Action_Research

The preliminary essay A. Theory Identify the origin, key features and purpose of action research and analyse the criticisms made of it. Make reference to appropriate theory. Analyse key features of the action research cycle. Distinguish action research from other kinds of research. Action research can be defined as change in or around improvement of an area or ones own practice. Kurt Lewin who was one of the first pioneers to create and use the term Action Research in 1944 felt that this process of, ‘Action Research’ involved planning, fact finding and execution. Planning involves having a general idea; this general idea includes the need to reach an objective, once this first step has been successfully established it is then followed by fact finding which includes choosing target/s and considering the best ways of dealing with them; planning the next steps and gathering new insight for example strengths and weaknesses of the action. According to Carr and Kemmis (1986) “Action Research is a form of self-reflective enquiry undertaken by the participants (teachers, students or principals, for example, in social (including educational) situations in order to improve the rationality and justice of (a) their own social or educational practices, (b) their understanding of these practice, and (c) the situations (and institutions)in which these practices are carried.” It must be stated that not everyone agrees with this definition. (http://www.enquirylearning.net/ELU/Issues/Research/Res1Ch4.html & http://celt.ust.hk/ideas/ar/models.ht). There are different types of action research such as technical action research, practical action research and emancipatory action research. Emancipatory research for example, looks at the lives of people who historically are seen to be marginalised such as the disabled or ethnic minorities (http://celt.ust.hk/keas/ar/models.ht). The research method that is chosen by the researcher will affect the type of research tool that is used for example, if the ‘descriptive study’ is employed, the tools which are used to collect data will be qualitative or quantitative such as questionnaires or surveys (Wilson, 2009). “Action research is distinguished not by technique but in terms of method” it uses qualitative and quantitative data collection such as surveys and questionnaires. (The Open University Masters Programme in Education, Research Methods in Education: Handbook Milton Keynes Open University, p163-167, 2001, cited in Cranfield, 2010) Some key features of the action research cycle are to plan, act, observe/collect, reflect/review; other key features and characteristics of action research are as follows: • Is more systematic and collaborative in collection evidence on which to base reflections. • It is motivated by a desire to improve and make changes. • It is research by particular people on their own work which is carried out to help them to improve and become more effective. • It can also be situational, for example, it can be applied or related to your own situation, or you can use it to address a particular situation related to your teaching practice. • It is also a reflective inquiry, for example, it can reveal consistencies or inconsistencies about your practice. Helps you to reflect on your practice and make appropriate or necessary changes. • It is also a way to find remedies to overcome obstacles in learning and many other problems in the education process, such as implementing new teaching methods and strategies, also addressing recruitment, retention, etc. • It provides avenues for teachers to be innovative, for example, in trying out new things and making changes to their practice. • It can act as a way to develop self confidence in teachers, for example, by identifying a problem and finding a solution that works, it will increase your confidence because you are being effective in your practice. • It is self evaluative, whereby you can evaluate its effectiveness or outcome; did something work or didn’t it work, why or why not' What could I have done differently' Historically, educational research has been carried out by academics from a distance without themselves being involved or seeing what actually happens in the classroom. This kind of research often did not reach the practitioners and even when it did, it proved irrelevant. Action research, on the other hand, is carried out by practitioners. It arises out of their own circumstances, not from theory produced by a distance academic or researcher, action research may even generate theory itself (Koshy, 2007 cited in Cranfield, 2008). Other criticisms about action research concern its rigour and validity. Koshy also points out that the results are not generalisable but argues in favour by stating that action research allows the research to be vigorous in gathering and collecting data and that it is possible that triangulation and sharing of information “would ensure that the quality of what is gathered is robust and without bias”. She also states that “action research does not set out to seek generalisable data, but to generate knowledge based on action within one’s own situation.” (Koshy, 2007 cited in Cranfield, 2008) Some of these criticisms are shared by other theorists and academics such as Professor John Elliott, of the University of East Anglia. He questions Action Research for the following reasons: Time – it is carried out in a hurried manner because researchers are action with the demands of space and time. • Bias – the research is carried out by parties who have an interest in it, therefore, he states that there will be inevitable researcher bias in data gathering and analysis. • Unfamiliarity with research methods – “Action researchers frequently explore what may constitute adequate research methods at the same time as they are researching their practice. This kind of ‘on the job’ training and consequent ‘ad hoc’ planning has led to accusations of unreliability in data gathering.” (http://research.edu.ac.uk/johnelliott) B. Practice Identify considerations of ethics, politics and confidentiality in action research and demonstrate how the researcher exercises judgement in relation to these. Compare and contrast selected techniques of data collection. Explain difficulties that may arise in conducting action research and evaluate their likely consequences. When carrying out your action research there are certain principles that you need to bear in mind; this is important because you are involving ‘real people’ from whom you will be gathering evidence and data for your research and their feelings should be taken into consideration. Ethical considerations include: • Consulting with individuals to inform them of the purpose of your research including any personal biases or interests on your part as the researcher. • Respecting the wishes of those who do not want to participate. • Obtaining permission before carrying out observations. • Be prepared to listen to suggestions from others and to share the development of your work with them. • As the researcher it’s your responsibility to maintain confidentiality. It is likely that your research will be on a small scale and you will know who your respondents are and what they have said; you should endeavour to keep the information that they have supplied you with confidential as a mark of respect and also to protect the participants from unwanted attention or criticism. • Equal access to information for all participants. • Participants must be allowed to influence the research. (http://www.web.net/-robrien/papers/arfinal.html) It has been suggested that research in the psychology and sociology of education “served to preserve the political status quo rather then challenging it…… research drew attention away from the fact the educational system serves to reproduce an unequal society when this too should have been challenged”. (Milton Keynes Open University, 1994, rev 1998, cited Cranfield, 2008) Bearing this in mind it is fair to say that the onus is on the researcher to carry out a research that not only asks the correct questions but also seeks to challenge inequalities and bring about changes which would be beneficial in a wider context. I think that it is possible that some political resistance may be encountered by the researcher. This may be opposition by superior members of staff which could cause the research to stop or the need to be tactful in order to avoid offence to others such as your co-workers or fellow employees. Action research will include the collection of data which is usually gathered using qualitative methods; quantitative methods may also be used for description, explanation and predication in the form or charts and graphs. The main methods of qualitative data collection are: • Questionnaires • Interviews • Observations Difficulties can arise when undertaking your action research in terms of getting your research question correct to begin with and also asking the right questions in order to draw accurate conclusions. You may also fact difficulties in the process of collecting data; for example, in the case of questionnaires you may get a low response rate and your sample may be biased, people may interpret the same question in different ways, they may not be able to ask for explanations while completing the questionnaires, some learners may be dyslexic or illiterate and people may want to respond in a way which the questionnaire does not allow. On the other hand questionnaires are easy to make up, are useful for large samples and everyone is asked the same questions, they take less time than individual interviews, and they can be designed so that analysis is simple. Qualitative data collection deals mainly with opinions, motives, feelings, descriptions and words. Examples of qualitative data may be: what my learners say about my teaching methods – their preferences, their likes and dislikes. Quantitative data collection deals mainly with facts, quantities, numbers, percentages and statistics. Surveys and questionnaires, even interviews, if done with substantial number of respondents, can be used for both qualitative and quantitative data collection. Quantitative data collection might take the form of collection of numbers for example, how many learners thought their experience so far in further education was very good. The results of this can be analysed statistically. (Milton Keynes Open University, 1994, rev 1998, cited Cranfield, 2008) Other problems that may encounter while conducting Action Research are too little time, having too much or too little data to analyse, lack of co-operation from others, difficulty in interpreting the results, not having enough information written about a particular subject or area in order to carry out a meaningful literature review, not starting out with an achievable aim or topic, having little or no experience in carrying out research or even lack of proper planning. In hindsight the questions on the questionnaire could have been more specific based on weekly feedback from learners. METHODOLOGY/DATA COLLECTION Methodologies used The methodological approach employed for this research was qualitative. “Qualitative research explores phenomena, their natural settings and uses multi-methods to interpret, understand, explain and bring meaning to them” (Anderson and Arsenault 1998:119). Qualitative data was collected over a period of 4 weeks and took a while to be analysed; where appropriate it was turned into quantitative data as to allow clearer interpretation of the findings (Bouma 2000). Quantitative data was in terms of retention rate and was also sought but was not received. The purpose of this project was to determine how the quality of teaching and learning on NCFE Childcare short courses could be improved. It was determined that the best way to collect data for this project, was to distribute questionnaires to students and teachers who were involved with NCFE Childcare courses. Permission was asked from and granted by the Head of Division for the questionnaires to be distributed to learners; she is aware of many of these issues; the results of the project will be shared with her in the hope that changes can be made where necessary. The learners were told why they were being asked to complete the questionnaires and that the results would be used to make necessary changes to the course; they were also told that they would be allowed to access to the project once completed. There was a 12 week timescale for this project to be carried out. A questionnaire was designed which I hope would generate the data needed for addressing the aim of the project. These questions were designed in a way which allowed for students and teachers to answer the questions, as well as, give their opinions. The benefits’ of giving the options for additional comments would help to consider whether or not the teaching and learning strategies were the things that needed to be addressed or if there were other contributing factors or difficulties by learners which caused barriers to learning or affected retention rate. (Bell 1999) The questionnaires were refined following feedback from a well established academic. Following this, a small trial was conducted to establish if the questionnaires were easy enough to understand and fill in. The questionnaires were completed by 2 particular classes but if there was enough time, this would have been extended to other learners doing NCFE short courses, however, all the teachers teaching the courses completed the questionnaires. A total of 3 questionnaires were returned from a total of 3 teachers and 15 questionnaires were returned from a possible 25 learners. The results from the questionnaires were analysed and helped to generate some quantitative data; this showed that there was an agreement between the learners and the teachers and that more one to one would be beneficial for the learners and that the current time for the deliver of each session is adequate but not sufficient. Limitations Action research has its limitations; for example, action research cannot lead to causal explanations and findings are not usually generalisable and can normally only be applied to the situation in which the action research was undertaken (http://partners.becta.org.uk/index.php'section=rh&rid=1350). Because of the size of the project, the time constraints and word limit, the results of the questionnaires was too small to be valid, reliable or attempt a conclusion about the main aim of the research. There is no measure of data collection which is completely reliable as a variety of factors can cause error. It took quite a while to analyse the results that were collected. If it was not for time constraints, other methods of gathering data would have been employed such as a follow up questionnaire to students and teachers following an intervention as well as interview in order to make the research more robust. Intervention Based on the feedback from learners, immediate action was taken in order to help to address some of the issues raised. As well as giving handouts in class, they were also sent via email were possible, to learners including those who were absent from lessons. Phone number was given to all learners; ILP’s were emailed to all learners so that they could keep abreast with their targets and have a broader view of what is expected of them for the duration of the course, feedback for assignments were also emailed to learners. An attempt was made to access Moodle but it is not yet clear as to how it can be used to upload course details. This is important because it could be used to upload useful information for example, duration of the course and how often learners are required to attend. Many learners were confused at the beginning of the course as to how long it would last and how many days per week they would be attending. One learner also left the course because clearly there was not sufficient time to offer real support on a one to one basis. Impact of intervention Following the action taken, there have been good feedbacks from learners regarding handouts and ILP’s as well as feedback for assignments. Learners have been texting, phoning and seem more ardent in asking for help, support and information. They also wanted to know the results form the completed questionnaires. Because of time constraints a follow up questionnaire could not be submitted in order to give a more accurate account of the intervention. How the students are doing now About two-thirds of the learners on the course are on target with their assignments. From an original start of 18, there were 17 completions which are better that the previous group. Learners have indicated that they learn through a variety of teaching and learning methods but class discussions were favoured choice; they also stated that they would like more handouts in lessons; although these are already been done, care is taken when planning for each session to include discussions and adequate informative handouts. Recommendations The recommendations based on the results of the questionnaire are that: • Tutors should do more with providing quality information for learners; this includes using the college’s Moodle to upload information, assignments and handouts • Arrange more one to one contact with learners; however teachers have indicated that they are not prepared to meet with learners unpaid. • Continue using a variety of teaching methods in order to meet the learners various learning styles and preferred ways of learning. I would also recommend that this investigation be continued to include all learners completing fast track childcare courses in order th their views and opinions are aired which will allow teachers to think about how they can use the time and resources available to best effect. “To be successful, short-term training should not only be made attractive to providers but also to those who are most likely to use it. This would ensure programmes are of a high quality” (http://www.unu.edu/unupress/food/V182e/ch07.htm) The questions on the questionnaire could have been more specific based on weekly verbal feedback from learners. This may have helped in generating more meaningful data. ACTION AND DATA COLLECTION This project was thought necessary because of the continuous feedback from learners regarding contact time, asking for assignments to be explained and requesting more one to ones. It was considered imperative to find out how the teaching and learning could be improved in order to increase retention rates as well as providing quality learning experiences for learners within the timeslot that was available. The Head of Division did not release the retention rate figures for the childcare course. This project involved getting permission from the Head of Division before questionnaire could be distributed to learners and teachers who were the main targets for this project. It involved writing questionnaire and making modifications to them. It also involved carrying out a small pilot to ensure that the questionnaires were fit for purpose. Problems 1579, excluding headings, references and bibliography. Bibliography Cranfield, I. (2010) Action Research Module 2003 Reader, Southgate College http://celt.ust.hk/ideas/ar/models.ht (15/10/2010) http://education.gld.gov.au/students/advocacy/equity/gender-sch/action-cycle.html. 13/10/2010) http://www.enquirylearning.net/ELU/Issues/Research/Res1ch4.html. (13/10/2010) http://geographyfieldwork.com/DataPresentationPieCharts.htm. (15/10/2010) http://research.edu.ac.uk/johnelliott (18/10/2010 http://web.net/-robrien/papers/arfinal.html. 18/10/2010 http://widieducator.org/actionresearch 15/10/2010 http://partners.becta.org.uk/index.php'section=rh&rid=1350 http://www.unu.edu/unupress/food/V182e/ch07.htm Milton Keynes Open University (1994 rev 1998) cited Cranfield, I (2010) Action Research Module 2003 Reader, Southgate College Walliman, N (2004), Doing Your Undergraduate Dissertation, SAGE Publications Ltd. Wilson, L (2009), Practical Teaching, A Guide to PTLLS and DTLLS Melody Dawes, Cengage Learning EMEA Bell, J (1999) Doing Your Research Project, 3rd Edition, Open University Press, England