WHAT TYPES OF DATA SHOULD BE COLLECTED?
應該收集什麼類型的資料？
Data are endemic in educational settings. As Richard Wallace (1996) reports, "School districts usually gather much more data than they can effectively use." The challenge is to analyze the information and use it wisely. Many believe the logical starting point is to make better use of existing or archival data (Wallace, Emily Calhoun 1994, McLean). These data include statistics on attendance, grades, referrals, retentions, and standardized-test results. When compiled and reported on a regular basis, archival data provide a baseline of school operations and can be used to make comparisons among similar schools.
收集資料在教育環境中是很特別的，一項報導指出學區收集資料的程度比有效使用資料來得多，但目前重要的是要如何分析資訊和正確使用。許多人認為應該要好好利用已有的資料或存檔的數據。而這些數據包括了統計出勤率、成績、轉介、留級與標準化的測驗結果。定期去收集與回報，這些檔案資料可以維持學校的基本運作，並提供同類型學校進行比較。
With minimal effort, these data can often be disaggregated or broken down. Often done by grade, gender, race, or socioeconomic background, disaggregation can reveal previously unrecognized patterns that, in turn, may suggest areas in need of improvement.
通常不需什麼努力就能將資料分類或分解，通常資料分類的方式是由年級、性別、種族或社經背景，藉由分類來了解過去未能得知的資訊，另一方面也可能形成建議來改善教育。
With varying degrees of effort, other classes of data can be collected. Examples include survey results, interviews, numbers of books read, and other information on student achievement. These data typically require development of a means to collect and analyze the information (Calhoun). Data that may be more difficult to collect and interpret objectively include evaluations of student work, such as portfolios and exhibitions.
而不同程度的資料收集，反映在資料的型態上，就好比調查結果、訪談、書目閱讀或學生成就的其他資料。這些資料通常需要利用一些手段來收集和分析。這類的資料通常比較難收集，也較難去客觀評價學生的作業。
SHOULD TEACHERS SERVE AS RESEARCHERS?
教師是否應該像研究人員一樣？
Traditionally, educational researchers have been the ones to proclaim various educational practices as either effective or ineffective. Principles of effective instruction are often drawn from large-scale studies.
過去以來，教育研究人員已經公佈各種有效與無效的教育方式。而有效的教學原則往往是來自大規模的研究。
However, teachers do not work in large-scale, static settings. They face unique sets of students who respond variably to different strategies. Hence applying academic research findings to individual classrooms can be problematic.
但是教師是不可能作這種靜態的大型研究。他們所面對的是每個獨特而隨時變化的學生，要用不同的教學策略。因此學術研究的成果要應用到教師的教學上可能會產生問題。
One alternative to overreliance on the findings of large-scale studies is for educators to assume the role of researcher. By studying their students, teachers can bring the academic findings down to earth, as it were, and discover what works in their specific classroom.
過度地依賴這種大規模研究的結果，教育工作者往往會把自己當成是研究人員一樣。教師會變成希望透過研究自己的學生，而有一種學術成果。
Susan Black (1996) equates teacher research to the work done by anthropologists or ethnographers. "They are able to observe the cultural scene closely...and create a research record of the people, places, events and objects within it, as well as their own personal interactions and responses." By using the classroom as laboratory, teachers can, for example, learn whether interdisciplinary teaching is as effective with their remedial students as with their high achievers.
Susan從人類學家或人種學家的角度來看教師工作的內容，她認為教師能觀察教室的文化氛圍…並建立研究記錄，當中的人事物以及其互動和回應。透過教室、實驗室的利用，教師是可以完成研究的，像是了解跨學科的教學與輔導學生自我效能。
Research conducted by teachers differs from academic research (Black). First, academic researchers strive for objectivity, keeping the subjects of their study at arm's length. Teachers, in contrast, maintain a close relationship with the objects of their study. Academics try to design and control events under study while teachers observe activities as they occur in the real world, namely their classes. Finally, traditional researchers seek to globalize results while teachers know that their findings apply only to the students in their classes.
教師所進行的研究是不同於學術研究的。第一，學術研究人員是講求客觀，儘可能不要涉入研究對象中，但教師卻相反，反而要跟研究對象保持密切關係。其次，學術人員強調設計與控制事件，但教師則是在研究中觀察活動，因為這些動活是發生在真實的世界中。最後，學術人員期望能找到一個通則而適用全世界，但教師只知道他們的研究結果適用在班級上課的學生。
Such small-scale studies are often termed action research, because the teacher-researcher takes action based on the results of his or her findings. The research may be formal or informal, short- or long-term. But it is based on the understanding that the results are collected from a set of students and the action is applied to those same students (Calhoun, Molly Watt and Daniel Watt 1991).
這種小規模的研究往往被稱為是行動研究，因為教師和研究者是基於他的研究發現而採取行動。這種研究的結果可能是正式也可能是非正式的，是一種短期也可能是長期的研究。但基本上對於教師而言是對一群學生收集資料後，然後在這群學生身上採取行動。
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