ACTION RESEARCH & REFLECTIVE PRACTICE

FSSK POST GRADUATE COLLOQIUM
ACTON RESEARCH AND REFLECTIVE PRACTICE SEMINAR

Jean McNiff
Visiting Professor, School of Language Studies & Linguistics
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

The seminar was about creating educational knowledge. It might be seen as a knowledge-creating process. The key questions in the seminar were:

-What is involved in doing action research?
-Why should I do action research?
-What is involved in reflective practice?
-Why should I reflect on my practice?
-What are the links between action research and reflective research?

Purposes of research
i) The purpose of all research is to create new knowledge and generate new theory; and then to test the validity of the theory that constitutes the claim to knowledge.
ii) The purpose of action research is to improve practice, and to generate theory that is grounded in the process of improving practice, and test the validity of the knowledge claim that practice has been improved, by referring to the evidence base which contains descriptions and explanations for the improvement.
iii) The purpose of reflection is to become aware of ones own ontological and epistemological stance in the world, and check whether one is exercising critical engagement in one’s own learning and the learning of others.

Spectator perspectives and insider perspectives
Much research is done from a spectator perspective. The researcher stands outside the situations and asks, “What are those people over there doing? How can their actions be understood?”
Action research is done from an insider perspective. The researcher sees themselves as part of the situation they are researching, and asks, “What am I doing? How do I understand myself, so that I can hold myself accountable for my actions?”

Typology, emerging ideas and shifting paradigms
Ideas emerge over time and constitute paradigm shifts. Some useful typologies are:

Typologies of knowledge
Different kinds of knowledge exist, for example:
>Know-that
>Know-how
>Know-this
>Personal knowing

Typologies of human interests
Human interests may be understood as:
>Technical interests
>Practical interests
>Emancipatory interests
>Relational interests

Typologies of research paradigms as ways of organizing experiences
Examples of research paradigms:
>Technical rational research
>Interpretive research
>Critical research
>Action research

How to do action research
Doing action research involves asking yourself, ‘How do I improve what I am doing?’

Here is a useful action plan:
+What is my concern?
+Why am I concerned?
+What experiences can I describe to show why I am concerned?
+What can I do about it?
+What will I do about it?
+What kind of data will I gather to show the situation as it unfolds?
+How do I explain my educational influences in learning?
+How do I ensure that any conclusions I come to are reasonably fair and accurate?
+How do I explain the significance of my work?
+How do I evaluate the validity of my work?
+How do I evaluate the validity of my evidence-based account of practice?
+How do I modify my concerns, ideas and practices in the light of my evaluation?

For more, do click
ActionResearch.net
jeanmcnif.com