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In this online lesson Orly introduced to us the term Action Research (A.R.) as a part of the topic //Teacher Education and Development// and she elaborated on it. She started with history background: The term A.R. was first used by professor**Kurt Lewin** (1890-1947), after the Second World War. He was a Jewish American psychologist. He wanted to find ways to solve ethnic and social problems between people by means other then guns, i.e. by using A.R. He tried to bring together **action** which is the practical knowledge and **research** which is the academic knowledge. This was not accepted as scientific enough by the academy community. In Britainin early 1970, professor **Stenhouse Lowrence** and a group of researchers who worked on curriculum design understood that in order for curriculum or any other plan to work successfully, the participants should be involved. That is, working bottom up and not top down. A.R. today is very popular, not only among education people but also among people working in other fields such as nurses, social workers, psychologists and more. What is Action Research? Definition (slide 4): “Action Research is a form of reflective inquiry carried out by the participants (e.g. teachers, pupils or principals) in social (including educational) situations, in order to improve the rationalization and the justice of: It means that in A.R. the participants conduct research on their own work. Unlike the traditional approach in quantitative or qualitative research in which a researcher investigates someone else or something else, they themselves are the researchers as well. Orlypresented a true story that demonstrates how A.R. works: A science teacher in a new school in the 8th grade in theU.S.A. saw that teachers’ method of teaching was dictation to the students. The pupils had to memorize the material for the test. He asked himself how he could make the students ask more inquiry questions. He defined the problem and every day he wrote the lesson and his ideas in his diary. After a few weeks he decided to change the questions in class. He asked the pupils to come up with their own questions and to look for the answers by themselves. This practice is the action. In order to re-evaluate he continued to write in his diary and also recorded the lessons. He found out that the students started to ask more inquiry questions. But, it created discipline problems in the class and the students became restless. This new situation was a new problem. He evaluated the results and decided to - another action - continue with his method, but also to change the classroom management system in a way that he could control what was happening in the class. We don’t know how it worked or ended.
 * John Dewey** (1859-1952) put the foundation to A.R., although he did not use this term. He was an American philosopher and educator. He talked, among other things, about education and inquiry. He thought that children education is not just explaining things but letting the children find out answers by themselves.
 * Their social and educational behaviours
 * Their understanding of those behaviours
 * The situations (and in situations) where those behaviours exist”
 * __Action Research Process__** (How does it work?)
 * Step 1**. **Problem.** The teacher defines the problem that he is not satisfied with in his work environment. It is something that does not work well and he wants to change or improve. This is different than traditional research in which you ask questions and then conduct a research.
 * Step 2**. **Evaluation**. The teacher evaluates the situation, writes it down, thinks about it, asks and looks for information, ideas, and consults with colleagues.
 * Step 3**. **Action.** The teacher looks for solutions, formulates a plan and tries it out.
 * Step 4**. **Re-evaluation**. The teacher checks whether the action indeed improved the situation that he wanted to improve or change, and if it did then he analyses why, in what manner, what went well and what did not work. He also analyses whether the outcome created new problems.
 * Step 5. New problem**. The teacher formulates a new problem and iterates the same process again with the new problem. The whole process is spiral-like and never ends.

Here are the principles of A.R. in an organized manner asOrlypresented in the following slides: 1. Initiation of change (action) and inquiry into it (research). Research is carried out by a practitioner, sometimes aided by an academic. 2. Planning and application of change. Reflective evaluation of the change, learning and application of results. 3. Building of theory based on: data from the field, practical knowledge acquired in the field, theoretical knowledge. To conclude the lecture, we discussed some limitations that might discourage teachers from conducting A.R.:
 * __Stenhouse’s Principles__**: (slides 17-19)
 * __Moral/Political Background: (slides 20-28)__**
 * Based on the postmodern approach which stresses the voices of all population groups (teachers, pupils, parents, administrators).
 * Every professional has the right to hear and to be heard.
 * Giving teachers control over educational knowledge.
 * Giving teachers importance relatively to academics.
 * Giving teachers an option to develop and analyze new ideas.
 * Giving teachers an opportunity for professional development
 * Giving teachers an opportunity for empowerment.
 * __Further Principles__**: (slides 29-42)
 * Research purpose: using practical knowledge to further educational action.
 * A continual process of formative assessment in order to bring about change.
 * Encouraging self-inquiry while developing critical reflection by the professional.
 * Systematic research, not general, random reflection.
 * Bottom- up, not top down approach.
 * Collaborative research.
 * Research **with,** not **about** people.
 * Learning through experience.
 * Giving teachers an opportunity to learn from other’s experience and use their ideas.
 * The researcher’s strength originates from his/her knowledge of reality and context, and his/her ability to connect theory and practice.
 * A cycling process, beginning with an idea or a question.
 * Helps in problem solving and creating deep insights.
 * Contributes to cooperation with colleagues and academics.
 * The researcher is creative and flexible. There is wide room for initiative.
 * Time consuming
 * Uncooperative principal or colleagues
 * Inspectors can cause difficulties (however, they could be helpful too)
 * Too many problems to choose from
 * Not having enough autonomy
 * Not having enough information and principles to evaluate by

Some comments/questions from us andOrly’s answers:
 * Taleb suggested that the spiral (A.R.) can be a nice activity for the pupils themselves (HOTs).
 * Some students asked about the reliability, validity or objectivity of A.R.
 * o Orly’s answer: Neither reliability nor validity nor objectivity is relevant to A.R. On the contrary, subjectivity and involvement are more appropriate. In A.R. we don’t look for objectivity.
 * A.R. is based on the teacher’s intuitive work in class (of ‘trial and error’), but what makes A.R. different and unique is its organized and systematic characteristic (see above in yellow).