Using Action Research to Improve Instruction: An Interactive Guide for Teachers

Citation

Bennett, E.E. (2010), "Using Action Research to Improve Instruction: An Interactive Guide for Teachers", Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol. 34 No. 4, pp. 393-396. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090591011039117

Book synopsis

As the title of this book indicates, Using Action Research to Improve Instruction is meant to provide a pragmatic and interactive guide to help teachers use action research techniques in the classroom. The scope of the book is primarily for P‐12 school (in the UK context: pre‐university) teachers who may be “intimidated” by the notion of research but wish to improve practice through systematic self‐analysis, to foster their school's continuous improvement process, or to gather evidence of teaching skills. The authors recognize that teachers may equate research with sophisticated statistical methods whereas action research makes use of qualitative data and basic quantitative data readily available in the classroom and with which teachers are already familiar.

The book is organized to mirror the action research process, which follows the steps of:

1. 1.

   Planning the action research project.

2. 2.

   Collecting data.

3. 3.

   Analyzing the data.

4. 4.

   Reflecting to develop interpretations of the data and new teaching strategies.

It contains ten chapters and two appendices, with the bulk of the chapters focused on data collection and analysis strategies that follow the action research steps. The chapters are organized into five parts, each with two chapters. Once readers finish the introductory section, the authors suggest that they can jump to relevant data collection chapters or to the end discussion on collaboration rather than thinking they must proceed in a linear manner through the book.

Part I consists of first two chapters, which form an introductory section that describes the necessary steps for action research, discuss important foundational issues at the outset, such as research ethics, and how to plan a project. The authors note that an important part of beginning action research is for teachers to build a research persona, which they believe is different from a teaching persona, and to be sure they have the necessary buy‐in from educational leaders and applicable institutional review boards. The planning stage of action research includes formulating a research question that is founded in a problem or issue the teacher would like to investigate, searching the educational literature, and selecting appropriate methods for answering the research question.

Parts II, III, and IV represent the data collection step of action research. Part II describes methods for making observations of students and their work, and observations of teachers. Part III focuses on gathering perceptions through surveys and interviews. For example, the authors discuss the difference between multiple choice, dichotomous, and open‐ended questions for survey development and they encourage teachers to examine the resulting data from as many different perspectives as possible. Part IV guides the analysis of tests, including data generated from standardized tests and pre‐ and post‐tests. The order of the organization seems to move from broad observations to more focused data collection and measurement that can be subjected to basic descriptive statistics.

The final two chapters in Part V provide help on how to collaborate with others on a joint action research project and how to read and write up action research. The authors note that all research is communal in nature. When used collaboratively, teachers are often organized into study groups of four or five members. Collaborative action offers the advantage of fostering system thinking. Like many other types of teams, study groups must develop group norms and coordinate time management. Whether an action research project is done in groups or individually, the final chapter focuses on writing up the action research project. This commonly involves describing the purpose, participants, procedures, data collection methods, the findings, and discussion of results.

The appendices include a useful sample of an action research report and a section on sample answers to the reflective questions posed in the chapters. Throughout the book, the authors achieve interactivity through use of the reflective questions that are boxed apart from the main text. These reflective questions are meant to stimulate learning and critical thinking as the reader proceeds through the book.

Evaluation

Action research has been around since the 1940's and it provides a well‐defined process for problem solving (Swanson and Holton, 2001). The novelty of Using Action Research to Improve Instruction is that it applies action research methods to the school setting. The authors' stated aim is guide how teachers use action research and so they focus heavily on examples from traditional classrooms in the elementary and secondary school settings. As would be expected, the book has only limited use for instructors in adult education settings such as graduate education or business.

It is possible for a corporate trainer to use the basics of the action research process identified in this book as well as translate some of the data collection methods to a business environment. For example, there is a method for analyzing interactions between the teacher and students that uses symbols to code interaction patterns on a seating chart. This could be used to analyze hidden curriculum in a training workshop, however, readers should be fully aware that the primary context is education for children. The greatest potential use of the book remains with school teachers for the purposes of improving their practice.

In its endeavors, the book succeeds in several areas. First, the interactive questions are helpful for stimulating thought, although there is insufficient room to fully write answers to many of the questions that call for a description or a plan. This is easily remedied by using extra sheets of paper or a notebook. Because answers are available at the back of the book, practitioners have ready help as they engage in the reflective exercises. One thing the authors could have emphasized more is the option to answer the reflective questions collaboratively to help develop an action research team. Second, the book provides numerous concrete examples to help readers understand data collection methods. This includes the sample action research report that shows the results of a real project. Third, the action research steps are repeated in each data collection chapter but are customized to reflect the method covered in the chapter. This allows the data collection chapters to stand alone and it embeds the process through repetition and application.

The book falls short in several critical areas. First, data analysis and interpretation sections are meager and likely to disappoint teachers that have had any formal research training. Quantitative analysis is mostly limited to the mean, median, and mode (correlation is discussed in the chapter on standardized tests). Although the authors recognize that means are not necessarily the best choice for ordinal data, the sample action research report uses means for reporting student preferences gleaned from a survey. Additionally, there is no discussion about how sample size can change one's interpretation of the data, which is problematic since many action research projects involve small samples. Second, each data collection method is discussed separately and there is no comprehensive approach for integrating diverse methods. For example, teachers may benefit from guidance on whether certain data collection methods can be done concurrently or if there is a logical order of progression needed in some instances. It seems unlikely that action research projects are typically confined to one source of data and so the interpretation step needs to address integration. Third, the authors lump analysis of documents into the sections on observations, yet this is a rich source of data that really needs a separate section.

Overall, Using Action Research to Improve Instruction is a good choice for school teachers who are starting an action research project or for higher education classes that introduce action research to teachers. It has some potential for fostering scholarly‐practitioners and the development of research personas that diverge from the normal course of practice. Scholarly‐practitioners establish evidence‐based practice (Bing, 2009), which is much needed in business and school settings alike, and they may provide data that justifies or counters national data trends and regulations.

In their own words:

To become effective action researchers, teachers need to take on a research persona. More precisely, this means to acquire a set of dispositions and behaviors that are associated with collecting and analyzing data. The research persona needed to conduct action research differs somewhat from a teaching persona. For example, when giving instruction, teachers usually address issues in the classroom in a very holistic way. In rapid succession or even simultaneously, teachers must handle issues related to classroom management, motivation, student learning, and assessment. These interactions with students require quick decisions with little opportunity to reflect or assess their effectiveness. Therefore, it matters very little to teachers how they arrive at solutions: what is important is that they find a solution that works – and fast. In contrast, when teachers engage with action research, they need to examine problems more analytically (p. 7, italics in original).

About the reviewer

Elisabeth E. Bennett is an Assistant Professor with Tufts University and Director of Education with Baystate Health. Her PhD is in adult education with an emphasis in human resource and organizational development. Dr. Bennett presently focuses her research on learning in simulated and virtual environments, methods in medical education, informal learning, and virtual human resource development. She can be contacted at: Elisabeth.bennett@baystatehealth.org