5.+Guskey+&+Action+Research

Dr. Thomas Guskey is a professor and educational researcher who writes and speaks about his research in grading, mastery learning, assessment and professional development and its evaluation with regards to student learning. He is well-known for his Professional Development Evaluation model that expands on a Donald Kirkpatrick model of business training evaluation.

In Guskey's evaluation model, he highlights five levels to evaluate professional development; Participants' Reactions, Participants' Learning, Organization Support and Change, Participants' Use of New Knowledge and Skills and Student Learning Outcomes. Guskey discusses the value in looking at the levels in reverse, a backward design approach to designing professional development. He also indicates that gathering information about the final three levels can be made much easier by careful planning in advance to know what evidence will indicate success and when that evidence can be collected (Kredier and Bouffard, 2006). Some of the data collection tools that Guskey suggests via his model (Kreider and Bouffard, 2006), with the level of the model in which they are suggested, are > Participant Portfolios (Participants' Learning, Organization Support and Change, Participants' Use of New Knowledge and Skills, Student Learning Outcomes)
 * Questionnaires (Participants' Reactions, Organization Support and Change, Participants' Use of New Knowledge and Skills, Student Learning Outcomes)
 * Paper and Pencil Instruments (Participants' Learning)
 * Simulations (Participants' Learning)
 * Demonstrations (Participants' Learning)
 * Participant Reflections: oral and/or written (Participants' Learning, Participants' Use of New Knowledge and Skills)
 * District and school records (Organization Support and Change, Student Learning Outcomes)
 * Minutes from follow-up meetings (Organization Support and Change)
 * Structured interviews with participants and district or school administrators (Organization Support and Change, Participants' Use of New Knowledge and Skills)
 * Direct observations (Participants' Use of New Knowledge and Skills)
 * Video or audio tapes (Participants' Use of New Knowledge and Skills)
 * Student records (Student Learning Outcomes)
 * Structured interviews with students, parents, teachers, and/ or administrators (Student Learning Outcomes).

In the arena of assessment, Guskey urges teachers to reevaluate their views on their use of assessment. As opposed to simply relying on summative exams at the end of each unit and semester to evaluate student learning, Guskey suggests that teachers use assessments to gather information about student learning, to determine interventions needed from the results and to then allow students to demonstrate mastery through follow up assessments (Guskey, 2003). Using assessments in this way has very strong ties to action research. As teachers recognize deficiencies in their curricular practices (content, instruction and assessment), they can design assessments that will not only provide feedback to students as part of the learning process, but which can also serve as the data collection tools to analyze their chosen research topic.

A very good insight into both the importance of strategic planning of professional development as well as teachers using action research to determine the results of their implementation of new practices comes from this quote from Guskey (Kredier and Bouffard, 2006).


 * Some experts suggest that when educators engage in professional development endeavors, results might not be evident for two or three years. But when teachers are experimenting with new approaches to instruction or a new curriculum, they need to gain evidence rapidly to show that it's making a difference. If they don't see such evidence, they quite naturally revert back to the tried and true things they've done in the past. This isn't because they are afraid of change. Rather, it's because they are so committed their students and fear that the new approach might lead to less positive results. So, in planning professional development, we must include some mechanism whereby those responsible for implementation can gain evidence of success from their students rather quickly—within the first month of implementation.

Long-term change as a result of professional development will not occur unless teachers are convinced that what they are doing is helping their students. Without the proper tools to determine the effectiveness of any new teacher learning and its implementation to improve student learning, teachers will be inclined to return to previous practices.

**References**

Guskey, T. (2003). Using Data to Improve Student Achievement. //Educational Leadership, 50// (5). Retrieved from http://pdonline.ascd.org/pd_online/teachbehave2/el200302_guskey.html

Kredier, H., & Bouffard, S. (2006). A Conversation With Thomas Guskey. //The Evaluation Exchange, 11// (4). Retrieved from http://www.hfrp.org/evaluation/the-evaluation-exchange/issue-archive/professional-development/a-conversation-with-thomas-r.-guskey