Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the views of school staff on a nutrition health project implemented via an ICT-based learning environment in a secondary school (7th to 9th grades). Design/methodology/approach: The study was a part of the wider European Network for Health Promoting Schools programme (ENHPS; since 2008, Schools…

Understanding physical movement is an integral part of learning to make music. This article presents the action research that the author has pursued while teaching movement to musicians. The narrative provides a theoretical underpinning for the teaching practices discussed. It provides examples of musicians' movement with analyses of the…

Student engagement is crucial to the success of e-learning but is often difficult to achieve in practice. One significant factor is the quality of the learning content; also important, however, is the suitability of the process through which that material is studied. In recent years much research has been devoted to improving e-learning content…

This paper evaluates a participatory action research (PAR) approach to conducting family research in Ireland. Drawing on PAR methodology it describes how parents of people with intellectual disabilities were recruited and trained to facilitate focus groups of parents in Ireland, in order to create an evidence base to support improved dialogue…

This action research involved co-teaching a week of dance appreciation at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, on Yvonne Rainer's "Trio A." The data discussed is from transcriptions of the three classes, as well as observation sheets completed by the students in class. This article also draws on existing literature about…

Mess and rigour might appear to be strange bedfellows. This paper argues that the purpose of mess is to facilitate a turn towards new constructions of knowing that lead to transformation in practice (an action turn). Engaging in action research--research that can disturb both individual and communally held notions of knowledge for practice--will…

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…

Theory, practice, and research are all espoused to be core values within counselor education. The authors assert that research needs to become directly associated with theory and practice for it to be a concurrent core value. "Action research" is most simply defined as a form of research that is practitioner based. The authors propose infusing…

Background: This participatory action research (PAR) project involved a collaboration with a self-advocacy group of people with intellectual disabilities that sought to build group capacity for advocacy. Materials and Methods: This study used a focus group, sustained participatory engagement and a reflexive process to gather qualitative and…

This article is to report an action research conducted in two sections of a course called Second Language Acquisition and Development during the fall semester of 2011 and the spring semester of 2012. By focusing on a three-way blended learning (BL) environment--face-to-face (F2F), eLearning, and Second Life (SL, a virtual-world environment), this…

This study is to examine whether the implementation of CL in an intensive reading class has a positive effect on improving the passive situation of students, whether it helps activate their enthusiasm for and ease their anxiety of participation in language class activities, and whether it is helpful to their improvement of English proficiency. The…

This article focuses on the experiences of Grade 12 students using a language portfolio based on the principles and guidelines of the European Language Portfolio (ELP) in their second language classes in a large urban high school. As part of a larger action-research project, focus group interviews were conducted to gather data related to…

An experiential approach to professional development (EPD) allowed Spanish teachers opportunities to improve their practice through demonstration, observation, collaboration, fieldwork, and reflection. As result of "experiential" professional development, Burke (2012) found that teachers' knowledge about communicative language teaching…

The purpose of this study was to determine how teacher perceptions of data and use of data-driven instruction affect student performance in English language arts (ELA). This study investigated teachers' perceptions of using data in the classroom and what supports they need to do so. The goal of the research was to increase the level of knowledge…

This study was a developmental evaluation that investigated whether practitioners' involved in an action research project experienced changes in their attitudes, assumptions, knowledge, behaviors, and beliefs by engaging in practitioner inquiry. The problem of the study revolved around the pressing issues of access, retention and degree completion…