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hello I'm Anne Burns and I'm speaking to
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you from mccl University Sydney on a
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beautiful summer day in
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Australia I'm really pleased to have
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been invited to do this keynote talk and
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the focus of the talk today is going to
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be action
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research all over the world now there
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are teachers who have become Ed in this
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form of research but I often get asked
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the question well what is it and how do
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we do it so what I'm going to talk about
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is some basic points about action
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research um the kind of thing that I'll
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cover is well what is action research
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mean uh how do we do it how do we
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identify a focus or a topic for the
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research how do we establish the scope
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of the research and develop some
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research questions what about collecting
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data and then some thoughts at the end
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about data
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analysis so let me start off by asking
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you a couple of questions have you heard
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about the term action
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research well if so what is the term
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mean to you do you already know
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something about this topic and have you
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tried it out if you've tried it out have
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you done it with yourself just on your
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own or have you involved others in doing
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the research with
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you well let's go back to the question
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well what is action
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research I've often looked at a very
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useful definition which was given some
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time ago now by Kar and M and and
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chemist and what these two authors said
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in
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1986 was this action research is simply
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a form of self-reflective inquiry
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undertaken by participants in Social
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situ situations in order to improve the
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rationality and Justice of their own
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practices their understanding of these
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practices and the situations in which
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the practices are carried out you may
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have come across that definition
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sometime
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too I've also had quite a few comments
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from teachers about what they think
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about action research because I've been
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very lucky to conduct action research
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with teachers from many different parts
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of the world usually they say that they
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find it a very engaging way of doing
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professional development but also
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learning more about research for example
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a teacher from Australia once said to me
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well action research encourages teachers
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to reach their own Solutions and
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conclusions and this is far more
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attractive than being presented with
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ideals which can't be
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attained another teacher that I worked
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with in Indonesia said I will continue
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doing action research why did say this
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he'd been involved for a little while
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with a project with other teachers where
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he'd done collaborative work well what
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he said was I've no doubt about the
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advantages of an action research
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approach for my teaching although it's
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also not easy to conducted
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consistently so perhaps you can see from
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the quote that I've just uh read out and
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also some of the comments from these
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teachers that there are some rather
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Central com Concepts in action research
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and the ones that have been extremely
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important are that action research has a
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kind of a social Edge to it social um a
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social concept some of the central
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concepts are these first of all they
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empower the participants in the social
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situation to find out more and
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understand more about their own
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practices some people want to undertake
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action research because it helps them to
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move towards a sort of a better world
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for for the participants that they're
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working with and for
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themselves they're
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self-consciously criticizing what exists
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through awareness of the Givens in the
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situation and assumptions that shape the
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social
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situation and also they want to enhance
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aware awareness of their own subjective
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into subjective and normative frames of
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reference working to confront inequities
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in the system or working to transform
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the social system so there is a critical
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and social justice Edge to action
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research as well as undertaking the more
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technical side of doing the
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research so if we want to start doing
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action research what do we what do we
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actually do well the central uh idea of
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action research is that it's done in a
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cyclical or spiral kind of way and K car
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and chemist chemist and MCT taget and
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other people who have worked on models
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of action research say that there are
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four points in doing action
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research the first one is to develop a
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plan of some sort so this involves
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developing a plan of some critically
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informed action which is designed to
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improve what you see already happening
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in your own situation usually for
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teachers this is the classroom or the
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school and then the next part is to act
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to implement the plan so we develop some
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kind of plan of action to put into
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practice the changes or the strategies
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that we want to try
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out then the next part of the plan is to
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observe and this means observing the
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effects of the action that we've decided
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to to put into place in the particular
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context uh where it occurs and to see
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what
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happens and the final part of the cycle
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is to reflect on all of the things that
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have happened during doing this this uh
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this triing of the different strategies
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we reflect to see the effects of what
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has happened in the classroom and we use
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our Reflections as a basis for further
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planning and this might involve some
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further critically informed action
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through a succession of stages where we
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go back into this cycle of plan act
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observe and reflect so in fact in action
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research you may find yourself going
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through several Cycles involving these
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kinds of processes now I've suggested
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this cycle or this spiral in a rather
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neat and tidy kind of way but in fact it
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can often end up being a lot more messy
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than that where we our Reflections
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become part of our plans our actions
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involve observation in a systematic kind
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of way and the plans that we we F make
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for further action uh often uh involve
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observation further reflection and so on
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so to sum up then we can say that the
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key features of action research is a
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focus on a particular social situation
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usually the classroom in the case of
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teachers sometimes there's collaboration
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and dialogue with others and this is
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something I would really advise if
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you're contemplating doing action
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research because it's immensely useful
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to have other people available with whom
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you can talk through your plans try out
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your actions observe get them to observe
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or help each other observe what's going
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on in the classroom and uh then work
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through some reflective ideas about
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what's actually
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occurred the other point that I need to
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make about this cycle is that action
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research is different from just normal
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reflection or thinking intuitively about
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what we do in our classroom because it
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involves systematic observation and what
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I mean by this is the collection of some
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data and this where the research part of
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it comes in by systematically collecting
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observations uh and ideas about what's
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going on in the classroom we then have a
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have a firm basis on which to reflect
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further and to put some changes into
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place so very important part of action
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research is that we undertake data
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collection and don't rely just on our
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own assumptions or intuitions about what
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we feel is happening in the classroom
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and with the students suround
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us there are some other things that
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action research really doesn't set out
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to do and this is why and how it's
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different from other forms of research
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that you may have heard of first of all
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we're not generally setting out to prove
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or disprove a hypothesis at least not in
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the sense of experimental or scientific
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research we may have hunches or
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hypotheses ourselves about things that
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work in the classroom but the kind of
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research that we're likely to do is
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going to be much more qualitative
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reflective and uh does does not really
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rely on experimental and scientific
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methods we're not generally trying to
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establish control and experimental
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groups although you may want to make
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some comparisons between the way in
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which different groups respond to
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different kinds of strategies that you
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or or activities that you put into place
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in the
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classroom and we're generally not going
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to rely on the kind of res Arch where
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you do pre and post testing although
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again you may want to do a rather um
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simpler version of this by looking at
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people's uh test results before you've
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tried something out in the classroom and
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what happens after you've tried out the
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activity in the classroom to see whether
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some improvements have been made we're
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generally not going to be using uh
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inferential and statistical analyses but
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more relying on possibly descriptive
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statistics uh if we want to describe
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things in quantitative
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terms and we can't produce generalizable
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findings from action research because as
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I as I've already described it's
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something which is much more localized
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in our own social situation usually one
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classroom or possibly a few classrooms
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in the school and so it's not something
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the findings that we get from action
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research are not capable of being
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generalized right across other
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situations all we can really say is that
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they are examples of the kind of thing
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that can happen in a classroom where
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certain conditions are in
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operation so what I'd say about action
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research then is that it's exploratory
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kind of research and it's not research
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which we may be we may think about in
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the traditional sense of very scientific
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experiments being conducted in
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Laboratories it's much more um
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exploratory an interpretive an
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interpretive way of doing
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research so if we want to do action
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research the first thing that we will
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have to do is to find a focus for Action
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research now you may have had for some
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time some questions that have been
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puzzling you or bothering you or things
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that you've not been quite satisfied in
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with in the classroom and these May well
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be the basis of the research Focus that
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you will want to take up but I've got a
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few other practical ideas for uh how we
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can get some ideas for doing action
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research if you're not quite sure yet
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what you want to focus on these are some
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things that other teachers have either
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told me about or that I've um used by
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talking to other teachers so here we go
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well one of the things that you can do
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is to keep a diary for a specified
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period of time and list some things that
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have puzzled or intrigued
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you other people find it very useful to
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make a mind map and to connect up ideas
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that they may that may have been burning
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away at the back of your mind for a
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while it's sometimes very helpful to
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read an article uh one that you like or
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to read it again if it's the favorite
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and to develop some questions from it
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that may be useful for in your own
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classroom and in your own teaching or
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you may want to do some finishing
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statements now what I mean by finishing
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statements is starting off a sentence
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that says something like well I don't
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know enough
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about and you might want to finish a
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sentence by saying what my students
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think about group work or some other
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question that's been puzzling you for
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some
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time the other way to get yourself
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started and finding a focus is to
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observe a situation in your workplace
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much more carefully than you would
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normally observe it for example there
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may have been some students who seem
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reluctant to participate in a particular
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kind of
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activity when you do this activity again
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just start observing them extremely
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carefully to see whether there are there
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are factors or issues that you may have
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not noticed before that may get you
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started on a way of investigating this
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problem a little bit
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further um other colleagues may also be
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great sources of topics for your action
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research so you may want to F to survey
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your friends or colleagues on the hot
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teaching issues that they have been
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wondering about or working on for a time
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in their own
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classrooms and there may be recent
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journals or teachers newsletters that
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you can that you've you have in your
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teaching Center go back through them and
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see whether there are key topics that
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keep coming up time and time again and
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these two may present ideas for your own
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research you may or may not have clear
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questions in mind when you start on
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action research don't worry about that
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because sometimes in action research we
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need to just observe our classrooms a
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bit more carefully or put new activities
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into practice and find out what happens
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as a result but if and when you do get
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to the point of developing some very
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clear focused questions for the research
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then just think about the following
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points try to make your questions as
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focused as possible don't attempt to do
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too much all in the same uh research
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topic or research project so the
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questions you have should be as clear as
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you can make them unambiguous and
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understandable by other people you may
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want to try them out on others to see
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whether they they can understand what it
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is you're focusing on you should also
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try and make them very specific are
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there questions that you can actually
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answer uh can you get data to answer the
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particular questions that you've set up
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are they relevant are they worthwhile
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for the particular context that you're
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working in uh it's there's not much
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point in trying to uh select a focus
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which you can't do something about for
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example the Ministry of Education policy
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in your country is not something that
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you're going to be able to readily
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change but but looking at issues within
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the kind of constraints that you have to
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work with within your own classroom or
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your own School may be a worthwhile
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topic to focus
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on and the questions if you have more
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than one of them should be coherent they
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should be interconnected and form a
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coherent whole and be related to each
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other another thing you can do to look
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at the scope of the study is to ask
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yourself some of these questions first
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of all are you interested in looking at
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individuals perhaps a particular student
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in your classroom whose whose Behavior
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or whose attitude or whose
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whose uh results have puzzled you for
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some time or do you want to look at a
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whole group a whole class a particular
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group in the classroom or pairs of
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students what resources will you need to
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have time of course is always a huge one
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for Action research because as busy
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teachers there is never really much time
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to spare to do
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research there are not too many ways to
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cut down the time involved in action
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research but certainly the teachers that
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I've worked with have felt that it has
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been worth the time expended on doing
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the additional work of action
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research do you need particular
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materials or resources or even funding
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to be able to do the research and if so
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who is going to provide these and help
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you to to achieve these kinds of
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resources do you need to include anybody
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else or at least tell them about your
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research do you need to approach your
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managers or colleagues do you need to
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talk to the students or even the parents
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of the students before you start doing
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the
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research and other ethical issues that
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you need to consider like gaining
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permission from the participants
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allowing them to withdraw from the
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research if they're not uh if they're
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not uh happy to continue and so on and
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in some schools and particularly
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universities across the world there are
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guidelines for how ethical uh points
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need to be considered and so it's very
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useful to find out whether these are
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things that you need to look at in your
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own research
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context let's have a look next at what
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you can use for data collection and the
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way that you can collect information
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about the topic that you're interested
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in well in the past I've talked in in in
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terms of two different kinds of sources
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or categories for collecting
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data the first one is what we might call
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observation data in other words we're
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trying to find out what people do in a
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particular situation their actions their
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behaviors and so
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on and the other form of data collection
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is what I've called non-observational
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Data in other words trying to get under
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the surface of what you can actually see
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to find out more about what people
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think well let's think about the
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observational side
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first observation involves of course
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watching a social social situation and
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depending on what you've choose to
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observe this might be a classroom it
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might be something else in the school
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situation it might be a collaborative
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observation with two teachers helping
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each other and one observing the other
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and giving feedback but usually the kind
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of things that we use to collect
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information in an observational
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situation of these often we want to make
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notes um notes about what's going on and
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these can be factual accounts of the
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events that are going on as You observe
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them you can also make more reflective
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notes of course and uh a lot of teachers
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have done this through as a reflective
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journal or a diary where they've written
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uh down the most important things that
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may have happened during the lesson and
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then uh their Reflections or their
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observations or their evaluations about
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what those behaviors might be mean
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um the other very useful way of
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collecting observational data is to
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record it and and luckily these days we
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have great technology available where we
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can use audio video MP3 recorders and so
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on to actually find out uh in exact
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detail what was said or what was done
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during the observational phase and this
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is a great way of going back and looking
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at the the things that we may not notice
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on a day-to-day basis in the classroom
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because we're so used to them and we
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take them so much for granted so
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recording is really very useful thing to
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do if you want to observe something
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carefully having recorded of course we
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often want to make transcripts which is
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documenting the interactions writing out
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exactly what happened in the uh verbal
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interaction or spoken interaction that
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went on during the during the activity a
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word of warning doing transcripts takes
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a very very long time so think carefully
00:20:31
about how you want to do this do you
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need to transcribe the whole of the
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activity that you've watched or can you
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just select from it and take parts of it
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to show uh what's going on uh in terms
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of the research question that you're
00:20:45
interested in snapshots can be very
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useful too and digital cameras
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photographs or even instant cameras
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which students can use uh on a regular
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basis can be extremely useful in
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capturing things like where people
00:21:01
position themselves in the in the
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classroom the kind of setup of the
00:21:05
classroom that uh that may not have been
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noticeable to you and so on and also
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some teachers that I worked with have
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constructed Maps or diagrams of the
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classroom to show where students sit how
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they position themselves who works with
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whom and the kind of interaction how
00:21:23
this may affect the interactions that
00:21:25
have gone on in the classroom
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uh we can also uh take collect documents
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that are being used um course books
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textbooks students writing and so on
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which accompany the various activities
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that have gone on in this observational
00:21:43
situation and all of these pieces of
00:21:46
information can combine together to give
00:21:48
you a very rich picture of what's
00:21:50
actually happening in terms of the
00:21:54
particular Focus that you may want to
00:21:56
take in your research
00:21:59
well having talked about observational
00:22:02
data and a few of the ways in which you
00:22:04
can collect that data let's look now at
00:22:07
some of the non-observational ways I've
00:22:10
already mentioned J journals and Diaries
00:22:13
and these can be very useful for
00:22:16
retrospectively recording your ideas and
00:22:19
your thoughts they can be a way of
00:22:21
debriefing from the events that you've
00:22:23
been observing or the things that you're
00:22:25
interested in and writing uh at at more
00:22:29
length and with greater um ability to
00:22:33
think through through writing the things
00:22:36
that may not have been so obvious uh to
00:22:38
you at the time another way of doing
00:22:42
this is to jot down notes quickly uh
00:22:45
just uh in a in a random kind of way
00:22:47
they memory aids which you can go back
00:22:50
to at the time when you want to think
00:22:52
over what was happening in the research
00:22:55
situation lots of teachers use surveys
00:22:58
and question questiones in the classroom
00:23:00
and these are very very useful as
00:23:02
activities so some of this data
00:23:04
collection can actually double up as
00:23:05
classroom activities you may want to ask
00:23:08
closed questions which have yes no type
00:23:11
answers and which will are going to give
00:23:14
you numerical
00:23:16
information alternatively you want you
00:23:18
may want to have ranked questions that
00:23:20
is where you ask people to choose
00:23:22
between a number of different
00:23:24
Alternatives what do you think of group
00:23:27
work uh good quite good bad poor
00:23:32
terrible and so on and these are
00:23:34
sometimes the kinds of questions that
00:23:36
are put into uh ranked uh ranked surveys
00:23:41
or you may want open questions where
00:23:43
people simply respond through giving
00:23:46
their opinions in a rather um
00:23:48
unstructured kind of
00:23:51
way the other thing that uh that can be
00:23:53
very useful is to undertake interviews
00:23:56
and these are everyday conversations
00:23:59
which can be done again in different
00:24:01
kinds of ways they can be highly
00:24:03
structured where you ask the same
00:24:05
questions over and over again to all the
00:24:07
people that you interview and this
00:24:09
ensures great consistency amongst the
00:24:12
types of answers that you're going to
00:24:13
get or you may want a more
00:24:15
semi-structured or unstructured kind of
00:24:18
interview in the semi-structured
00:24:20
interview you usually have a set of or a
00:24:22
broad set of questions that you might
00:24:24
want to ask but you allow for some
00:24:27
diversion into thoughts or issues or
00:24:30
ideas Concepts that the people that
00:24:32
you're interviewing might just simply br
00:24:34
br bring up
00:24:36
unexpectedly and often these will give
00:24:38
you information which you had no idea
00:24:41
about and lead you to further uh Focus
00:24:44
ideas for your research the unstructured
00:24:47
question is like an open-ended
00:24:49
conversation but if you use this type of
00:24:52
interview you may wander off the topic
00:24:54
completely this is the main danger with
00:24:56
it and you end St not getting the kind
00:24:59
of information which is really useful
00:25:01
for your research so you have to think
00:25:03
quite carefully about which kind of
00:25:05
interview you're going to
00:25:07
use narratives are another very helpful
00:25:10
way of getting uh information in
00:25:14
non-observational settings and
00:25:16
narratives really mean asking people to
00:25:18
write life histories or
00:25:20
autobiographies or uh information about
00:25:24
themselves as teachers or Learners um
00:25:28
some sometimes we can get very useful
00:25:30
information by finding out about factors
00:25:33
outside the the educational context that
00:25:35
are really influencing the way in which
00:25:37
people are
00:25:39
learning just to give you a recent
00:25:41
example of a narrative I recently worked
00:25:44
with some teachers who were asked to
00:25:46
talk about critical incidents in their
00:25:49
teaching careers and this gave rise to a
00:25:51
lot of very very interesting information
00:25:54
about the kinds of things that had
00:25:55
motivated them and inspire them in their
00:25:58
own teaching
00:26:00
careers let's turn to another way in
00:26:03
which you can collect data by doubling
00:26:05
up with a classroom activity discussions
00:26:08
with with groups of students or with a
00:26:10
whole class can often be an interesting
00:26:12
way of focusing on the topic that you're
00:26:14
interested in and some of the teachers
00:26:17
I've worked with have used a classroom
00:26:19
discussion to ask students uh about
00:26:22
ideas or their views their concepts
00:26:25
related to the particular area that they
00:26:28
want to focus on focus groups are also
00:26:33
another way of
00:26:35
collecting data and the focus group is a
00:26:38
variation on the discussion or the
00:26:40
interview where you bring together
00:26:41
groups of people and interview them or
00:26:45
talk to them through conversational
00:26:47
interaction about various ideas various
00:26:50
topics that you would like to have more
00:26:52
information about and this has been used
00:26:54
very successfully and usefully by
00:26:57
teachers uh who have done action
00:26:59
research
00:27:02
too I mentioned earlier that there were
00:27:05
ethical issues to be considered and so
00:27:08
let's talk a little bit more about the
00:27:10
kinds of things that you or questions
00:27:12
that you may need to think about when uh
00:27:16
when focusing on ethical
00:27:19
concerns there are three questions
00:27:21
really involved here one is whose
00:27:24
permission or consent do you need who
00:27:27
will be affected by the research and who
00:27:31
should be told about the research when
00:27:34
it's
00:27:35
completed do you have particular ethical
00:27:38
requirements in your
00:27:39
institution how will you explain your
00:27:42
research to those
00:27:44
involved how will you gain their consent
00:27:46
to be involved and how will you share
00:27:49
the outcomes of the research with the
00:27:51
participants so when planning all the
00:27:54
kinds of methods that I've just talked
00:27:56
about to collect your data please also
00:27:59
think about these questions as they will
00:28:02
affect the way in which you will work
00:28:04
with the people you've selected to to
00:28:07
involve in the
00:28:14
research when doing action research
00:28:17
another thing to consider is the
00:28:19
validity of the research now validity is
00:28:21
not a term that's used so much in action
00:28:24
research and validity is certainly
00:28:27
different different from the concept
00:28:29
that you might be familiar with through
00:28:31
experimental research we're more likely
00:28:35
in in action research to talk about the
00:28:39
trustworthiness of the research and the
00:28:41
way that we've set it up the
00:28:43
worthwhileness of the research and The
00:28:45
credibility of the research so let me
00:28:48
talk a little bit about what I mean by
00:28:50
each of these terms well when we're
00:28:53
talking about
00:28:54
trustworthiness we're talking about
00:28:56
whether the description the analysis and
00:28:59
the findings that you present at the end
00:29:02
of your research are reconstructed as
00:29:05
honestly and as authentically as you can
00:29:08
make them basing them on the data that
00:29:10
you've collect and letting the data
00:29:12
speak to the the results or the outcomes
00:29:16
from the research we may have to dump
00:29:18
some of our own preconceptions or biases
00:29:21
here because the data May in the end
00:29:23
tell us something that we had not
00:29:26
realized was was the situation and uh we
00:29:30
may have thought about things rather
00:29:31
differently before we conducted the
00:29:34
research by worth wildness what I mean
00:29:37
by this is the value that's accured from
00:29:39
the research by the participants have
00:29:42
the part the people who have been part
00:29:45
of the research Journey with you
00:29:47
actually gained value from this research
00:29:50
if the aim of action research is to
00:29:51
improve things in the classroom for our
00:29:54
students then we need also to be very
00:29:56
sure that they have gained something
00:29:58
from it that things have been made
00:30:00
better for for them and that their
00:30:02
learning has been enhanced the kind of
00:30:05
activities they conducting in the
00:30:08
classroom are less boring or repetitive
00:30:10
for them and that something has really
00:30:12
been gained from the research by both
00:30:14
the teachers and by the students and
00:30:17
finally in terms of credibility we need
00:30:20
to be sure that the arguments and the
00:30:22
processes of the research enable someone
00:30:26
to trust the results we need to be able
00:30:29
to make meaningful cases for the uh way
00:30:33
in which we've done the research we need
00:30:35
to be able to convince the participants
00:30:37
and the people who are going to read
00:30:39
about or look or hear about the research
00:30:42
that the whole thing has been worthwhile
00:30:45
and that the results are are
00:30:48
credible so how can we do this well
00:30:51
there are various ways that we can think
00:30:53
about strengthening validity or
00:30:56
trustworthiness worth trustworthiness
00:30:58
and credibility in action research it's
00:31:01
all to do with research quality and we
00:31:04
can achieve this through various ways
00:31:07
one of the ways which is very much used
00:31:09
in qualitative research generally is
00:31:11
triangulation and what I mean by this is
00:31:13
using is using more than one source to
00:31:18
uh support the the data that you're
00:31:20
collecting in other words we might be
00:31:22
collecting different forms of data or we
00:31:25
might be using different methodologies
00:31:28
quantitative combined with qualitative
00:31:30
to look at the research questions so
00:31:33
triangulation is to do with getting
00:31:35
different perspectives from more than
00:31:37
one uh single P more than one single
00:31:40
perspective on the questions that you're
00:31:42
trying to
00:31:43
answer the next thing is that we want to
00:31:46
test out our ideas our questions our
00:31:51
concerns about the classroom through
00:31:54
practical action so we can strengthen
00:31:56
validity in action research by testing
00:32:00
the the new strategies the new actions
00:32:03
and finding practical ways of making
00:32:06
them contribute to improvements in the
00:32:09
classroom we also want to ensure that
00:32:11
the research aims are compatible with
00:32:14
educational aims and also the Democratic
00:32:18
aims of making uh the the classroom
00:32:21
experience more teacher friendly more
00:32:24
teacher student centered and more uh
00:32:28
balanced in the
00:32:29
classroom and we also want to ensure
00:32:32
that the research design and the data
00:32:34
collection fits in with our aims to
00:32:37
teaching and is compatible with the
00:32:40
teaching objectives that we have for the
00:32:44
class finally let's have a look at how
00:32:46
we might analyze data in action
00:32:50
research well data analysis and action
00:32:53
research doesn't really start at the end
00:32:55
of the research process and previous
00:32:57
viously I refer to a research cycle
00:33:00
you'll probably find that almost as soon
00:33:02
as you started collecting data you'll
00:33:05
also start thinking and reflecting on it
00:33:07
and seeing what is coming through as a
00:33:10
result of the new information that
00:33:11
you're getting so we can say that any
00:33:14
data analysis in action research is
00:33:17
going to be highly
00:33:18
Dynamic and also it's going to be
00:33:21
recursive in other words it's going to
00:33:23
spiral through the whole research
00:33:26
process in the same way that we have a
00:33:28
cycle of research that goes on uh
00:33:31
throughout the whole the whole uh
00:33:34
project and we want to make sure also
00:33:38
that the data analysis that we're doing
00:33:40
is connected back to our practical
00:33:42
action so how is the information that
00:33:44
we're receiving making what is it
00:33:47
telling us about the Practical action
00:33:49
that we've put in place how are the new
00:33:51
activities or the new strategies that
00:33:53
we've set up for students actually
00:33:55
making a difference what evidence do we
00:33:57
have from this through the data that
00:33:59
we've
00:34:00
collected we also want to ensure that
00:34:04
the reflection and the dialogue that we
00:34:06
have about with the data are unbiased so
00:34:10
I mentioned before that we may have to
00:34:12
put aside our own prejudices about what
00:34:14
happens in our classroom to see the um
00:34:18
the way in which things are really
00:34:20
occurring and the way in which the
00:34:23
activities are being responded to in the
00:34:25
classroom the actions are being taken up
00:34:28
and so
00:34:29
on we'll also want to experiment further
00:34:33
action research research doesn't involve
00:34:36
a
00:34:37
oneoff uh trial or a oneoff action
00:34:40
process it may involve reapplication or
00:34:44
undertaking several actions before we're
00:34:47
satisfied with the outcome of the
00:34:49
research and uh we may even find that
00:34:52
the things that we began with are not
00:34:54
the questions that we need to ask at the
00:34:56
end so reapplication
00:34:58
reorientation and taking your research
00:35:00
into new and dynamic directions is very
00:35:03
much a part of action research don't be
00:35:06
put off if you find that the kind of
00:35:09
thing that you started out looking at is
00:35:11
really not the most important issue in
00:35:13
the classroom and you end up finding
00:35:15
something
00:35:16
else we need to look carefully also at
00:35:19
what the data are really telling us and
00:35:22
uh reflecting on it as much as we
00:35:24
possibly can synthesizing it to look at
00:35:26
how it it uh contributes to new ideas
00:35:30
for the classroom and improvements on
00:35:32
what has gone before so we have to be
00:35:35
open-minded throughout the whole of the
00:35:37
action research process and to be sure
00:35:40
that um that we're really uh really
00:35:44
looking at things in in a deep and
00:35:45
reflective self-reflective
00:35:48
way well I've more or less come to the
00:35:51
end of my talk and in fact what I've
00:35:53
given you is really a very quick and
00:35:56
brief overview of what happens in action
00:35:58
research but many teachers have told me
00:36:02
that action research has made a
00:36:04
difference in their lives and that since
00:36:06
doing action research they've become far
00:36:09
more interested in the in reading about
00:36:11
research in understanding more about
00:36:14
research and it has sometimes set them
00:36:16
off on a on a professional pathway of
00:36:19
undertaking more research so I hope that
00:36:21
if you do try out action research
00:36:24
yourself or with other colleagues and
00:36:27
that's a great way of doing action
00:36:28
research that you will find it a very
00:36:31
motivating way of of ensuring your own
00:36:34
professional development and that you
00:36:36
will join me and lots of other teachers
00:36:38
across the world who are now
00:36:40
contributing to a burgeoning and growing
00:36:44
interest in the whole area of action
00:36:46
research and thank you very much for
00:36:48
listening to The Talk
