Action Research Concept - PPT

1. Topic 1(6 hrs)
• Background and concept of Teacher as
researcher (Lecture)
– What it is
– Origin and development
– Professional standards for teachers
• Action Research Principles and Practice
(Self-learning and collaboration)
• Individual v Collaborative Action
Research

2. Inquiry-based research conducted by teachers
that follows a process of examining existing
practices, implementing new practices,
and evaluating the results,
leading to an improvement cycle
that benefits both students and teachers.
Also known as: practitioner research, teacher
research, site-based research, and action science.
cs3.wnmu.edu/elearning/a404/support/a404b0_50100.html

3.  “Professionals studying their own practice in order to
improve it.
 Applied to teaching, it involves gathering and interpreting
"data" to better understand an aspect of your teaching that
interests or concerns you.
 An alternative to teachers who have been encouraged to look
to others, rather than to themselves and their students, for
ways to improve their teaching.
 Action research is an important recent development in the
broad territory of "teachers' professional development."
Tom Russell, Queen’s University
http://educ.queensu.ca/~russellt/howteach/arguide.htm#arwhy
ACTION RESEARCH refers to:

4. Action Research – Tracing the origins and development
in Teacher Education
– Kurt Lewin (1940)
– Stephen Corey (1950)
– Lawrence Stenhouse (1970s)
– Carr and Kemmis (1980s to date)
– John Elliot (1990s to date)
– Donald Schon (1980s)
– Jack Whitehead (1970 to date)
– Jean McNiff (1990 to date)

5. Kurt Lewin (1946)
• Coined the word “Action Research”;
• Research for social management or social engineering in industrial contexts.
Lewin’s Action Research Involves a spiral of steps, ‘each of which is composed of a
circle of planning, action and fact-finding about the result of the action’

6. Teacher as Researcher
The teacher is like a gardener who treats different plants
differently and not like a large-scale farmer who administers
standardized treatments to as-near-as possible standardized
plants.
Under such conditions variation of treatment gives a better gross
yield attempting to maximise the yield of every individual unit; and
this is what is required of education.
The teacher must diagnose before he prescribes and then vary the
prescription.
…both teachers and pupils are involved in meaningful action and
meaningful action cannot be standardised by control or sampled.”
Lawrence Stenhouse
Feb 1979, University of East Anglia, UK
In “Research as a basis for teaching – Readings from Lawrence Stenhouse by Rudduck and
Hopkins
Lawrence Stenhouse

7. Teacher as researcher:
Real classrooms have to be our laboratories, and they are in
the command of teachers, not of researchers.
This is the characteristic of professional schools: the
research act must conform to the obligations of the
professional context.
This is what we mean by action research.
Lawrence Stenhouse
Feb 1979, University of East Anglia, UK
Lawrence Stenhouse

8. Teacher as researcher:
We shall only teach better if we learn
intelligently from the experience of shortfall,
both in our grasp of the knowledge we offer and of
how to offer it. That is the case for research
as a basis for teaching.
Lawrence Stenhouse
Feb 1979, University of East Anglia, UK
Lawrence Stenhouse

9. Teacher as researcher:
“It is teachers who, in the end, will
change the world of the school by
understanding it.”
Inscription on Lawrence Stenhouse’s
memorial plaque at University of East
Anglia.
Lawrence Stenhouse

10. “Action research is simply a form of self-
reflective enquiry undertaken by participants in
social situations in order to improve the
rationality and justice of their own practices,
their understanding of these practices, and the
situations in which the practices are carried
out.”
Carr & Kemmis, 1986

11. • The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals
think in Action (1983)
• Educating the Reflective Practitioner (1987)
Donald Schon
Philosopher, researcher, professor emeritus (MIT), made significant
contributions to the theory and practice of learning. Concerned with
professional learning, learning processes in organizations, and with
developing critical, self-reflecting practice
http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-schon.htm
Influential writing:

12. Reflection
» Latin “reflectere” : To bend back
• Involves “shuttling back and forth
between thinking and action”

13. http://www.infed.org/biblio/b-reflect.htm

14. “Levels of Reflectivity”
Level 1
Involves technical application of knowledge and skills in the
classroom setting.
Level 2
Emphasizes examination of assumptions underlying practice.
Level 3
Emphasizes moral and ethical issues of practicality to values
and beliefs.
Quality Teaching: Reflection, the heart of Practice by Joelle K. Jay. 2003

15. Knowing in Action
• The sorts of knowledge we reveal in our intelligent action
– publicly observable, physical performances like riding a
bicycle and private operations like instant analysis of a
balance sheet. In both cases, the knowing is in the
action. We reveal it by our spontaneous, skillful
execution of the performance…” Schon, 1987
• Knowing in action: knowing more than we can say, the
capacity to do the right thing (tacit knowledge).
http://hci.stanford.edu/other/schon87.htm
Donald Schon

16. Reflection in Action
• Reflection takes place in the midst of action
• Capacity to respond to surprise through improvisation on the
spot
• Involves a surprise (an unexpected outcome/behaviour that
challenges one’s knowing in action), a response to surprise
…conducting an action experiment on the spot by which we
seek to solve the new problems … we test our new way of
seeing the situation, and also try to change that situation for
the better.
• This is not method but art and a talent.
http://hci.stanford.edu/other/schon87.htm
Donald Schon

17. Reflection on action
http://www.infed.org/biblio/b-reflect.htm#Schon
Pausing after an activity to see how it went –
what went well, what did not, what could be
changed;
We develop sets of questions and ideaas about
our activities and practice
Donald Schon

18. Reflection
• Looking back on experience to improve practice
• Learning in the midst of practice
• Making decisions about what to do

19. Stop to reflectStop to reflect

20. Rushing aroundRushing around
Life becomes a blurLife becomes a blur

21. Reflection helps us toReflection helps us to
focus…focus…

22. To think and actTo think and act
and think again…and think again…

23. ReflectionReflection is the bridgeis the bridge
betweenbetween thinkingthinking andand
actingacting

24. A reflective thinker is aware of her own
knowledge and lack of knowledge and
recognizes that there may not be only a single
correct solution to a problem or interpretation of
a situation. A reflective thinker relies on all
available resources to find relevant needed
information and opinions in order to come to a
personal understanding of a situation, knowing
that this understanding may change, as she
gains more information and insight into the
matter.
http://ldt.stanford.edu/ldt1999/Students/cmazow/MajorProject/refThinkLoMain.htm

26. This methodological approach can then be developed as an action
plan, which can take the form:
1. What is my concern?
2. Why am I concerned?
3. What do I think I can do about the situation?
4. What will I do?
5. How will I show whether I am influencing the situation for good?
6. How will I produce evidence of my influence?
7. How will I ensure that any claims I make are reasonably fair and
accurate?
8. What will I do then?
Jack Whitehead and Jean McNiff
Jack Whitehead at the University of Bath
“Living Educational Theory”

27. Action Research refers to:
• A particular way of researching your own learning;
• A practical way of looking at your practice in order to check
whether it is as you feel it should be…;
• If you feel that your practice needs attention in some way you
will be able to take action to improve it, and then produce
evidence to show in what way the practice has improved.
Jean McNiff, 2002
Action Research Principles and Practice
Jean McNiff

28. “…teacher-initiated
classroom investigationinvestigation
which seeks to increaseincrease
the teachers’ understandingthe teachers’ understanding
of classroom teaching and learningof classroom teaching and learning,
and to bring about changechange
in classroom practices.”
Teachers’ Network (Ministry of Education, Singapore)
publication on Learning Circles
Action Research in
Singapore (1998)

29. Action Research Process in MOE
ReflectReflect
– Think about what we want to focus on
PlanPlan
– – Plan what to do
ActAct
– – Carry out plan, collect evidence
ObserveObserve
– Observe, monitor and record
ReflectReflect
– Reflect on what has happened to improve further.
To improve the quality of teaching and learning

30. A professional development
framework for teachers in ITE
Based on Action Research.
A professional development
framework for teachers in ITE
Based on Action Research.
Since Feb 2002
EXPLOREEXPLORE
PRACTISEPRACTISEPERFORMPERFORM
PLAN
Quality
Teaching &
Learning
EEnquirynquiry
RReflectioneflection
Process
Product
Habits
In ITE

31. PEPP&ER process - improving the quality of
teaching and learning
PLAN to improve the quality of teaching and learning
EXPLORE new and innovative strategies
PRACTICE – carry out the plan agreed upon
PERFORM – reflect on learning experience and share findings
PEPP&ER is founded on
Action Research Principles and practice

32. Teaching effectiveness
– better understanding, grades, attitude towards
learning, teaching materials and acquisition of the key
competencies
Classroom management & discipline
– better student behaviour (punctuality, reduced
disruptions in class, better attention span)
Use of information technology
- effective use of IT to deliver the content)
Curriculum innovation
- interdisciplinary efforts using Pmodel or similar
frameworks eg. PBL
Assessment methodologies
- use of alternative assessment tools – student
portfolios, checklists, peer assessment, student
reflections
Development of students through CCA
- leadership skills, self-esteem, personal
development
Reflect on:

33. "Action research is the process through which
teachers collaborate in evaluating their practice
jointly; raise awareness of their personal theory;
articulate a shared conception of values; try out
new strategies to render the values expressed in
their practice more consistent with the
educational values they espouse; record their
work in a form which is readily available to and
understandable by other teachers; and thus
develop a shared theory of teaching by
researching practice." - John Elliott
Products of Action Research: Teachers’ Professional Knowledge

34. Institute of Technical Education, Singapore 2004
1997

35. New role for teachers
Students in the KBE need to be adaptable, flexible and
creative…there is a need to develop a thinking student
• Teachers should share valuable insights and experiences
in real classroom situations about students’ learning,
about their subjects, about themselves
• Teachers should not work alone…should network and
talk with other teachers to develop more innovative
teaching strategies
• Teachers should reflect continually on what they do and
work with colleagues on how to do things better.
RADM Teo Chee Hean at the Teachers’ Conference 2001
PM Lee Hsien Loong

36. • Who is a Reflective Practitioner;
• Who creates professional knowledge;
• Who is a lifelong learner;
• Who continually improves on
the quality of Teaching and Learning.

37. “Teacher research will force the re-evaluation of
current theories and will significantly influence
what is known about teaching, learning, and
schooling.
It has often been said, ‘Teachers leave a mark
on their students, but they seldom leave a
mark on their profession’ (Wolf, 1989).
Through the process and products of action
research teachers will do both.”
What are the key effects of Action Research on the
Professional development of teachers?