Familiarize yourself with the nine steps that Mills (2014) presents in Chapter 3, pp. 69-70, in order to complete the first three steps of your Final Project, Action Research Plan.  Follow the directions below as they differ from the steps on page 69.

At this point, you are presenting early ideas that are not concrete, as you have not conducted a review of literature yet.  Therefore, your responses should be in outline form only.  (You will make these three steps more concrete and formal in structure in Week Three). For now, you will briefly explain the problem or situation.

1. Area of Focus
   • Identify your early idea of what the purpose of your study may be
   • Explanation of Problem
     • Statement of problem or situation that led to this interest or why you want to pursue this topic, including trends in education or educational research.
     • Define Variables
       • Describe the population (age/grade, quantity of participants, students/or adults). Briefly explain why you have chosen them.
       • Research question(s)
         • What do you wonder?  Consider your area of focus statement.  What do you hope to answer?