PART ONE: GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS

INTRODUCTION

  Teachers have an enormous fund of knowledge about their own practice, their children and their classrooms. Much of the time though, they are told by external forces what constitutes meaning in their own unique environments. Action Research empowers classroom teachers to construct their own knowledge and to make it available to others for their benefit and the benefit of their pupils.

   This Guide aims to give practical advice to student teachers who wish to embark on an Action Research enquiry. It will be divided into four sections; the first will comprise a guide to those aspects which need to be borne in mind throughout the enquiry;  the second will deal with individual aspects of the research; the third will look at a quality which always emerges with Action Research, that of collaboration; and the fourth will constitute some reflections by a P.G.C.E. student, Jonathan Jones (1990/91) about the process of working with Action Research. In addition this section will include some conclusions from the Final Reports of four students (1991-92) Throughout the Guide I will be using case-study material from Justine Hocking (1991/92), two of last year’s P.G.C.E. students, Jayne Prior (1990/91) and Jonathan, of the enquiries that they conducted on first Teaching Practice, and from an Undergraduate Biological Sciences student, Zac Watkins (1990/91) and the work he did on Second Teaching Practice. The whole Guide will take you through the various stages and try to answer the questions that have occurred most often in my experience of advising on Action Research. 

  So there will be explanatory notes first on the fusion between the two terms ‘Action’ and ‘Research’, the Criteria for Success, and also the importance of exercising your professional judgement about confidentiality, and in addition a section about the significance of Validation Groups. The Guide will look at the framework of an enquiry and then offer sections on the significant aspects. These will include finding the question, the role of a ‘critical friend’ and that of the observer, and then subsequent ones on the use of talk, writing, and the notion of ‘making public’ which must be borne in mind during any enquiry, some words on collaboration and then Jayne’s and Jonathan’s reflections. This is followed by a section on the validity of an Action Research Enquiry and how it must relate to pupil-learning.

Personal Background

 I taught for ten years in a mixed 11-18 rural comprehensive. My main subjects were English and German, but I also taught some lower school Music and R.E., together with General Studies in the Sixth form. I was redeployed due to falling rolls. I secured a secondment on full pay to read for an M.Ed. at Bath University in 1988/89, during which time I had the good fortune to meet Jack Whitehead who has spent the last eighteen years familiarising the educational world with the values of a qualitative approach to educational research. 

  Put simply there are two approaches to educational research. One is called quantitative, and the other qualitative. The former concerns itself with measurements of one sort or another, and finds itself often expressed as statistics for example. Within the quantitative approach lies the implicit assumption that all interactions between individuals in places such as classrooms can be  measured. Action Research believes that such human interactions may not be adequately defined through numbers and furthermore that there is a valid reality in the insights of individual teachers and pupils who struggle systematically to bring the truth and reality of their settings into formal expression. To put it very simply: the quantitative approach measures the number, length, etc., and the qualitative approach tries to describe the quality and flavour of an experience, to breathe life into words and cross barriers of understanding and insight so that you might exclaim: ‘That’s the way it is. I see it now!’. This is not to suggest however, that quantitative methods of analysis cannot be used within a qualitative framework if this appears to be required by the context of the enquiry. Indeed quantitative analysis can throw useful light onto a variety of qualitatively held judgements.

 My own concern for the individual is already documented (‘The Diary of a Frog Lover’, 1988, M.Ed. thesis, 1989, ‘Making Sense of an Educational Experience’, 1989, ‘A Celebration of an Experiment with Freedom’ 1990,). I believe that true education is about unique people making sense of their worlds and their subsequent development into positions in which they can make the most of their innate qualities, and that it should be the purpose of schools to facilitate this process to the best of their abilities.  
 
  After my M.Ed., I did not go back to Shropshire, and instead decided that I would like to write fiction for a while. This I did, but I was drawn more and more to work within the School of Education at Bath University with the emerging initiative within Avon to promote all staff development in schools through Action Research. I was involved in the training of some of the county’s eighty advisory teachers and the hundreds of Staff Development Tutors. Over the last two years I have become involved with student teachers at the School of Education here who have taken on Action Research as part of their Teaching Practice.

1) Aims of the Guide

  For my own research I am interested in seeing how I can best facilitate those who are beginning action enquiries, and that aim constitutes one of the reasons for the writing of this Guide. 

  Another is the firm belief, founded on personal experience, that Action Research provides a facilitative framework for greater effectiveness in one’s practice through greater self-knowledge. 
  Thirdly I must admit to a feeling of dissatisfaction with an idea implicit within the INSET mentality that teachers need to be told what to do in their own classrooms because the outsider knows best. I actually believe that teachers can generate their own knowledge for themselves and colleagues, and that Action Research will assist greatly in this process. You as student-teachers are in an excellent position while starting your professional lives, to accustom yourselves to an educational research method which asks you to isolate those aspects that require improvement, and the means whereby you can achieve this improvement. 

Please note. It is you who must decide what needs to be improved, not anyone else.

  I believe that until teachers do process their own understanding and use it to benefit themselves and their pupils, they will be forever at the mercy of the vagaries of politicians who seem at best to be motivated to make educational changes for change’s sake; and at worst by a cynical manipulation of professionals into a belief that others will automatically know better than they in the construction of the practitioners’ own knowledge. This lays the foundation for the deskilling of the teaching work-force into a group of technicians carrying out instructions from on high. 

  Teachers tend to denigrate their own experience and not assume that it can have any general applicability. They know it’s real but they cannot necessarily formulate it usefully. First, Action Research would question the dubious conclusion that the individual’s conclusions cannot hold general applicability, and secondly it offers a way whereby the teacher’s perceptions can take on this generally useful form. It would argue that teachers undergoing systematic enquiries, whose aim is to improve the quality of learning for their learners, have indeed much to say that can and should form part of the professional development of the individual. By sharing that development there is the potential for collaborative growth as well.

WHO IS IT FOR?

‘Either you had no purpose
Or the purpose is beyond the end you figured
And is altered in fulfilment.’
(T.S. Eliot, “Little Gidding.”)

   Action Research is for those people who wish to improve the quality of learning for their learners. This Guide is written specifically with practising teachers in classrooms in mind and the examples in the book will be drawn from those sources, but is applicable to anyone in a situation involving the development of self-understanding for the purposes of enhancing any learning situation. So it is for student and experienced teachers from any type of school - infant, junior, secondary, special, or for lecturers in Further and Higher Education, or for staff at a community school, or sixth-form college. It is also for administrators in these institutions whose activities have a direct bearing on the learning environment and therefore shape the quality of learning possible in their establishments.

WHAT IS IT?

‘What we call the beginning is often the end’
(T.S.Eliot. ‘Little Gidding’.)

It is a practical answer to a question of principle: ‘How can I improve the way I teach the tenth years on a Friday afternoon?’  for example; or ‘How can I enhance the status of dance within the school’s curriculum?’   People engaging in Action Research believe that individual teachers within the classroom are in the best possible position to reflect on their practice, and a systematic application of a cyclical form of reflection and adaptation of methods as a result of that reflection as the most efficacious way of improving existing practice.

  Let us imagine the process as a circle of some sort, or as a series of interrelated steps in which the beginning and the end are fused. The following is a guide to the stages inherent in an Action Research enquiry:

1) Externally your enquiry begins with a question (although the insights and the need to solve something arise out of your past practice and experience). There is something happening now about which you are uneasy, and would like to be able to tackle. So you formulate a question, like, ‘How can I enable my class of non-examination eleventh year pupils to get the most out of their last term at the school, when it is obvious from the attitude of some of them that they are bored and want to move on?’

2) You decide on a solution. What would a solution to your particular concern look like? Perhaps you decide to give your pupils more autonomy in their choice of learning areas for their last term, or you decide that you would make the most of existing links between your  school and work so that they have more of an idea of what it is they can do to prepare for the experience of life outside school.

3) You implement your perceived solution. Perhaps you arrange for speakers from outside school in employment in the area to talk to them. You might also set up opportunities for them to study application procedures, interview techniques, engage in some role-play on it, and the like.

4) You observe how it appears to be going. Many of the pupils seem to be more positive in their attitude and this is remarked upon by visitors and observers. You ask them what they think of what is happening as well.

5) You reflect on it and either carry on, or adapt, or change your plan altogether. 

6) The cycle begins again. 
2)  ACTION OR RESEARCH

  When I was working with the Staff Development Tutors in May 1990, I found that one of the common worries was how people were meant to respond to the seeming duality of the name ‘action research’.
   “Isn’t it one or the other?” one of the teachers asked me.
  “Isn’t research about reading books all the time? When are we supposed to have time to do that?” remonstrated another.

  Of course it can be very illuminating to read about the conclusions that others have come to. Indeed should not all teachers be in the business of adding to educational knowledge through their practice, as I state at the beginning of this Guide? This short chapter is an attempt to answer the questions that have been raised to me and to show that the name ‘Action Research’ is entirely appropriate for its various purposes.

ACTION									   RESEARCH

IDENTIFYING
A CONCERN

TALKING IT THROUGH
WITH A COLLEGUE
(critical friend)

DISCOVERING ITS
VIABILITY
(look at S.D.P. - School
Development Plan)

PLANNING A
STRATEGY

CARRYING OUT PLAN

OBSERVING EFFECT OF 
INITIAL IMPLEMENTATION

WRITING A JOURNAL

DISCUSSING FINDINGS
WITH COLLEAGUES

ADAPTING PLAN

REVISING CONCERN

MAKING FINDINGS PUBLIC
 It should be clear from this that the name encompasses the fusion between the two terms. Yes, there is research (what is the collection of data, the discussions, the writing, reading and reflection if it is not that?) but there is action as well, in as much as the researcher needs to implement strategies as a result of growing insights, s/he needs to plan and act on the solutions that s/he imagines. However to split the two terms in this way is arbitrary and enables some of the power of the fusion to trickle away.
  
  The dual concepts of Action Research need to be unpicked. It is the fusion between the two notions that gives Action Research its enormous potential for the improvement of practice and the quality of learning for the learner.

3) CRITERIA FOR SUCCESS

   You’ve got an action enquiry underway. How do you know when you’ve made an improvement in the quality of your practice? By what criteria can you judge it? The following are some pointers towards how you might do that. I will give you a scenario, my own, because it is a real enquiry, not just because I am an egotist! I want to facilitate in the processes of people beginning Action Research enquiries. I have to ensure at all times in this facilitation that I am doing what I set out to do, and that I build the criteria for the success of my research into every stage of the research. I will take you through this in the form of the Action Research enquiry itself, thus showing what an integral part it is in the proceedings. I will use the part of my research that has revolved around Justine to illustrate my point.

a) The criteria for what constitutes success or failure must be built into every stage of your enquiry.  I set out to facilitate Justine in her undertaking of an action enquiry on her second teaching practice. I believed at the beginning of the year (and still do) that she had to discover for herself what her concerns and values in the classroom were. I believe that it is only through an exploration of our values both through reflection and in action that we can empower ourselves professionally, and come to know ourselves through our practice for the ultimate benefit of our learners. I believed that I could help her, through discussion and writing, to articulate and act on her concerns and values. To do that I would have to be available to answer her queries, to challenge her insights and where appropriate, give advice. Something was needed in the quality of my facilitation which would give Justine a sense of the importance of coming to know her own values and realities in her own classroom based upon systematic research into her own practice. It was in the formulation of my own concern for her to maximise her own insights that subsequently meant, in Action Research terms, I had found the question: ‘How can I best facilitate Justine’s growing awareness of her own values in ways which will be able to help her to articulate and live out those values in the classroom and in her subsequent writing about them?’

b) I then had to imagine a solution. I saw that this would require a multifaceted approach. We would have to work together, exchange ideas, both verbally and in writing. We would have to keep in close touch before, during, and after her teaching practice. We would have to keep open a channel of communication even at times when it would be difficult and seemingly impractical. I would have to make available to her, my Guide (as it stood then). And these ploys I endeavoured to undertake. So later on if I could make claims, with the help from the insights of others, to the reality of my imagined solution, if I could at the end of the academic year point to the fact that I had engaged in these activities, and more importantly that these activities have indeed enhanced Justine’s understanding of significant factors which she has encountered in her initial forays into Action Research, then I could start making claims to the validity of my own perceived success. You, the reader, can study Justine’s report now with certain questions in mind about the validity of my claim that it was partly through following my imagined solution which facilitated Justine in her production of her action enquiry report.

c) After I imagined my solution, I had to act. I had to facilitate in a manner, and with the content that would best enable Justine to begin an understanding of Action Research. My English Elective and my P.G.C.E. Tutorial Groups (both of which Justine attended) meant that I was in almost daily contact with her for certain parts of the course. At this stage I had to engage in discussion with her and others about how I could best go about my proposed course of action. Would success really look as I expect it to, or was I missing something? Justine wrote to me and I to her. We had taped conversations. We talked to others about what we were doing.

d)  Then came the Observation stage of the enquiry. This happens sometimes simultaneously with the action stage. If others could confirm my own perceptions of what I was trying to do in relation to my research and Justine’s, I knew this would increase self-confidence and make the claim of validity in the research even more telling later on. I kept a log of what was happening (see chapter on Writing for further explanation of the necessity of discovery and self-monitoring through writing), I talked to as many students as I could, I wrote the earlier draft of this Guide for the scrutiny of others, and hopefully as well to facilitate your practice in Action Research, and I talked to impartial outsiders who can be very helpful in gaining another perspective. I had almost daily discussions with Jack Whitehead, my research supervisor, about my work. And all the time I was trying to ensure that the criteria for success were in the forefront of my mind. This enabled me to be consistent. And consistency in my experience is one of the key concepts in Action Research. If everything you do is consistent - you outline at the start what you need to do, what qualifies as success in your book - you follow it through - you keep to a systematic pattern of self-questioning - you involve others in the development of your perceptions to ensure a greater degree of generalisability and validity - you analyse how the enquiry is progressing at all stages of the research - you keep the relevant people informed of what is happening - you open it up in writing to some form of public scrutiny - if you do all that, you are being entirely consistent with the notion of a systematic endeavour to improve your practice, and can actually make the claim to validity should anyone question your research.

e) Then I had to reflect on what happened. I amassed a great deal of data on the teaching aspect of my research and I  used it to inform me about whether I was meeting my own criteria for success. I talked to Jack Whitehead at every stage of the enquiry, and always kept Justine informed about my thinking, as I expected her to keep me informed about hers. When I’d done all that I’d proposed, I was then in a position to see what needed revising, given whether I had succeeded, or to what degree I had or hadn’t, in attaining what it was I set out to do in the first place. After Justine had written her report which forms the second part of this publication, I wrote an explanation of how the earlier draft of the Guide was metamorphosed into her essay. This writing will form the basis for my transfer from my M.Phil. studies to a Ph.D.. I have subsequently shown this paper to Justine who has agreed that it represents a fair description and explanation for our joint processes. This corroboration makes me feel a greater degree of certainty in any claims I make about the validity of the writing that I have done about our work together.

f) Next comes the modification stage. The learning that I have been engaged in on my research will lead now to revisions in the ways in which I will facilitate students in the academic year 1992/93. I am now attempting to evaluate the work that I did with Justine this year and seeing what I need to do differently next year. Adaptation, modification, openness to change and collaborative evaluation are necessary to move the research forward. I have shown Justine the paper I have written in order to give her an opportunity of disputing my insights and findings, and also because I do not believe it is right to speak on behalf of others without their full co-operation. I make the point here, which I believe to be crucial, that my research has been with Justine and not on her. Together my students and I have attempted to discuss what I can do better for next year’s students as I facilitate them in their action enquiries.

   It is in our collaborative evaluation that improvement and moving forward are facilitated. Justine was able to tell me where my help turned out to be a hindrance, or when my conclusions were mistaken and where I will need to re-think my approach for next year. Similarly I was able to point out to Justine when I thought that her conclusions were wide of the mark.  To use the old cliché, we only really learn from our mistakes.
 
  So it should be clear that the criteria towards which you are targeting the research, are a fundamental part of the research itself. Process and product are fused in this form of enquiry.

4)  CONFIDENTIALITY AND ETHICS

  At times during your research you will be required to write down impressions, ideas, judgements of a kind, and conclusions about people, and/or the school in which you have been conducting your research. You must be aware at all times of the possibly sensitive nature of the information you have at your disposal. Some staff, or even the pupils if they know exactly what you are doing, might express concern at the uses to which you are going to put your findings. And quite right too. Imagine if you were going to be discussed in someone else’s journal, or your work was going to appear as an example, good or bad, in someone else’s research Report. Or you were going to be the subject of discussion. How would you feel?.. Quite! There are times when you are going to have to exercise your professional judgement about how sensitive the material is. For example, I have decided in integrating Jayne’s draft Report into my chapter on Writing, to delete the name of the school. Otherwise, I believe that we might together be doing something unethical. Had she had the time to gain the staff’s permission, then I would not have felt the necessity for censoring that information. Justine expressed concern that certain passages in her report might be misread or in fact be unwise to publish. Together we decided which parts of the report it might be better not to include in the final version available towards the end of this Guide.

  The following comprise answers to the questions most commonly raised by action researchers to me and others about confidentiality during the time I have been involved with Action Research, and here I draw on my own diary-entries written over the last two years which document such things.

1) Remember that research always involves others - staff, pupils, administrators, etc. and that you have to exercise your professional judgement as to how much you require their permission to carry out your research.

2) If you are writing entirely confidential notes as part of your own learning development you do not need to ask for permission from anyone for anything you may write about.

3) If you wish, however, to share your notes with a critical friend then you have to start thinking about what you should show that person. Be discrete if necessary.

4) If you are going to make anything public, and you name the school, do you name the staff, or any pupils? And if the answer to any of those is yes, then you must ask permission from those concerned. As student teachers, you have the power to name pupils without their permission, but people following an Action Research enquiry do not transgress that rule. Pupils are of paramount importance and you do not ride roughshod over their rights. You may have the power, but you do not have the right. If you are going to name pupils, ask their permission. I think that is a matter of courtesy anyway. (When I wrote my essay, “A Celebration of an Experiment with Freedom”, I had already asked the children if they minded it being displayed.) If the nature of your research is such that you cannot tell the children exactly what your research is, because the telling of it might damage what you are trying to do, then disguise their names in a Report. However if you have not described or named the school, then giving the first name of the child is acceptable. Use your discretion.

5) Where appropriate, you should give copies of a written Report to anyone whose work you have commented on during your research. This will ensure that you are very very careful about value-judgements concerning your colleagues or pupils.
       
6) Some people find the idea that you might be commenting on them very threatening, as indeed you  might. You must always convey the point that what you are seeking to improve is your  practice for the benefit of your  pupils.

  In a recent letter to an M.Ed. student here at the University who is looking into her own facilitation skills, in a school in Bath,  I wrote the following:

	 Confidentiality and ethics of such research. Bear in mind, Maggie, the things we said this morning. Who is your audience? What preconceptions are they likely to have? How will they understand what you have written? Will they understand it in the way you want them to? Your writing has to lead them to your conclusions and the only way you can do that is to write with discretion, authenticity and clarity. A difficult combination. Who will read the final document? What use might they make of it? (13.7.92)

    In conclusion, remember this golden rule: treat others as you would want to be treated yourself.

5) VALIDATION GROUPS
 
(See also the section in Writing chapter  about who you are writing for.)
 
These are groups which are formed by the action researcher in collaboration with trusted colleagues, who are usually themselves engaged in action enquiries of their own. They serve the function of enhancing the researcher’s perceptions and methods of making claims about pupil learning. They come into their own when the researcher has reached the stage of writing up in draft form. Such a group meets at prearranged times, before which it is sensible to have circulated the draft-report, in order to give colleagues enough time to read and reflect on it. The aim of such a meeting is to help the researcher move forward, to challenge, support and guide. Its principle tenet must be the willingness to enter into the researcher’s reality, and to enable this, the researcher’s draft-report must be unambiguous, clearly written, and with the emphasis on the integration between teacher-development and pupil learning. The following extract (first in written note form) is from a validation meeting held on 13th May 1991, in which the question of the sharing of a communal reality was problematic. Zac you have already met, was talking to Jenny,  a P.G.C.E. Science student.

Zac. I found that what I needed to do was against my principles.
Moira. Can you tell us your question again?
Zac. Yes. “How can I gain the level of respect I need in certain situations without going against my educational values?”
Jenny. And what are they, your values?
Zac. That’s the point. You see I wanted them to be able to respond to my commands if it were absolutely necessary, but without going against what I believe in: that we are equal in the classroom. And I can’t do it. It’s not possible. I realise now, that I had to be hard at first, and then I could soften up a bit.
Moira.  Jenny, you look as if you don’t like that.
Jenny.  I don’t. I think it’s awful. It’s really sad.
Moira.  But it’s what he found.
Jenny. Yes I know, but I still don’t like it.
Zac.  Nor do I. But it’s the reality for me.
Moira.  And that’s the point. For Zac. One of the purposes of this group is to come to share a reality that can be accepted by everyone. I don’t mean that you have to agree with what Zac is saying for yourself, Jenny, but if  Zac can show us that he has been entirely consistent, that he’s been through a process which he has systematically analysed and in the analysis of his experience he has been clear, unambiguous and consistent within himself, then surely we as a group have to accept his findings as valid.
Murmurings of assent as this point.

 I was to reiterate this point over the next two weeks because I believe it was an important distinction. Action Researchers are not clones of each other, but they do have to justify their claims. And I still stand by the process which we went through of trying to get people to understand where it was the other researcher was coming from.

  However, the above is interesting to me now (July 1992) though, as I re-write this chapter in the light of the remarks that have been made to me about this Guide and my own enquiry by students and colleagues. I had to go through a Validation meeting with students and colleagues on the 26th June 1991. For it I wrote a paper in which I was attempting to explore the nature of an educative relationship with Zac. In fact I realise now due to the Validation meeting, that what I wrote was instead an explication of my educational values, and how I had tried to live them out in my practice. One of the values I said I wished to be judged by was:

	‘I will endeavour to validate their experiences if they are expressed as the 			result of systematic research on themselves and their pupils.’

 This could, if taken to its logical extension mean that I had to respect the insights, learning and direction of a student’s research whatever constituted them, as long as they were done systematically. If, then, I were confronted with a student who believed in hitting children to gain the control necessary to teach them, then as long as that belief was researched systematically, and the student was consistent within her/his own parameters, I would have to go along with it. This of course denies entirely my own hierarchy of values which says that there are times when issues of social justice and democracy, for example, are more important than enabling individual freedom. I am in education because I have a desire to move the world to a better place, and because I am concerned that children are treated with the respect and processes which validate them and at the same time alert them to their social and personal responsibilities. I do not take back my stated desire to conduct research systematically and rigorously, and to wish others to do the same. However systems must enhance learning that accords to collaborative notions of social justice; and rigour can, if taken to ridiculous lengths, crush out the life of a study and induce ‘rigour mortis’! (This term was coined by Marion Dadd in a paper about the form of written accounts.) It was through the Validation meeting that I first understood that I had confused the enabling of individual autonomy with validity in research. I now realise that there are occasions when issues of social justice will supersede for me the empowerment of the individual. And I would state this openly now. 

  When the participants enter as openly as possible into the reality of others, bearing in mind that the onus is on the researcher to bring evidence for every claim s/he makes, such meetings can be formative to one’s understanding and can be inspirational. Without such an openness to enter the lives of others Validation meetings run the risk of being only negatively critical.

For more information about how Validation Groups function, write to Andy Larter, Greendown Community School, Swindon, Wilts. He will be able to give you insights into the workings of a long-term action research group.

PART TWO: INDIVIDUAL COMMITMENT

1)  FINDING THE QUESTION

(Throughout this chapter  I will be using ‘she’ and ‘her’ for the researcher and ‘he’ and ‘his’ for the critical friend.)

  Although finding the question might seem to be a straightforward preliminary, it must be done very carefully to ensure that you, the researcher, are aware of the path you want to follow. The choosing of the question can sometimes be one of the most exacting parts of the research because it needs to be done rigorously and systematically. A ‘good’ question is one which probes deeply into the area of your concern. It is one in which there is no room for ambiguity and the words used in its formulation articulate exactly the meaning intended. This will then be useful to refer to later on in the research if the enquiry starts departing (as it often will) from the original intention.

  When I was involved in the Avon initiative I gained permission from Jack Whitehead to use his Action Planner which I reproduce here with full acknowledgement to him. One of the Staff Development Tutors voiced something that I heard in varying degrees from dozens of her colleagues when she said:
  
  “Working with the Action Planner has been the single most useful device for concentrating my mind on what it is I really am concerned about. I thought I knew until I sat down and talked it through.”

Here it is:

2) HOW WILL I TRY TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF MY PRACTICE?

AN ACTION RESEARCH PLANNER TO SHOW REFLECTIVE PRACTICE

NAME___________________   WORKPLACE_________________

Action researchers usually ask questions which are directed at improving the quality of their own practice, their understanding of their practice and the social context in which the practice is located. The action planner is usually organised through discussions which help to clarify the nature of the enquiry, ‘How do I improve............?’ into questions of the form,

What is your concern/What do you want to improve?

What are the reasons for your concern?

What might you do to improve your practice?

How will you know that your practice has improved? How are you going to find out? i.e.

What kind of evidence will you need to collect to enable you to make a judgement on the outcomes of your practice in terms of the quality of your own or teachers’ and/or pupils’ learning?

What kind of resources will you need to enable you to implement your plan?

  At this point it might be a good idea to read through the chapter on the critical friend as his role starts here. It might be especially helpful to read the case-study material in that chapter on the work of Jayne and Jonathan who are looking in particular at Jonathan’s question.

  What often happens at the beginning of any enquiry is the feeling that there is no real concern, or that there are too many concerns to break down into a single strand. 

  It is very important that the concern is a manageable one. If you take on too much you run a very high risk of not being able to complete or assimilate all the strands of your research and your first foray into Action Research will be doomed to failure. (By failure I mean you will be unable to go forward at all. I do not mean that you might change your mind. That in itself is progress, because that change of mind is probably occasioned by your greater understanding of the situation due to your research.)

  It is not unrealistic or trivial to take something small and work on it. Jayne told me that this very aspect of taking something small and working on it, and then seeing a real improvement, was a very positive factor in her first teaching practice: she could succeed in her chosen area. It is also usual that the focus of your enquiry will develop over time and that you may not end up where you envisaged. This is fine as long as you document the stages you are going through (see chapter on ‘Writing’) so that you can assimilate the departures and new beginnings into your research.

Case Study

 At this point I would like to re-introduce Zac, an Undergraduate Biological Sciences student, who, on his second teaching practice in the Spring term of 1991, undertook an action research enquiry. There follows a transcript of the moments leading up to his articulating his question. Note the value at this point (which will be discussed in more detail in the chapter on Talk) of the dialogue between two people, one trying hard to allow space for the student’s doubt within which is his struggle to find and voice his own meanings, and second the way in which Zac attempts to put into words some deep educational values.

  After detailed discussion with Zac, I could start to understand with some depth, his concern about enabling an atmosphere of interaction that allows the pupils’ self-expression, which has to be sought (in his experience) through his control of the situation until such time as he can give over some of that control to the pupils:

M. You want to find strategies to ensure that that happens.
Z. Yes I see. Right.
M. Now the other bit about you improving the quality of relationships between you and the children don’t actually at this stage seem to be coming into it...You might want to go into another Action Research cycle about improving the quality of relationships with them, given that they have to do this...
Z. Actually I do think there’s another question there...it is there, but it needs to be ignored for the sake of this Action Research cycle.
M. Yes.
Z. If, during this Action Research, let’s say I achieve that, and I feel that there’s, I don’t know, a time or whatever to do this, and what follows on from that, then I suppose it’s fair enough to carry on with it.
M. You may even find that what you’ve set yourself to do is not...
Z. ...what I want.
M. And you may decide that you want to go off on another tack, but that’s perfectly legitimate. In fact it’s almost par for the course.
Z. Why? Is that because you’re not in the situation and you don’t know about it?
M. Yes, because you don’t know the kids and you don’t know the school and you don’t know how it feels to be teaching there....So can we actually start thinking now about an actual question now that would for you, not for me, but for you, encapsulate what you are trying to say.
Z. O.K. (pause) And it’s a ‘How can I?’ question, isn’t it?
M. O.K. 
Z. How can I...(pause) ensure (pause) the respect, the respect from the pupils (pause) exactly when required (long pause) whilst still, it’s either ‘while still maintaining my values’ or it’s ‘whilst still maintaining, um, the atmosphere that I want.’ Do you follow that?
M. Yes, yes I do.
Z. I am not sure how to phrase that.
M. What about a combination of both the things you’ve just said, because they seem ...to be very important.
Z. Well, I think if I’ve got hold of my values then the atmosphere is a result of that anyway.
M. Yes, but it doesn’t do any harm to state it in the question.
Z. No.
M. So that it’s a focal point for the rest of your research.
Z. But I think that for me doing it as a whole anyway to ensure this, is that I it’s a living contradiction anyway.
M. Mm.
Z. The actual process of doing it, therefore by doing it I have contradicted my values anyway. I can’t really put the word values in there...
M...I think it needs to be written from this sense of contradiction, so don’t shy away from that, but embrace it.
Z. I think if I’m aware of it that it’s important, just as important as doing it. How can I ensure respect while still ( long pause) maintaining a good classroom atmosphere?
M. Right, O.K. I think you would need to be explicit, be quite clear in your own mind what you mean by a good classroom atmosphere. I’m not being nitpicking but one person’s definition...
Z. You mean there could be an inconsistency there.
M. There could be.

  The transcript alone cannot communicate the full struggle of Zac’s searching for meaning that would act as a springboard to his future creativity. As the conversation develops there is a sense of Zac taking more control, by asking questions, by slowing my pace down to one that suits him. He starts some of his comments with “I think”, placing himself very much in the centre of proceedings, and his questions appear to be indicative of a true dialogue going on between us. At the end of this extract, Zac is trying on his ideas for size and relating them to what he already knows about the situation. The pauses are his and on no occasion (I am very happy to be able to report) do I interrupt this reflective process!

Using the Action Planner

1) Make two copies of the planner. Give one to your critical friend, and have a spare for yourself on which you can write notes if you want.

2) The second step can vary, depending upon your own choice. Some people prefer to have some time to think about and write their action planners in private, before conferring with their critical friend. Others prefer to start it ‘cold’ with their colleague.

3) The point of this stage is for the researcher to articulate her thoughts. They may already have taken a particular form, even as far as having a question ready, but this is rare, and don’t rush towards it. Try to talk about what it is you are unhappy/uneasy/wondering about. Talk it through, think about it. The critical friend needs to exercise all his listening skills at this stage and allow the researcher to expand in an atmosphere of support and openness.

4) When you are happy about it, try to write the question down. Make sure that it has the form, ‘How can I improve...?’ rather than ‘What are the children doing wrong last lesson on a Friday?’ for example. It is absolutely crucial that your integration with your research is explicit from the outset. After all, what you are trying to do is to improve your understanding of the situation to help your pupils. You are a part of that situation and this must not be forgotten.

5) At some stage during this conversation, you need to capture particularly cogent remarks that will inevitably result from the format that you are following. Either you can tape-record the conversation so that later you can refer to it, and be in a stronger position fully to understand the trend of your emerging insights, or you can write notes. Sometimes, though, the writing of notes can detract you from the flow of the dialogue and impede its natural progress.

6) Aim by the end of this activity of finding the question, to have written down one that satisfies you and your critical friend, one that you feel carries you forward into the next stage of your research - implementing the solution. In the next chapter I will be looking at the role of the critical friend, as he can play a vital part in helping you to put your plan into action.
3) THE CRITICAL FRIEND AND THE ROLE OF THE OBSERVER

  In this chapter I would like to describe in detail one of the processes which can be used within the Action Research process to eliminate to a large extent, bias, to back up, challenge, and even extend the insights of the researcher, and to act as an ‘outsider’ with an understanding of the whole research. It is of course possible that one person will not be able to assist at all stages of the research, but it is perfectly in order for someone to help for a while, and then for someone else to step into the breach. However the obvious advantages of consistency through the perceptions of one person throughout the research are helpful to bear in mind if one has a choice in the matter. Paradoxically one person’s insights may be too blinkered to provide you with a true reflection of your own perceptions. As so often in Action Research, you will have to use your professional judgement.

  The word ‘critical’ suffers from a bad press. To most people it has only negative connotations. ‘Critical’ means to pull apart and to destroy. When I was involved in the Avon initiative, this was the doubt most commonly raised against it. I come from a background in which the concept of the ‘practical criticism’ of literature was not viewed in this way, however. ‘Practical criticism’ was the part of my English degree devoted to the analysis and explanation of difficult texts, and the aim of it was to illuminate for the reader concepts that were difficult to understand at first reading. The ‘analyst’s’ job was not to obscure, not to rip apart, but to reconstruct and make comprehensible something that was worth reading. I view that as the principle job of the ‘critical’ friend. He has to interpret and listen, to play back what the researcher is trying to reveal, to illuminate where there is any ambiguity, and to challenge where there is any untruth. He has to watch and become involved in the life of the researcher’s classroom and to reveal to the researcher the reality that is being played out there. He has, if possible, to point out inconsistencies and draw together common strands.
  
  In the end it does not matter what you call this person, or indeed the small group of people, but I take the trouble to explain this word in such detail because I think clearing up the misapprehension about it can outline the special qualities required of such a person.  So in this context, the word ‘critical’ is not destructive but constructive. It builds up, not breaks down. It supports rather than depletes, and enables instead of preventing. The role of the critical friend facilitates in the realisation of the researcher’s aims, and playing this role will reveal to both a great deal about the interactions inside and outside the classroom. Let us also not forget that the other quality of this colleague is a ‘friend’. And friends are those who enhance our experiences, not disparage them.

  Choosing a critical friend is very important, as must by now be clear. In no way is it possible for this relationship to work unless it is entered into freely by both sides. The researcher must be able to relax with this person, be able to trust him and value his opinion. She must be prepared to allow the critical friend insights into what might be considered sensitive areas of her professional practice, and this can be threatening. Some of you might gain early experience of a relationship like this working. You will watch each other’s lessons, find each other’s weak spots, praise each other’s strengths, challenge each other’s insights, and learn a great deal about the direction of your own teaching.  

  It can be useful if the critical friend can use the researcher for his own research as well; i.e. swap roles, as indeed Jayne and Jonathan have done. This reciprocal arrangement gives both parties a bigger stake in both camps, so to speak, and can lead to greater understanding on both sides and a greater commitment to understanding the realities of the classrooms being explored. Of course this is not always possible, but is worth striving towards.

  Let us imagine, then, that the researcher has chosen her critical friend. What are the next stages? I’ll go through them chronologically and then present two case studies of the sort of hurdles that need to be overcome.

1) The researcher needs to find the question (see first chapter). In this the critical friend’s role can be crucial. He can exercise all the skills mentioned above in helping the researcher move forward. The problem at this stage is usually one of refining the question to exclude ambiguity, and the critical friend can help eliminate this by listening and summing up, challenging and moving forward.

2) When the researcher has reached the stage of changing what is happening in her classroom, she may need someone to come and watch (see notes on Observation). This must be done on the researcher’s terms. The critical friend cannot dictate the reality of the researcher’s classroom.

3) When the researcher needs to talk through what is happening (see chapter on ‘Talk’) the critical friend must try to continue the strategies begun in 1) above.

  Mostly, then, the critical friend listens, but he also talks and writes when this helps move the researcher forward. Many people find it difficult to listen and to support in that way constructively. It is a skill which is vital for Action Research to function at its best. Interrupting and proffering your own solutions is not necessarily going to help the researcher. It is best if the researcher can come to her own conclusions and if the role of the critical friend is seen as creating the space  and the supportive framework within which that can happen.

  There follow some conclusions about Observation, which in Action Research attempts to take on the life of the researcher’s classroom and to illuminate it for the researcher in such a way that the researcher does not feel threatened or judged. Entering another classroom is a privilege. In my experience I have learnt a great deal about my own preconceptions from having played the role of a critical friend, as well as being given a unique insight into the lives of other people, which, of course, is always fascinating.

Observation Techniques in the Classroom

  The central aim of any observation in the classroom is to illuminate for the teacher what is happening, so that she in turn can improve the quality of  learning for the learners. And that after all, is the central concern of Action Research. Any observation must have that clearly in mind and all notes, taping, videoing, data collection of any kind must adhere to that central tenet. If it is not illuminating the situation, thereby enhancing the learning for the learners, it is unnecessary. 

  In Action Research it is not enough to watch and make notes about something that is happening in a classroom. There has to be a clear focus on the observation and this focus must be discussed and negotiated with the person who is primarily concerned with changing and improving what is happening. It might be helpful at this stage to imagine a course for the research and base the observation techniques on that specific instant.

 For example let us imagine that someone has decided to look at a small group of children in relation to the efficacy of the mixed ability teaching in a particular class. First she has to talk over her concern with her ‘critical friend’  She talks through and reflects about the question (see Action Planner) and through this refines the question. For argument’s sake, let it be the following:

 ‘How can I improve the learning environment for Group X within my widely 	mixed ability class?’ 

  She is sure of why it is she is focusing on this particular group. She has defined what an improvement would constitute with this small group and has written it down for future reference. She is thinking about the criteria for success in other words (see ‘Criteria for Success’ notes). She talks these success criteria through with her critical friend. In this case the criteria are as follows. Success will mean:
 
a) Group X will take a more active part in lessons and not simply follow or switch off their attention at any time. They will participate in class discussions more.
b) I will be structuring my lessons in such a way that I can give more quality time to this needy group. Perhaps some more in-class support.
c)(relating to a) Perhaps I am not stimulating them enough which causes the concern as I perceive it. I have to find ways of motivating them.

(This list could be very much longer but this will serve as an illustration.)

  Given these parameters the teacher is then ready to start. She needs to talk these through with the critical friend. The researcher must have the right to dictate how often, and as far as possible, when the observer may be present, otherwise the observer takes on the inspectorial role which is not part of the brief. The researcher, by showing the criteria, is actually determining what has to be looked for in the classroom. She has the right to determine what constitutes success in her own environment. Action Research takes the view that the teacher is the expert in her own practice. This can, however, lead to problems if the observer cannot agree with the parameters given by the researcher. This is when the question of values (which are discussed in depth in Jean McNiff’s book, ‘Action Research: Principles and Practice”, and in Justine’s Report) become a central issue and if the observer’s or teacher’s values are being contravened by the process, this cannot be ignored. It will not go away. Perhaps the choice of critical friend was an unwise one. This is NOT to suggest that the critical friend agrees, mouse-like, with every idea that the researcher comes up with. Presumably the critical friend was chosen for his perception and insight as well as trustworthy qualities!

  Let us assume, then, that the observer has understood what it is he should look for. The researcher stipulates greater participation by the pupils in Group X. This suggests that observation needs to be done over time to see whether or not an improvement in this area can be detected. It will not be enough to come into the classroom once or twice in one week. This sort of investigation is going to need some protracted observation, over weeks, even months. Likewise the idea that the researcher needs to devote more time to this Group needs corroboration or otherwise over time. Is the teacher doing that? How do you monitor the quality of the time given? More to the point, how does the researcher think ‘quality’ can be evaluated? That needs discussion so that the observer has some idea of what he should be noting down and concentrating on. 

  As to the third one, about motivating the group, what does the researcher think motivation in her pupils will look like? That needs talking about too, then the observation becomes an integral part of the research, the observer actually helping to increase the researcher’s awareness of her classroom. Observation and research can be a very fruitful partnership indeed, but the observer/critical friend must always act with tact and discretion and be prepared to go into the classroom set-up with as few procedural preconceptions as possible. It is impossible, of course, not to have some preconceptions (that is part of the human condition) but both observer and researcher need to be able to acknowledge this aspect in their practice. 

  I am not trying to advocate an observer who follows blindly every whim of the teacher. The relationship between observer and researcher must be such that the observer can challenge her perceptions. However, if the teacher can substantiate her claims at all stages and justify her beliefs, and if the observer cannot come up with any counter-evidence, then he has to give way. In my experience however, the classroom-teacher is usually in the best position to make claims about classroom practice although of course an outsider’s viewpoint can be tremendously illuminating. We do not always do what we think we are doing in the classroom and an observer’s comments can be most helpful in enabling us to move forward in our practice.

  All right, then. We have got to the stage of the observer being briefed. He is ready to help, to come into the classroom when desired, and all the above have to be sorted out before the observation is feasible. What does the observer do in the classroom? The following are a list of things to think about when observing. It is not a prescriptive list, it is merely a summation of my own and others’ experiences, but it cannot preclude your perceptions of your unique situations.

a) Decide what it is you are going to look out for. You may not feel capable of, or indeed it may not even be desirable, to look out for too much at once. Negotiate that with the teacher.

b) How do you explain your presence as a second adult in the classroom?  Should you or the teacher refer directly to what you are there for? Will that detract from the situation or will the children respond well to it? Do you make up a story, and is that ethical? (When I observed in a classroom of racially-mixed 16 year olds, Anne thought it wise not to tell them the complete truth about my presence because she was trying to effect greater racial harmony to which there was a great deal of opposition, and she thought, and I agreed, that the children would be angry and even threatened by my presence. I worried as did she, about the ethics of what we were doing in that case, but the solution was a neat one. I needed to talk to some children of about that age and from different cultural backgrounds, as research for the novel I was writing, and I did interview them to that end over several weeks and it was genuine in that I used some of the information for my novel. It was my solution but I found it necessary to be on the level at least to an extent with the pupils. Otherwise I felt I was there under false pretences. See section at the beginning of this Guide for more detail about ethics and confidentiality.)

c) Are you a ‘fly on the wall’ observer or are you going to take any part in the proceedings? This will affect the type of observations that you can make? It will alter the fabric of what you observe. If you play no part at all in the class then you may be able to notice certain things that you would not notice otherwise. However in my experience it is difficult in a classroom not to be involved and by being involved you also have the opportunity to understand better the ways and foibles of the classroom. You are in a better position to understand the climate of it, and as we all know every classroom is different. To have an external measure of climate can be misleading. This is something you will have to decide upon, probably during the course of your observation.

d) Make notes in whatever form suits you. Remember that if you take too many notes you may miss crucial interactions. Can your observations be reinforced by video or tape? Is that desirable? Will it put the children off-balance? Does your taking notes actually affect the way the children are interacting? In other words there is a Hawthorne effect. This is the effect on the people being researched of the research itself. In other words what is the effect on a group of people who know they are being observed? We all know that children behave differently according to circumstances and expectations. All that can be done to counteract this is an acknowledgement that it happens, but perhaps the type of observer who integrates himself into the classroom is likely to cause a less significant Hawthorne effect. It is at least something to be borne in mind.

e) It is very helpful for the researcher to have some notes written down on the lesson(s) observed and if possible time to discuss perceptions. This is very much a two-way process, both people listening and talking about what has occurred.

These would seem to be the most significant aspects of observation that must be borne in mind during the course of the research. It should be clear from these notes that observation is in fact a very skilled process, requiring tact, perception, powers of negotiation, keen insight, a suspension of prejudices, and a willingness to enter into the life of others in an empathic way. The critical friend’s central role is to enable the researcher to understand her classroom more fully and to use this understanding for the improvement of her practice.

Case Study

 The following is a transcript of part of a conversation that we occurred on 30.10.90. when Jayne (J. P.) wanted to know how she should fulfil the criteria of the critical friend for Jonathan on his first teaching practice. I think it demonstrates well the way in which Jonathan (J.J.) was able to move his understanding forward as a direct result of Jayne’s questioning approach. (N.B. see chapter on Talk which gives a wider perspective on the use of talking in Action Research.)

J.P. Is it about Jon asking me? Am I supposed to be doing this rigorously or do I wait for him to come and ask?
M.L. You wait for him to ask, but that doesn’t mean you don’t do it rigorously...What you need to do is to get together with Jon and have a discussion about what it is he needs to do...You have the right to challenge him when he is being inconsistent, point out that he’s not doing what he said he’d do, for example.
J.P. So if he thinks he’s achieved something and he hasn’t, then I tell him?
M.L. Yes, your role is about helping him to be more clear about what it is he’s trying to do.
J.P. So (pause) my role is to monitor Jon?
M.L. Yes...And what observation does for you is to make you more aware of what is happening in the classroom, and that’s got to be good for you at this stage of your career.
J.P. Yes I see that.
M.L. Could you, Jonathan, outline just a bit of what it is you want to do?
J.J. My great problem is to do with communication. I had this one class and a lot of what I said, it wasn’t, they didn’t understand. A lot was over their head. I can see I’m going to have problems with this throughout my T.P.. I can’t find a simple way of saying it all the time. So my basic objective is to be able to express myself more clearly. 
J.P. So, then, how would your, what would your ideal lesson be?
J.J. My ideal lesson?
J.P. How can you see this being resolved? How would you be behaving? How can you see yourself?
J.J. How I see myself? I’m seeing myself as someone who knows what he means, and knows how he can communicate it.
J.P. Will you have any way of testing whether they’ve understood you?
J.J. I mean, I could gauge when I was in the classroom that they hadn’t understood me...The blank expressions on their faces were something to behold.
J.P. That might not have been just because they didn’t understand you. They might have been bored.
J.J. Well! Thank you critical friend! (laughs)
J.P./M.L. (laugh)
J.J. (Gives example of a class who were bored because they didn’t understand him.) I had to go round to each group to re-iterate what it was I wanted. There was a problem there in that the worksheet wasn’t clear enough.
J.P. Yes.
J.J. And also I didn’t explain it clearly properly in the first place. So to focus on something very specific I need to look at how I give instructions.
J.P. That could be something to be focussed on initially? Looking at instructions so that they are clear first time round, so that the action you are trying to start them off on, can be carried out? Is that the sort of thing you mean?
J.J. Yes it is.
M.L. That is a very good point, and this conversation is already demonstrating the usefulness of the critical friend in focusing and helping the researcher to move forward...And I think another aspect of what Jayne is saying, is, keep it small, so that you know exactly what the focus of your Action Research enquiry is. If you leave it as wide as ‘communication’, then you may be trying to work on too many factors at once. 

  What this conversation shows is the value of the critical friend
a) in moving the researcher forward.
b) in giving the researcher the space in which to expand ideas.
c) to challenge and question.
d) to confirm and support
e) to hold up to scrutiny the researcher’s preconceptions.
f) to point out inconsistencies between ideals and the reality. (Jayne makes this point later in her draft Report.)
What this conversation also shows is the value of conversation itself, in enabling you to come to a better understanding of your practice and ways in which you can improve it. (See Part Two on Talk)

4) COLLECTING DATA

  Efficient data collection ensures results which will help you to move forward in your practice and bring you closer to an understanding of the situation that you are trying to improve. One of the biggest problems encountered in this aspect of the research is ‘data overload’ - simply too much evidence with not enough direction. If you take too much upon yourself you will not be able to assimilate and synthesise all of it, you will lose the thread of what it is you are trying to trace, pin down, improve and evaluate and you will feel an overwhelming sense of a lack of direction. So the main advice to bear in mind at all stages of gathering data, as when you are choosing your question is - keep it manageable!  

  There is a very concise and helpful section in Jean McNiff’s book about data collection, which goes into some detail about the pros and cons of the various types available. Here I am going to restrict myself to the most common ones which will probably be accessible to you on Teaching Practice, i.e. video, tape-recorder, pupils’ and colleagues’ comments. I will deal with the necessary written components when gathering data in a separate chapter on the uses of writing in Action Research. And I refer you to the chapter on the critical friend and methods of observation, both of which are rich sources of data for your research. You are not restricted to one at a time. In fact the more the merrier!

Starting your data gathering

1) Be clear about what it is you want to look for. Discuss it with your critical friend.
2) Decide how much time you want to spend collecting it - one whole lesson, periodic samples, three lessons in a row?
3) Decide on the most appropriate (or available) method of collecting the data.

The Use of Video

  Video is a marvellous truth-machine. It can reveal things going on in your classroom that you never dreamt of in your worst nightmares or your wildest dreams. The most common question I am asked about using the video in the classroom is: “Won’t it disturb the children?”  And in my experience the answer is yes, at first, but usually they forget about it after a while, and if they are used to being videoed, perhaps as part of their Oral assessment for G.C.S.E. English, or for the end of term play, then they will cope. Children get used to most things and are not as fragile as you might think. If there is a problem for some of the children for a while, this is vastly outweighed by the benefits of using the video. It can reveal a reality that you didn’t know was there. This can be threatening for the teacher, but tremendously illuminating if she wants to improve her practice for the enhancement of learning for the learner.

 My Own Experience with the Video

 Let me put this in context. I was introducing Action Research to my P.G.C.E. English Elective Group in September 1990 to prepare them for their first teaching practice, as I believed they would be able to use the methodology to understand more fully the way forward in their early days as practitioners.  I decided, with their permission, to video the session. The results were rather disturbing. All right, the results were shocking! Who was this person sitting at the front, all serious and evangelical, talking about Action Research with very little humour? And hadn’t I always said that humour was really important in the classroom? That it brought something to life and enabled people to engage in ‘the lesson’ more easily, in a way that nothing else could? And if was the case, I had just done for Action Research on one level, what Attila the Hun did for social etiquette!  And hadn’t I usually used humour to enhance the atmosphere in a classroom? I don’t know. I was quite pleased at the content of what I was doing, but seeing how I was actually engaging with the students has been for us all a sobering experience. 

  The result of this part of my research (which would not have been possible without using the video) is to make me question the way I approach students and is forcing me to re-assess my own efficacy as a facilitator. And yes, it is not the best news in the world! There have been times in my teaching career when I have felt more at peace with myself as an ‘educator’. However I have a responsibility to try to improve my practice, as do all professionals whose actions have strong repercussions for the people who rely on us. This experience marks a stage in my own educational development and one that has been entirely the result of collecting and analysing data as an integral part of my research.

  It is also true to say that whilst there are aspects of my classroom style that seem to negate the very goal I am pursuing, there are things which emerged from the data that have made me feel better than I did before. Students were interacting in ways which show me that genuine understanding was taking place (and I have subsequently backed this up by talking to them). They were challenging and engaging in discussion in a manner that would promote the beginnings of Action Research enquiries, so in that sense I was partly fulfilling my aim of facilitator in the early stages of an enquiry. 

  The video showed me in addition that I talked far more than I was aware, which is apparently a common experience amongst teachers! That is all right unless I am stifling the students, and some of them think I was. Using the video has enabled me to realise that for myself much more effectively than if I had been told something, which would never have been as powerful as witnessing it in glorious technicolour!

Using the Video

1)  Set it up well in advance. You may want to concentrate on one area of the classroom only, and that is fine, but often it can be very instructive to set the camera up in a stationary position using a fish-eye lens so that it witnesses the totality of the classroom. Or perhaps you want to video a single group outside the confines of the room. Test the equipment first. There is nothing as futile as the feeling that you have wasted all this energy arranging your schedule so carefully, only to find that the equipment doesn’t work when you want it. Be aware that the results may be coloured by the very presence of the machine, and as long as you acknowledge this in any write-up, it will suffice. Time is also a great leveller, and if the children are exposed to this method a few times, they will  forget it is there.

2) Answer the children’s questions about it when they come into class, or even better prepare them for it in advance. I find that telling them that you want to look at how you are teaching them (as that is going to be true to a certain extent in any enquiry) is a way of gaining their co-operation (and probably some comments as well!).
3) Are you going to let the children see the video afterwards? That’s entirely up to you. It can be very instructive for children as well to see the ways in which they are interacting with their peers and with you. It may be part of your enquiry to look at interaction or discussion for example, in which case a low-key analysis of parts of the video can be extremely educational for all concerned. I suggest ‘low-key’ because analysis through video can be very stressful for those targeted, and I say that as someone who spent the first half an hour watching my video alone in the room, hardly daring to look! And of course this whole process is time-consuming, but I suggest that there might be genuine value for your research in looking over the material with the pupils thereby killing two birds with one stone:

i) You look at the data and get an impression of what is happening.
ii) The children get a chance to participate in, and add to, your perceptions of the situation thereby learning something valuable about themselves as well.

This assumes two things:
a) Your research lends itself to the kind of analysis described above.
b) You feel confident enough to open yourself in this way, which is not easy. I can only say that in my experience the risk is well worth taking. Undoubtedly you will learn something about yourself that will help you in your practice to improve the quality of learning for your learners.

What Next?

Let’s imagine you’ve made the video and you’ve watched it in whatever ways you’ve decided to. What do you do with it now? You need to pick out those aspects which seem to you to be the most significant. Ask your critical friend to help you over this.
 
What is it you are looking for? 
What were/are your aims? 
What does the video show you? 
How does this relate to your original question?
What are the surprises?
What did you expect to happen?
How (if at all) will your practice be affected by what you have seen? 
What will you do as a result of your new perceptions?

  The video can then be used at a later date to see what developments have taken place, to compare your present practice with past evidence, and to remind you of the path you were/are on.

The Use of the Tape-Recorder

  Sometimes a video is not available, or you feel unhappy about its use. You might feel that it is too intrusive a method. A tape-recorder can also be a rich source of information, although it inevitably does not have the colour and depth of a video.

  Many of the same issues obtain for its use as for the video, in that you must, to make the best use of it, ensure that you have discussed beforehand what it is you are trying to find out, how long you want to record, and how you will deal with the information once it has been gathered. The use of a tape-recorder relies on a sensitive microphone far more than with a video as you have nothing to base your findings on but the sounds. Careful setting up, positioning, and accessibility to the target group is crucial. Afterwards you might find it useful to transcribe ‘edited highlights’ of the talk, although this is very time-consuming. Reading the words on the page afterwards enables you to analyse some of the subtleties more closely than would be possible at listening speed. 

 And here again I re-iterate the caution about recording too much. If you decide you want to transcribe a tape, remember that even with a fairly swift typing speed, one hour of tape means about ten hours of typing. Have you got that amount of time? Would you not be better off spending the time listening to the tape and extracting significant moments which reveal something pertinent to your research? Discuss this with your critical friend as well.

  In the next section I want to look at the importance of eliciting the comments of others and of entering into discussion with them. For many years Action Research has suffered from the misconception that it is a purely subjective field of research and therefore inferior. There are two facets of this attack upon it that I would like to challenge.
  First, subjectivity is, for this form of research, not a negative concept anyway. Action Research exists to enable  classroom teachers (amongst others) to understand themselves better through their practice and through this knowledge to be better prepared to improve the learning environment. S/he has therefore, as part and parcel of the research, to come to grips with her/himself and the part s/he plays in her own practice.

 Secondly, collaboration with others is vital in ensuring that one’s preconceptions are made conscious, and Action Research insists that this is done. I will deal in more detail in later chapters with both ‘Talk’ and ‘Collaboration’, but the point needs to be made now that Action Research is neither subjective in any negative sense, or about one person doing research in a vacuum. In the writing and collaboration sections I will deal with this aspect of the elimination of any negative aspects of bias and subjectivity.

Pupils’ Comments

  Do you want to integrate your pupils’ insights with your research? This can again feel threatening to some teachers, but it may be the normal way you conduct yourself in the classroom. Again you are in the best position to know whether this is suitable as a method of data collection. After all you are the person who knows these children. It can, however, add a powerful dimension to your own perceptions. Remember that Action Research is about improving the quality of learning for the learners, and children in my experience, have a great deal to say about how they feel something is working or otherwise in their classrooms. Integrating pupils’ findings with your own can give you a greater claim to a validity for your research than if you don’t include them, because in inviting their comments you are trying to widen the scope of reality. It is not just your findings, or the comments of your critical friend and colleagues that go to make up your conclusions, but also their perceptions and needs which can help to focus your future practice.

  This will depend very much on the type of research you are engaged in, the relationship of trust that you have with your class and your desire to include the experiences of others as one of the foundations for development in your practice.

  For my part it has been fascinating to go back to my students and talk to them about that session. They have been less harsh on me than I expected, and have found praiseworthy aspects that I was unsure about. Perhaps inevitably, they have not viewed some of my practice in the ways I expected and that has taught me a great deal in itself. I have had to question my values and my preconceptions. I have had to ask myself and others about alternatives ways of acting. I am still unpicking the ramifications of the videoing and their resultant comments will continue to exercise an influence on my practice. In my situation, for example, it is imperative that I elicit your comments about whether and how this Guide has helped you in an enquiry on Teaching Practice.

 The Questionnaire 

This seems to be a popular form of data collection, and I devote some space to it here, because in my experience it is not used wisely or well. I would like to say at this point that I think it is, at best, a limited method of data collection. It may act well as a back-up to other forms of evidence-gathering, but on its own it can do little. It is not enough to write a few questions on a sheet of paper, tell the kids to write answers and think that this yields valuable evidence. In one particular teaching practice many questionnaires were given out at the end of a series of lessons. What can this hope to achieve? At best you will elicit a flavour of the children’s opinions. At worst you will be confronted with disconnected ideas which bear no amount of systematic scrutiny, and do not in any way enable you to start making claims about pupils’ learning. So, don’t just write one questionnaire for the end or the beginning. If you are going to use this form, then a series of them over time makes much more sense. Just remember, though, children can get tired of filling out forms, just as any adult does. 

Some Tips for the Use of a Questionnaire
 
1) Make it short - a side of A4 is usually sufficient.
2) Ask for only that information you want. Don’t add superfluous ideas because you think they might be useful at another time. They won’t be, and the ideas will confuse you.
3) Encourage the pupils’ co-operation by explaining as far as you are able, why they have to fill it in. Let’s face it, when the tax-office sends us a form, it does usually explain why. And when it doesn’t, we don’t like it!
4) Use simple, direct and unambiguous language.
5) Trial it on other people first if you can.
6) Bear in mind, that asking a question like “Did you enjoy the lesson?” can legitimately elicit the single words ‘yes’ or ‘no’. And how much does that teach you? It is better to ask: “Tell me what it was you liked/disliked about the lesson?” This open question encourages some depth of response, but you have focused it sufficiently to ensure that you are not treated to a dose of verbal diarrhoea!
7) To ask the children to answer the same questions periodically may be a neat strategy (if the same questions still apply, and there’s no guarantee they will) but remember that they might not want to. You have to convince them that it is time well spent, and I would suggest that if you have to justify it to them, you’ll have had to justify it better to yourself. One child was presented with six questionnaires during a teacher’s practice at the school. The last question on the questionnaire, which was identical each time it was presented was: “In what ways have you found/not found our lessons valuable?” The pupil responded thus: “I really liked the lessons because we did lots of interesting things except for filling out these stupid questionnaires!” Magic! 

Remember at all times the possible effects of your wording on others. Do not assume that the meanings you hold are the same for everybody.

Colleagues’ Comments

  These are vital. You never know when someone is going to turn your reality on its head and challenge things you have been taking for granted for so long. Another person’s opinion can be like a breath of fresh air on a humid day. If you can involve others in your research by trying to make them understand what you are doing, then so much the better. If you have to justify your position on an issue that has evolved in your classroom, then you are in a better position to make a claim to knowing what you are doing and why you are doing it. Does this sound defensive? It is not meant to. It does presuppose that you are willing to open up your practice to scrutiny, but if you can encourage others to do the same by your example, you will find that you are operating in a system that is less threatening and more rewarding than you might have thought.

Outsiders’ Comments

  It might be a good idea to see whether your conclusions make sense to an outsider. If you can talk to someone else, someone not concerned in any way with your research, perhaps not even at the school, this person might at least be able to tell you whether your threads of thought are coherent. S/he will not be able, however, to make any qualitative judgements about the value of what you are saying or writing.
 
In the next chapter I would like to look in more detail at the intricacies of Talk in order to take you through some very necessary developments in every Action Research enquiry. 

5)  THE USES AND USEFULNESS OF TALK

‘In Action Research, in our dialogue, we need sometimes to allow the researcher  the vulnerability of being vague.’  Jack Whitehead, August 1991.

 We talk in order to share our reality with others.  We also talk to help create a communal reality. That can be through questions, answers, descriptions, demands, explanations or statements. As human beings we cannot escape that need. It is something which binds us together, something we all have in common. Because it is an activity which all human beings can accomplish and command, it is sometimes overlooked as the fine precision tool that it can become. Talk can reveal to us our deepest selves, our intentions, motives, needs and preconceptions. With careful handling, talk can become our greatest ally in the quest for self-understanding. It is not just the things that we are aware of saying that are significant, but in analysis, those points that raise themselves, seemingly of their own volition, that demand our attention. Focussed talk can be one of the most powerful aids to development that there is, and because of that, Action Research relies greatly on it. How many times after a formal teaching  session at the University/College do you go for a cup of coffee and talk over what you have just experienced? When I did my P.G.C.E. I found it the most valuable aspect of the whole course - talking it through. It put everything in perspective and shone a beam of cohesion and coherence over what was sometimes confusing. 

  In this chapter I aim to show you the ways in which talk can move people forward in their understanding and practice, and the necessity for you to engage in structured and taped conversation. The talk aspect is vital, because as you know, when you talk about something  you might suddenly begin to see it more clearly. However, Action Research requires you to be able to document moments when you ‘see the light’ as that constitutes evidence of the development you will claim to have been going through at the end of your research, and because of that it is a good idea to structure certain talks and to be aware from the outset what it is you are going to be discussing. Here again, your critical friend is invaluable, as he can help to focus your attention on points you may be overlooking.

  This aspect of having on record some insight which has moved the researcher forward is something which has happened in the course of my own research. I was talking to Jack Whitehead and together we were trying to clarify what it was that I would be trying to do in my teaching this year, with students like Justine which itself constitutes part of my research.

September 1990
J.W. If you were to look ahead to the thought of June or July when this group of students will come to an end of their course and we were to ask questions of the kind... what are the kinds of qualities that you would like to see, or what are the forms of learning that you would have liked to have gone on? What I am trying to get at is for you to project a vision of what you think might be possible to achieve, grounded in the kinds of values we have talked about so that if we try to get at what would count as evidence in that enquiry planner which would enable you to make a judgement on your effectiveness, what kind of things would you like to see happening with the students or being produced by the students?

M.L. ... ‘being produced by the students’. That is difficult. I would like to think that because of being through the elective course experience that they were capable of asking themselves questions, that they were capable of not taking for granted circumstances in the classroom, that they were capable of communicating to others as a way of informing themselves. Now I know that sounds broad and rather nebulous when you say ‘what would I like them to produce?’ I am not happy with that question. It would be lovely to think that they would be able to produce written accounts, documented evidence of the kind of cyclical enquiry they could have been involved in but my main desire would be that they would be able to question, that they would not take things for granted and that they would be able to communicate to inform themselves and others.

Later on in that conversation Jack had the following to say about it:

J.W. Right because I think that what we have got in that conversation is the way in which conversation can help to take enquiries forward. In a week or two we will probably have evidence on how the enquiry is going and I think that it will show the nature of our collaboration. If I can show on the tapes that the questioning process first of all is helping you to articulate your beliefs and ideas in a way you find helpful in the sense of either clarifying or moving ideas forward. It also shows my own struggle to make sense of ideas I haven't met before as I am trying to make sense of how your enquiry can be moved forward.

  In the underlined phrase above I articulated something which resonates with me still. Action Research is fundamentally about the process of communicating to make something explicable to yourselves and others and talk is about that too. What you research and do in the classroom, when it is approached systematically, can take on a more general applicability than just to yourself when communicated in the right way to others. Just as informed and disciplined talk can explain your reality to others and yourself, and in the process change it for both of you. (See chapter on Writing which makes this point in more detail. And look at Justine’s Report as well with a particular focus on how she has come to speak for herself through the process which I facilitated.)
  Subsequently I wrote in collaboration with Jack about this conversation in an article:

 ‘The conversation with Jack, then, has had the effect of making certain aspects of my own values conscious and giving me the framework within which to strive to produce consistency between my aims and my actions. It has channelled my energies and concentrated my motives, which I hope will have the effect of making my practice better for the benefit of the students. Only time will tell.

  I have never processed my thoughts in such a way before, and through the taping and subsequent analysis I will be in a stronger position to know myself through my practice and thus to enhance my efficacy with the students. And in the end I firmly believe that that is what we are here for - to improve the quality of learning for the learner.’

  It is also a good idea at times to talk to those not involved with the area of your research. This might sound like simple common sense, but it surprising, I have found, how easy it is to forget the world outside when you are wrapped up at a crucial stage in your research. As I state elsewhere, talking to someone new can be like a breath of fresh air on a humid day! 

I include now some edited highlights from a conversation with Jayne and Jonathan on 24.11.90. which concerned a particular third year History lesson. Jon was researching into more efficient ways of giving instructions in lessons, as this was an area of his practice that very early on he had recognised as needing improvement. Jayne is here acting as critical friend.

Jon: But I missed out a couple of points.
Jayne: And I felt I had to step in. For example in a role-play it is absolutely essential that they know that it is not their opinions that are important... And you had to tell them...I think it would have been better if you had clearly thought through the game first. I don’t think you wrote down your aims. Or did you?
Jon: I wrote down my aims in the lesson plan but in the classroom situation maybe I didn’t refer to it as much as I should have done...
Jayne: Otherwise that was a really good lesson. It was well planned. The instructions were the main thing. It could have gone wrong there...
Jon: ...So I think basically what we are saying is that I need to concentrate more on the start of the lesson. That seems to be the fundamental problem. I think I can use the techniques we talked about last week - writing the main points out.

 What this extract illustrates is how talk can focus the researcher, in this case Jonathan, on his primary learning points. He comes to the conclusion about what it is he needs to do, and Jayne has been instrumental in shaping his thinking. The conversation adds an enriching dimension to his research, in that it is evidence of a development of thinking over time. And much of Action Research requires just that element.

Case Study

On 31.11.91. I had the following conversation with Justine as together we tried to sort out some of the issues that she might find educationally useful to focus on in her PGCE year. I had written to her as a response to her evaluation of the first few sessions she had attended on classes which I teach. From the very beginning of our collaboration, Justine was concerned about what she was learning about her values and the ways in which she could reflect on her activities.

M. You stated that there were certain things that you’d want or expect to get from an educative relationship, and one of those is having doors opened for you, is the expression you used. Could you clarify that just a little bit for me so that I’m not reading into it something which you don’t mean?
J.What I mean by doors opening is that I could have gone through this PGCE course without really thinking about these issues, and even if I thought about them they wouldn’t have actually gone anywhere. I would have just made it happen. But by talking to you that can lead me then on to say about my thoughts. Doors in my life, I suppose. Doors in my thoughts. Because otherwise you can only get so far and then...(indistinct) it sounds as if you are going to facilitate my learning here. (laugh).
M. Oh no! (laugh) Let’s put it another way. I’m going to thrust my values on you. And I’m going to force you to accept my dogma.
(laughter)
J. Yes, but you might always open doors, but I can always close them.
M. Right. And the important thing that we need to be quite clear about is that you do feel you have the power to do that, because it is possible that someone from outside could say that, ‘oh yes, maybe Justine’s saying that because she feels a kind of powerlessness, therefore she’s more likely to accept what Moira says because Moira doesn’t seem to be, you know, a really horrible person and she doesn’t go around beating you with a stick and forcing you to do it and so maybe you’re going to be more inclined to say, ‘oh well if Moira says it, it’s O.K.’’ I don’t suggest that, but..
J. Yes.
M. ...that’s the kind of comment that people do say... That I’m thrusting my values on you, and that’s something we’re going to have to be very clear about. (pause) Says she dogmatically!  (laugh).
J. Back off! Back off!  (laugh)  No, [when people make that comment about me]I can understand [it]. They don’t actually know me. They don’t know, they assume that I’m  (pause)  I can’t think of the word...
M. But that people can force you into their values.
J. Yeah. Makes me sound very vulnerable, which is quite different from being open to ideas. Makes it sound as if I’m searching for something. If I don’t know what it is and you suggest something, then I’m willing to accept that because there’s nothing else, which is, like, fair comment if you don’t know the person involved but I don’t think I’m that easily swayed. And that’s like coming back to those tutorials. I’ll listen to what people say and I’ll think about it, and then think what I think. So at the time if you say something I might think the same, but I have to have time to get through it. But it doesn’t mean that I’m ultimately going to arrive at the same place as you. So I’m not actually frightened that you’re going to force your values on me. Your advantage is that you’re so much more aware of your values whereas...you can say you know your values, whereas I’m still not sure of mine.
M. I’m not sure I would absolutely concur with that... 
J. Maybe more what I should have said, then is that you maybe know the issues that you want to develop your values through, whereas I’m not even sure at the moment what the issues are that I could discover the values about. I don’t know whether that’s very clear.

(This is a crucial moment and one I am relieved to have recorded on tape. Justine’s expression of this idea was to recur and become a focal point of reflection for the rest of her time here, and one which we referred to again and again in our research into the discovery and explication of her educational values.)

To summarise:

- Talk communicates for the purpose of making your reality comprehensible both to yourself and others. Such is also an aim of Action Research.

- Talk can not only communicate, it can help to create meaning.

- Talk can constitute evidence of development in your research, but such evidence must be gathered as a part of the data (see data chapter).

- Decide what it is you want to discuss in a relevant conversation with your critical friend/colleague/pupil(s)/ etc. so that when you tape-record it, as you must, you will be making the optimum use of your time.

N.B. See also transcript of part of the conversation between Jayne and Jonathan in the chapter on the critical friend.  See also the dialogue between Zac and myself about trying to find the question.