Action Research

What a useful and interesting DVD, thank you, Teachers' TV!

We will be using this at Roehampton with students on our MA Education programmes, as it provides a really good introduction for school based colleagues wishing to build up their confidence in researching their own professional practice.

Bridget Middlemas
Roehampton University, London

Excellent programme and time Teachers TV roadcast more like this where teachers take the initiative to 'teach as action enquiry'. There are some superb examples of this in schools across the UK and internationally. We need to put across a clear message that action research is not a bolt on extra but can and should be the basis for all classroom interaction between teachers and pupils.

One of the most memorable examples of this I came across just recently was in a reception class in a primary school. Teacher, teaching assistant and children were using an action research approach to learn to work together better. Did we tidy our room better today than yesterday? How do we know? What do we need to do better tomorrow? Magic! I have also seen teaching as appreciative action inquiry in a downtown school in Kobe Japan.

So moving - these children had lost family in Kobe earthquake and when I visited they were ending each day with their teacher giving her advice about how well she had helped them learn today

Sarah Fletcher

Teacher Research Mentor
http://www.TeacherResearch.net
Convenor BERA Mentoring & Coaching SIG;
Further details at http://www.bera.ac.uk

very interesting video

i'm very happy to register in this website as it is very usefl for everybody to develop his teaching skills in the classroom

Excellent video for classroom transformation

In th e late 1990s, I took a module in CELSE, Manchester that dealt with the issue of action research and I was very enthusiastic at the time about the ideas underpinning this research. However, when it came to practice, the group of teachers I was working with and to whom I was preaching its benefits were adamantly reluctant to take initiative and atleast try to implement it. Now I understand the reasons behind their not wanting to go for it. To do action research is self-evaluation. Some teachers fear stepping aside and reflecting about their various practices. they think that this would expose their weaknesses and that would shake the image that they have built around their teaching procedures. To analyse one's practice is to deconstruct one's philosophical perspectives and professional being.

Glad to hear you appreciate the show. Can I recommend to you, and any other viewers who want to see more on Action Research in schools, that you take a look at our series Action! Teacher Video - which features teachers filming and analysing their own practice.

David Libbert, Joint Head of Programmes, Teachers' TV.

I was delighted to see this programme. It is good to know that Action Research is firmly back on the agenda. I was one of the students on the first MA in Applied Research in Education course in 1973/4 at UEA. John Elliott was one of our tutors and Lawrence Stenhouse supervised my Dissertation. It was a joy to see that their work was being recognsied and celebrated in this way.It was one of the most inspiring years of my life. The course convinced me of the value of teachers being their own researchers and this programme encapsulates many of the key ideas that we were developing then. Part of the attraction then and now is that teachers are motivated by the practicality of improving thier own teaching. It is empowering and builds self-confidence. As John Elliott says it is a necessary corrective to the obsession with testing and measurement. The empowerment that comes from understanding that as teachers we have the capacity to create and improve our teaching without forever dancing to the tunes of others is so valuable. Progress and improvement is internalised because it is truly your own. I am retired now but as enthusiastic about teaching and learning as ever. It is good to see younger generations embracing the philosophy and methodologies of Action Research. Well done to the programme makers for spreading the word.