Action Research

AR HISTORY• Originated in the USA and England in the 1940’s.

•From the work of Kurt Lewin on a variety of topics, ranging from child welfare to group dynamics.

•Lewin was a German social psychologist known as the father or Action Research

It constitutes a way for teachers to collaborate with one another to improve practice.

AR in Teaching

Used in 3 domains of science education: teacher education and professional development; research on science learning; and curriculum development and implementation.

One of its main appeals is that Action Research aims at both improving the subject of the study and generating knowledge, achieving both at the same time.It uses participant observation and interviews as key data collection approaches.

How to define it…

Acording to the experts…

It is…

““A cycle of posing questions, A cycle of posing questions, gathering data, gathering data,

Reflection, Reflection, and deciding on a course of and deciding on a course of

action.”action.”

Eileen Ferrance, "Action Research," Providence, RI: The Education Alliance, 2000, retrieved fromEileen Ferrance, "Action Research," Providence, RI: The Education Alliance, 2000, retrieved from

www.alliance.brown.edu/pubs/themes_ed/act_research.pdfwww.alliance.brown.edu/pubs/themes_ed/act_research.pdf

Kurt Lewin described it as a process of…

PLANNINGPLANNING

ACTION,ACTION,

AND SEARCHINGAND SEARCHING

Kurt Lewin, "Action Research & Minority Problems," Journal of Social Issues 2, no. 4 (1946): 34-46.

First you need a good problem.

A good problem is…A good problem demands…

A good problem leads to…

Action research

requires that we REFRAMEREFRAME the problem.

By looking at it in By looking at it in different contexts.different contexts.

From different From different

perspectivesperspectives

As a part of a largerAs a part of a larger

Steps before starting the Steps before starting the actual researchactual research

It is a cyclical process … You start out with a It is a cyclical process … You start out with a problem…problem…

PROBLEMP

DESIGND

ACTIONA

R REFLECTIONC

CAPTURE

PD

A

R

C

P

DA

RC

How was it again?

Identify an area

Select a problem

Design and take action

Record and Reflect

What did we intend to do?

What actually happened?

Did we meet our goal?

Why did this happen?

What are we going to do next time?

Retest

� Action research has proven itself, time and time again, as one way in which educators such as ourselves can come to develop a better understanding, and thus improve, our educational practices. 

Why Should we Do Action Research?

� Action research will provide us with alternative ways of viewing and approaching our educational questions; with new ways of seeing our educational practices. 

� Action research helps us to examine the 'habits' we have developed - what we are "really" doing in our teaching or in our administrative practices. 

The Project for Enhancing Effective Learning (PEEL) was an action research program aimed at improving the teaching and learning of science by encouraging teachers to inquire into how their students learn. Teachers designed action plans that incorporated the use of innovative pedagogy in targeted classes.

Example |

Solomon and colleagues used action research as a means of collaborating with middle school science teachers to gather data about classroom learning. The research focused on the effects of incorporating historical studies into the science curriculum on students' understanding of the nature of science and their learning of scientific concepts.

Our own action research