Classroom action research pdf

For remote area teachers, a distance learning education program is set out for them. Furthermore, based on the new law, pre-service teachers who want to enter the teaching profession, must attend two semesters of professional training that focus on pedagogy and teaching methodology in the appropriate subject areas to obtain training credits and pass the certification test Jalal et al.

There are four main competencies that must be possessed by certified teachers: pedagogical, personal, professional and social competencies. Jalal, et al. The above standards have been embedded in all pre-service and in-service training since and incumbent teachers are required to improve their competency through various types of upgrading pathways Jalal, et al.

According to Jalal, et al. Previously, the above working teacher groups emphasised their activities on creating lesson plans and developing test items Hendayana, This group also experiences a lack of support and funding to sustain its activities Jalal, et al, BERMUTU programme establishes a modular learning package to improve the knowledge and skills of teachers at the local level and aims to strengthen and extend the working group structure.

It is expected this program will become a self-sustained professional development Jalal, et al. The BERMUTU programme is set out in six activities: a school curriculum and lesson plan development; b test development, analysis and test item banking; c Classroom Action Research CAR ; d subject materials and clinical review; e teacher mapping and performance evaluation; and f study visit, internship, and teacher exchange program Jalal, et al.

Furthermore, teachers from elementary and junior secondary schools get more priority than those in senior secondary education the focus of my study ; this aligns with government policy to enhance basic education as mandated by the education law No. CAR as a Teacher Professional Development Tool: government policy It is no doubt that the quality of teaching skill impacts on the quality of education Fullan, This law has also mandated that teachers must have four competencies: pedagogical, personal, professional and social competence Jalal, et al.

In conjunction with the above policy, classroom action research CAR , which is believed to be an impetus to develop teacher professional development, has been embedded as part of any in-service teacher training.

Furthermore, teachers can use their CAR report for certification purpose. For those teachers who have successfully. Teachers were obliged to gain more credits from the professional development tasks, one of which was to write a scientific work such as research report, article, book, translation products Widoyoko, Many teachers found it difficult to accomplish the above tasks due to the fact that most were not familiar with the required writing culture; this was compounded with the low level of reading habit Roza, Data shows out of 2.

As a consequence of this new policy, teachers must be actively involved in a CAR project in their schools. Therefore all parties that are concerned in teachers professional development — including those providing training and 7 PNS teachers are paid based on their ranks.

Research Setting Central Sulawesi is one of the provinces out of 33 other provinces in Indonesia. The population in numbered 2. There are 12 main ethnicities and tribes and approximately 22 native languages across central Sulawesi.

However, other people of other ethnicities from other provinces in Indonesia have also enriched the diversity of population, cultures, and languages of Central Sulawesi. Although, it is diverse in languages, people in Central Sulawesi use Bahasa Indonesia as a national language and informal language. The map of Central Sulawesi is shown below. The total population of Palu is The local people of Palu are called Kaili and the native language is called Kaili.

However, as an open city for visitors, the current population is heterogeneous and comprises many ethnicities, tribes, and religions which come not only originally from central Sulawesi itself but also from outside it. Bahasa Indonesia is used as formal language in formal context such as meetings, offices, schools etc and informally such as between friends, in the market, and in social relationship.

In the economic sector, there are various sources of income that constitute potential revenue to this capital city such as services, commerce, hotels and restaurants, industries, agriculture etcetera Bappeda Sulteng, The schools are both state schools and privately-owned schools.

In terms of number of students, there are a total of 49, as follows: elementary schools 38,, junior secondary schools 6,, senior secondary schools 2,, and 1, vocational school students. The focus of the study is to explore the benefits gained by the teachers from doing CAR, the problems they faced while conducting CAR, the kinds of support which can facilitate and sustain teachers to continuously conduct inquiry in their classroom or in the school context, and whether the teachers continued to engage in action research after the first CAR project.

It also explores how they experienced the CAR programme in terms of training and the CAR project and asks them to reflect on the best ways for both policy makers and teachers themselves to facilitate teachers to do CAR and to sustain the practice.

The significance to each of these groups is broadly explained below: a. For school communities such as Principals and Colleagues , the study provides valuable information about how to support teachers to conduct AR as well as facilitating teachers to continuously do CAR as part of their practice which aims to improve their teaching practice and so contribute to school improvement; c.

And for me, as the researcher, the research provides a valuable basis for providing support and facilitation to English teachers both in pre-service and in-service to reflect on their practices through various self-directed PD such as collaborative action research, reflective teaching, teacher support groups, peer coaching, and critical friends. Question 1 What do teachers consider to be the benefits of CAR to themselves and what do they consider they have learned from doing CAR?

Question 2 What barriers, if any, did teachers encountered in conducting CAR in the classroom? Question 3 What support did teachers receive from their supervisors, colleagues and school principals while conducting CAR projects? Question 4 Do the teachers who participated in the pilot continue to employ CAR as a tool for their professional development five years on? What reasons do these teachers offer as to why they do or do not still use action research?

Brief Overview of the Research This study investigates the experiences of five teachers of senior secondary schools in Palu city, central Sulawesi, Indonesia, who participated in a CAR pilot both workshop and project in It is a qualitative case study that aims to explore the teacher research phenomenon in an Indonesia context.

Data was collected from teachers through short interview in the first meeting and in-depth interview in the second meeting, requested CAR documents in form of CAR proposal and reports.

Supporting data was gained from one of the DIKJAR staff members and one of workshop instructor through informal interview and requested documents such as the pilot guidelines or reports, and workshop materials. Data was analysed qualitatively using thematic analysis. This chapter has also provided an overview of the education system of Indonesia.

It also provided the background information about the setting of this study. Chapter two provides a description of the theoretical framework of action research ranging back to its origin and the importance of it.

It also highlights the results of studies internationally which support the employment of CAR as an effective tool of professional development. Specifically, this chapter presents some studies of the benefits and challenges of teachers of doing CAR. Chapter three covers the methodology of the research including design, data collection, data analysis, and the robustness and trustworthiness of the study reliability and validity. Ethical issues related to this study are also discussed.

Chapter four describes the background of the pilot in which the 5 teachers in this study participated. It provides a description of the CAR workshop and the pilot information that happened five years ago. Chapter five elaborates on the findings of the interviews with the study participants based on the five research questions and provides discussion of the study findings and relates them to relevant literatures and studies.

Chapter six summarises the main findings and discusses their implications. It discusses the origin, types, and the importance of action research as used in education. It describes how action research applied to educational problems can be used as a professional development tool. In the final section, there is a discussion of how to facilitate and sustain this particular type of action research CAR from the perspective of the teacher.

What is action research? The concept of action research was first introduced by Kurt Lewin in as an alternative to the traditional positivist approach to research that was dominant at that time Hinchey, He developed the spiral cycle design of research and action informed by what has been learnt.

Action research also builds on the critical pedagogy of Paulo Freire in who was concerned with those who lack privilege or voice in communities or society. His concept of participatory education as a dialogue or conversation between the teacher and learner fits well with the aims of action research. Freire built community action components into traditional research plans, involving those people in vulnerable social conditions in the research so that they had developed better self-awareness of their own situations and were able to analyse the situation and look at the possibilities for action and change Hinchey, For both of them Lewin and Freire , action research is a critical tool to empower the practitioner or the community to make changes based on new understandings and reflection.

Hinchey , p. In this sense it is an approach to research that challenges some of the assumptions underlying more traditional quantitative research approaches features such as objectivity, detachment, and truth. Many educational researchers conduct action research working collaboratively with practitioners.

From the above features, it is no wonder action research is also called practitioner research that may empower practitioners to be professionals Koshy, In the field of education in particular, action research is a popular approach for shaping the teachers to be professionals through engaging in reflective practice, and doing systematic data collection to understand their practice and decide action planning for improving it Hendricks, ; Koshy, ; Mertler, Corey believed that teachers need to improve their practice through action research as a part of advancing their professionalism and status Hinchey, and promoted teachers as educational investigators Noffke, Practical action research, growing enormously in popularity in the USA, focuses on empowering teachers to do their own classroom research for improving practices Manfra, Teachers identify problems that they want to address and systematically work to find action strategies for solving those problems Hinchey, It also has benefits for teacher professional development PD and effective school reform Hinchey, ; Manfra, ; Zeichner, Some of definitions are presented below: a.

Bassey cited in Koshy , p. Burns , p. Johnson , p. Mills , p. From the range of definitions offered by the experts, Koshy , p. Mertler , p. Why Action Research is Important for Teachers Literature reveals that it is important for teachers to engage with action research practice since it has considerably benefited them. Mertler and Charles cited in Mertler provides five reasons why teachers should be involved in action research.

Borg , p. In this case, teachers use students, classrooms, and content area as a basis for collecting the data to inform what decisions could be made to improve teaching. CAR can be conducted individually or collaboratively with other teachers. The focus of study is regarded as the most practical and applicable to solving issues related to teaching practices in the classroom. Collaboration among teachers and administrators may occur as well as collaboration among school personnel and university researchers.

The goal of this type of research is to utilise the expertise of the collaborators and to foster sustained dialogue among educational stakeholders in different settings. The goal of this type of research is to evaluate social issues so that results can be used for social change. The goal is to investigate reality so that it can be changed. Mettetal , p.

In addition, CAR focuses its study on the practical significance of findings rather than statistical or theoretical significance Mettetal, In this sense, the focus of study is more practical and applicable to teaching practices which in the classroom Manfra, When conducting CAR, teachers can work individually or collaboratively with their colleagues or teacher educators Hendricks, Numerous models of CAR, ranging from simple to complex, have been presented by authors and researchers Mertler, A more complex model of CAR proposed by Mettetal has seven stages such as identify a question, review the literature, plan a research strategy, collect data, analyse data, take action based on result, share findings.

In addition, Mettetal , p. In this phase you identify a problem or issue and develop a plan of action in order to bring about improvements in a specific area of the research context. This is a forward-looking phase where you consider: i what kind of investigation is possible within the realities and constraints of your teaching situation; and ii what potential improvements you think are possible.

The plan is a carefully considered one which involves some deliberate interventions into your teaching situation that you put into action over an agreed period of time.

This phase involves you in observing systematically the effects of the action and documenting the context, actions and opinions of those involved. At this point, you reflect on, evaluate and describe the effects of the action in order to make sense of what has happened and to understand the issue you have explored more clearly.

Criticisms of Action Research The issue of the robustness of action research finding has been identified as the weakness of action research study e. In addition, Mettetal contends that it was wrong and not in the right position to expect teachers to produce high quality of action research since they are not academicians or researchers; thus the extent of quality of their research is highly related to the benefits of the reseach finding for its target audience. Moreover, to ensure validity of action research study, Mettetal proposes some ways such as: repetition of the cycle, prolonged engagement and persisten observation, experience with the process, triangulation of data, member checking, and participant debriefing.

A study by Burns of 20 ESOL teachers who conducted action research showed that teachers gained benefits in terms of increasing personal insight and self-awareness, growing personally or professionally, and being able to reflect on the educational decisions they made.

Similarly, a study by Sowa of six practising teachers who attended an ESOL methods course shows that all teachers felt an AR project benefited them. These teachers said that they became more cognizant of their teaching repertoire, more reflective and critical which led them to change their teaching habits. Even, some teachers admitted that conducting AR project potentially helped them to grow personally.

Perkins , a novice teacher who did an action research project in her ESOL classroom, admitted that the AR project helped her to carry out various things in the classroom.

She , p. In a study by Curtis of 20 secondary English teachers in Hongkong, one of the teachers Richard said that doing AR project had increased his teaching strategy skills as well as developed his teaching skills. Similarly, in China, Thorne and Qiang found that English teachers who practiced action research became more aware of the teaching and learning process, developed more sensitivity about the classroom situation, and taught English with more variety of classroom activities.

Teacher D, for instance, commented that her experience involved in AR project had changed her awareness of her teaching practices. Another teacher Teacher J said that doing AR project gave him more authority to plan and do the study compared to other studies where he was only the object of the research.

Although there are the above documented benefits for teachers doing AR, other studies report that in the process of pursuing their PD through AR projects, teachers found problems and difficulties. A study which was conducted by Kitchen and Jeurissen of eight New Zealand teachers two primary and six secondary teachers shows that school support, time constraints, and the research process had become problems for teachers during the process of doing AR project.

In terms of school support, many teachers claimed that the school environment did not fully support them doing AR projects for example: the school saw no value to their research and they gained negative impression from other colleagues. In relation to time constraints, some teachers complained they had less flexible time and minimum contact with student as they were not full-time teachers.

Teachers also admitted that during the process of doing AR project they had problems in managing their research although they had been provided support from supervisors. Furthermore, some studies revealed that teachers often find difficulties in implementing AR projects and tend not to continue doing it after the first experience. A survey study by Rayney of English teachers in 10 countries China, Colombia, Greece, Japan, Morocco, Poland, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, and Tunisia concluded that teachers who knew how to do AR did not necessarily practice it mostly due to the following reasons: lack of time, no supports from friends lack of collaborative friends available or administrators, lack of motivation, and confusion about the AR concept.

Borg also reports his finding of English teachers in 13 countries and concludes that the lack of time, limitation of attitude, knowledge and skills, limited access to material compounded with unsupportive institutional conditions became prominent factors that led them to limited engagement in action research. Volk found that English teachers in the Middle East did not continue to do their project after first training due to the lack of time, motivation and conviction to make action research as integral part of their professional development.

Further to this, Burns , p. Diaz-Margiolli , p. Little in Burnaford , p. The process of inquiry or reflection on a problem which leads to a solution has indicated the teachers do professional growth for themselves Burnaford, In addition, Mertler asserts action research provides a huge chance for teachers to link their practice with theory, to become more reflective and risk takers; these attributes, he believes, enable teachers to grow professionally through action research.

Collaborative action research. Collaborative aspects of doing classroom action research have been categorized by some experts as a process of professional development. A study by Wigglesworth and Murray with English teachers in Australia found that, as a result of doing research collaboratively, the teachers grew professionally and changed their practice through reflecting together and learning from each other. However, studies have also found that collaboration sometimes lead to dilemmas, particularly in situation where teachers conducted action research in partnership with university researchers e.

Goldstein states interpersonal problems and power imbalances frequently occur as challenges for collaborative researchers. This contradicted with the notion of collaboration; as Burbank and Kauchak , p. Hence, Platteel, et al. Despite the challenges, in terms of learning opportunity, classroom action research provides practical possibilities for teachers to continue to learn and grow Burnaford Reflective practice and classroom action research.

Richard and Lockhart , p. Based on the belief that by engaging in a conscious and systematic reflection of their teaching, teachers can improve their teaching practice, reflective practice is used in teacher professional development Farrel, Osterman and Kottkamp state that the ultimate goal of teachers engaging in reflective practice is that they can be able to develop a sense of self-awareness which is believed as a tenet factor to grow professional.

York-Barr, et al. What do I need to improve? Given that teachers need to engage in reflective practice, professional development literature for language teachers, in particular, encourages teachers to engage in a critical and reflective review of their own practices through various means such as self-monitoring, analysing critical incidents, teacher support groups, and action research Richard, Teachers Learn to Research: Some models from other countries Some studies or reports have revealed different forms of AR models of learning that teachers have experienced.

Interestingly, these models have in common characteristics in terms of length of learning, mentors facilitation, process of doing research action. Learning time of AR is intensive and take some times, from 6 weeks to 12 month.

The last point which all the above models have in common is that all of them required full support from mentors during the process of doing AR. Mentors assisted teachers throughout the process from initial reflection, planning, action and observation, to the stages of critical reflection and documentation. In addition, critical friends were encouraged to participate in meetings or classes as they play the important role of supporting the teachers in solving individual problems during action research.

Therefore, this practice should be supported and sustained Calhoun, Sustaining teachers to do action research has become a major concern of researchers e. Burnaford , p. In addition, Tafel and Fischer suggest that building a learning community within schools may facilitate teachers to share their ideas, tryout new ideas, and explore ways to improve their teaching through inquiry.

More importantly, Calhoun called for organisation-wide support in promoting inquiry among school staff. They also found colleagues became partners for AR teachers to share and discuss findings and problems. In his reviews, Borg concludes that there are three main conditions that facilitate teachers to engage in action research. These are workplace condition, teacher condition, and project condition. He elaborates on the characteristic each of these conditions thus: a.

Of particular relevance to this study, Burns and Rochsantiningsih, conclude that, in the Indonesia context, both schools and AR facilitators have pivotal roles in encouraging and supporting teachers when involved in AR projects.

Furthermore, derived from the experience of facilitating action research as PD programme for master teachers in Indonesia, Lim, Pagram and Nastiti , p. The intent was to conduct an intensive, descriptive study of the experiences of a small number of purposively selected high school teachers about what they had learned through doing Classroom Action Research CAR in the Indonesian context. A qualitative approach is also appropriate in that I wanted to understand the benefits and the limitation of the phenomena from the perspectives of the teachers themselves Creswell, Patton , cited in Merriam, , p.

Following Merriam , by using a qualitative case study methodology, I would be able to understand the phenomena of classroom action research through the lenses of these teachers who participated in this pilot by exploring with them their experiences, thoughts and beliefs.

My research can be defined as an intrinsic case study Stake , cited in Merriam, , p. Specifically, I explored what were the benefits of CAR to them, the challenges they faced, support gained as well as the possibility of sustaining the CAR practice as a tool of their PD. More detailed background 8.

The background description of the teachers is further described on p. The workshop was located in Palu City, the capital City of Central Sulawesi, and was held for five days, from December This workshop was attended by senior secondary teachers who taught a variety of subjects English, Science, Maths, Geography, Civics among others.

In this short time workshop teachers learned the basic knowledge of conducting CAR projects, and writing a CAR proposal and a report. They had no prior experience of doing CAR since it was not offered in any previous courses in pre-service training class. Teachers could apply for funding to do their own projects in their own schools.

The procedure for getting grants included a provision requiring teachers to form a collaborative team and then submit the CAR proposal to be examined. Following this project, in December, , the 10 best teacher researchers presented their findings in a forum which was attended by teachers, principals, and all parties who were involved in this pilot. Source: DD; DS:I This current study focused on a small sample of the teachers involved in this workshop and who had their research proposal approved.

Negotiating Entry Entry to do research involved negotiation with several parties to get permission before conducting the field work research Creswell, In the Indonesian context it is very pertinent to make the first approach to the top and to meet with the leader of any institution in order to gain access to conduct research in that setting. This person had a strategic position in the office and supervised senior secondary schools in Palu City.

I was aware from my reading that gaining access to teachers using this top-down approach could compromise my relationship with the participants in that they might view me with suspicion or see me as part of the administration. I met the Head of Division in person and I expressed my intention to do research with some teachers from schools under his supervisions.

In addition, I asked for help to locate the current place of employment of the above teachers who attended the pilot workshop as confirmed by the DIKJAR Province. At the meeting, I provided a brief written statement of the purpose of my study detailing my reasons for conducting the study and the significance of my study for Indonesia education policy Creswell, , and the ethic approval letter from Victoria University Ethics committee.

I also brought a document with the names of teachers who had attended the workshop five years ago, some of whom I wanted to recruit in my study. In my preliminary meeting with the above staff, he advised me to write formally to the Head of the Palu Education office requesting a letter of approval to conduct study in some schools located in Palu City.

I provided this letter9 written in Indonesian a day after that meeting and successfully gain the approval letter two weeks after the submission.

This delay was due to the official staff member who was responsible for processing my letter to the top leader being on leave for a week. He also 9 Letter and its English translation is included in appendices list. From all the names I had provided, I did not specifically inform him which of them would become my participants. Having gained the letter of approval, I wrote letters10 written in Indonesian to the principals of each of the identified schools five schools in all and with the letter from the Palu Education office attached.

These letters stated clearly that I was asking consent only to make contact with the teacher to invite them to participate in my study. The teachers would need to give me informed consent to participate and would have the right to not take part in the research without needing to give me any reason.

I met each principal in person and handed them the letter at these meetings. This gave me an opportunity to have a conversation about professional development and explain the purpose of the study. The meetings also provided me some time to get to know the principals as well as the schools. During these meetings, I expressed my intention with each school principal to do study with the teachers who were posted in their schools. Written approval letters from all schools principals were then gained days after each meeting.

I used these letters to meet my prospective participants afterwards. At this meeting, I brought supporting documents such as the consent letter from the principal, the letter of invitation to participate in the study, and the consent letter for them to sign.

I explained the purpose of the meeting and handed them the letter of invitation. After the teachers read my letter, I encouraged them to ask any questions in relation to it and I provided further explanation of points they wished to have clarified. Five teachers agreed to take part in my study and signed the consent form provided. The Role of the Researcher and the Relationship with Participants This is an exploratory study and the stance I took in my meetings with the participants was one of an educational professional in conversation with another teaching professional.

The purpose of this study was not evaluative and I expressed to participants my interest in their experiences and openness to learning from them.

In this research, my position was solely as the researcher. Although, I am on the teaching staff in a local university which sometimes deals with in-service teacher training, I had no prior experience that involved in any training, supervision, or evaluation of any of the participants, nor had any of them been my former students at the university.

I took care to assure these teachers that I was not in a position to make decisions concerning their careers and promotion and that the top-down negotiation for entry only served solely to gain permission to conduct study in schools; it was not permission for providing performance evaluation of teachers or any other purposes.

Research Sample In this research, I employed purposive sampling technique in selecting the research participants. Johnson and Christensen, , p. The 10 sufficiently represented experiences in different school contexts and different professional histories.

I had anticipated that not all 10 teachers would be able to include as it would be difficult to interview all of them in the short-timeframe allowed for my fieldwork; furthermore, I was aware of the possibility that some of those teachers had been posted to other school out of Palu City or had got their pensions. As a backup plan, I approached teachers in the other subject areas who fulfilled the three above requirements.

In practice, not all the 10 English teachers were able to be involved in my study. The data from DIKJAR Palu City revealed that two of identified teachers had got pensions and retired, three had been posted to a position outside the Palu area, and one teacher had been promoted as a school supervisor.

The remaining four teachers were keen on participating in my study. In addition to those four teachers, one chemistry teacher who I invited to participate agreed to be involved as well. Overall, I had five teachers who were available and interested to take part in my study. Description of the Sample The five participants were all senior secondary teachers who were teaching in state-owned senior high schools Locally termed as SMUN- Sekolah menengah umum negeri in Palu City, Central Sulawesi.

Due to the length of their teaching services, four of them are regarded as senior teachers in their schools. The descriptions are below. Teacher A. Teacher A teaches English as a subject. She graduated from a local privately-owned university in Palu City and holds a Bachelor in English teaching degree. In her school, she is actively involved in helping students to develop their English speaking ability through various programmes such as an English debating programme. Some PD workshops she had participated in were related to curriculum and scientific writing.

She holds a Bachelor degree of English teaching and recently she gained her Masters degree in Teaching English as a Foreign Language from the local state-owned university in Palu City.

Many PD workshops or training in which she has participated were related to her teaching field and profession as an English teacher. However, she did not continue to practice the CAR project after the first pilot until it became a requirement for completing her postgraduate study. Teacher C. Teacher certification is discussed more fully in Chapter 1, p. She graduated with a Bachelor of English teaching education from the local state-owned university in and is currently pursuing her Masters degree in the same university.

Following that, there was no attempt from the teacher to continue the practice. Teacher D. In , this English teacher gained his certification from the government. His experience in teaching is about 20 years; given this fact he is regarded as a senior English teacher in his school and also has additional task as vice principal of student affairs. His Bachelor of English teaching degree was gained from the local state-owned university in in Palu City and he has just finished his Master study in the same university in Some PD training he has participated in is relevant to his teaching profession; these include the use of language laboratory and teacher training workshop.

He also participated in a scientific writing workshop in Following that, he completed another CAR project individually with his own budget. In turn, he used those credits for career enhancement Teacher E. This teacher commenced her career as a chemistry teacher in after graduating from a local state-owned university in Palu City. She gained her Masters degree in chemistry. In terms of research experience, she was first involved in research activity in her school in ; that is, before being involved in the CAR project in Given that, she has rich experiences in research in her field, and she is currently a contributor to an online site for sharing knowledge in Indonesia.

I also collected written documents from each participant related to the workshop and their research projects. Additional data in relation to background information about the purpose, content, and materials of the workshop was also collected from the trainer and education officer in short, focussed interviews conducted in face-to-face meetings Kvale, Further, means of data collection are described below.

A brief questionnaire appendix 2 was used to gather background data from the five participants about their teaching careers and their involvement in PD. The questionnaires were completed in the form of a semi-structured interview during my first meeting with each of the participants Merriam, The brief questions were written in English these are all teachers of the English language.

In addition to the written questions, I also interviewed each teacher briefly about their teaching experience and PD CAR in particular. Although the questionnaire in English I decided to conduct the interviews in the Indonesian language as I reasoned it would be easier for the participants to express their ideas in Indonesian. View PDF. Save to Library Save.

Create Alert Alert. Share This Paper. The aims of the study are to know whether communicative games have an impact on teaching speaking skill and describe how communicative games give an influence on speaking skills of students at junior … Expand. Highly Influential. View 3 excerpts, references background. This research aims at developing language games to teach speaking for the students joining English Study club as extra-curricular program at one of the State Islamic Senior High Schools in Gresik, … Expand.

View 3 excerpts, references background and results. This research is conducted collaboratively in three cycles in which … Expand. Speaking is the highest target in English language because speaking is basis of communication which becomes a function learning. Developing meaning and knowledge in this way forms the basis of constructivist ideology, just as teachers often try to get their students to construct their own meanings and understandings when experiencing new ideas.

Most of you are probably at least minimally familiar with constructivism, or the process of constructing knowledge. However, what is constructivism precisely, for the purposes of action research? Many scholars have theorized constructivism and have identified two key attributes Koshy, ; von Glasersfeld, :. Considering these two attributes, constructivism is distinct from conventional knowledge formation because people can develop a theory of knowledge that orders and organizes the world based on their experiences, instead of an objective or neutral reality.

When individuals construct knowledge, there are interactions between an individual and their environment where communication, negotiation and meaning-making are collectively developing knowledge. For most educators, constructivism may be a natural inclination of their pedagogy. Action researchers have a similar relationship to constructivism because they are actively engaged in a process of constructing knowledge.

However, their constructions may be more formal and based on the data they collect in the research process. Action researchers also are engaged in the meaning making process, making interpretations from their data. These aspects of the action research process situate them in the constructivist ideology. The relations between constructivist inquiry and action research is important, as Lincoln , p. While there are many links between action research and educators in the classroom, constructivism offers the most familiar and practical threads to bind the beliefs of educators and action researchers.

It is also important for educators to consider the philosophical stances related to action research to better situate it with their beliefs and reality. When researchers make decisions about the methodology they intend to use, they will consider their ontological and epistemological stances. It is vital that researchers clearly distinguish their philosophical stances and understand the implications of their stance in the research process, especially when collecting and analyzing their data.

In what follows, we will discuss ontological and epistemological stances in relation to action research methodology. Ontology, or the theory of being, is concerned with the claims or assumptions we make about ourselves within our social reality — what do we think exists, what does it look like, what entities are involved and how do these entities interact with each other Blaikie, In relation to the discussion of constructivism, generally action researchers would consider their educational reality as socially constructed.

Social construction of reality happens when individuals interact in a social system. These interpretations become agreed upon by members of a social system and become part of social fabric, reproduced as knowledge and beliefs to develop assumptions about reality. Researchers develop meaningful constructions based on their experiences and through communication.

Educators as action researchers will be examining the socially constructed reality of schools. In the United States, many of our concepts, knowledge, and beliefs about schooling have been socially constructed over the last hundred years.

For example, a group of teachers may look at why fewer female students enroll in upper-level science courses at their school. This question deals directly with the social construction of gender and specifically what careers females have been conditioned to pursue. We know this is a social construction in some school social systems because in other parts of the world, or even the United States, there are schools that have more females enrolled in upper level science courses than male students.

Therefore, the educators conducting the research have to recognize the socially constructed reality of their school and consider this reality throughout the research process. Action researchers will use methods of data collection that support their ontological stance and clarify their theoretical stance throughout the research process. Koshy , p. The challenge for the teacher here is in the analysis and interpretation of the multiplicity of factors accompanying the use of diaries.

The diaries were taken home so the entries may have been influenced by discussions with parents. Another possibility is that children felt the need to please their teacher. Another possible influence was that their increased motivation was as a result of the difference in style of teaching which included more discussions in the classroom based on the entries in the dairies.

The teacher was only responsible for introducing the diaries as a new style of learning. A researcher with a positivist ontological stance would not consider these factors, and instead might simply conclude that the dairies increased motivation and interest in the topic, as a result of introducing the diaries as a learning strategy.

Epistemology, or the theory of knowledge, signifies a philosophical view of what counts as knowledge — it justifies what is possible to be known and what criteria distinguishes knowledge from beliefs Blaikie, Positivist researchers, for example, consider knowledge to be certain and discovered through scientific processes. Action researchers collect data that is more subjective and examine personal experience, insights, and beliefs.

Action researchers utilize interpretation as a means for knowledge creation. Action researchers have many epistemologies to choose from as means of situating the types of knowledge they will generate by interpreting the data from their research.

For example, Koro-Ljungberg et al. All of these epistemological stances have implications for the research process, especially data collection and analysis. Please see the table on pages , linked below for a sketch of these potential implications:. Again, Koshy , p. A teacher of year-old children decided to carry out an action research project which involved a change in style in teaching mathematics. Instead of giving children mathematical tasks displaying the subject as abstract principles, she made links with other subjects which she believed would encourage children to see mathematics as a discipline that could improve their understanding of the environment and historic events.

At the conclusion of the project, the teacher reported that applicable mathematics generated greater enthusiasm and understanding of the subject. She valued constructivism and students generating their own understanding of mathematics based on related topics in other subjects. Action researchers working in a social context do not generate certain knowledge, but knowledge that emerges and can be observed and researched again, building upon their knowledge each time.

In this first chapter, we have discussed a lot about the role of experiences in sparking the research process in the classroom. Your experiences as an educator will shape how you approach action research in your classroom. Your experiences as a person in general will also shape how you create knowledge from your research process. In particular, your experiences will shape how you make meaning from your findings.