The Power of Questions: A Guide to Teacher and Student Research

The Instructor's Guide provides a suggested framework that outlines each class session, complete with detailed assignments and rubrics for assessment.

Teacher research is a tool that can help you continue to learn throughout your career. Pursuing your own questions has the potential to foster genuine understandings of educational methods, re-invigorate your teaching practices, and re-shape your curriculum for the benefit of your students.

The Power of Questions makes connections between investigating issues related to your practice and designing research curricula for your students. Beverly Falk and Megan Blumenreich carefully illustrate and scaffold the research process for you by breaking it into smaller steps. They cite examples of real teacher researchers' studies as they provide advice, study questions, and exercise that help you:

• formulate a research question
• design a study
• investigate prior research on the subject
• choose the best tools for collecting evidence
• analyze your findings and apply them to the issues and dilemmas in your teaching life
• share what you've learned with others
• make research a regular part of your practice.

Unlike any other book on teacher research, Falk and Blumenreich provide you with analogous research projects for your students that support a classroom environment of inquiry and discovery. For teacher educators, an accompanying online instructor's manual includes rubrics to support and assess teacher professional development.

Whether you are a preservice, inservice or veteran teacher, through the inquiry and reflection of teacher research you can learn about your practice and your students and gain a deeper understanding of the potential that the inquiry process has to support powerful student learning.

Beverly Falk is Professor of Education and Head of the Graduate Programs in Early Childhood Education at The City College of New York, The City University of New York. She currently edits The New Educator and has authored The Heart of the Matter (Heinemann, 2000) and coauthored A Teacher’s Guide to Standardized Tests (Heinemann 1998) and Authentic Assessment in Action (Teachers College Press, 1995).

Megan Blumenreich is Assistant Professor of Education at The City College of New York, The City University of New York, where she teaches teacher research. She previously taught public school in Compton, California. In addition, she was Director of The Learning Center, an educational program at New York Presbyterian Hospital for HIV-positive children. She has published articles on HIV, equity, and qualitative research.