Teacher as Researcher

Teacher as Researcher is a transformative professional practice program brought to you for FREE by the South Carolina Department of Education. This initiative provides professional development, personalized coaching, and tools to guide teachers through implementing and evaluating evidence-based instructional strategies in their unique classroom contexts.

The initiative not only improves instructional practices but also invests in teachers, fostering self-efficacy and a sense of agency, which are known to boost teacher retention—a compelling proposition for school and district leaders committed to educational excellence.

Teacher as Researcher consists of six 2-hour virtual workshops, with time allotted in between for teachers to conduct their research cycles.

Districts and schools can register a group of teachers, or teachers can sign up to be part of a statewide cohort experience or complete the program individually.

With 4 out of 5 teacher participants recommending Teacher as Researcher, this FREE to you ($1,500/teacher value) opportunity is one you won’t want to miss.

South Carolina K-12 educators from all content areas who are actively working with students in a classroom – and EPP graduate students who are acting teachers – are welcome! Please see How do I get involved? below for information about how to register yourself or a group of teachers.

Educator Preparation Programs can also participate! Graduate educator preparation programs working with educators who are in the classroom can reach out for information on how to partner to embed Teacher as Researcher into their programming and help strengthen the action research skills of their students.

Districts that register five or more teachers will receive support from a Teacher as Researcher coach and our scheduling team to plan and schedule all six workshops.

Teachers who participate receive:

• Six workshops of professional learning with a cohort of teachers
• Access to a coach who will help them identify instructional strategies, plan their research cycle, and make sense of their data throughout the training window
• Access to tools created to make the process easier (Strategy Clearinghouse and Strategy Workshop) that lasts beyond the training window to make it easy for teachers to continue to explore instructional improvement
• Membership in a statewide network of teachers who have participated in the program and continue to share effective strategies and reflect on practice

• Offer your teachers the opportunity to try new strategies before they commit by collecting evidence along the way to validate what’s working.
• Equip your teachers with tools for evidence-based teaching.
• Get away from a one-size-fits-all approach to reaching shared goals with a method that recognizes the uniqueness of every classroom and teacher.
• Give your teachers access to a robust and statewide Professional Learning Network.
• Teacher as Researcher is proven to increase teachers’ self-reported sense of efficacy and agency. Other research links higher self-efficacy to higher job satisfaction, which is a factor in teacher retention.
• We provide flexible scheduling to hold the workshops at times that work best for participating schools.

• The opportunity to try new strategies before you commit by collecting evidence along the way to validate what’s working.
• Tools for evidence-based teaching.
• A method that gets away from a one-size-fits-all approach to reaching shared goals and recognizes the uniqueness of every classroom and teacher.
• Training to use an evidence-backed method from one of the leading names in education research.
• Six online Research Design Workshops, with the first four supporting you through demystifying the research process and the last two allowing for you to implement and reflect on instructional strategies.
• Flexible scheduling to hold the workshops at times that work best for your school.
• Personalized coaching and support.
• Access to Strategy Clearinghouse: a searchable web database of hundreds of evidence-based instructional strategies with guidance to simplify the ones that are likely to work for your classroom context.
• Access to Strategy Workshop: a powerful online tool that automates data analysis to support the sensemaking of data so you don’t have to.
• Access to a robust, statewide Professional Learning Network—continue your research and learn from other participants’ results.
• The potential to earn up to 20 renewal credits.

Even for teachers already utilizing evidence-based methods, Teacher as Researcher offers personalized coaching and a support system with additional tools and resources to further explore those strategies. It’s designed to align with your existing workload and planning, not add new burdensome processes. Participation allows you to get data-driven feedback through short research cycles to make classroom adjustments in real time based on student needs, as well as learn from other participants’ findings.

While the pilot version of Teacher as Researcher was created for middle school math teachers, we have since expanded the initiative to all grades and subjects! South Carolina K-12 educators from all content areas who are actively working with students in a classroom—and EPP graduate students who are acting teachers—are welcome!

District and school leaders: Please complete this interest form and a Teacher as Researcher coach will reach out to schedule workshops when it works for your teachers.

Individual teachers: You get the most out of Teacher as Researcher when multiple teachers from your district or school participate as a group. While you can take advantage of this opportunity individually, consider sharing this page with a school or district leader to see if a group of teachers would like to register together! If you want to register individually, please complete this interest form and a scheduling specialist will contact you to determine which set of state-cohort workshops will work best with your schedule.

Thanks to the South Carolina Department of Education, Teacher as Researcher (valued at $1,500 per teacher) is being offered for FREE to educators in South Carolina. However, there are limited spots available, so don’t wait to register!

Districts, schools, or professional organizations may choose to offer substitute pay, release time, or other incentives per local policy and procedures.

We work closely with districts and schools to schedule the workshops when it makes most sense for participating teachers—whether that’s before school, during the school day, after school, or during an existing professional development day.

Teacher as Researcher consists of six 2-hour virtual workshops that are spaced out over 10-14 weeks. We recognize how busy teachers are, so these workshops have “working time” built in to minimize the need to spend extra time between workshops. And since they are virtual workshops, teachers can attend from wherever they are. No commuting required!

See What are the Research Design Workshops? below to read more about the structure and timing of the workshops.

No. Districts or organizations choosing to participate will have to determine policies for release time or substitute pay at the local level.

Flexible scheduling options are available to embed work into existing PD/PLC/collaboration time with a school or district. Request more information to talk through these options with a scheduling specialist.

We recognize how busy teachers are, so the workshops have “working time” built in to minimize the need to spend extra time between workshops. And since they are virtual workshops, you can attend from wherever you are. No commuting required! In addition, the research cycles are designed to align with your existing workload, not add new burdensome processes.

We also work closely with districts and schools to schedule these workshops when it makes the most sense for participating teachers—whether that’s before school, during the school day, after school, or during an existing professional development day.

During Teacher as Researcher, participants are allotted 4 weeks to complete each research cycle, or “Instructional Improvement Cycle.” You’ll see results from your first study within a month! Participants will typically complete two cycles during Teacher as Researcher. And after participating, you’ll possess all the tools and knowledge required to independently conduct more Instructional Improvement Cycles at your own pace.

Yes! Teacher as Researcher is designed to integrate seamlessly with the following standards that South Carolina teachers need to consider:

• South Carolina Teaching Standards
• College and Career Ready Standards
• Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS)

Yes! Up to 20 hours are available to be earned towards state recertification, though districts and schools may have additional guidelines for how many hours can be applied.

Educator preparation faculty and staff: Contact us to schedule an introductory call to learn more about the initiative. We also offer a 2-session workshop experience to give faculty a deeper understanding of Teacher as Researcher Initiative and associated tools.

EPP graduate students who are acting teachers: You are welcome to participate in Teacher as Researcher! Fill out this interest form and we’ll work to schedule the virtual workshop series in coordination with your program to integrate with existing courses or professional development.

Strategy Clearinghouse is a publicly available, comprehensive web database of evidence-based, standards-aligned instructional strategies, curated by Marzano Research from What Works Clearinghouse practice guides and other reputable sources. Teachers can use this resource to select from hundreds of strategies. Each strategy in the clearinghouse has been linked to pertinent standards to make it easier for teachers to find the best strategy for their classroom and content.

Strategy Workshop is a powerful web tool used throughout Teacher as Researcher to assist teachers with designing an experiment, collecting data, analyzing that data, and understanding the effect size of the strategy they implemented. It demystifies some of the technical pieces of the research process and makes it simpler for teachers to get to the stage of reflecting on practice.

“Instructional strategy” is a broad term that’s frequently used in many contexts, but in the context of Teacher as Researcher, it simply means a series of actions with 1) a definable outcome relative to student thinking or learning, and 2) a definable beginning and end.

Teacher as Researcher participants get access to Strategy Clearinghouse, a searchable web database of hundreds of evidence-based instructional strategies to choose from when designing their research cycles.

Read more about instructional strategies as it relates to Teacher as Researcher.

An “Instructional Improvement Cycle” is exactly what it sounds like—a short research cycle where teachers try a new instructional strategy with some students and compare the results with students who receive the usual instruction. Teacher as Researcher uses Instructional Improvement Cycles to flip the traditional relationship between teachers and researchers, giving you more agency in your teaching style.

These cycles are a simple way to enhance your teaching using real data. The data collection period lasts 2-4 weeks, so you can conduct several cycles per school year and get results in time to adjust your instruction based on your findings. Plus, Teacher as Researcher includes access to Strategy Workshop, a web-based tool that automates the data analysis process so you don’t have to.

Instructional Improvement Cycle process:

1. Select a new instructional strategy to try from a web database of hundreds of evidence-based strategies
2. Implement with one group and compare with your control group, collecting data for 4 weeks
3. Enter data into the analysis tool
4. Reflect on the results—is there sufficient evidence that the strategy improved student outcomes?
5. Adjust your teaching methods based on your findings

Teacher as Researcher consists of six 2-hour online workshops, or “Research Design Workshops,” that are spaced out over 10-14 weeks. We recognize how busy teachers are, so these workshops have “working time” built in to minimize time spent working between workshops. And since they’re held virtually, you can attend from wherever you are. No commuting required!

Workshops 1-4: The first four workshops are dedicated to learning how to conduct quasi-experimental research, selecting an evidence-based instructional strategy to try, designing your first Instructional Improvement Cycle, and planning for implementation. With the support of your coaches and colleagues, you’ll get to brainstorm and fine-tune the plan for your cycle. These first four workshops are usually scheduled a week or two apart.

Workshop 5: You’ll have four weeks between Workshop 4 and 5 to conduct your first Instructional Improvement Cycle. At Workshop 5, you’ll get guidance on how to analyze and interpret your results. You’ll also prepare your second Instructional Improvement Cycle to conduct during the following four weeks.

Workshop 6: After your second Instructional Improvement Cycle is complete, you’ll interpret those results and debrief with your coaches and colleagues.

Read more about the Research Design Workshops.

Quasi-experimental research, or a quasi-experiment, is a type of study that aims to determine cause-and-effect relationships, much like a classic experiment. However, unlike a classic experiment, researchers don’t randomly assign study subjects to groups. Instead, they work with groups that are already formed—in this case, their classroom of students.

For example, a Teacher as Researcher participant (the researcher) might want to study the effects of a new math teaching method on their students’ quiz scores. They introduce the new teaching method to one classroom, but another classroom continues to receive the normal style of math instruction. Then the researcher compares the two sets of quiz scores. However, since the groups weren’t randomly assigned, it’s possible for other factors to be in play that might affect results. The researcher will need to keep these potential factors in mind when analyzing the data and drawing conclusions.

Quasi-experiments are often used in educational settings because it is impractical or impossible to do a true randomized control trial for several reasons: convenience, avoiding disruption to learning and school operations, and eliminating burdensome expense that would be incurred by extra staffing and coordination required to set up a true randomized experiment.

While quasi-experiments have some limitations compared to classic experiments, they allow researchers to study educational interventions in authentic school environments while working within the logistical and practical constraints of a classroom setting.

The Teacher as Researcher Professional Learning Network is a community of past participants who continue to collaborate, share helpful findings, and provide colleague support. During and after Teacher as Researcher, you’ll have access to this network to share your own findings and learn from past participants.

Two Marzano Research coaches will be assigned to your group throughout the entire process to facilitate each workshop, guide you through your research design, and offer individualized feedback in between workshops. Get to know the coaches.

Teacher as Researcher was designed by one of the greatest minds in education research, Dr. Robert Marzano. Dr. Marzano worked alongside Marzano Research to develop this evidence-backed method.

Rooted in the concepts of action research and effective instructional strategies, Teacher as Researcher is based on the idea that sometimes, a large-scale classic experimental study isn’t the right tool for the job. When researching the effectiveness of specific instructional strategies in classrooms, teachers are best positioned to find out what works.

Dr. Robert Marzano and Marzano Research designed Teacher as Researcher to offer an evidence-backed method that supports classroom-based experiments, supporting teachers as they develop and test hypotheses about what works for their students.

Read more about the research behind the Teacher as Researcher method here.

Four out of five participants say they would recommend Teacher as Researcher to other educators, according to post-survey data. With its focus on evidence-based instruction, short research cycles, and teacher reflection, Teacher as Researcher is professional learning with “staying power”—the ability to be implemented and sustained by teachers and the ability to make a difference for students in the long term.

Research has shown that teacher efficacy (confidence in their instructional abilities) is highly correlated with positive results for students. Research has also shown that effective teacher data use is associated with increases in student achievement. A 2022-23 evaluation of Teacher as Researcher showed that participants reported significant increases in both efficacy and use of data.

When pre- and post-survey data from the 2022-23 school year were compared, participants also showed significant growth in:

• Knowledge and use of best instructional practices
• Measuring, testing, and evaluating instructional strategies
• Selecting appropriate instructional strategies for students
• Collaborative data practices

Read the full brief on Teacher as Researcher’s impact in South Carolina.

When South Carolina Teacher as Researcher first launched in Spring 2022, it was only offered to middle school math teachers. Early cohorts have also been able to engage with the beta versions of Strategy Workshop and Strategy Clearinghouse—innovative new custom research and data analysis tools for South Carolina educators. We have since expanded the initiative to all grades and subjects, and are continuing to hone and improve the custom tools we developed!

Get in touch with a Teacher as Researcher team member! We are happy to answer any questions you have about the initiative and work with you to schedule the workshops at times that are convenient for your district or school.