Friday, February 8, 2013

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.

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