Building Educational Theory Through Action Research

Repertory grid

“…In this study, the understanding of how the students viewed the programming activities and experiences provided valuable insights into how to structure the course for more effective learning. These insights are listed here, with the belief that situational understandings can be of universal significance by opening up possibilities for action in other contexts [15].…”

“…The course design was revised in the light of the initial feedback obtained from the students, and was further fine-tuned after the second evaluation. During the course implementation, questionnaires, students' journals, work assessments, and observations served as formative feedback [15] of the course design. A mixed methods two-phase sequential explanatory design [9] was used for the summative evaluation of the outcomes of the action research project.…”

Editorial

“…They revealed personal potentials for educating that were less likely to be produced by a reliance on notions of effectiveness that prioritise the ability to reproduce a pre-developed method for teachings. This article sits well with Elliott's (2009) call for spaces for good conversations with each other to enable practitioners to express their educational values but also, given that locally shared deliberation can 'bump up' against power structures, the 'not-so-democratic ways of thinking and acting that pervade many traditional school-university partnerships', emphasised wider participation through building bridges with other cultures and hierarchies.…”

Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice by the Use of Iterative Processes

“…In the learning study model, the same lesson content is handled in different ways and in different groups of students. The model takes its departure in real problems experienced in the classrooms, and Elliott (2009) argues that the results of educational action research need to be discussed in terms of understandings and insights generated instead of descriptions and justifications of action research. He also emphasizes the development of theoretical knowledge during the research.…”