Collaborative Action Research: Facilitating Inclusion In Schools
This paper explores the ways in which collaborative action research can facilitate the development of inclusive practices and thinking in schools. The paper uses examples from a study that involved three countries and eight secondary schools to illustrate how the process of collaborative action research promoted inclusive thinking and practices. The study combined a well-established approach to professional development – lesson study – and a framework for engaging with the views of students. This led to a distinctive model of teacher professional development that has at its core the idea of engaging with the views of students. Thematic analysis of data collected from all the settings over three years highlighted three ways in which collaborative action research led to the promotion of inclusive practices and thinking in schools: through teacher collaboration; through the development of reflective practice; and through student active participation. It is argued that what was distinctive through the process was the fact that collaboration occurred between adults and students, something that is less evident in the collaborative action research literature. Through this process, inclusive thinking and practices were developed.
Messiou, Kyriaki. (2018). Collaborative Action Research: Facilitating Inclusion In Schools. Educational Action Research.
Integrating Reading and Writing as a Strategy to Increase Students’ Literacies in One of the Formerly Disadvantaged Universities in South Africa
The paper aims to validate and explore, through action research, whether peer assessment tasks entailing the integration of reading and writing lead to improvement of literacy gaps and possible increased learning. The research adopted a quantitative paradigm and a mini-survey design that tested the hypothesis whether the year 2012 SWP (Personal Growth and Development) 210 students’ literacies (through integrating writing and reading in one of the formerly disadvantaged universities can be improved through classroom peer assessments tasks. A questionnaire was used as a research instrument to capture the perceptions, attitudes and the thinking of 24 students on whether integrating writing with reading helps bridge their literacy gaps. Findings indicate that peer assessment tasks increase reading, revision and increased learning, the tasks help bridge or close learners’ literacy gaps, and facilitates the integration of reading and writing to enhance learning and possibly increase learners’ throughputs. The study, therefore, validated the hypothesis that the year 2012 SWP 210 students’ literacies can be improved through classroom peer assessments tasks that integrate reading and writing. The researcher calls on all the teachers in the studied university to adopt action research and use peer assessments of students to improve literacy gaps and increase their learning, and urges the administration of the studied university to enforce that all the lecturers take a postgraduate diploma in higher education and training (PGDHET) to equip themselves with action research skills.
Simon M. Kang’ethe. (2015). Integrating Reading and Writing as a Strategy to Increase Students’ Literacies in One of the Formerly Disadvantaged Universities in South Africa. International Journal of Educational Sciences, 10:2, 318-324.
‘You Never Know What Research Is Like Unless you’ve Done It!’ Action Research To Promote Collaborative Student-Teacher Research
In contrast with its high level of popularity in both research and practice for in-service teacher development, teacher research has received much less attention in pre-service language teacher education as a reflective learning approach, particularly in China’s context. Action research, as a major form of teacher research, has rarely been employed by teacher educators. This action research study undertaken by a teacher educator aimed to address this dual gap by examining the effect of collaborative research experience undertaken by a cohort of English as a foreign language pre-service teachers in China. Triangulated research methods were employed to gather two sets of data respectively reflecting the student-teachers’ views of their collaborative research and the teacher educator’s perceptions of the action research. It was found that both groups highly endorsed their research experience. Meanwhile, issues also arose in terms of the sustainability of such research experiences for both groups. The study highlights the necessity of incorporating collaborative student-teacher research and teacher educators’ action research into preservice teacher education programmes, which entails the need to transform the existing foundationalist teacher education paradigm into a post-foundationalist paradigm, and to recognize teacher educators’ action research on pertinent issues in teacher education.
Yan, Chunmei. (2016). ‘You Never Know What Research Is Like Unless You’ve Done It!’ Action Research To Promote Collaborative Student-Teacher Research. Educational Action Research.
SHINE BRIGHT 