Classroom Research
Classroom Research (CR)
Classroom Research is a term used to describe investigations into the status of student learning. These investigations produce feedback (via assessment) about student learning to instructors. The feedback is typically used to inform teaching decisions made by instructors in their individual classrooms.
Conducting CR permits faculty to take ownership of the teaching and learning process in their courses, along with the course content. Involvement in CR helps faculty bridge the gap between research and practice by connecting the act of teaching with current knowledge, theory, and results from educational research and the science of learning.
Example: A nursing instructor was concerned that her students’ low self-confidence was negatively impacting their ability to learn what she was teaching. She decided to develop a year- long classroom research project to evaluate her concerns. Is low self-confidence correlated with lower levels of learning? Her classroom research project documented that the students in her course with the lowest self-reported confidence levels were engaging in negative self-talk
and subconsciously sabotaging their own performance. The instructor shared the results of her project with students. She provided students with information about negative self-talk and showed them how it affects their learning. She then taught students strategies for engaging in positive self-talk.
