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




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

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, Queens University
http://educ.queensu.ca/~russellt/howteach/arguide.htm#arwhy
ACTION RESEARCH refers to:
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)

Kurt Lewin (1946)
Coined the word Action Research;
Research for social management or social engineering in industrial contexts.

Lewins 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
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
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
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
Teacher as researcher:
It is teachers who, in the end, will
change the world of the school by
understanding it.

Inscription on Lawrence Stenhouses
memorial plaque at University of East
Anglia.
Lawrence Stenhouse
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
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:
Reflection
Latin reflectere : To bend back

Involves shuttling back and forth
between thinking and action
ABLE Academy for Best Learning in Education, I TE 2002
Nature of Reflection
Returning to experience
Recalling or detailing salient events
Attending to (or connecting with) feelings
Using helpful feelings
Removing or containing obstructive ones
Evaluating experience
Re-examining experience in the light of ones
aims and knowledge
Entails integrating this new knowledge into ones
conceptual framework
http://www.infed.org/biblio/b-reflect.htm

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

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

Stop to reflect
Rushing around
Life becomes a blur
Reflection helps us to
focus
To think and act
and think again
Reflection is the bridge
between thinking and
acting
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

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
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
teacher-initiated
classroom investigation
which seeks to increase
the teachers understanding
of classroom teaching and learning,
and to bring about change
in classroom practices.

Teachers Network (Ministry of Education, Singapore)
publication on Learning Circles
Action Research in
Singapore (1998)
Action Research Process in MOE
Reflect
Think about what we want to focus on
Plan
Plan what to do
Act
Carry out plan, collect evidence
Observe
Observe, monitor and record
Reflect
Reflect on what has happened to improve further.
To improve the quality of teaching and learning
A professional development
framework for teachers in ITE
Based on Action Research.
Since Feb 2002
EXPLORE
PRACTISE
PERFORM
PLAN
Quality
Teaching &
Learning
Enquiry
Reflection
Process
Product
Habits
In ITE
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
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:
"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
Institute of Technical Education, Singapore 2004
1997
New role for teachers
Students in the KBE need to be adaptable, flexible and
creativethere 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 aloneshould 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
Who is a Reflective Practitioner;
Who creates professional knowledge;
Who is a lifelong learner;
Who continually improves on
the quality of Teaching and Learning.

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.
Beverly Johnson, Teacher-as-Researcher. ERIC Digest.
What are the key effects of Action Research on the
Professional development of teachers?