Action Research for Personal Development Workshop at Bangkok University, 8 August 2009

1. Action Research for Personal DevelopmentWorkshop at Bangkok University, 8 August 2009 Richard Watson Todd King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi

2. A quick survey • Have you conducted any research within the last year? • Have you changed your teaching because of research within the last year?

3. What is research? • “Research is an attempt to understand something better through the systematic and formal collection and analysis of empirical data” (Shanahan, 2002: 10) • research is not ‘proving’ something • research is not necessarily changing something • research is UNDERSTANDING

4. Why do research? • “Research is valuable because it offers more than results. It provides grounds for thinking more deeply about what is being studied” (Shanahan, 2002: 15) • Uses of research • To identify or understand problems • To increase our understanding of how things work • To lead to reflection

5. What is action research? • Classroom research by teachers (Hopkins, 1985) • Practical research (Wallace, 1991) • Anything teachers do to collect data (Robinson, 1991) • Informal research (Brown, 1994) • Research with the goal of developing the situation and the researcher (Somekh, 1993)

6. Action research exploratory context-specific emphasis on insightfulness Formal research predetermined expectations generalisable emphasis on validity and reliability Action research and formal research

7. Goals of action research • Deeper understanding of a specific context • Greater awareness by teacher-researcher • NOT • Testing solutions • Objective findings • Widely applicable theory

8. Stages in action research • Deciding on the focus - an area you want to understand more deeply (not necessarily a problem) • Deciding on the type of data that sheds light on the focus • Organising collection of the data • Analysing the data • Reflecting on the findings for personal development

9. Typical areas of action research • Teacher talk • Interaction between teacher and students • Student talk • Student behaviour on tasks • Student attitudes and beliefs

10. Typical instruments used in action research • Recordings • Video • Audio • Student work (including tests) • Diaries Questionnaires

11. Case study 1 • Ajarn Somchai has noticed that, when he assigns students to work in groups of 4, in many of the groups, two of the students do all of the work on the task, while the other two students sleep, chat or surreptitiously check text messages on their mobile phones. He is concerned about this situation.

12. Case study 1 • Ajarn Somchai’s choices: • Compare the effects of different solutions to the problem (e.g. assigning roles in groupwork) • Investigate why some students don’t participate in groupwork

13. Case study 1 • Possible reasons for groupwork problems • Nature of groupwork task • Motivation of students • Group dynamics of groups

14. Case study 1 • Finding out reasons • Asking students (diaries, questionnaires, interviews) about: • their performance in groupwork • their attitudes towards groupwork • reasons for their behaviours • Varying groupwork tasks and examining effects • using different types of tasks • reorganising groups

15. Case study 1 • From asking students • data is qualitative • analysis focuses on critical points for insightfulness • For varying groupwork tasks • data comes from teacher notes of what students do • analysis is informal and subjective

16. Case study 2 • Ajarn Somying is worried about her explanations of grammar points in the classroom. Whenever she explains a grammar point, the students all nod as if they understand, but later they make lots of mistakes and ask her to explain the grammar point again in Thai.

17. Case study 2 • Ajarn Somying’s choices • implementing a solution (e.g. using concept checking to see if students are following her explanations) • examining her explanations

18. Case study 2 • Looking for possible reasons before implementing a solution • Record 2 or 3 explanations • Listen and see if the explanations are clear and logical • Ask a colleague to evaluate the explanations • Is the problem her explanation or the students’ understanding?

19. Case study 2 • If the problem is in the explanation • look at planning explanations? • prepare explanation handouts? • other interventions? • Informally monitor effects of intervention

20. Case study 2 • If the problem is not in her explanations • ask students why they have difficulties? • use concept checking? • Adapt explanations based on findings

21. Case study 3 • Instead of following the matching exercise testing students’ learning of vocabulary suggested in the course materials, Ajarn Somsak decided to ask students to write a wildly creative story which needed to include at least 8 of the words. He was surprised that students were highly motivated and produced interesting stories that used the words well. He would like to know why this activity was so successful.

22. Case study 3 • Goal: to gain a deeper understanding of the reasons for the success of the story activity. • Method: ask students • diaries? • interviews? • open questionnaires?

23. Case study 3 • With no predicted reasons for the success of the activity, data collection needs to be open-ended • Data is qualitative and analysed subjectively for critical issues

24. Task • What about you? Make a plan for conducting action research • Identify an area of interest • Think about what information you need • How will you collect the information? • What data will you get? • How will you analyse the data? • How will the research help you develop?