Transcript 1 Why should I use action research?

Mission and Objective of KVS
To initiate and promote
Experimentation and
Innovations in Education
in collaboration with other bodies
like the CBSE & the NCERT
"The achievement of excellence can only occur if the organization promotes a culture of
creative dissatisfaction."— Lawrence Miller
What is Innovation?
Innovation is introduction of something new and useful, for
example introducing new methods, techniques, or practices or new
or altered products and services
• Process of making improvements by introducing
something new
Improvements
NOVELTY
CREATIVITY
CHANGE
• Process of translating new ideas for improvement of teaching
learning
• A new idea, method or device
• Successful operation of new ideas
• Changes that create a new dimension of
performance
• A creative idea that is realised
• Capabilities of continuously realising a desired change
NCF 2005Chapter: 5 Systemic ReformsEncouraging Innovations
Individual teachers often explore new ways of transacting the
curriculum in addressing the needs of students within their
specific classroom context (including constraints of space, large
numbers, absence of teaching aids, diversity in the student
body, the compulsion of examination, and so on)
These efforts, often pragmatic but also creative and
ingenious, by and large remain invisible to the school
and the larger teaching community, and are not usually
valued by teachers themselves.
The sharing of teaching experiences and diverse
classroom practices can provide opportunities for an
academic discourse to develop within school as teachers
interact with and learn from each other.
This will also encourage new ideas and facilitate
innovation and experimentation.
LACK OF ACADEMIC FREEDOM TOFOSTERT INNOVATIONS
RELUCTANCE OF THE ORGANIZATION TO INTERNALISE AND
FOSTER INNOVATIONS
ABSENCE OF MINDSET/SUSTAINABLE CLIMATE/ENVIRONMENT FOR
NURTURING INNOVATIONS
LACK OF TRAINING FOR THE TEACHERS AND PRINCIPALS TO ADOPT
AND IMPLEMENT INNOVATIONS/RESEARCH
TEXTBOOK-ORIENTED SCHOOL EDUCATION WITHOUT CONNECTING
LEARNING TO OUT OF SCHOOL EXPERIENCES/GOING BEYOND THE TEXT
LACK OF CO-OPERATION BETWEEN COLLEAGUES AND THE
LEADERSHIP/MANAGEMENT
LACK OF MOTIVATION ON THE PART OF THE TEACHER TO DEVELOP/IMPLEMENT
INNOVATIONS
EXAM-ORIENTED SCHOOL EDUCATION WITH PRESSURE FROM THE STAKEHOLDERS
AND LEADERSHIP OF THE ORGANIZATION
THEREFORE
there is need to institutionalise the award system
to give awards to schools and teacher education
institutions, where all Teachers,
Headmaster/Principal and Management
exhibit greater involvement in
implementation of innovations, instead
of giving prize to individual teacher.
Identification and
mobilisation/use of
resources drawn from
the local community/
environment for
improvement of
teaching-learning
To study learning
styles of children.
To develop local
specific
curricular
materials for
TeachingTo develop innovative
strategies for classroom
Learning
management leading to
Assessment
improvement in the
of learning
organisational climate or
outcomes.
better use of available
resources in the class or
school.
Management of
To devise strategies
for educating
Interpersonal
To evolve
strategies for
inculcation of
peace and other
human values
differently abled
children.
To devise a new
relationships
approach/instruction
al strategy in any
To prepare and
use Innovative
subject area
TLMs
Submission of Project Proposals
To concerned Principal, Regional Institute
of Education (RIE) of the region concerned
(Annexure-I) latest by 31 July.
PRINCIPLE OF
‘RADICAL
EFFICIENCY’ to
derive maximum
outcome using
fewer resources
FROM TRADITIONAL TO
INNOVATIVE
creating opportunities for ideas to
develop. Ideas develop in a network
of collaboration INVOLVING
THE LARGER POPULATION,
firing new ways to create alternate
pathways
BACKGROUND
Increase in debate about
innovation in education since
2008
IMPLICATIONS OF RTE
With the changing demographics, there will be an increase in young
population, and thus innovation may have the biggest payoffs
CBSE, BY CALLING FOR INNOVATIVE PAPERS FOSTERS CRITICAL PEDAGOGY-GIVING
PRIMACY TO THE LEARNERS VOICES
‘encourages project or enquiry
based learning, making student’s
voice more meaningful and encouraging peer to peer teaching,
learning and mentoring thereby exhibiting a positive learning
experience and environment.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/embeddedform?formkey=dHNpTENtSDZIaW9jUG
5jdUd3UkNzOEE6MQ.
1. All schools affiliated to CBSE to upload their innovative
practices with evidence
2. Please note that photographs and videos cannot be uploaded
directly on CBSE website. Only links can be uploaded
CRITERIA FOR SELECTION
1. demonstrated excellence in implementation
2. capable of being replicated in other schools
3. any one area where your institution has acquired a cutting edge
and created awareness and made waves among members of
the community including parents
SUGGESTED THEMES AND COMPILATION
Action Research in
Education
Currently overseen by Maureen Parker
Originally prepared by Dr Stephen Waters-Adams
© S Waters-Adams, Faculty of Education, University of
Plymouth, 2006
1 Why should I use action research?
Because you want to change your practice. You
may be concerned that things might not be
going as you wish, or you may need to
implement a new initiative but are unsure
how to do it effectively. What you want is a
way of sorting out these concerns that offers
practical solutions, but that derives from the
specific circumstances of your practice. You
know that someone else’s solution may have
merit, but that it is never quite right for the
individual situation within which you work. You
know that practice is always influenced
by context.
2 How does this qualify as research?
Because the act of finding your solution makes you
understand your practice better – not only what you
are doing, but also the factors that affect what you
do.
Action research therefore has two aspects.
The starting point is to sort out a problem or issue in
practice; to this extent an action researcher seeks a
solution.
But the process can also be used as a deliberate
attempt to understand practice better – a traditional
research attitude.
What is most important in both approaches is that
you are open, honest and rigorous.
3 What do we mean by Practice?
From the perspective of action research, the
best way to think about practice is the way
you carry out your professional actions.
This is, of course, what you do, but it is also
why you think you should be doing things the
way you do. You will hear of the ‘theorypractice divide’; action research as an
approach cuts across this divide,
encouraging a practitioner to consider both
aspects as part of a single whole.
The aim of an action researcher is
to bring about development in
his or her practice by analysing
existing practice and
identifying elements for
change. The process is founded
on the gathering of evidence on
which to make informed rather
than intuitive judgements and
decisions.
Perhaps the most important aspect
of action research is that the
process enhances teachers’
professional development
through the fostering of their
capability as professional
knowledge makers, rather than
simply as professional
knowledge users..
In an age of centralisation and the
proliferation of national guidelines and
strategies, action research can help
teachers feel in control of their own
professional situation
Consider:
What aspects of your professional
practice are you currently interested in
developing?
4 What is action research about?
Action research is a practical approach to
professional inquiry in any social situation.
As its name suggests, action research concerns
actors – those people carrying out their
professional actions from day to day - and its
purpose is to understand and to improve those
actions. It is about trying to understand
professional action from the inside; as a
result, it is research that is carried out by
practitioners on their own practice, not (as in
other forms of research), done by someone on
somebody else’s practice. Action research in
education is grounded in the working lives
of teachers, as they experience them.
Carr and Kemmis (1986) describe
action research as being about:
• the improvement of practice
• the improvement of the
understanding of practice
• the improvement of the
situation in which the practice
takes place.
The notion of improvement can be problematic
when viewed from the outside. One person’s
improvement can be another person’s
deterioration. It depends on the beliefs and
values underpinning the individual’s
perspective. Paradoxically, however, this
uncertainty is perhaps the one truth of
professional practice. Practice is contingent
upon the practitioners’ intentions, values and
beliefs and the situation in which those
elements are given form. Educational research
through action research does not produce
understanding that has universal truth; it is
about me in the here and now
Consider:
To what extent do
you ever merely implement a
teaching directive? Is it possible?
Action research can thus be used to:
•
understand one’s own practice;
•
understand how to make one’s
practice better;
•
understand how to
accommodate outside change in
one’s practice;
•
understand how to change the
outside in order to make one’s
practice better
5 How does action research work?
At its heart, action research involves the
careful monitoring of planned change in
practice. A decision is taken that a particular
action may either yield improvements or
provide information as to the nature of the
teaching situation. The action is thus used as
a research tool. Both elements of action and
research are of equal prominence in the
approach.
Emphasising the individual nature of action
research, Jack Whitehead (1985) puts forward a
simple representation of how the process feels:
1. I experience a problem when some of my
educational values are negated in my practice;
2. I imagine a solution to my problem;
3. I act in the direction of the solution;
4. I evaluate the outcomes of my actions;
5. I modify my problems, ideas and actions in
the light of my evaluations.
5 The action research ‘cycle’
This sequence underpins the process of the inquiry but be
prepared to find fuzzy edges between the stages as your
inquiry proceeds. For a start, you will probably not start
with planning; there may be much monitoring and
observation of existing practice (reconnaissance) before
you are ready to plan and implement a change. As you
become more involved with your research, you may find it
hard to detach one element of the process from another.
You may find yourself reflecting as you are acting –
something that Donald Schön (1983) calls ‘knowing-inaction’ – and monitoring also will take place as action
proceeds. However, once that first change is implemented
the action research cycle proceeds generally in the above
manner.
6 Individual or collaborative?
So far, this account has focused on the
individual nature of action research,
reflecting Whitehead’s perspective on the
process. This is not to say that groups of
people within a school or college cannot
undertake a collaborative action research
project, exploring how best to change
institutional practice, but it is important to
realise the individual nature of practice
itself.
7 Methods
The prime criterion for choosing a particular data
gathering method in action research is whether it
is anticipated that the method will give useful
information about the practice under study. It is
sometimes thought that methods used in action
research are purely qualitative. This does not have
to be true. Although the overall analysis of the
data generated by any methods used will
be qualitative in nature, numerical or statistical
information may be of great value to that analysis.
For example, a statistical breakdown of
examination passes may be a useful piece of data
when exploring the effect of aspects of practice.
What is most important is that the
researcher understands that different
research methods illuminate only
particular aspects of a situation. None
gives us a whole picture. In seeking
evidence of her practice, or the
effectiveness of a change in practice, a
teacher needs to look at it from
different perspectives; she needs to
employ a triangulation of methods.
In this case, ? might be children’s
engagement during science sessions.
Each method will give access to
different aspects of the situation.
There will still be areas not
illuminated, but more is known than
if only one method is used. Also,
cross-referencing of data from
different methods adds to the overall
reliability of the research process
As long as they are aware of the limitations of a particular
method, action researchers may thus use any of the
following to help them reflect on their concern:
• observation schedules – of children, students or
themselves;
• audio and video tape recording;
• structured or semi-structured interviews;
• class records;
• statistical indicators;
• field notes;
• sociometry;
• photography;
• repertory grids;
• questionnaires;
• etc.!
8 Summary
• Action research is a practical way for individuals to explore
the nature of their practice and to improve it.
• Action research encourages practitioners to become
knowledge-makers, rather than merely knowledge-users.
• Action research uses action as a means of research;
planned change is implemented, monitored and analysed.
• Action research proceeds in an action-reflection cycle or
spiral.
• The process can be messy; as research proceeds, wider
links are likely to be identified.
• Action research is carried out by individuals, but these
individuals may work collaboratively.
• Action researchers may use a variety of research methods,
both qualitative and quantitative.
• Action researchers must ensure triangulation in their
methods.
20 QUALITIES OF AN INNOVATOR-How many
of these do you possess?
20 Qualities of an Innovator
1. Challenges the status quo
2. Curious
3. Self-motivated
4. Visionary
5. Entertains the fantastic
6. Takes risks
7. Peripatetic (moves about)
8. Playful/humorous
9. Self-accepting
10. Flexible/adaptive
11. Makes new connections
12. Reflective
13. Recognizes patterns
14. Tolerates ambiguity
15. Committed to learning
16.
17. Situationally collaborative
18. Formally articulate
19. Resilient
20. Persevering