Trustworthiness

When doing educational research we have to consider the following terminology:

Validity

Validity refers to the degree to which a study accurately reflects or assesses the specific concept that the researcher is attempting to measure. It is the best available approximation to the truth of a given proposition, inference, or conclusion.

Triangulation

a powerful technique that facilitates validation of data through cross verification from more than two sources. It is the application and combination of several research methodologies in the same study. It is used to increase the credibility and validity of the results

Reliability 

Reliability is the extent to which an experiment, test, or any measuring procedure yields the same result on repeated trials. It is the "consistency" or "repeatability" of your measures which creates quality in measurement.

Generalisability

This describes the extent to which research findings can be applied to settings other than that in which they were originally tested. A study may be valid in one setting but not in another and in this case the research results would not be generalisable.

Practice-based and system-based Issues

If you find your wonderings beginning to focus on controlling or changing behaviour, try reframing them in ways that can help you understand that behaviour and allow you to discover what you can do with those new understandings.
(Dana, 2009:67)

Practice-based concern are concerns you might be looking at in your own classroom, or your teaching of something, possibly at the level of an individual.

System-based concern are concerns which focus on things like, how a department organises some of its work, an initiative or how the whole school structures some features.

These are my practice based concerns:

- How can I get students to utilize their study periods effectively?

- What will encourage students to participate evenly when doing group work?

- How can I get students to come to class on time?

- How can I maximize pupil concentration in 2 hour lessons?

- What will encourage pupils to participate in extra-curricular activities?

- How can I maximise student productivity through marking feedback?

- How can I get my pupils to become organised?

- How can I empower students to become self disciplined?

- How can I get students to stop wasting time during coursework lessons?

- Why do pupils drop out of subjects?

These are my System-based concerns:

How can we form more trusting and loyal relationships between teachers?

How can we maximise staff retention?

How can we lower malaise in teachers work ethic?

How can the school facilitate the change in curriculum?

How can teachers peer observation improve practice?

How can the school enable teachers to become more communicative and supportive?

How can we effectively implement a student code of conduct?

How can the school implement an effective student council?

Action Research–Practitioner Inquiry

Action research undertaken by practitioners is important, particularly in my professional context because it enables teachers to be more reflective about their methods and improve their teaching practice. It is beneficial for teachers, leaders and students leading to the improvement of schools.

A research issue relevant to my work stems from the issue of teachers professional development. Perhaps because of the culture of our school some teachers are reluctant to take responsibility for their own learning and share knowledge with other staff members. Action research would provide an appropriate approach to solving this problem.

Corey (1953) built on the Deweyan idea of enquiry and advocated action
research specifically for the study of education. It is in through Practitioner Inquiry that teachers, supervisors and administrators can make better decisions and engage in more effective practices if they are able and willing to conduct research as a basis of these decisions.This will lead to school improvement.

This method assumes that practitioners have current knowledge and understanding of their practice. The problem might be discussed with collegues and from this collaborative approached shared understandings will be created. From this collaborative knowledge further enquiry is done to provide evidence and collect data as a form of measurement.

This form of action research will lead to school capacity building and the introduction of new learning programmes. New resources may be produced to share with other practitioners. It is important to note that the key issues in Practitioner Inquiry for  bringing about improvements in teaching practice is collaboration and continued collection of data.