Transcript ACTION RESEARCH AND REFLECTIVE PRACTICE

ACTION RESEARCH
AND REFLECTIVE
PRACTICE
Scott and Usher
Summary of Ian Bryant’s Chapter
By Sunny and Vicky Deol
Introduction
Action research and reflective practice have become very
popular within educational circles.
In this article Bryant will attempt to explain why the ideas
of action research are not entirely satisfactory for him.
In the article Bryant will answer the following questions:
1) What exactly are the ideas behind reflective practice and action
research?
2) Why are these ideas so attractive?
3) What meanings can we give to the terms action research and
reflective practice?
4) How are action research and reflective practice related?
Introduction Continued
Bryant highlights certain issues to be considered before
committing to action research. Such as:
1) Dealing with the risks involved
2) Challenges to the validity of the enterprise
3) Problems associated with generalizing, documenting
and reporting of findings
Brief History
Action Research has only a fifty year old history.
A model developed by Kurt Lewin in 1948 described
action research as a spiral of conceptual discovery.
- Lewin’s model made a distinction between the
individuals doing the research and the groups being
researched.
- Lewin’s theories were set in a positivist applications
paradigm for the next twenty years.
• Until the late 1960’s the field was dominated by
theories of structural functionalism and the
methodologies of experimentalism and survey analysis.
Brief History Continued
By 1970 action research was being criticized for
focusing too exclusively on the existence of a client with
a problem to be solved at the expense of scientific
interests.
By 1981 practitioner dissatisfaction led to new action
research procedures being developed that were distinct
from scientific research.
Some practical reasons for action research to be a
favored style in educational research are:
- it promises value for money and practical results
- it offers a mode of enquiry and understanding
- it is educational in emphasizing the learning aspects
of reflective practice
Accommodative Action Research
– Cohen and Manion
Cohen and Manion define action research as a
style of research which is situational,
collaborative, participatory and self-evaluative.
- compared to applied research, action research interprets
the scientific method much more loosely, chiefly
because its focus is a specific problem in a specific
setting.
- action research relies mainly on observational and
behavioral data.
Accommodative Action Research
Continued
Problems with Cohen and Manion’s account of
action research according to Bryant:
- no mention of reflection or critique (there is a belief that
critique will hold in most cases because of relaxed
definition of the scientific method)
- the data is very specific to the situation, therefore it is hard
to generalize and validate beyond the specific case
Educational Action Research as a Critical
Social Science – Carr and Kemmis
Carr and Kemmis say action research is a form of
research carried out by practitioners into their own
practices.
- action research is a participatory, democratic form of
educational research for educational improvement,
- action research is seen as a form of practical enquiry
characterized by a self-reflecting spiral of cycles of
planning, acting, observing, and reflecting
- emphasizes practices as committed action, or praxis
- action research expresses a commitment to the
improvement of practices not to argue for or against a
theory
Carr and Kemmis Continued
Educational reform is in the hands of those
involved in the action thus producing three
variants of action research
1) Technical action research- concerned with relative
efficiency and effectiveness of practice.
2) Practical action research- aims at the improvement of
the practitioners understandings and action
3) Emancipatory action research- group takes
responsibility for its own emancipation from the
dictates of irrational unjust habits.
Carr and Kemmis Continued
Action research aims at improvement in 3 areas
1) improvement of practice
2) improvement of the understanding of the practice by
the practitioners
3) improvement of situation in which the practice takes
place
Problems with Carr and Kemmis’ definition of
action research according to Bryant.
- Bryant says that Carr and Kemmis include reflection as a
part of their idea of action research which is action
research being a spiral of practitioner research activity but
they don’t base it on a theory.
Principles for the Conduct of
Action Research -- Winter
Winter agrees with Carr and Kemmis’defintion of
action research.
Winter believes there is a problem to cast action
research within a positivist's perspective.
According to Winter reflection is a very important
in making sense of evidence.
The process of reflection itself needs a model to
build upon the competences which practitioners
already possess.
Winter Continued
Winter’s 6 principles proposed as a criteria for
assessing the validity of action research.
reflexive critique (by questioning things new arguments can be
made and there is a possibility for new actions)
dialectical critique (discussion of different reflective
interpretations of practice)
collaborative resource (intersubjectively working together to
validate views)
risk (micropolitics of research process, consideration of ethics)
plural structure (discusses questions about different views and
reporting considerations)
theory practice transformation (theory and practice are not
opposed in action research)
Winter Continued
Problems with Winter’s definition of action
research according to Bryant is that there is
nothing that clearly distinguishes action research
from reflective practice.
Action Research and the
Reflective Practitioner
Ebbutt defines action research as involving the
systematic study of attempts to change and improve
educational practice by groups of participants by
means of their own practical actions and by means of
their own reflection upon the effects of these actions.
Bryant believes this definition is the most useful
because:
- it emphasizes that researchers are participating in the study
- when it uses the words “change” and “improve” it emphasizes how
important it is to improve practice in action research by changing the
practice situation
- there is an emphasis to reflect on the effects of the action
- the words “systematic study” tells us that action research is still a
type of research
Action Research and the
Reflective Practice Continued
Donald Schon states in action research there is
relationship between change and understanding.
- he believes the practitioner has an interest in
changing the situation from the status quo to
something he likes better, and also in
understanding the situation
- he sees action research as akin to reflection-inaction (action research is something that any
practitioner can do as a part of his everyday
practice, and it does not just imply to researchers)
Some Suggestions for Thinking
About Aspects of Practice
Bryant states that there are many themes and
aspects of practice to question about action
research before even looking at any theories.
They are:
- settings (where the activities are taking place)
- play (looking at ideas in terms of a game where there are
rules; these rules can be both enabling and constraining)
- scripts (texts that identify but don’t completely define
performance; allows monitoring of performance when
there are problems with practice)
- Communication (there can be different interpretations of
meanings)