This paper presents findings from a two-­year pilot project into the use of ePortfolios as a tool for assessment in a two year, field-­oriented, inquiry-­based teacher preparation program. Participants consisted of five cohorts of pre­service student teachers and five instructors; interviews, focus groups, artifacts, and project meetings provided…

Introduction: Action Research is a formative study of progress commonly practiced by teachers in schools. Basically an action research is a spiral process that includes problem investigation, taking action & fact-finding about the result of action. It enables a teacher to adopt/craft most appropriate strategy within its own teaching environment.…

This paper examines the attitudes of student teachers in social studies towards an educational research assignment, undertaken in an educational research methods course given at the Fatih Faculty of Education at Karadeniz Technical University, Turkey. A questionnaire containing open-ended questions and an interview were used in the data-collection…

This action research study evaluates a classroom approach incorporating a reflective, metacognitive component within a second language process-oriented writing environment. Inspired by the literature and developed by the first author, this approach seeks to provide English language learners (ELLs) with a command of metalinguistic principles…

Background: Following the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the NSW Premier, Mr Bob Carr, launched a school-based initiative in NSW government primary schools called the "Gold Medal Fitness Program" to encourage children to be fitter and more active. The Program was introduced into schools through a model of professional development, "Quality…

This paper describes and analyses an innovative experience carried out by a group of lecturers from the Psychopedagogy Faculty of the University of Alcala, involved in an action research process with the purpose of reflecting about our own practice and constructing alternative teaching strategies to facilitate students' reflective, autonomous and…

Purpose: Higher education has a key role and responsibility in creating change and addressing issues of fundamental human concern such as inequality and social justice, globalisation and development, environmental protection and sustainability. The purpose of this paper is to describe how RCE-Ireland, established in September 2007, aims to develop…

This article explores the idea that teachers can improve their practice through reflection and action research. The author discusses the constructivist and socio-constructivist roots of action research. The case study explores the use of a project to improve learner autonomy and cooperation. Students made key decisions about the project content,…

The disconnection between what counts as social research (SR) and what serves society's needs and interests results in a way of theorizing which, while useful, does not integrate theory and practice; a form of social theory that is not embodied in real lives and does not help non-academic people understand their contexts and practices. This…

This Action Research Project was designed to increase student awareness and involvement of socio-economic differences and how the children can make a difference in their community. Service learning projects were non-existent at the Academy causing the young children to miss out on learning experiences that would teach them how to make a difference…

Continuing Professional Education (CPE) is usually conceived as a planned and formulated process for individual members of professional associations. This paper, by contrast, examines professional learning as a collective and distributed process, taking a whole firm, as the unit of analysis. Action Research informed by activity theory is used to…

Although action research is a common feature of courses of initial teacher training, the evidence as to its efficacy, in encouraging reflection among trainees, is mixed. This article discusses cases of action research assignments carried out by three trainees into their own practice in relation to (a) behaviour management, (b) monitoring and…

Background: Clinicians in the UK rely mainly on informal observations and structured and semi-structured tasks rather than standardized testing in their assessments of pre-school children referred with speech and language difficulties. The informal nature of the clinical decision-making process at this age is unsurprising given the dearth of…

Teachers need to be multicultural--able to relate to many cultures with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to better understand growing student diversity. By the year 2010, 40 percent of learners in classrooms will be children of color, while the teaching population will remain around 85 percent white and female (Applied Research Center 2000).…

This paper reports on the findings of a research project that elicits the main factors impacting on the performance of workplace assessors in the oil and gas industry. The purpose of the paper is to reveal the significance of the role of workplace assessors and the subsequent impact upon workforce engagement. One model of employee competency…