Search results for: Action research

In this article, the authors illustrate how the piloting process has influenced two widely different studies within the educational sciences. In the first case study described, our solidarity lies with the disadvantaged school children of South Africa. In the second case study, our solidarity lies with a group of teachers who through an action research project wanted to question a school policy that they do not feel benefits all school children in the Norwegian lower secondary school. The two cases are presented separately and explore the change in conceptual and methodological emphasis in the research procedure.

In this article, the author considers of what, conceptually, the evaluation design models might productively look like in the particular context of professional development (PD) in technology integration. The author describes and examines three PD programmes in New Zealand that formed the basis of the reflective review of evaluation in technology PD all had a technology focus. The author concludes that by placing participant teachers at their centre, models of PD based on action research have inherent potential to closely link both teacher effects and student outcomes directly back to aspects of the PD experience to provide a rich evidence base about those effects and outcomes from the participants’ perspective.

The current article describes and evaluates an inservice program designed to build elementary teachers’ understanding of Nature of Science (NOS) and an awareness of how NOS impacts science classroom instruction. Program participants linked positive experiences in the program to the explicit and activity-based NOS instruction provided. Yet, participation in the professional development project might not have been equally beneficial for all teachers. Implications for improvements to further develop teacher understanding of NOS are discussed.

The current study utilizes students' journaling and video-recording of field experience teaching sessions as vehicles for inquiry into the development of the process of productive reflection within the piloting phase of an experimental course. The course is designed to improve teachers' interactions with children as well as their implementation of curricula to promote gains in children's social and academic development. The piloting of the course took place in university in the Midwest United States. This article reports on a part of this action research study pertaining to the use of dialogue journals and videos in supervision of preservice early childhood teachers.