Participatory Action Research with and within community activist groups: capturing the collective experience of Ireland's Community and Voluntary Pillar

The inclusion of community activists in policy planning is increasingly recognized at the highest international level. This article shows how the use of Participatory Action Research (PAR) can present a deeper and more holistic picture of the experiences of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in shaping national-level social policy. By utilizing action-based research, the Community and Voluntary Pillar (CVP) of Ireland’s system of social partnership is shown to be an important agent in deliberating national bargaining outcomes (known as the Towards 2016 national agreement). The key contribution of this research is the reflective methodological considerations in terms of PAR design, execution and participant integration in the research process as a way to enrich and develop a deeper and more informed community of practice.

Teacher placement report: investigation: action research project investigating methods for promoting creativity in double bass students attending a portuguese music school

The investigation which employed the action research method (qualitative analysis)was divided into four fases. In phases 1-3 the participants were six double bass students at Nossa Senhora do Cabo Music School. Pilot exercises in creativity were followed by broader and more ambitious projects. In phase 4 the techniques were tested and amplified during a summer course for twelve double bass students at Santa Cecilia College.

Enhancing teaching and learning speech acts: action research of Japanese as a foreign language /

This action research observes a second year Japanese class at a university where foreign language courses are elective for undergraduate students. In this study, using the six strategies to teach Japanese speech acts that Ishihara and Cohen (2006) suggested, I conducted three classes and analyzed my teaching practice with a critical friend. These strategies assist learners toward the development of their understanding of the following Japanese speech acts and also keep the learners to use them in a manner appropriate to the context: (I) invitation and refusal; (2) compliments; and (3) asking for a permission. The aim of this research is not only to improve my instruction in relation to second language (L2) pragmatic development, but also to raise further questions and to develop future research. The findings are analyzed and the data derived from my journals, artifacts, students' work, observation sheets, interviews with my critical friend, and pretests and posttests are coded and presented. The analysis shows that (I) after my critical friend encouraged my study and my students gave me some positive comments after each lesson, I gained confidence in teaching the suggested speech acts; (2) teaching involved explaining concepts and strategies, creating the visual material (a video) showing the strategies, and explaining the relationship between the strategy and grammatical forms and samples of misusing the forms; (3) students' background and learning styles influenced lessons; and (4) pretest and posttests showed that the students' Icvel of their L2 appropriate pragmatics dramatically improved after each instruction. However, after careful observation, it was noted that some factors prevented students from producing the correct output even though they understood the speech act differences.

Growing up expectations. Better understanding the expectations of community partners in participatory action research projects

This paper challenges the assumption that youth and youth agencies are in a condition of equality when entering a participatory action research (PAR). By asserting that it is not a state of equality that practitioners nor youth should assume nor be immediately striving for, but a consistently equitable process, this article draws from and reflects on the relationship between young people and researchers who have used a PAR methodology in action oriented projects. Using the UNESCO Growing up in Cities Canada project as a case example, this review extrapolates from and reflects on challenges faced by the project as a whole. Using semi-structured interviews to explore the roles of adults and youth, a number of strategies are highlighted as the techniques used to overcome these challenges. The discussion concludes with further reflection on the complexities of equality and equity, recommending a number of actions that have the potential to create an equitable environment in PAR projects similar to the one examined.

Linking the UK Professional Standards Framework to reflective practice and action research

This is a part of a collection of materials developed by the HEAcademy Subject Centre for Languages, linguistics and area studies. The materials provide reflective activities designed to engage teachers with some of the key issues in working with international students and practical ideas for ways in which these can be addressed. They will be of particular interest to new staff or anyone new to working with international students.

Action Research : investigación en el aula : inglés secundaria.

Este trabajo supone la continuidad de un proyecto comenzado el curso pasado, de inglés y para los niveles de secundaria, formación profesional, BUP y COU. Aplicados a 3 centros de bachillerato y 4 de formación profesional, con la participación de 9 docentes. La investigación-acción en el aula es una forma de trabajar encaminada a mejorar la práctica docente sin salir del propio entorno y por medio del trabajo en equipo y la reflexión y evaluación de la propia acción profesional contrastándola con la de otros compañeros, teorizando juntos los problemas prácticos que se van presentando, buscando estrategias para valorar lo que se hace y adaptarlo a las exigencias del proceso enseñanza-aprendizaje, realizando los cambios pertinentes. Objetivos: -Llegar a conocer mejor las estrategias y técnicas de investigación en el aula, atendiendo a los diferentes tipos de actividades, mediante la lectura y comentario en equipo de los libros o artículos adecuados. -Conociendo estas estrategias y técnicas para facilitar el aprendizaje autónomo del alumnado mediante la lectura y comentario de los libros o artículos más adecuados. -Ver la posibilidad de aplicación de estas técnicas y estrategias a través de aspectos concretos de una unidad didáctica determinada. -Puesta en común de las distintas experiencias de cada participante y de la interacción entre los diversos elementos (profesor-alumnos, alumnos-alumnos). -Redactar una propuesta viable y comprobada, con posibilidades de generalización de un método de investigación en el aula. El procedimiento seguido ha sido fundamentalmente el siguiente: 1. Lectura de bibliografía disponible relacionada con el tema. 2. Consensuar , a partir de lo anterior, modelos de observación aceptables para todos los miembros del grupo, que serían utilizados como herramientas para la recogida sistemática de información. 3. Definir a modo de hipótesis qué, quién y para qué observar. 4. En relación a lo anterior se decidió observar tanto el proceso de enseñanza como el de aprendizaje incluyendo recursos materiales y metodológicos implicados en los mismos. 5. Evaluar el resultado final viendo algunas propuestas que pudieran servir como referente valido en la línea de investigación-acción marcada inicialmente. De la evaluación realizada se desprenden las siguientes conclusiones: -La mayor parte de los modelos de observación seleccionados han resultado útiles para los fines propuestos. -Dichos modelos son extrapolables a otros grupos interesados en la misma línea de trabajo. -Las grabaciones realizadas en las distintas clases han resultado sufucientemente válidas para la observación, aún no reuniendo las condiciones técnicas idóneas. -Las encuestas adaptadas o elaboradas por el grupo han resultado útiles para los objetivos propuestos..

The struggle to redefine the relationship between knowledge and action in the academy : some reflections on action research.

Resumen del autor. Este art??culo pertenece al monogr??fico 'John Elliott: su pensamiento y su influencia'

Dinamización de las relaciones familia-centro escolar a través de la formación del profesorado en este campo de actuación. 'Enhancing family-school partnerships throug in-service teacher training programs and action-research in this field'.

Resumen basado en el de la publicación. Resumen y título en castellano y en inglés

Un ejemplo de 'Action Research' : el horario de segunda etapa de EGB.

Se aborda la forma de aplicar esta técnica de investigación aplicada, a la resolución de un problema educativo de gran importancia como es la confección de un horario escolar, y se describe un ejemplo real de elaboración para la segunda etapa de la E.G.B. en las áreas Fundamentales de de Experiencias, en el Centro Piloto Experimental 'Santo Cáliz' del I.C.E. de la Universidad Politécnica de Valencia. Asimismo, se dan unas orientaciones generales al profesorado para que pueda desarrollar una acción ó 'Action Research' en la resolución de un problema educativo en su centro de E.G.B.

The challenges of creating actionable knowledge: an action research perspective

Academia has a critical role in developing new knowledge which construction industry practitioners need to envision, undertake and sustain successful innovation. The new knowledge produced by academia, however, often does not satisfy the needs of practitioners. This unsatisfactory state of affairs is frequently taken to be the consequence of the cultural, motivational and operational differences between the two communities. Actionable knowledge is presented as a useful concept which can fuse the expectations, contributions and outputs of academia and practitioners. Within this context, action research is argued to be an appropriate methodology to develop successful actionable knowledge. Results from an action research project are given which provide researchers and practitioners greater understanding of the key factors that shape the degree to which action research produces actionable knowledge: change focus, collaboration capabilities and systematic process. The criteria intrinsic to Mode 2 research (Gibbons et al., 1994) are demonstrated to have utility in evidencing actionable knowledge. The implication for policy is that there is a need to develop and use appropriate actionable knowledge frameworks and measures to design funding calls, and to evaluate research proposals and outputs.