Bridging the real and ideal: A comparison between learning community characteristics and a school-based case study

While a growing body of literature advocates the importance of school-based, collaborative action research, less attention has been focused on how these projects are developed and implemented in the early stages. This study, therefore, examines a small Canadian school's initial attempt at promoting a “learning community” approach and compares it to the ideals of collaborative teamwork set out by recent scholarship. Our findings suggest that collegiality holds promise for change in teachers' practice and meaningful professional development if the school's administrator accepts the learning community philosophy and is willing to take the lead in initiating the reform. As well, we found that all ideal characteristics set out in the literature need not be in place from the outset for a project of this sort to be successful.     

A new model of collaborative action research; theorising from inter-professional practice development

The development of pedagogies to meet the needs of diverse communities can be supported through inter-professional practice development. This article explores one such experience, that of speech and language therapists developing a new video-based coaching approach for teachers and teaching assistants in multi-cultural settings with high numbers of children learning English as an additional language. To support them in developing and trialling the coaching approach, the expertise of a teacher-educator and educational researcher was provided through a university business voucher. It is this working relationship that the article has as its practical focus, as it transformed to one of collaborative action research. The action research is described, providing the context for a discussion of the characteristics of collaborative action research and the proposal of a new model. This model offers a way of conceptualising collaborative action research through time, and of recognising the importance of the partners’ zones of proximal, contributory and collaborative activities in sustaining change and knowledge-creation.     

Action research and collaborative research: their specific contributions to professional development

The increasing complexity of the teaching profession calls for engaged professionals in their professional development. This article claims that participative types of research contribute differently to professional development. Its intent is to explore the different contributions action research and collaborative research bring. One action research and one collaborative research have been conducted involving school personnel. They have been assessed mid‐course with regard to various components of professional development, including the learning taking place, changes made to professional practices and development of the collective competencies. Group interviews were conducted and each participant produced a written summary. The results show that participants’ individual competencies are strengthened, as well as collective competencies emerging such as the development of a common vocabulary and a shared vision about the school’s mission and mathematics curriculum. Learning is more relational in the action research project, and more connected to knowledge in the collaborative research project. Tensions are also present. They deal with the need to come up with concrete results, the urgency of action, the need to be open to the unknown, a tacit agreement to expose one’s vulnerability to others, the need for interdependence and for accountability. In conclusion, researchers identify their own sources of tensions and recognize that those types of research are important situations of learning.     

Aligning formative and summative assessments: A collaborative action research challenging teacher conceptions

Assessment innovations require explicitly challenging teachers’ assessment conceptions. In changing towards outcome-based curricula, aligning formative to new summative assessments is a challenge. This study, conducted in Dutch Agricultural Vocational Education and its new outcome-based summative assessments, aims to provide concrete insights into what teacher conceptions hinder the development of aligned formative assessment practices. In a structured collaborative action research, practitioners, researchers and consultants analyse teachers’ formative practices, identify underlying current conceptions and their misalignment to the new summative assessment system. An iterative process resulted in an overview of current conceptions versus required conceptions, showing required conceptual changes that are prerequisite for teachers to change towards formative assessment practices that are aligned to the new outcome-based summative assessment system.     

Benefits of collaborative action research for the beginning teacher

Beginning teachers are confronted with many issues as they begin their teaching careers, issues, such as classroom management, individual differences, behaviour problems, dealing with parents, and so on. Many beginning teachers take professional development seminars in an attempt to deal with these and other issues. Professional development seminars, however, may not address the specific issues faced by beginning teachers but rather focus on approaches that are more global. In this paper, we argue that the best approach to professional development is through a collaborative action research model. By extending the partnerships established between student teachers, mentor teachers and university supervisors during student teaching into the beginning teachers' career, many of the everyday problems can be confronted within a supportive network. Several recommendations are offered for beginning and maintaining productive CAR relationships.     

Epistemic roles of materiality within a collaborative invention project at a secondary school

In this study, we examined maker-centred learning from an epistemic perspective, highlighting the agentic role of material engagement and artefacts in learning and creativity. The use of physical materials plays a crucial role in maker activities where the socio-epistemic aspects of knowledge creation entangle with the designing and making of physical artefacts. By taking a case study perspective, we analysed video data from nine design sessions involving a team of students (aged 13 to 14) developing an invention. First, we analysed knowledge that was built during the process. Our analysis revealed how design ideas evolved from preliminary to final stages and, together with the expressed design problems and conversations preceding the ideas, formed an epistemic object pursued by the team. Next, we included non-human agencies into the analysis to understand the role of materials in the process. Features of materials and human design intentions both constrained and enabled idea improvement and knowledge creation, intermixing meanings and materials. Material making invited the students to not only rely on human rationalisation, but also to think together with the materials.     

Fostering innovation through collaborative action research on the creation of shared instructional products by university science instructors

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to profile four university science instructors who utilized action research as a means of learning how to develop and integrate a novel curriculum innovation – engineering design – in their science courses. Data included curriculum maps, lesson plans, notes from group meetings, and instructor reflections. Data analysis included document review and content analysis. Findings from this study suggest that action research effectively enabled the instructors to 1) establish shared ownership of the project goal – to improve preservice teachers’ learning of science through engineering design; 2) continuously test, revise, and recalibrate their shared instructional products; and 3) leverage multiple sources of innovation. Knowledge generated and used by the instructors represented different kinds of knowledge and distributed expertise resulting in products that were more useful and of higher quality than products created by individuals working alone. Consequently, this resulted in increased use of the products and increased instructor commitment to improve them over time. By simultaneously engaging in research and consequently taking specific action to inform their practice, science instructors in this study successfully created shared instructional products that both guided and enhanced their classroom teaching.     

Method as a journey: a narrative dialogic partnership illuminating decision-making in qualitative educational research

Qualitative education research is an inherently complex landscape, presenting the qualitative researcher with constant ethical and reasoned decision-making. Presented as a narrative dialogic, this paper traces and juxtaposes the method stories of two qualitative researchers who focused their work around education phenomena, but in different contexts and in different ways. One researcher’s narrative study of phenomena via interviews is juxtaposed with the other’s phenomenographical investigation utilizing Facebook status updates. Seeing researcher thinking side-by-side provides a comparison that teases out the ways in which researchers might consciously grapple with thinking around method. These twin method stories offer ways for other qualitative researchers to think about their own decision-making as they address the challenges of balancing subjectivity and rigour, authenticity of reported data, and protection of participants. This dialogic partnership points to the malleability of method. It also encourages further exploration of the complexities of qualitative education research in which the researcher is often insider–outsider or outsider–insider.     

Scaffolding teachers to foster inclusive pedagogy and presence through collaborative action research

Teachers can be influential change agents in transforming their schools if they regularly reflect on their pedagogical practices, looking for improvements that will help all learners reach their full potential. However, in many sub-Saharan African countries, teachers seldom get an opportunity to collaboratively reflect on their practices. Action research, as an in-service professional development strategy, can be an ideal means of empowering teachers to collaboratively reflect on and improve their pedagogy to be more inclusive. Drawing from collaborative action research projects conducted by teachers in two primary schools in Zanzibar, Tanzania, this article explores the role of collaborative action research in developing the capacity of teachers to inform improvements in their pedagogical practices. The findings show how the participating teachers, with scaffolding influence from a critical friend (research facilitator), developed professionally along their zones of proximal development by promoting their pedagogical and research skills to enhance the presence, participation and achievement of all learners in their schools. Based on the findings, the article shows both the advantages and disadvantages of using collaborative action research in teacher professional development in the study context. The article also discusses the significance of organisational learning in in-service professional development in order to foster inclusive pedagogy through collaborative inquiry among teachers.     

Constraints to Changing Pedagogical Practices in Higher Education: An example from Japanese lesson study

This article describes a qualitative study of college mathematics and science faculty (n?=?6) and their engagement in a reform-based program, Japanese lesson study (LS), to change their teaching practices. LS is a process in which a team of four to six teachers jointly design, teach, observe, analyze, and revise a single class lesson. A series of semi-structured, open-ended, interviews was completed with each of the faculty participants. Two sets of assertions were developed from analyses of the data and examples and explanations corroborating each assertion are provided. The results of the study identified issues related to organizational and faculty changes that need to be addressed if faculty responses to pedagogical innovations are to succeed. Implications of the findings for practice and future research are discussed.     

中学化学教学实施研究性学习的探索

为了推动中学化学教学，全面、科学地认识在中学化学教学中实施研究性学习的重要性，对研究性学习的含义、实施研究性学习的意义进行阐述，并对中学化学研究性学习的途径和实施方法做初步探讨．     

The development of case studies as a method within a longitudinal study of special educational needs provision in the Republic of Ireland

When developing case studies within a longitudinal study of special educational needs provision within the Republic of Ireland, the authors were conscious of the critiques of the use of this approach within educational research. The difficulties associated with generalisation, challenges of ensuring trustworthiness and the possibilities of researcher bias have been identified as limiting factors in the presentation of case study data. In order to confront these limitations, the researchers developed a framework for case study development that aimed to provide a secure database and trustworthy interpretation in order to make assertions in relation to special educational needs provision. This paper describes this process and suggests that the need to develop safeguards in order to present case studies that have high degree of credibility is essential when using this approach. Furthermore, the transparency of research methods, a significant omission in many reports of research, is necessary in order to demonstrate the trustworthiness of data.     

日本"综合学习时间"与中国"研究性学习"的比较研究

中日两国是一衣带水的邻邦,在文化、教育上既各具特色,又多有共通之处。日本“综合学习时间”与中国“研究性学习”具有同类性质,同属于世纪初基础教育课程改革的重要特色。通过从政策演进、课程目标、课程实施、课程内容、课程评价、课程开发等方面对二者进行深入细致的比较研究,可以透析彼此的亮点和不足,从而为“研究性学习”的深入开展提供有益的借鉴。     

Action research as a school-based strategy in intercultural professional development for teachers

Teacher professional development is a key factor for transforming professional and school culture. This article describes a case study undertaken in a Spanish school during the 2007-2008 academic year. Our aim is to explain how action research methodology was applied to encourage professional and school culture towards an intercultural and inclusive approach. Our results show that the training process challenged teachers’ pre-existing deficit theory perspectives and empowered them as leaders for school change. The conclusions identify the key factors that enabled teachers to engage in critical reflection, and to implement strategies for collaborative work and community participation in school.     

Collaborative action research and project work: Promising practices for developing collaborative inquiry among early childhood preservice teachers

Excerpts from case studies of two preservice teaching teams exemplify a new approach for merging research and practice within an introductory early childhood methods course. Through participation in cycles of collaborative action research focused on the joint task of implementing long-term projects, preservice teachers evidenced change in the ways they participated in and developed an inquiry-oriented teaching stance. In particular, changes included (1) an increased awareness of the value and need to share responsibility with teammates for making curriculum decisions, (2) early attempts to self-regulate teaching behaviors through reflection-in-action, and (3) an appreciation for and use of documentation in making visible and public the relationship between teacher thinking, practice, and children's learning. While changes in level of reflectivity and practice are noted and valued, the ways in which preservice teachers’ participation begins to change may be as valuable an indicator of preservice teacher development as the possession of new knowledge and skills.     

Developing a pedagogy for teaching self-study research: Lessons learned across the Atlantic

This article reports on a collective self-study from our multiple and unique experiences of teaching self-study research in the Netherlands and the United States. Through the methodology of dialog, we merged what we learned from our individual studies which resulted in six guidelines for a pedagogy for teaching self-study research. Without claiming that the six guidelines have full applicability to all teaching contexts, we offer instead a discussion of the complexities and value of framing a pedagogy of self-study research. This study provides a conceptual, theoretical, and practical base for further studies to build a knowledge base on this topic.     

Reconciling rigour and impact by collaborative research design: study of teacher agency

This paper illustrates a new way of working collaboratively on the development of a methodology for studying teacher agency for social justice. Increasing emphasis of impact on change as a purpose of social research raises questions about appropriate research designs. Large-scale quantitative research framed within externally set parameters has often been criticised for its limited potential for capturing the contexts and impacting change, while smaller, locally embedded, mostly qualitative inquiries have been questioned on the grounds of their limited generalizability and sometimes compromising research rigour. New ways of working collaboratively are increasingly explored as a way of reconciling research rigour and impact. The paper presents the procedures for designing a study that is both methodologically rigorous and potentially impactful. Twelve researchers, practitioners and policy-makers in Scotland were extensively involved in designing a mixed-method study of teacher agency for social justice. The Critical Communicative Methodology was employed to establish egalitarian dialogue between researchers and practitioners. The procedures and the resulting research tools can be used in future studies, including large-scale quantitative analysis. The paper discusses the challenges of ownership, choice of methods, and knowledge transfer, that need to be addressed in these ways of working.