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Action research in classrooms can be challenging for novice teacher researchers. This paper reports on a study involving eight action research teacher teams. Analysis of the teams as they conducted action research resulted in the identification of three collaborative action research approaches promoting professional development. The findings showed that collaborative engagement of teachers in these approaches was influenced by three factors -time to engage and collaborate, workload, and group dynamics -and that these factors were enacted in the three approaches in different ways. Knowledge of teacher experiences within these three collaborative action research approaches can: inform school administrators and professional organizations to facilitate professional development; and guide novice teacher researchers to plan in ways that minimize the challenges of action research. IntroductionAction research has been implemented as a form of professional development for classroom teachers in various school boards as a means of affecting change in teachers' instructional practices. However, to date, large-scale, formal projects involving university faculty supporting teams of teachers conducting collaborative action research and investigating the nature of the action research process in these investigations have not been conducted across Ontario, Canada. The study reported in this paper is part of a collaborative action research project conducted in 2007/08 that was initiated by a professional teacher organization in Ontario. Two university researchers facilitated and investigated how eight teams of elementary school teachers conducted collaborative action research in different elementary schools in South Western Ontario. The study was guided by the following questions:

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Peer debriefing ensures the trustworthiness of a qualitative research study. Through peer debriefing, the researcher explores the research design, data collection process, and data analysis while colleagues, serving as critical friends, encourage the researcher to examine the research process from multiple perspectives. This paper examines experiences in a peer debriefing group formed by five female teacher researchers as a part of their graduate requirements for doctoral work, and their continued association as they pursued their professional goals. Three themes emerged based on the analysis of team meeting minutes, reflective journal logs, and case reports constructed reflectively by the five participants. These were: (a) essential elements of a successful peer debriefing group are commitment, continuity, and individual expectations being met; (b) participation can serve as an important development step in preparation as a professional researcher and educator; and (c) academic and emotional support provided by a peer debriefing group is a motivating factor leading to researcher’s perceptions of success. These themes highlight the benefits of including peer debriefing as a part of the action research process of teacher researchers as a means of dealing with the ‘messiness’ that novice teachers researchers encounter when conducting action or self-study research.

The potential of using video games to promote learning in classrooms is gaining recognition, but few studies have explored how video games impact teaching and learning in science classrooms. This manuscript reports on the implementation of the video game Nano Legends in four grade 8 science classes in Ontario. Data sources included interviews with teachers and students, classroom observations, online and written student artifacts, and pre and posttests. The findings indicate that the game was effective at communicating factual content and promoting social interactions in the classroom and virtual world; however, teacher intervention was necessary to supplement learning and provide differentiated instruction.