What is Action Research?
Why apply it in your teaching?
http://youtu.be/cYno85t1YmI
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Action Research Projects
As see through the eyes of Nives Torresi
Introduction to the Course
The new course run and organized by Dr
Nellie Deutsch on WizIQ entails a very interesting topic which is that
of Action Research, it will be a 10 month long course with weekly live
sessions and the possibility to work either individually or collaborate
and create our own Action Research Project.
The course on WizIQ
began a week ago and all recordings of the sessions or course didactic
materials and other relevant information is contained within the course
itself. As always the course is free and open to all Educators and
non-Educators. Hence if you are interested in understanding the theory
of Action Research and carrying out your own project then this is the
place to be. See you there.
The first session on February 9 and the
second session February 16, the next session is February 23 – in the
following passages I will try and add my own thoughts and brief
reflection on each session as it occurs. Concurrently I will also begin
my very own Action Research Project on one of my own classes where I
teach English at High School. But as I discovered the first thing is to
choose a problem to study and limit that problem to specifics –
otherwise if the problem is too broad or wide ranging then the
‘research’ cannot properly take place. (more on this below)
However
not having time to go full hog on this alone I have opted to team up
with Tom and work together on various projects - one being Action
Research. So this page basically outlines my initial understanding of
the subject.
Session 2 on February 16
Action Research is not linear but rather cyclic
– as the process itself is one of Progressive Problem Solving with
Action Research as the following illustration goes to demonstrate:
Find the
problem → study it and make a plan → take action → collect and analyze →
reflect … THEN begin again → Find the problem → study it and make a
plan → take action → collect and analyze → reflect … THEN begin again →
and so on.
Dr Nellie says that we need to use the
OODA method albeit being a military method is well used in Action
Research, OODA simply stands for OBSERVE, ORIENT, DECIDE, ACT. Seemingly
simple enough, but only the following weeks and months will determine
just how simple this acronym may be. Of course there are materials to
read on Action Research as we set about taking on the onerous task of
carrying out our own research project. Dr Nellie has also mentioned to
use material dated between 2015 and 2010, in other words to use primary
resources as required by this particular course and to limit the
secondary resources to viable dates within the time frame suggested.
One of the important things about the
process of Action Research is the use of the nine steps as guidance,
some may be skipped or rearranged which will depend on the topic to be
dealt with in the project itself. The nine steps can be outlined as
follows:
- Identify and limit the topic
- Gather the information
- Review the related literature
- Develop a Research plan
- Implement the plan and collect data
- Analyze the data
- Develop an action plan
- Share and communicate the results
- Reflect on the research process
Another important factor which is
highlighted by the nine steps is to write and record every single
passage of the process otherwise it cannot be regarded as in itself a
research. The very term ‘research’ must bring to mind the myriad of
trials and tribulations over the years of many well renowned researchers
into as many areas of work to know that a research without a ‘research
paper’ showing and demonstrating the process cannot be deemed viable
research.
The following image sums up the task for the week and the idea behind this particular course on WizIQ.
In the second session we tried to hash
around ideas that we thought could be a problem to focus our research on
but we also had to face the fact that some ‘problems’ are not per se
the problem but more of a judgement on a situation. So now my own
objective is to observe to find a problem and focus on that problem for
my own practical adventure into the evolution of this course over the
next ten months.
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