The paper introduces a new approach to reflecting and acting called participatory and appreciative action and reflection (PAAR). It explores its potential to enable individuals and groups to move forward, to improve their working practices and lives in particular communities and contexts. The paper situates PAAR in the historical context of participatory and action research and reflective learning. It suggests that using PAAR requires four strategic 'turns'. By turn we mean a change in direction from one way of thinking and practising to another. The four turns are: (i) away from a preoccupation with changing behaviours in order to solve problems, with 'fixing' things and an engagement in deficit-based discourses, towards the development of appreciative insight, understanding the root causes of success and sustaining strengths-based discourses in order to amplify those things that will help build a better future from the positive present; (ii) away from self-learning (individualism and isolation) and towards collective learning through interconnectedness, appreciative knowledge sharing and the use of new forms of communications technology which enable simultaneous action in dispersed geopolitical spaces; (iii) away from one way of knowing and one perspective on truth to an acceptance of more pluralistic view of ways of knowing, of understanding human experience and putting this knowing to good use; (iv) away from reflective cycles and spirals and towards the use of a reflective learning (r-learning) framework comprising four mutually supportive processes. They are those of developing an appreciative 'gaze', of reframing lived experience, of building practical wisdom and of achieving and moving forward.

The last 30 years has seen an increase in environmental, socio-economic, and recreational objectives being considered throughout the forest planning process. In the Finnish context these are considered mainly at the regional level potentially missing out on more local issues and problems. Such local information would be most efficiently collected with a participatory GIS approach. A mobile participatory GIS application called Tienoo was developed as a tool for collecting location-specific opinions of recreational and aesthetical characteristics of forests and forest management. The application also contains information the user can access regarding the practical details of the area, for instance about the recreational infrastructure. The application was tested in Ruunaa National Hiking Area, North Karelia, Eastern Finland. Through this application it is possible to continuously collect geolocated preference information. As a result, the collected opinions have details which can be located in both time and space. This allows for the possibility to monitor the changes in opinions when the stands are treated, and it also allows for easily analyzing the effect of time of year on the opinions. It is also possible to analyze the effect of the spatial location and the forest characteristics on the opinions using GIS analysis.

Ten pupils with moderate learning difficulties worked on a series of mathematics related activities while visiting a school providing a whole range of multimedia. The investigation suggests that IV has a particular contribution to make in meeting special educational needs. In addition to specific benefits in the teaching and learning of mathematics, the technology proved to be a facilitator in the areas of geography and life skills. There was also some evidence to suggest that IV can help to raise self-esteem, provide equal opportunities and support collaborative learning. Sense of ownership, language development and motivational characteristics, together with the promotion of attention and the accompanying benefit for teachers of the reduction of anxiety over discipline, are other factors suggesting the usefulness of the medium in this context. IntroductionThe recommendations of the Warnock Report (DES, 1978) have raised awareness of the fact that pupils identified as having special needs may require additional attention and resources. Hawkridge and Vincent (1992) cite numerous examples in which IT is used to provide access to the curriculum for special needs pupils. One such example relates to pupils' use of an early example of Interactive Video (IV)-the Domesday Disc. In this Mansfield (1991) describes a project at a special school for children with moderate learning difficulties. These pupils proved quickly to be adept at accessing and retrieving information from the IV. So effective was their mastery of the software that the pupils engineered their own system of cascading information through the group and, eventually, through the upper school of forty pupils. At the end of a fortnight the geographical skills and understanding of the pupils were adjudged to have improved.

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The aim of this article is to examine techniques for creating understanding through observing, writing and reflecting. In order to do this the emerging argument utilises three illuminative vignettes in considering a range of approaches to narrative. A central concern is to make connections and identify shared understandings regarding the generation of reflective practice through storying. In all of the illustrative examples storying is conceived of as discourse via narrative, which, through a set of constructed statements, interpretations and meanings, produces a particular version of events. Such an approach to reflective practice invites the learner to enhance thinking and doing through interrogating, rediscovering and redefining a particular view of an issue. The underlying assumption of the article is that this process demands the creation of a text or story derived from lived experience, which in turn produces rich, authentic data. The article examines this data using techniques developed by Freire, such as the categorising and coding of content, identifying themes and ideas and the building of concepts. In conclusion, the article sees the learners involved in the construction of such narratives as not merely 'component parts' but 'shapers', enabled through experience, in using story as a medium for facilitating understanding and generating new knowledge. The Power of NarrativeJust how powerful narrative can be in enabling a learner to reflect upon their own practice has been the subject of research into the process of interviewing (Winter, 1991), writing stories about work as a means of professional enquiry (Bolton, 1994), the management of schools and colleges (Thody, 1997) and writing dissertations (Chambers, 2001). What is of significance in all of this research is that it is both the narrative itself and reflections upon the narrative which would appear to facilitate