A quality assessment of teacher research

Abstract

We wanted to assess the quality of research conducted by Dutch secondary education teachers. We therefore needed to investigate the criteria for evaluating teacher research. The research timeline of this study covered four school years. We analyzed research reports and evaluation forms. We found that five quality criteria are useful for assessing teacher research. We made concrete operationalizations of these five criteria and their indicators. We found that successfully conducted teacher research contributes to professional and school development. Its contribution to professional development is greater and more concrete than to school development.

Sustainable Education Using New Communication Technology: Assessment with Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP)

“…For this, teachers need to have specific knowledge to lead students to learn. Nowadays, teachers need to mediate between students and technology and learn the necessary technology to create new environments, methods, and materials and enhance students' growth, performance, and learning satisfaction [10].…”

The Role of Critical Friends in Action Research: A Framework for Design and Implementation

“…Since critical friends' prominent roles are to ask critical questions, they become participant-observers directly and indirectly, and become peer reviewers to the teacher-researcher (Costa & Kallick, 1993). Incorporating critical friends into action research studies is crucial for adequate quality action research studies (Leuverink & Aarts, 2019). Critical friends can facilitate action research progress, offer a different interpretation of the data, and become the teachers' alter ego, enabling trustworthiness to be closely linked to transparency (Wennergren, 2016).…”

“…A range of action research literature debates the importance of collaboration with other people (defined as critical friends) as one criterion for measuring the quality of action research studies (see Elliott, 2007;Feldman, 2007;Heikkinen et al, 2007;Leuverink & Aarts, 2019). Winter (2002) proposes the principle of dialectics as a diversity of perspectives ideal for an action research report.…”

“…They argue that democratic validity refers "to the extent to which research is done in collaboration with all parties who have a stake in the problem under investigation" (Herr and Anderson, 2014, p. 55). This criterion reflects the collaborative nature of action research in that teacher-researchers should collaborate and seek a dialogue with stakeholders (Leuverink & Aarts, 2019). Indeed, the collaboration of stakeholders such as teaching colleagues, pupils, and parents as part of the action research process speaks to the collaborative character of action research suggested in the literature (see Carr & Kemmis, 2005;Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009).…”

“…During the research process, the teacher-researcher holds a continuous dialogue with the stakeholders (Heydenrych, 2001). Thus, action research is a joint enterprise and collaborative action (Leuverink & Aarts, 2019).…”