Action Research in Schools
Introducing practical ideas that enable schools and individual practitioners to embed action research as part of their everyday practice.
Developing a school led action research approach as a way of obtaining evidence that informs and enriches practice and helps to build a whole school professional community of dialogue and discussion.
Experimenting with ideas as part of the daily routine
This one-day introductory course will enable practitioners at all levels to gain an insight into how to establish action research as part of the everyday routine, how to easily obtain meaningful information from the action research and how to then share the evidence obtained with colleagues to promote a culture of professional dialogue. If you find any of the questions below interesting and relevant to your context this one-day course will be very beneficial to you and your school:
- What is School Led Action Research (SLAR)?
- How can we use SLAR to experiment with all our ideas, thoughts and initiatives?
- How can we design the SLAR approach so that it does not add to current workload?
- How can we use the evidence we obtain from the SLAR to inform and enrich our practice and our quality of professional dialogue?
- Would you like to hear about practical initiatives that are now part of everyday practice in schools and that originated as SLAR projects?
- Would you like to obtain a wide range of ideas and themes to engage in as part of your own SLAR?
- Would you like to learn how to use the SLAR process to review, consult, establish and embed a whole school set of values, children’s rights or lifelong learning dispositions?
- Would you like to be able to use your current ethos, values, vision and priorities as a launching pad for your SLAR projects?
- Would you like to investigate ways in which SLAR can be become part of your whole school culture, practice, school development, CPD and appraisal?
- Would you like to hear about how other schools are using SLAR and the types of outcomes that have resulted from these projects?
- Would you like to explore ways in which you could use the SLAR approach as a way of collaborating and sharing expertise within your cluster, partnership, MAT?
- Would you like to explore ways on which you could use the SLAR approach as a way of connecting your school to a local University Educational Research Department?
- Would you like practitioners within your school to join and become active participants, contributors and benefactors from a SLAR professional learning community?
- Would you like to be able to publish your findings and observations as an article in an educational journal?
Course Title: Action Research in Schools
Introducing practical ideas that enable schools and individual practitioners to embed action research as part of their everyday practice. Developing a school led action research approach as a way of obtaining evidence that informs and enriches practice and helps to build a whole school professional community of dialogue and discussion.
This one-day introductory course enables practitioners at all levels and at all degrees of familiarity with school led action research to become familiar with different ways in which action research can be incorporated into schools as part of the everyday routine. The day provides participants with a wealth of information and ideas that will enable them to establish an action research led approach to teaching and learning in their classrooms and to easily gather meaningful information in a way that can be shared and discussed with colleagues. The course equips practitioners with all they need to be able to use the evidence gathered from their own and across the school action research studies to inform their planning and to enrich the teaching and learning experience of all students.
Course Description
This course does not require any prior knowledge relating to school-based action research as it covers the principles involved in establishing an action research led classroom and school culture starting from the basics and building on the process sequentially and systematically as the day progresses. The course will offer participants a wealth of practical action research led ideas, ways of implementing them as part of the daily routine, means by which practitioners can easily deduce evidence from the research and ways in which this evidence can then inform planning, teaching, learning and act as a stimulus for further research. The course will also enable participants to reflect upon their own setting, context and priorities to begin to find possible themes for conducting their own action research. The course neds by offering participants a wide range of opportunities to discuss and disseminate their findings within their school, their partnerships, their local, national and global settings and as published pieces of work.
Target Audience
- Practitioners and support staff Early Years, KS1, KS2
- Senior leaders and Headteachers
Aims
- To introduce practitioners to the concept of school-based action research
- To describe the main steps involved in the action research process
- To enable practitioners to reflect upon their own setting in terms of the action research process
- To equip participants with all they need to embed action research as part of their everyday practice
- To enable participants to be able to disseminate their findings with colleagues in school and across the world
Benefits and Objectives
- Understand the principles of school-based action research
- Develop a clear picture of how to introduce the concept of action research within own setting
- Enable classrooms to become communities of action research
- Enable schools to become professional communities of dialogue
- Turning ideas into action research themes and designing the action research process
- Linking action research to school infrastructure, including school development, appraisal and link with families
- Linking across the school and beyond the school with evidence-based observations leading to professional discourse and enrichment of teaching and learning practice and experiences for all students
Programme Elements for the Philosophy Day
9.00- 10.30 Introduction to Action Research
- What is Action Research?
- How have schools implemented the approach?
- What are the basic steps needed to set up an action research process in my classroom?
11.00-12.30 Establishing Action Research in Schools
- Choosing a theme for action research
- The whole school approach; the same theme across the school
- The whole school approach; year group specific themes
1.30-3.00 Gathering and Using Evidence Obtained
- How do we gather useful information?
- How to use this information to inform our practice- examples from other schools that have made a significant difference and had significant impact.
- How do we share our findings with others and learn from other’s research?
Pre-course Preparation
Participants will benefit from the course if they have done a basic amount of reading around what constitutes school-based action research and have thought about how their own practice, together with ethos, culture and priorities of their school could embrace the concept of action research as part of the everyday classroom routine.
Post-course Resources and Support
The course includes a series of JONK related articles that demonstrate how school based action research has led to the development and establishment of many whole school initiatives. Participants will also be able to access an online professional community for sharing of ideas and all participants will have the opportunity to work towards publishing their findings within nationally recognised educational journals.
Supporting Literature, Resources and References
- Staricoff, M (2018, in press) Children as Leaders of their own Learning and of School Improvement, Creative Teaching and Learning, UK
- Staricoff, M (2017) Children, Goats and Democracy, TES, UK
- Staricoff, M (2014) Nurturing Creative Thinking from an Early Age, Creative Teaching and Learning, 4.3, 16-24
- Staricoff, M (2013) The Joy of Not Knowing, Creative Teaching and Learning, 4.2, 45-53
- Staricoff, M (2013) Leadership Interview: Creating Confident Young Learners, Autumn Edition, LDR, 23-29
- Staricoff, M. (2007) Here Comes The Philosophy Man, Philosophising the Primary Curriculum, Gifted Education International, 22, 182-191
- Staricoff, M. (2007) My Bright Idea, Playing Scrabble as Home Learning, TES, 12 January 2007
- Staricoff, M. (2006) Here Comes The Philosophy Man, Teaching Thinking and Creativity, 20, 10-14
- Staricoff, M. and Rees, A. (2003) Start The Day on a Thought: Teaching Thinking, 12, 40-44
- Staricoff, M. and Rees, A. (2003) Thinking Skills Transform Our Day: Teaching Thinking, 10, 40-43
