Maureen Ferley’s “An Action Research Study of Effective and Efficient Rehearsals in a Grade 8 Band Setting” provides model for future action research studies. At the onset of the paper she introduces the questions that prompted her work and which she uses to maintain her focus throughout her work. The paper’s chronological order allows the reader to easily follow her process and understand how the study progressed. The author first shows how she performed an extensive review of existing literature not only to provide insight into work already conducted in this area but also to guide her own study, especially concerning adolescent learners. Ferley then outlines method for the study while also identifying the research that she used to drive her teaching innovations. Before progressing to the analysis of the data, the final component of the introduction of the action research paper explains the collection of data though video recordings, exit slips, and student surveys for the project. …show more content…
The treatment of the video recordings received the most attention, followed by the use student surveys, and finally the incorporation of student exit slips. In addition to explaining the data gathered from the video recordings, Ferley organizes the information in a very understandable bar graph (figure 1) inserted into the paper. The explanation of the data gathered from the student surveys begins with a statistical analysis of the results of the pre- and post-surveys. Additionally, Ferley provides a table identifying the survey items and the mean ratings for each survey. The surveys also included an opportunity for open-ended responses from the participant. The data analysis component of the paper concludes by explaining the organization of how the open-ended response