Describes the Raising Achievement Project designed to address the need for more information on the performance of ethnic minorities for whom English is an additional language, and the need for support for children who have passed the initial stages of learning English. It also describes the action research model used to answer questions about…

Reviews 73 reports of classroom action research classified into seven groups: seeking quantifiable answers, determining results of change in classroom practice, exploring effects of program restructuring, discovering whether students can learn to use a process, establishing new professional relationships, developing new understandings of students,…

Discusses recent Australian research on parental attitudes regarding gender equity in early childhood programs. Reports that parents have extremely mixed attitudes toward these programs. Examines the behavior of three boys exhibiting either cross-gender play or extreme aggression and their parents' attitudes, and plans a teacher-parent…

Describes a collaborative action research project (the Genesee Valley Research and Reform Collaborative) involving university faculty and elementary teachers and administrators. The project originated in a discussion among educators who had participated in organized trips to observe New Zealand schools. It focuses on using collaborative action…

This article identifies personal practical theories (PPT) held by a teacher educator and several of his students in a graduate curriculum course. Implications of including action research in graduate coursework for inservice teachers, student projects, and a curriculum development model are discussed. (IAH)

Explores how a commitment to privacy inhibits the ability of teachers to learn from each other, to reflect on their own practices, or to engage in classroom-based research. Reports on a case study involving interviews with two teachers. Analyzes their commitment to privacy as a function of adaptation to school conditions. (KO)

A Kentucky kindergarten teacher describes the conceptualization, planning, and implementation of a writing program she designed for her students. She discusses the impact of writing activities on reading, phonics, and spelling development. Included are samples of pupil writing and an explanatory letter to parents explaining the program. (IAH)

An eighth-grade language-arts teacher describes action research she conducted with her class of "bums." She sought to determine what environmental factors in the classroom might influence motivation and what types of rewards are effective. (IAH)

The potential contribution of action research to professionalizing teaching is discussed and related to three types of collaboration which are distinguished by roles of participants, degree of institutional support, topics addressed, and type of focus. Also considered is the potential role of action research in encouraging reflective practice.…

Reports a participatory action research (PAR) project carried out by the FAGOR group of the Mondragon Cooperatives in the Basque provinces of Spain. Finds the experience to be most stimulating and intellectually engaging while noting that it is both emotionally and physically exhausting. Points out that PAR's impact has been uneven. (KO)

Focuses on the international industry of merchant shipping to explore strategies used to promote organizational change over the past 20 years. This case study emphasizes the advantages of melding knowledge and action in participatory action. Points out the importance of the design and management of industry-level forums in assuring the success.…

Classroom action research provides preservice and inservice teachers with a valuable form of teacher-centered professional development. Results of a case study are related; action research was applied to the question of student cooperation in an elementary classroom. The research format includes four stages: plan, act, observe, reflect. (IAH)

Describes how action research as a model for professional development helped teachers enrolled in a graduate course at the University of Nevada Las Vegas gain insight into the process of school change and provided them with opportunities to facilitate change involving the implementation of technology in specific school contexts. (Contains 26…

Describes a five-year research and development project that led to the creation of a decoding program for poor readers in grades one through eight. Uses action research as a means of developing the program and modifying the research. Finds that the word identification program enabled students to become better decoders and allowed them to make…

Reviews three books that encourage practioners to be researchers of their own practice. Discusses absolutist and relativist approaches to research by examining assumptions related to questions the research generates. Recommends unification of practitioner and researcher roles through a dialectic, critical, reflective orientation that strives for…