Action Research

By you – For you – For them

Di Laycock 2008 ‘Leading Learning… into the Research’

 What is action research?

‘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.’
(William Carr & Stephen Kemmis)

Carr, W & Kemmis S, in Smith, M 2007, Action research, viewed 6 October, 2007,
<http://www.infed.org/research/b-actres.htm>
‘Good teaching is reflective, based on high-
quality information, and constantly improving.’
(Valerie Robinson & Mei Kuin Lai)

Robinson, V & Lai, M 2006, Practitioner Research for Educators, Hawker Brownlow Education, New York,
p.5.
 Action research in the school
environment

‘Action research is any systematic inquiry

conducted by teacher researchers... In the
teaching/ learning environment to gather
information about how their particular schools
operate, how they teach, and how well their
students learn.’
(Geoffrey Mills)

Mills, G 2003, Action research: A guide for the teacher researcher, 2nd edn, Pearson Education, Upper
Saddle River, NJ, p.5.
 Action Research Framework

 Develop a plan for improvement

 Implement the plan
 Observe and document the effects of the plan
 Reflect on the effects of the plan for further
planning and informed action

Kemmis & Mc Taggert in Donarto, R 2003, Action research, viewed 12 Nov 2007,
< http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/0308donato.html>
Models of action research

Mills, G 2003, p.16

Models cont...

Ernest Stringer’s model (in Mills, G 2003, p.18)

 Why undertake action research?
 Is it enough to follow the action research
cycle in your head?
 Is what you think is working sufficient grounds
to change your practice?
 Is it ethical to gamble with your students’
learning on the basis of intuition?
 Will your colleagues be convinced by what
you only think works?
 Why should you share your “secrets”?
Why action research cont…
 Improves outcomes for students
 Develops context-specific solutions to
problems (i.e. it’s relevant)
 Promotes shared understandings (moves
knowledge from tacit to explicit)
 Empowers participants (provides professional
development)
 Sustains improvements in practice (intuitive to
intentional and informed practice)
Improved student outcomes

 In a changing environment action research

can be used to test the notion of ‘Why do we
do what we do?’
 The “Monkey Experiment”
Context-specific solutions

‘There are no silver bullets in education that

work regardless of context.’
(Robinson & Lai, p.vii)
Shared understandings
‘As long as teaching remains a profession
where isolation is the norm, where the
knowledge that informs practice comes from
outside the classroom, and where the quality
control officers are removed from the
classroom, teaching will be more like a blue-
collar job than an intellectual professional
pursuit.’ (Richard Sagor)

Richard Sagor 1992, How to conduct collaborative action research, viewed 13 Sept., 2007,
<http://www.ascd.org/portal/site/ascd/template.chapter/menuitem.b71d101a2f7c208cdeb3ffdb62108a0c/?c
hapterMgmtId=1a4db2cc2fcaff00VgnVCM1000003d01a8c0RCRD>
Empowers participants

‘In the process of action research teachers

become learners and inevitably improve their
professional disposition as they continually
develop mastery of their craft.’
(Di Laycock)

Laycock, D 2007, ‘Teachers as researchers’, info@asla, October, pp. 13-14.

Empowerment…

‘When teachers have convincing evidence

that their work has made a real difference in
their students’ lives, the countless hours and
endless efforts of teaching seem worthwhile.’
(Richard Sagor)

Sagor, R 1992, op. cit.

Sustains improvement of practice

‘Take this research to the next level, where

action research is embedded in the practice
of the whole teaching staff; where the
organisation frames the ‘giving and receiving
of information as a responsibility’ (Fullan
2004, p. 126) and the whole organisation is
better off through its ‘strengthened capacity to
access and leverage hidden knowledge’ (ibid,
p.115).’ (Di Laycock, ibid, p.14)
 The research plan
 Decide on an area of focus
 Refine your focus to a specific research
question
 Design the study
 Setting
 Sample
 Methodology
 Data collection techniques
 Analysis of results
 Writing it up
 Other considerations
 Research timetable
 Ethics
 Support
 Challenges
 I don’t have time
 It’s too complicated
 I don’t have support
 No-one will listen
 Desiderata for Practitioner Research
 Be prepared for disputation and vigorous debate
 Shun the veneer of politeness
 Take the time to take risks
 Be bold
 Trust and be trustworthy
 Seek for action which transforms rather than that
which reproduces
 Remember that there may be more power in critique
than in celebration
(Groundwater-Smith, S & Mockler, N 2005, Practitioner research in education: Beyond celebration, viewed 7 May 2007,
<http://www.aare.edu.au/05/papc/gr05007y.ppt>
CAR-TL: Community of Action
Researchers – Teacher Librarians
Action researchers…explorers in the
cause of understanding

Michael Leunig 1992, The Prayer Tree, Harper Collins, Sydney.

God be with those who explore in the cause of
understanding;
Whose search takes them from what is familiar and
comfortable
And leads them into danger or terrifying loneliness.
Let us try to understand their sometimes strange or
difficult ways;
Their confronting or unusual language; the uncommon
life of their emotions,
For they have been affected and shaped and changed
by their struggle
at the frontiers of a wild darkness, just as we may be
affected,
shaped and changed by the insights they bring back to
us.
Bless them with strength and peace.
AMEN
Michael Leunig 1992, The Prayer Tree, viewed 12 October 2007,
<http://joeharvey.wordpress.com/2005/05/25/explorers-in-the-cause-of-understanding/>