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ED383197 FL022996
Title: Action Research in the Classroom.
Author(s): Takala, Sauli
Pages: 11
Publication Date: 1994
Notes: In: Content Instruction through a Foreign Language. A Report on the 1992-93 TCE Programme; see FL 022 992.
Available from: EDRS Price MF01/PC01 Plus Postage.
Language: English
Document Type: Opinion papers (120)
Geographic Source: Finland
Journal Announcement: RIEOCT1995
The gap between
researchers and teachers has minimized the impact that research
should have on school development. Using teachers as researchers
is one way of empowering them to adopt the perspective of the researcher.
Research-oriented activity is then seen as one promising means of
improving the teachers' pedagogical expertise. It is assumed that
teachers will be better able to make decisions about their teaching
if their judgments are supported by their own inquiries. Teacher
research is typically action research, which links investigation
with efforts to solve practical problems or develop new programs.
In order to be able to do teacher research, teachers will have to
be solvers of educational problems. They will have to be able to
discover and define problems, to think of promising alternatives
of solving them, to observe and document activities, to reflect
on the observations and, ideally, to report on the changes in their
pedagogical thinking. The stages in action research include problem
identification, creating a solution to the problem, implementing
the solution, evaluating the solution, and modifying one's ideas
and practice in the light of the evaluation. Finding and defining
a good research question is the most important and difficult part
of a research project. In the case of the teaching content through
English or a foreign language, classroom research questions could
deal with the following: goals of pilot projects; materials; methods;
students' learning outcomes; students' affective attitudes; comparison
between content-based language classes and "normal" classes;
change in one's views and teaching practices; perception of successes
and problems; impact on relations with colleagues; impact on the
school; parent's views and attitudes; and reflection on what was
done and achieved. Some hints for doing action research/teacher
research are offered. (Contains 44 references.) (CK)
Descriptors: *Action Research; Change Agents; *Class Activities;
Classroom Observation Techniques; Creative Thinking; Decision Making;
*Discovery Processes; Elementary Secondary Education; Foreign Countries;
Learning Activities; Measurement Techniques; *Problem Solving; *Teacher
Attitudes; *Teacher Effectiveness; Teacher Role
Identifiers: *Content Area Teaching; Finland
