Knowledge	The knowledge is not addressed. No product.	The proposal makes only a cursory attempt at collecting the existing knowledge on the topic.	The proposal considers an incomplete body of knowledge and does not include any peer-reviewed studies.	The proposal considers research from a variety of sources but misses key areas of knowledge to inform the study.	Proposal thoroughly considers most current peer-reviewed research into what we already know about the topic.
Data Collection	Data collection is not addressed. No product.	Proposal has an insufficient data collection plan.	Proposal intends to collect data not relevant to the question and lacks in one or more of the following areas: amount, access, or collection methods.	Proposal identifies the appropriate types of data needed to answer the question but lacks in one or more of the following areas: amount, access, or collection methods.	Proposal identifies the appropriate type and amount of data necessary to answer the question. The researcher has sufficient access to data and a systematic way to collect them.
Data Analysis	Data analysis is not addressed. No product.	Data analysis techniques are mentioned but not developed into a substantial proposal of ideas.	Data analysis techniques are proposed but do not follow a systematic approach as those discussed in the Dana and Yendol-Hoppey text.	Data analysis techniques from the text are proposed with some relevant evidence answering the question.	Data analysis techniques from the text are proposed in detail and with accuracy relevant to answering the question.
Findings	The findings are not addressed. No product.	The proposed findings are either not apparent or not in sufficient detail or both.	The proposed findings appear to have little or no relevance to the topic.	The proposed findings are described but lack specificity or plausibility to the topic and question.	The proposed findings are described specifically and are plausible to the topic and question.
Implications for Your Teaching Practice	The proposal’s implications are not addressed. No product.	Lacking several criteria for this section. The proposal’s implications are insufficient.	Proposal’s implications demonstrate superficial thinking about the significance of your proposed study to your practice and others’ practice.	Proposal’s implications demonstrate thinking about the significance of your proposed study to the practice of yourself and others.	Proposal’s implications demonstrate critical and creative thinking about the significance of your proposed study to the practice of yourself and others.
Requirements	All paper setup and timeline requirements are not met.	Some paper setup and timeline requirements are met, but most are missing.	Many paper setup and timeline requirements are met.	All paper setup and timeline requirements are met.	All paper setup and timeline requirements are met above and beyond expectations.
Citations	Evidence is not provided and citations are not included or are formatted incorrectly according to APA guidelines.	Evidence is missing where necessary for supporting ideas. Citations are missing and/or formatting is incorrect according to APA.	Evidence is provided but lacking in at least some aspects. Citations are included but not formatted properly according to APA.	Sufficient evidence is provided and citations are formatted correctly according to APA guidelines.	Evidence is provided to thoroughly support ideas and conclusions. Citations are formatted correctly according to APA guidelines.

Final Grade and Comments

The instructor reserves the right to identify strengths and weakness on the rubric and assign a grade based on the student’s work and instructor’s discretion.