Action Research
Resources for Action Research
Professional, personal, and political dimensions of action research
Susan E. Noffke
Review of Research in Education (1997) 22(1): 305-343
Allan Feldman
Journal of Research in Science Teaching (1996) 33(5): 513-540
Abstract: This article reports on a study of physics teachers engaged in collaborative action research. The purpose of the study was to examine and identify ways that teachers' knowledge about teaching and their educational situations grow when they are engaged collaboratively with other teachers in inquiry on their own practice. Individualist and social constructivist perspective were used to design the study and to collect and analyze data. Data sources included interviews of the teachers, classroom observations, transcripts of the collaborative action research meetings, and teachers' writing. The guiding methodology was naturalistic inquiry, and data were analyzed through the development of grounded theory to construct coding categories. A case study was written using the analysis. It was found that three mechanisms were used by the teachers to generate and share knowledge and understanding about their practices. This enhancement of normal practice includes anecdote telling, the trying out of ideas, and systematic inquiry. A second finding was that teachers' knowledge and understanding can grow through authentic being-in-the-world and through enhanced normal practice. The study suggests that if each of the mechanisms of enhanced normal practice is seen to be a legitimate form of research, then action research can be embedded in teachers' practice, and can then play an important role in teacher education and the reform of science education.
Becoming critical about practical work: Changing views and changing practice through action research
Derek Hodson, Larry Bencze
International Journal of Science Education (1998) 20(6): 683-694
Abstract: In recent years, a great deal of attention has been directed towards the purpose and organization of practical work in school science, with several writers urging a radical reappraisal and reorientation of laboratory‐based and field‐based learning. However, for all kinds of reasons, changes of this magnitude are not readily accomplished by traditional means of curriculum development. This article describes how a group of teachers sought to overcome the difficulties of major innovation by working with a change agent to critique their current practice, devise a more ‘authentic science’ for the secondary school curriculum, and translate their ideas into feasible classroom activities.
From reflective practice to holistic reflexivity
Alan Bleakley
Studies in Higher Education (1999) 24(3): 315-330
Abstract: Schön's formative and influential notion of ‘reflective practice˚s is in danger of being widely adopted in higher education without rigorous interrogation of the central notion of ‘reflection˚s itself. This article sets out to situate the notion of ‘reflectivity˚s historically, and to critically examine its possible forms, interpretations and underpinning values. Schön's description of professional practice as an ‘artistry˚s (rather than a technique) is formally progressed, teaching being described as a critically reflexive, aesthetic practice. The article notes four underpinning epistemologies for reflective practice: technical rational; humanistic emancipatory; postmodern deconstructive; and radical phenomenological, and offers an articulation of different forms of reflectivity. A proposal is made for a complex, synthetic ‘holistic reflexivity˚s—distinguished from other kinds of reflection—as an aesthetic and ethical apprehension grounded in an ontological framework of radical phenomenology.
Frances Jørgensen, Lise Busk Kofoed
European Journal of Engineering Education (2007) 32(2): 181-191
Abstract: In this paper, a study is presented in which engineering students at a Danish university developed Continuous Improvement (CI) and innovation capabilities through action research and experiential learning methods. The paper begins with a brief overview of the literature on CI and innovation, followed by an account of how the students designed and implemented solutions to self-identified problems within their educational program using the principles of CI, and how these learning activities facilitated the development of basic innovation capabilities. The paper concludes with insights regarding how such an innovative design of teaching methods based on learning-by-doing may not only support the development of CI and innovation in engineering students, which is increasingly demanded by industry, but also represent a way in which to enhance sustainability and innovation of the education itself.