ACTION RESEARCH IN EDUCATION
A PRESENTATION BY
RUMUTHAMALAR
RAJARATNAM
SMK
BANDAR SUNGAI PETANI
ILEP
2007 ALUMNI
PRESENTED AT
SMJK SIN MIN
DATE: 18 FEBRUARY 2012
PARTICIPANTS: FORM 6, MATHS, SCIENCE & ENGLISH TEACHERS
PRESENTED AT
SMJK SIN MIN
DATE: 18 FEBRUARY 2012
PARTICIPANTS: FORM 6, MATHS, SCIENCE & ENGLISH TEACHERS
Why
should I use action research?
Ø Because
you want to change your practice.
Ø You
may need to implement a new initiative but are unsure how to do it effectively.
Ø You
know that practice is always influenced by context.
How
does this qualify as research?
Ø Because
the act of finding your solution makes you understand your practice better –
not only what you are doing, but also the factors that affect what you do.
Action
research therefore has two aspects:
v The
starting point is to sort out a problem or issue in practice; to this extent an
action researcher seeks a solution.
v But
the process can also be used as a deliberate attempt to understand practice
better – a traditional research attitude.
‘Curriculum
research and development ought to belong to the teacher’ (Stenhouse, 1975
p. 142).
He was most
adamant that
‘it is not
enough that teachers’ work should be studied: they need to study it themselves’
(p.143).
q Action
research is not a library project where we learn more about a topic that
interests us.
q It is not problem-solving in the sense of
trying to find out what is wrong, but rather a quest for knowledge about
how to improve.
ü It involves people working to improve their
skills, techniques, and strategies.
ü Action research is not about learning
why we do certain things, but rather how we can do things better.
ü It is about how we can change our
instruction to impact students.
Action
research can thus be used to:
ü understand
one’s own practice;
ü understand
how to make one’s practice better;
ü understand
how to accommodate outside change in one’s practice;
ü understand
how to change the outside in order to make one’s practice better.
Jack
Whitehead (1985) puts forward a simple representation of how the process feels:
- I experience a problem when some of my educational values are negated in my practice;
- I imagine a solution to my problem;
- I act in the direction of the solution;
- I evaluate the outcomes of my actions;
- I modify my problems, ideas and actions in the light of my evaluations.
Action
research is about teachers striving to understand and to improve their
practice.
At the ‘bottom line’, this operates at a
personal level.
It
may lead on to collaboration and a critique of the situation in which the
practice is carried out, but this does not have to be a fundamental aim.
Starting
Some
key questions:
Barrett
and Whitehead (1985) ask six questions which should help you start your
inquiry:
- What is your concern?
- Why are you concerned?
- What do you think you could do about it?
- What kind of evidence could you collect to help you make some judgement about what is happening?
- How would you collect such evidence?
- How would you check that your judgement about what has happened is reasonable, fair and accurate?
Focusing
on a topic
Golden
rules for selecting a topic
ü Keep
it manageable – keep the focus small scale.
ü It
should be interesting to you – you may need some perseverance to see the
inquiry through!
ü It
should be workable – you are not stumped for ideas, but can identify ways in
which you might have a go at addressing your question.
ü It
is not too disruptive of normal routines.
Your paperwork should inform on the following:
•
Area of
Research
•
Rationale
•
Objectives
•
Literature
Review
•
Targeted
Students
•
No. of
Research Participants
•
Duration
of Research
•
Methods
•
Estimated
Expenditure
•
Findings/Reflections
•
Conclusion
There
are many vehicles for collection of data:
interviews
portfolios
diaries
field notes
audio tapes
photos
memos
questionnaires
focus groups
anecdotal records
checklists
journals
individual files
logs of meetings
videotapes
case studies
surveys
records – tests, report cards,
attendance
self-assessment
samples of student work,
projects, performances
Are
the data easy to collect?
Are
there sources readily available for use?
How
structured and systematic will the collection be?
*
Use at least three sources (triangulation) of data for the basis of actions.
*
Organize the data in a way that makes it useful to identify trends and themes.
**********************************************
INNOVATIVE STRATEGIES IN
TEACHING & LEARNING ENGLISH
A PROFFESIONAL DEVELOPMENT
AND MOTIVATIONAL WORKSHOP
SEKOLAH MENENGAH JENIS
KEBANGSAAN SIN MIN
08000 SUNGAI PETANI, KEDAH DARUL AMAN
08000 SUNGAI PETANI, KEDAH DARUL AMAN
DATE: 14 MAY 2011
Presenter:
Rumuthamalar Rajaratnam
SMK Bandar Sungai Petani
(International Leadership in
Education Program (ILEP) Alumni / U.S. Dept. of State)
Strategy # 1
MADLIBS
•
Paragraphs or
stanzas, each containing many blanks.
•
Beneath each blank is a part of speech or
category (such as noun, adjective, or liquid) that students are required to
fill in.
•
You, as the teacher, should ask students to
contribute words to fill in each blank without actually reading the story or
telling them what it is about.
•
Once all the blanks have been filled, you can
read the story aloud.
The
random words often make for a hilarious story, and the process of choosing
words helps students better understand parts of speech.
Sample:
Write a word for each:
1. A descriptive adjective: _____________________
2. Another descriptive adjective: _____________________
3. A proper noun
(a celebrity): _______________________
4. Another proper noun (a celebrity / public figure):
_________________________
5. A noun (an animal): ______________________
6. An adjective:____________________________
7. A verb: ______________________
8. A noun (object): _______________
9. A noun (clothing): _____________________
10. A noun (body organ): __________________________
11. An adverb: _______________________
12. An adjective:
______________________
13. An adverb: ______________________
14. An adjective: _______________________
15. An adjective (denoting taste):
_________________________
16. A noun (body organ): ____________________
17. A noun (part of the body): ________________________
18. A noun (a beast): ______________________________
19. A proper noun (somebody in class):
_____________________________
Fill
in the blanks with words according to the above numbered list:
My
"Dream Man" should, first of all be very __1__ and __2__. He should
have a physique like ___3__, a profile like __4__, and the intelligence of a/an
__5___. He must be __6__ and must always remember to __7__ my __8__, to tip his
__9__ and to take my __10__ when crossing the street. He should move __11__,
have a/an __12__ voice, and should always dress __13__. I would also like him
to be a/an __14__ dancer, and when we are alone he should whisper __15__
nothings into my __16__ and hold my __17__. I know a/an __18__ is hard to find.
In fact the only one I can think of is __19___.
Strategy # 2
THINK – PAIR – SHARE
1.
Have students read a
passage by themselves, read in pairs, or listen as you read the material aloud
to them.
2.
At an appropriate
point, pose a question about the text and have them think for a moment to
themselves, then share their ideas with a partner.
3.
After a moment or two
of discussion, the pair can share their ideas with the class.
It
allows them to formulate their ideas on their own, test them out in a
non-threatening way with their partners, and then, reinforced by their
partner’s feedback, share the ideas with the class.
ü Assign
Partners - Be sure to assign discussion partners rather than just saying
"Turn to a partner and talk it over."
ü Change
Partners - Switch the discussion partners frequently.
ü Give
Think Time - Be sure to provide adequate "think time." I generally
have students give me a thumbs-up sign when they have something they are ready
to share.
ü Monitor
Discussions - Walk around and monitor the discussion stage.
ü Timed-Pair-Share
- If you notice that one person in each pair is monopolizing the conversation,
you can switch to "Timed-Pair-Share“.
ü Randomly
Select Students - During the sharing stage at the end, call on students
randomly.
Strategy #3
USING CARTOONS / GRAPHIC NOVELS
Cartoons
are powerful teaching tools and can
v Tell
a complex story in a few images
v Provide
comment and provoke thought on events and issues in the news
v Give
an example of vocabulary related to current trends and fads
v Provide
easily identifiable characters to form the basis for sketches
v Show
culture in action with the ways that men or women are behaving and are expected
to behave
v Comment
on and illustrate a whole range of issues like environmental problems, teenage
relationships, ageism, and family relationships.
Strategy # 4
WRITING – IN – ROLE
Drama
is a method for instruction and learning that involves students in imaginary,
unscripted, and spontaneous scenes.
Through
process drama, students can "write in role" (O'Neill, 1995;
Tarlington, 1985), enabling them to think differently about the forms as well
as the content of their writing.
In
the context of process drama, students can write for various purposes and
across different genres. The real purposes for writing are created within an
imaginary context.
Effective
write-to-learn assignments...
*Are
short (3-15 minutes)
*Ask
students to write a word, a sentence, question, or a paragraph or two
*Are
integrated (explicitly) into class content, objectives, and activity, and, are
optimally, utilized in subsequent writing projects
*Elicit
multiple responses
*Where
appropriate, receive some content-focused (versus mechanics-focused) response
*Aren't
formally graded, but count toward a portion of the grade
******************************************************************
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