Practicing what we teach: Using action research to learn about teaching action research (original) (raw)
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A scoping review of action research in higher education: implications for research-based teaching
2023
Several scholars argue for a closer association between research and teaching in higher education, but it is unclear how researchbased teaching can be actualized. Action research (AR) offers designs that position students as actors of the research processes, for example by doing research themselves or co-researching. Therefore, AR and research-based teaching can be considered mutually nested pedagogical and methodological processes. In this scoping review, we explored studies methodologically framed as AR which involve higher education students in the Humanities and Social Sciences as participants. We focused on (1) the research characteristics and (2) how the students were positioned in the identified studies. By reviewing 218 studies in line with inclusion criteria, we found three student positions: students as researchers, as learners and active contributors to research, and as source of information. We discuss implications for teachers/researchers who adopt AR and how they can develop research-based teaching involving students as researchers.
Enhancing The Quality Of Teaching And Learning Through Action Research
Journal of College Teaching & Learning (TLC), 2012
In every society, a great deal is expected from teachers. They are often expected to react sufficiently and proactively to the ongoing changes in the world and amend their instructional methods and resources to help students reach their academics potential. In today's society, teachers are persistently in pursuit of developing ways to reach the new generation of students who are perhaps the most globalized and tech-savvy to date. While academic researchers continue to investigate and analyze current educational issues and trends, the products of these studies have limited practicality to classroom teachers. As a result, teachers are encouraged to collaborate with their colleagues and engage in action research in order to tackle issues specific to their classroom practices and teaching. Some examples of action research in educational settings include educators who wish to undertake research in their classrooms or schools for the purpose of improving teaching, to test educational theory, or to evaluate and implement an educational plan. In this paper, the authors will analyze action research as a method of intellectual inquiry in education settings. Furthermore, they will examine the common methodologies, data collection and analysis in action research and will illustrate the advantages and disadvantages of action research.
Action Research and Teaching Professors
This paper argues for the use of action research in improving the effectiveness of teaching by professors and briefly discusses the reasons why this is important. The paper stresses that if the purpose of education is student development, then teachers should also be developing in their chosen field of service. Action research helps bring faculty and students together in the teaching/learning process and lets both the professor and the student evaluate its effectiveness. In fact, in order for action research to be critical or emancipatory, students and professors should co-determine the ends of the research and whether these ends are met. This creates a single entity out of the researchers and those being researched. Action research then can become an explicit aspect of a course, with the mutual determination of ends/objectives and their successful completion. (GLR)
Learning by Doing: An Action Research-Based Pedagogy
Ontario Action Researcher, 2007
This article examines how a group of seven postgraduate students, enrolled in an action research course, improved the structure and the content of the course by helping make it truly participatory and hands on. Participants expressed to the instructor their desire to learn action research by doing it. Action research became the pedagogy as the course itself evolved into an action research project.
Implementing and Assessing the Power of Conversation in the Teaching of Action Research
Teacher Education Quarterly, 1998
Action research is increasingly becoming a part of preand inservice teacher education as a way to promote reflective practice, improve teaching, and to reform schooling. This article reports on a study of the implementation and assessment of the power of conversation in the teaching of action research. Electronic mail, research notebook response groups, data workshops, and oral final presentations were used to promote conversations among students. The conversations were found useful for the selection of research topics, and for deciding on methods for data collection and analysis; and they fostered greater equity in the class, cultivated a sense of community, and provided insight into problematic aspects of teachers' practices. Implications for the role of the professor as both researcher and instructor are discussed. During the past ten years action research has increasingly become a part of preand inservice teacher education. There has been a number of reasons for this. First,...
1995
A self-study is reported in which the researcher explored the possibility of using a university course on action research to promote the development of professional community, an examination of power relations, and a sense of recognition among teachers enrolled in the course of their own expertise. Approximately 20 participating teachers in each of 2 courses collaborated in small group, large group, written, and one-on-one conversations to examine and research their own pedagogical methods and practices. The model of action research chosen was that of enhanced normal practice, in which teachers collaborate through the mechanisms of anecdote-telling, experimentation with new ideas, and systematic inquiry. A variety of methods were used to promote conversation among students, including electronic mail, research notebook response groups, data workshops, and oral final presentations. Participants found these conversations useful for the selection and clarification of starting points for research, and for deciding on appropriate methods for data collection and analysis. Students also stated that the techniques used to promote conversation fostered greater equity in the class, cultivated a sense of community built upon diversity, and provided insight into problematic aspects of teachers' practices. Implications for the role of the professor as both researcher and instructor are d;scussed. (Contains 26 references.) (PB)
Awareness of Teaching through Action Research: Examples, Benefits, Limitations
JALT Journal
In this article I describe three action research projects done by teachers at Teachers College, Columbia University, Tokyo MA TESOL Program. I discuss the benefits of doing action research (how it helps us to make more informed teaching decisions; gain skills at posing and solving teaching problems; expand reflective skills; create a forum to discuss teaching issues and beliefs), as well as its limitations (a focus only on problems; a narrowly defined linear process). I then highlight other avenues to expand awareness, such as "exploring to see what happens" by trying the opposite, exploring "what we actually do" as opposed to "what we think we do," considering "what we believe in relation to what we do," and exploring to "gain emotional clarity." アクションリサーチを使った教育について考える-検証例、利点と限界 本論文では、コロンビア大学ティーチャーズ･カレッジ東京校英語教授法修士課程プログラムで学ぶ教師たちによって行われた３つのアクションリサーチについて語り、アクションリサーチがもたらす利点（教師自身の自律した教育的判断能力、問題提示能力、解決能力、また、反省能力が高まること。教育やその信念について話し合う場が提供さ...