Action Research Outline Part One of Two Pair work activity - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Action Research

Outline Part One of Two Pair work activity  Research  Action Research  Validation meetings  Readings 

Pair work Activity  One person talk to partner about something in your practice that you have worked on to improve.  Other person listens to see if they can understand what the values are that are motivating them to improve.  Feedback from pair work.

Pair work Activity  Focus on claims made about improvement.  Focus on kind of data required to enable you to make a judgement on the effectiveness of the actions taken.

Research Research is systematic, critical and self-critical enquiry which aims to contribute to the advancement of knowledge. (Bassey, 1995)

View of the world Objective ---------------------------------- Subjective Reason ----------------------------- Emotions / Meaning Science ---------------------------------------Faith Nature ------------------------------------- Nurture Determined -------------------------------Free will/Choice

Ontology, Epistemology & Methodology  Ontology – what we believe about the world.  Epistemology – what we believe is knowledge.  Methodology – Who is allowed to create knowledge, and how are they allowed to do it.

One view of the world  Technical Rational epistemology.  Scientific world view – positivist paradigm.  Knowledge is objective.  Knowledge is transferable.

Another view of the world  Knowledge is not objective.  Knowledge is not necessarily transferable.  There is no necessarily wrong or right answer.  Post-positivist paradigm.

Paradigm A set of beliefs and feelings about the world and how it should be understood and studied. (Guba, 1990)

Where is the researcher? Research ON Research IN Research WITH

Research in educational settings is only educational research if it is concerned with attempts to improve educational judgement and decisions. Research in educational settings which aims to develop sociological theory, psychological theory, philosophical constructs or historical ideas is not educational research, but sociological, psychological, philosophical or historical research in educational settings. (Bassey. M. 1995)

The more general the knowledge, the higher it is? I remember once being quite recently at a school of education, and a graduate student was in a seminar that I was doing, and she was working with nurses, and she said something I thought was interesting. And I asked her if she would give me an example. And she then gave me a proposition which was just as general as the first proposition. So I asked again for an example, and she gave me a proposition which was just slightly less general. And I asked again, and I finally got an example. And I asked her afterwards if she thought it was strange that it took three or four tries to get an example, and she said she DID think it was strange, and she didn’t understand why she’d done that. And I think it is because she had been socialized to an institution where, tacitly and automatically, we believe that the only thing that really counts and the only thing that’s really of value is theory, and the higher and the more abstract and the more general the theory, the higher the status it is. Under such conditions it’s very difficult to give more or less concrete examples. Donald Schön' (1987)

Knowledge Who is allowed to produce knowledge? What is the means of production of knowledge? What approaches are considered acceptable to produce knowledge?

our ontology / epistemology … has i mplications for how we view: Ourselves and our roles. Our learners and their roles. Our society and the role of education. The context for our every day actions.

Action Research • Action Reflection Cycles • What issues am I interested in researching? • Why do I want to research this issue? • What kind of evidence can I gather to show why I am interested in this issue? • What will I do about it? • What kind of evidence can I gather to show that I am having an influence? • How can I explain that influence? • How will I change my practice in light of evaluation? • What is the educational significance of my research?

Action Research podcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qg83f72_6Gw

Action Research Enquiring Doing   Being careful Intervening   Disciplined Intending   Evidence Committed   Systematic Motivated  

Generalisations and Study of Singularity Search for Generalisations requires the investigation of large populations, usually studied by appropriate sampling, and by intention leads to statements which can be used to predict what will occur in other situations. Study of Singularity can be investigation of something quite small. It cannot be used to predict probabilities, but it can be related to other situations, it may be valuable. (Bassey 1995)

Who does Action Research  Practitioner can research their own practice.  Multidisciplinary teams can do action research.  An outside researcher can also be involved in facilitating the action research process.

Key characteristics of Action Research It is the study of a social situation.  It focuses on practical problems of professional concern that arise in our everyday  practice. It seeks to improve the quality of action and practice.  It is a reflective, evaluative form of enquiry which concentrates on one’s own  understanding of a problem and others’ understanding of a problem. Dialogue and discussion are crucial.  It is collaborative and participatory. Those with an interest in the problem or affected  by it are entitled to participate. A wide repertoire of methods, techniques and procedures are used in Action Research. 

Activity Activity and discussion on the various action research approaches. Work through various examples during the session.

One example of action research approach - John Elliott

An Example from a Masters research student Action research design - Elliot model  Values: the enquiry is guided by the values inherent in the context of  the research question: Implementing a mathematics curriculum that promotes children’s  understanding. Accommodating individual learning styles of the pupils.  Promoting social interaction in developing mathematical  understanding. Recognition of the interactive nature of teaching and learning. 

Cycle 1 Identify initial idea: A systematic and reflective approach to curriculum implementation.  Reconnaissance: Analysis of the underlying principles of the revised curriculum.  General plan: Explore the use of games to enable children express mathematical  thinking and understanding. Action steps: Research suitable games  Develop resources for the games  Design skills development checklist  Demonstrate the games and explain skills development checklist  Use the games in the classroom  Monitor effectiveness of the games using the skills development  checklist

Cycle 1 (continued) Monitor implementation and effects Group meeting Emerging issues: classroom organisation  social construction of learning  observation of development of skills  childrens ’ difficulties expressing mathematical thinking  observation that playing cards connects verbal, pictorial and symbolic  means of representing numbers Reconaissance Observation of development of mathematical skills – application of  own knowledge to learning contexts related from the teachers classrooms to develop a shared understanding which clarified the understanding of the teacher-researcher and colleagues understanding Awareness of the interdependent relationship of the skills as children  learn with understanding

Cycle 2 Revise the general plan: Improve the evaluation of the development of mathematical skills.  Action steps: Observation visits – triangulation of data.  Continued use of the games in the classrooms.  Monitor effectiveness of the games in light of any insights gained  from observation visits. Monitor implementation and effects Group meeting. Emerging issues: The teachers’ reports highlighted the development of some  mathematical skills. The use of games as an assessment tool.  The role of the teacher.  Time to acquire resources. 

Cycle 2 (continued) Reconnaisance Recognition of the development of mathematical skills  Use of games as an assessment tool to plan appropriate instruction  Concern about developing suitable resources  Role of the teacher: interactive nature of teaching and learning  identified as one of the values, not teacher as observer Video-tape the children engaged with games, interact with children to  elicit understanding and thereby embody the value of the interactive nature of teaching and learning Suggestion to show recordings to the rest of the teachers 