An Action Research Approach to Classroom Discussion in the Examination Years  

        ABSTRACT
	This dissertation is an action research approach to understanding  my  attempts to improve the quality of education in my own classroom.

	Three reports provide the detailed explanations of what occurred when I attempted to put my planned interventions into operation. My concern was with a group of students in the last two years of their compulsory  schooling  and  how  they  discussed  and made sense of issues arising from the events in my own classroom. To this end, I have attempted to integrate the following: 1. transcripts of classroom events; 2. my reflections upon the transcripts and the events; and 3. literature from the field of oracy.

	The dissertation is presented in a dialogical form as part of an exploration of a logic of question and answer and generates the possibility of a different definition of generalisation. This is also an attempt to reflect the nature of the research itself - that is, discussions between students, colleagues and myself as well as internal dialogues. 

	I have also been concerned with issues of validity which have been raised in this form of enquiry. Because of the dialogical nature of the research, the dissertation contains extracts from conversations between colleagues and myself who discussed video films, sound recordings, students' writing as well as my own writing about what I observed. Within this dialogue and reflection, I have attempted to integrate literature from the field of educational research. This integration takes the form of dialogues with the texts as well as with my own reflections.

		
CONTENTS
ABSTRACT							 	1
CONTENTS 								2

PART ONE –INTRODUCTION 							3

PART TWO - METHODOLOGICAL CONCERNS  					7

1. Research Methodology and Educational Research

PART THREE - RESEARCH REPORTS
 					               45
1.	What Ought I To Have Done? An Investigation Into the
   Events Surrounding a Racist Poem.
2.	Casting Long Shadows: What Are the Constraints On the 
Process of Learning in My Classroom?  				     92
3.	Improving Classroom Discussion: Do My Interventions 
Help or Hinder? 						      125

PART FOUR - WHAT HAVE I LEARNED? 					    258
1. Beyond The Encrustation Of Habit.

PART FIVE – BIBLIOGRAPHY 					      268

INTRODUCTION

	Since coming into the profession, I believe that the best professional help I have had is in talking. Quite often the most support I have been offered or have offered to others has been over a pint of bitter, in a car, in a staffroom or anywhere else where two or more people can meet and discuss issues which have emerged from some problem or concern that in turn has arisen from the day to day practice of teaching and learning. Of course, I have enjoyed reading great and seminal works of educational theory, but for me nothing clarifies an issue better than sharing it with another. 

	How can I reflect this in writing? This is a question whose answer I do not think I will ever be able to suitably find because the dynamic of thought and language means that I am perpetually changing my ideas and the way I express myself. In this thesis, I offer the latest versions of my thoughts about myself attempting to live out some of my educational values in practice, to improve the process of teaching and learning.

	In attempting to overcome the problem of integrating the text of tape-recordings with my own thoughts and discussions with colleagues, I hit upon the idea of extending the dialogue into my writing. I am grateful to Robert M. Pirsig (1974) [after Plato] who gave me the idea that a dialogue with the soul/mind could be presented in a way other than the formal way in which I had been educated. His book continues to be a source of inspiration to me: it really DID change the way I think and feel about my life. I am also grateful to Stephen Kemmis et al (1983) for the idea of having a hypothetical dialogue. It remains only to be said that Jack Whitehead, Mary Tasker and Alan Skelton were also influential in the support they offered in my efforts. This thesis is the product of three years' classroom action and research. 

	Quite honestly, three years ago I had little idea of what I would end up writing, what I would find or what use it would be to anyone else. However, what follows is, I think, of general educational interest. Although I am primarily a teacher of English, I do not think that the issues I have tackled are exclusively to do with that domain of the curriculum. Discussion ought to be going on all the time in all areas of learning and the questions that we educators ask of ourselves and of our students are often of a similar kind - should I have done this? How can I promote the value of discussion? What is the role of the teacher in discussions about "controversial" issues? How do I/we know that improvement in the process of education has taken place? Questions of this kind have been in my mind since I began teaching in 1979 and, indeed, before that. I will not say any more about that now for these issues are covered in the thesis.

	The work is presented in three sections: first, some methodological underpinning for the research; second, three accounts of my attempts to improve the process of education; and third, some efforts to analyse what I have learned from the experiences of doing the research.

		PART ONE
	This is a theoretical chapter. I have tried to bring the ideas expressed there to life by dialoguing with or interrogating the texts in something like the way I did at the time I read them. My reading journals proved very useful here. I kept books in which I copied out quotations on one side of the page only. Why? Because I felt them to be interesting ideas or expressions and I left the opposite pages blank so that I could make my own notes on what I re-read later. It was a time-consuming activity but one which was useful to a slow reader as myself.

	I never felt that what I was doing in my research was particularly different. It just struck me as being the obvious way to investigate what goes on in schools: "What is going on? Why? How can I/we get better at it?" were the kinds of questions I asked in the early part of the work. This just seemed natural for a teacher to be concerned about. It was only when I was asked to justify what I was doing that I realised the problems. So, the first part of this thesis delves into this problem: what is the justification for educational action-research? 

		PART TWO
	This part consists of three reports from the classroom and they necessarily form the bulk of the thesis. They are attempts to understand, to share and theorise about what teaching and learning means to me and the people I worked with. They grow longer as I became more embroiled in the work - the third report is the longest - and a more thorough researcher. I have written a separate introduction to these reports so I will leave you to read this when you arrive at that point of the journey.

		PART THREE
	After going through all the trials and tribulations of the research - the writing drought, the demoralisation after my second validation group meeting - I felt that I had to reflect upon what I had learned from the research. I wanted to reflect my need to get back in the classroom full time but I'm not sure that this comes out as it should. Suffice to say that I really wanted to get back in there and put some of my ideas into practice and hopefully influence others to try. I think that a new job in a new school was important in my attempts to realise this aim. Not that I'm an evangelist you understand, but if you fancy a pint, I'll gladly talk about my ideas with you!