Focus groups (n=14) and a study day (n=10) on pain management for child patients were held for pediatric nurses. Participants felt they increased their knowledge of pharmacology and their confidence and assertiveness in the practice of pain management. (Contains 37 references.) (SK)

This article provides an overview of several core theoretical and practical aspects of participatory action research (PAR). An effort is made to define PAR and the types of work that fall under that rubric. Historical underpinnings, roles of the individuals involved, contexts, methods, and the challenges and benefits of this mode of inquiry are…

The disappearance of physical social spaces from today's society is seen by some to be a modern phenomenon, resulting in isolation and lack of socialisation. In fact, this is always the case in distance education, due to geographical dispersion and disparate time schedules of learners. Very often, peer-to-peer socialisation in distance education…

Action research is a systematic approach used by practitioners to conceive questions and control methodologies, and to explore classroom or school-based problems. Action research is the perfect marriage of theory and practice. Recent trends in education, such as professional development schools, data-driven decision making, and undergraduate…

Public education that encourages family discussions about organ and tissue donation can enhance understanding, facilitate a donor's wishes and increase the numbers of donations. Action research methods were used to explore the impact of a student-initiated family discussion about donation. Most discussions were positive; only 7% middle school and…

For more than 30 years, Janusz Korczak (1878-1942) devoted his life to educating orphaned Jewish children, and he stayed with them to the end as they all perished in the Treblinka concentration camp. In his teaching and writing, Korczak encouraged teachers to become autonomous knowledge producers by questioning and interrogating their work.…

This article is centred on a preliminary phase of action research which the literature has not given much attention to. The initial stages are usually complex and the ideas on how to proceed are often unclear. Therefore, learning how different authors have dealt with them can serve as guidelines when initiating new research, which is why I have…

The two-stranded spiral shown in Figure 1 represents two aspects of the authors' journey in becoming critical. The journey, conveyed through discussion, reflexive accounts and illustrations of particular and summary achievements, shows how Carr and Kemmis's work has influenced the authors as action researchers, both individually and together, in…

Research in student learning can be based on a theoretical framework, observations of students' learning, the products of this learning, and students' own conceptions of the subject and of learning. In the final analysis, such investigations have a clear purpose--to improve student learning. We report on using the results of research into student…

This paper discusses seventh-grade students' explanations of dissolution and combustion and also identifies their understanding of the differences between physical and chemical changes. A teaching strategy was initially negotiated within an action research group and this strategy was then employed in teaching seventh-grade students. The teaching…

Citizenship education is an important part of the development of young adults, enabling them to learn about their rights and responsibilities, and to understand how society works and decisions are made. Like citizenship, action research is about having a positive effect on the quality of people's lives. It is about seeking improvement both for the…

The purpose of this study was to apply two techniques, drill activities and fine motor activities, to find whether they help improve the handwriting of a student with dysgraphia. This action research used an ABAB single subject design to find which technique worked better over an eight-week period. The results were inconclusive on which technique…

The ability to understand that goals and other intentional relations are attributes of individual people is of fundamental importance to social life. It enables us to predict and interpret actions on-line by relating a person's prior and current behaviors, and distinguishing them from the behaviors of other persons. In this paper, we consider the…

Direct instruction teaching methods have been found to promote the acquisition of literacy in developing readers. Equally important, learning strategies that allow children to construct knowledge through active participation increase their motivation for reading and writing. This action research was designed to explore the effectiveness of direct…

Purpose: The purpose of this action research is to gain insight into how people learn to think systemically. An examination of the themes that emerged from this action research will be undertaken. Design/methodology/approach: An action research approach was adopted which involved the collection and reading of 120 journals that were kept by…