Southern California educators attend School of Education's Writing Project Workshop

(Irvine, October 20, 2019) - More than 100 educators from Southern California attended the first workshop in the UCI Writing Project's 2019-20 series, "Research-Based Strategies to Enhance Learning for All Students."

“The purpose of this workshop series is to give university faculty, doctoral students, K-12 administrators, and classroom teachers an up-close-and-personal experience interacting with key scholars whose research has practical implications for improving outcomes for all students, grades K-12," said Professor Carol Booth Olson, series coordinator. "Topics such as those showcased this year — youth participatory action research, digital citizenship, and social emotional learning — are derived by querying K-12 curriculum specialists regarding the most pressing concerns in K-12 education today. The workshops also include preservice teachers from our MAT Program, giving them a rich exposure to the best in professional development."

The first workshop, titled "Fostering Collaborative Inquiry and Civic Engagement through Youth Participatory Action Research," was led by Nicole Mirra, assistant professor of urban teacher education at Rutgers University, and Antero Garcia, assistant professor at Harvard's Graduate School of Education. ​

Antero Garcia, Carol Booth Olson, Nicole Mirra

UCI Student Center

During the morning portion of the workshop, participants progressed through five key topics that facilitate collaborative inquiry action research projects.

• Establishing relationships and fostering collaboration
• Asking actionable research questions
• Helping students become researchers through data collection analysis
• Strengthening students' listening, speaking, reading, writing, and critical thinking skills through action research
• Identifying strategies for sharing findings with authentic audiences in various print, digital, and visual formats

Video clips were available as examples of student action researchers.

By the end of the workshop, participants developed personalized action plans for engaging students in a collaborative youth participatory action research project. Attendees received a copy of the book co-authored by Mirra and Garcia, with participation from UCLA Associate Professor Ernest Morrell: Doing Youth Participatory Action Research: Transforming Inquiry with Researchers, Educators and Students (Routledge). 

View additional workshop photographs here.

Two additional workshops are scheduled in the Research-Based Strategies series.

• January 22, 2020 - "Transforming Learning: Preparing Students for Success in the Digital Age by Promoting Digital Citizenship, Critical Thinking, and Social Emotional Intelligence," featuring Alan November, co-founder of the Stanford Institute for Educational Leadership.
• February 26, 2020 - "All Learning is Social and Emotional: Helping Students Develop Essential Skills for the Classroom and Beyond," featuring Dominique Smith, director of student services at Health Sciences High & Middle College in San Diego. 

All workshops are scheduled from 8:30 am - 2:30 pm at the UCI Student Center. The workshop fee of $235 includes parking, continental breakfast, box lunch, and a book by the featured speaker.

Information/Registration

The UCI Writing Project is part of the UCI Teacher Academy, which provides a home for teachers and school leaders to develop and enhance their professional practice via five California Subject Matter Projects. A part of the UCI School of Education and founded in fall 2018, the Teacher Academy in its first year hosted more than 2,500 teachers across several workshops and conferences.