Teacher education programs should acknowledge their students' vulnerabilities and perceptions of relevance by developing a collaborative inquiry approach to encourage reflection through three foci: the approach to research; the relationship between professional collaboration and the quality of reflection; and the contradictory responsibilities of…

When procedures for developing recommendations are integrated into evaluation methods, it is easier to produce useful recommendations for program improvement. (RB)

Organized action need not depend on group consensus. Karl Weick's theory argues that only minimal shared understanding is needed and that common ends and shared meanings may be outcomes of organized action, not prerequisites. This paper reveals four communication mechanisms that generate and sustain equifinal meaning (multiple routes to a single…

This publication is a compilation of resources concerned with practitioner research in P-12 education, with a focus on North America. The guide includes information about practitioner research networks, on-line sites, journals, collections of practitioner research studies, funding sources in support of action research, and publications about…

This research project described strategies to improve listening skills. The targeted population consisted of kindergarten and second grade students in a midsized midwestern city who exhibited inadequate listening skills, which interfered with comprehension accuracy. Current research addresses the problem indicating teachers have an incorrect…

Results of questionnaires sent to 85 teachers regarding various aspects of action research. (SP)

Reviews the history and nature of action research as an approach for dealing with classroom practice problems. Discusses differences between formal and action research. (SK)

Participatory action research is defined by the need for action, initiated by participants. It creates knowledge needed for action, and it is a learning process. Learning results from participation, from creating new knowledge, and from affirming the importance of knowledge people already have. (SK)

Suggests that the insights of educational action research, especially in connection with the reflexive nature of knowledge, must be taken seriously by educational philosophers and that it will not be, until they take seriously the fact that philosophy of education can become genuinely synoptic. (Author)

As National Vocational Qualifications are advocated for professional development, reflective practice takes on an increasingly narrow and technical focus. The focus and purposes of reflection must be made more explicit and the range and scope of reflection much wider if emancipatory discourse is to thrive. (SK)

Offers suggestions for improving the scholarship of teaching and learning. Highlights include a general concept of scholarship; merging the scholarship of teaching with the paradigm of learning; action research; epistemology of reflective practice; Glassick's evaluative framework to assess scholarship in general; and reflective critique.…

Action research involves responding to practice problems through problem posing and solving. Its core processes are planning, acting, reflecting, and observing. Data collection methods include anecdotes, field notes, document analysis, logs, journals, portfolios, questionnaires, interviews, audio/video recordings, and tests of learner performance.…

Home economics and action research are both concerned with human communities and actions. Home economics can be understood as a field of practice that can be enriched by engaging in approaches of action research. (JOW)

Examines applied linguistics as a research project analogous to other disciplines and presumes a need for cross-disciplinary perspectives in language studies. Argues that applied linguistics shares a position intersecting with neighboring sciences and with all other sciences, each of which demarcates its own space in contested and shared ground.…