Educators Discuss Latest Trends in Action Research at 5th Annual Conference

More than 120 teachers, counselors, school administrators, college faculty and students will gather at the University of San Diego on May 16 and 17 to focus on action-based research in education.

The 5th Annual CS3 Symposium: Action Research in Education and Leadership is hosted by the School of Leadership and Education Sciences’ (SOLES) departments of Learning and Teaching and Leadership Studies, the Counseling Program and the university’s Center for Student Support Systems (CS3). The conference broadens the scope of the school’s commitment to action research as an effective tool for strengthening accountability in education. The Symposium will include projects completed in K-12 schools, as well as in higher education. More than 30 workshops will be offered on methodology in action research.

“Action research helps bridge the gap between research and practice in education,” said SOLES Professor Lonnie Rowell, Ph.D. “Schools using action research have found that a culture of inquiry can be established in which school staffs regularly look to the data - of student achievement, discipline, and school climate - to guide decision-making about curriculum and program changes to better serve pupils.”

Presenters from across the country and Japan will present the latest developments in the field. Action research applications offer a broad range of benefits from math, language and computer classes in K-12 education, as well as assisting school counselors in conducting program evaluations and assisting students in the transition from elementary to middle school.

A highlight of the conference is keynote speaker Bill Torbert, Ph.D., author of “Action Inquiry: The Secret of Timely and Transforming Leadership.” Tolbert, former dean of the Boston College School of Management, will lead two workshops on Friday and will deliver the keynote address on Saturday.

The conference, which was expanded this year, promises to deliver the most informative and engaging exploration of action research to date. Topics include:

- Challenges in bi-national action research

- Student motivation in mathematics

- Action research with second language learners

- Transition into middle school

- Program evaluation in school counseling

- Action research and character education programs

- Use of action research in managing school improvement in Japan

- Using focus groups to foster collective reflections on social justice

- Escuelas entre fronteras  - classrooms across borders

- Professors and students in joint action: Inquiry in the classroom and the workplace

For more information, go to http://www.sandiego.edu/soles/cs3

About The University of San Diego

The University of San Diego is a Catholic institution of higher learning chartered in 1949; the school enrolls approximately 7,500 undergraduate and graduate students and is known for its commitment to teaching, the liberal arts, the formation of values and community service. The inauguration of the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies brings the university’s total number of schools and colleges to six. Other academic divisions include the College of Arts and Sciences and the schools of Business Administration, Law, Leadership and Education Sciences, and Nursing and Health Science.

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About the University of San Diego

Strengthened by the Catholic intellectual tradition, we confront humanity’s challenges by fostering peace, working for justice and leading with love. With more than 8,000 students from 75 countries and 44 states, USD is the youngest independent institution on the U.S. News & World Report list of top 100 universities in the United States. USD’s eight academic divisions include the College of Arts and Sciences, the Knauss School of Business, the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering, the School of Law, the School of Leadership and Education Sciences, the Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science, the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, and the Division of Professional and Continuing Education. In 2021, USD was named a “Laudato Si’ University” by the Vatican with a seven-year commitment to address humanity’s urgent challenges by working together to take care of our common home.