Collaborative Action Research

Each of the seven teams participating in the Maxims Research Grant Program is carrying out collaborative action research (CAR). What is this research all about? Richard Sagor describes CAR in his text, How to Conduct Sound Collaborative Action Research, published by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. While collaborative action researchers use a wide range of methods, essentially, this approach emphasizes teacher empowerment, initiative, and experimentation. Sagor defines CAR as a "process that enables teachers to improve the teaching-learning process while also contributing to the development of their own profession."

As the Maxims Research Grant recipients carry out their research, they are exploring different teaching strategies in the classroom and are assessing and evaluating them. In doing so, the teams will be able to identify the strategies that most effectively encourage young people to learn and use maxims. We hope that the findings of the seven research team will add to our knowledge of maxims as a key component in a comprehensive character education program.

We invite you to find our more about the individual research projects and to meet the teams of researchers and teachers.