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
ACTION RESEARCH refers to:

 “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, Queen’s University

http://educ.queensu.ca/~russellt/howteach/arguide.htm#arwhy
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.

Lewin’s 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’
Lawrence Stenhouse
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 Stenhouse’s

memorial plaque at University of East
Anglia.
Carr & Kemmis, 1986

“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.”
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
Influential writing:

• The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals

think in Action (1983)
• Educating the Reflective Practitioner (1987)

http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-schon.htm
 Reflection
» Latin “reflectere” : To bend back

• Involves “shuttling back and forth

between thinking and action”
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

Donald Schon

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 one’s 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
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

http://www.infed.org/biblio/b-reflect.htm#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
 Jack Whitehead at the University of Bath
“Living Educational Theory”

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
 Jean McNiff
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
Action Research in
Singapore (1998)
“…teacher-initiated
classroom investigation
which seeks to increase
the teachers’ understanding
of classroom teaching and learning,
learning
and to bring about change
in classroom practices.”

Teachers’ Network (Ministry of Education, Singapore)

publication on Learning Circles
 Action Research Process in MOE
To improve the quality of teaching and learning
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.
In ITE

A professional development
framework for teachers in ITE
Based on Action Research.
Since Feb 2002

PLAN EXPLORE
EXPLORE
Enquiry
Process Quality
Product Teaching &
Habits Learning

PERFORM
Reflection PRACTISE
PRACTISE
PERFORM
 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
 Reflect on:
 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
Products of Action Research: Teachers’ Professional Knowledge

"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
 1997

Institute of Technical Education, Singapore 2004

New role for teachers
Students in the KBE need to be adaptable, flexible and
creative…there 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 alone…should 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.
What are the key effects of Action Research on the
Professional development of teachers?

“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.