Being a Practitioner Enquirer

Hi everyone. I am ready and willing to respond to your thoughts on being a practitioner researcher. Ask me questions. Tell me what works for you. What's worked well in the past for you?

Hi Ian I hope you had a good weekend. I am currently working with The Austic Organisation, which is an autistic school. This school is not integrated with mainstream schooling as it is a special school and as the course deals with inclusion I was wondering how I should go about doing my research. As well as Yemen being at the first stages of inclusive education. Do you have any tips?

I, too will be working in a special needs school and have this similar question. I did Work to develop an inclusion programme in a small school in Korea a few years back. That was quite the challenge. There was an article about it in our local foriegn magazine. Is it possible to use that experience as a new practitioners attempts and results. The inclusion programme was developed for my step daughter who has downs syndrome. She graducated Hight school with a modified diploma.

Hi jessica.
The idea about being a practitioner researcher is that it is continuous. The practitioner can ask the 6 questions above all the time as an evaluator of the curriulum in action - that is the curriuclum that is actually experienced by students. (as opposed to the one planned by adults). Somtimes we might ned to formalise this in the form of an MA assignmnt. Clearly previous work and reports play a part in the cycle of action research. It may be part of a review of literature, or in a "professional autobiography which records previosu experiences. However, I think the purpose is to go on and do a current piece of research, not simply writing up a previous report. You might discuss this with your tutor. This way you can revist the work in the light of new ideas about best practice and new policies. Hope this answers you question.

Thank you for answering the question. I appreciate the OU list of questions. They are quite helpful

Hi. I guess you need to discuss, at some stage with your tutor a focus for your study of the elarning of autistic children in the yemen. I suggest a good start is the OU 6 questions above. They are really deep questions. The first is "observation" of what the chidlren do. The second is assessment of their learning. The third is about your beleifs and values about why you think whta they are doing is worthwhile. It is your justification and professional judegment. With autistic children in Yemen, I think these questions are just as relevant. You say the course "deals with inclusion". Can you explain this? How it does this?

Hi Ian, thank you for getting back to me. When I talked about the course 'deals with inclusion' I was referring to our course 'developing inclusive policy and practice in special needs'. Due to me working with a special school and not a mainstream one is this going to be okay for my research with this school?

Seems Ok to me. I am here as just a voice about the practitioner researcher but you ought to discuss this with your tutor in detail. Sounds OK to me though, if I undertand it. You should plan out what your are going to do using a project plan so they can see it will be OK. Good luck with it. Sounds very valuable. i had a student looking how in a SLD school, I think, children used different forms of ICT. It was fascinating. he videoed them using whiteboards and PCs and analysed what each child did and learned. His point was the inclsuive entitlement curriculum involved ICT so research needed to be done. Does this make sense?

Dear Diena, You might like to email me to discuss this further. I'm sure we can work round it. Please ask me more specific questions if you need . Ruth

Hi Ian,
I am a SEN teacher working one to one with children with SpLD, and have been asked by my Head /mentor to research and improve the process of early identification. I am not sure how this will fit in with inclusion questions above.
Marion

My final dissertation at university 2 1/2 years ago was action research and while I enjoyed it thoroughly I found that I was sitting writing up my research and wishing I had evidence for X or that I had asked the child Y or Z while I had the chance. So I guess my main query is 'how do you know what type of evidence to collect'? Is it advisable to write a list beforehand or should I just try and collect everything and hope I cover my bases in that way (which seems a long-winded way of doing it to me'.

To those who are new to action research I thought I'd recommend this really good book I found really useful and will definitely be re-reading soon:

'Action research for improving practice: A practial guide' - Valsa Koshy (2005)

Thank you for the information. I am feeling a bit lost with where to begin, since I am very new to action research.
Jessica

Being lost is natural part of the journey. All those cycles- did you see the powerpoint above. Just talk it though. refocus. Keep it systematic reflect, act, collect data, reflect, act, collect data/observe, analyse

Sounds easy but I know you have to work to kep it focused.

You have to make choices on what's important and what is not.

Good luck

This is more than amonth I have been reading there discussions and I have added my comments that has never been answered. I do not even see it anymore I am lost. I am now able to log in to the library but still unable to access any reading. I read about movies But!!!! lost again I think my tutors are Ian & Gina for Research and Pauline Sumners for SpLD and Ruth for Programme Leader. Help me please. the hours are going by as well as the days now it is month. Hyacinth

Thanks for the reference. very useful

I am more of a focused data colelction person. You need a focus, a set of questions, even perhaps a hypthesis like If you do A then you will get more B. This helps focus on colelcting data about both A and B! EG if you use more feedback (a) then children will learn more (B)

This does not make it positivist/scientific research though. its more a simple hunch. You still have to decide what learn is, what more is etc


Other research could be more explorative and see what happens but I worry about time and effort and the etghics of having too much data. So I advise focus on title, and questions and hunches as a practitioner. The 6th question (What I will do next) is a hunch that things would be more worthwhile if you tried something else.

MMM you have to discuss this with your tutor who knows the field. I guess you can have a hunch that early identification can lead to early intervention and better outcomes and therofore more inclsuion. Trouble is how can you identify (and not label). Does it help. What is the child's experience?

Seems to me that what you need to move from is what Schon called "reflection in action" (that is reflection as you are working on the day to day- minute by minute practice) to "reflection on action" that is taking time out to critically analyse and evaluate what is going on and what is bing acheived. This would lead to ideas for improvement.(See http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-schon.htm). Collecting artifacts and data help the process enormously. This allows for what they call "double loop" learning see Argyris at http://www.infed.org/thinkers/argyris.htm

By the way you ought to explian this as your method in the assignment because it is tried and tested and valid method of scholarship!

Have you googled "Action Research". There is a lot of material and examples

Another Google is "Action research" and "inclusion". There is a good article by Ainscow at orgs.man.ac.uk/projects/include/TLRPman.pdf and the Teaching and Learning Research programm at http://www.tlrp.org/[…]/Davies%20RB%2029%20Final.pdf. is another example of the connection between Action Research and Inclusion you could reference to justify this approach as "sytematic and appropriate scholarship and research" . This is an MA level criteria (see your module handbook).


Have not tried "Action Research" and "SEN" etc but I will leave that to you.


You can also use these search words in the library search catalogue that you use.

hello, i have just moved from pakistan to Uk a couple of weeks ago and will be here for a year. i m trying to look for teaching job in the uk but havent been succesful yet. my aim for taking this course was to bring about some awarness about inclusion in Pakistan, unfortunatly we dont have any importance for inclusion or special education in my county. there are a few private institutes that are dealing with learning disabilities and special education but are way too expensive for the common man.
while i was working in Pakistan, i had some opportunites of working with children with Learning difficulties, due to my awarness and interest in this topic i tried to help these children, the school i was working with were willing to work along with me to help those children. i worked on a one to one basis with these children, but one problem that i faced was tht the school accpected me to teach them what was in the curriculum, i faced alot of challenges in that, as most of the children were unable to catch up with that, and had to face the burden of staying overtime to complete there school work. another problem which i faced was the negative approach of parents. due to the lack of awarness most of the parents were unwilling to give there child tht extra help they needed. i hope this course helps me in helping bring about some changes and awarness about inclusion in pakistan.

Hi and its great to have you on board. I too hope that this course will be a vehicle for you to identify what is best practice, audit what you ahev, and develop your work.


Have you done any action research before?

Ask me questions.........


No one has asked me why I use Action research, Practitioner research and Action enquiry almost interchangeably. Is there any difference do you think in how I use them?

I would like to know why and what the differences are between action research and Practitioner research and Action.
Thanks, Jessi

Thansk for asking. It's a good question. I'd like to answer Saturday or Sunday. I have my answer but I wonder what other people think the difference is between "research" and "enquiry". I guess action remains the same. Its what you do, what you improve.

What I have understood about action research and action enquiry is that they are a continuous process of learning and reflection, which is collaborative and participatory (supported by colleges and students).

Through these approaches practitioners learn with and from each other by working on real problems and reflecting on their experiences. In doing so it is not just learning by doing, but allows us to learn from each other.

I think action enquiry embraces different methodologies which include action research, action learning and appreciative inquiry and that action enquiry allows or encourages new and creative ideas in research.

yes. I see a tension emerging between the research as the sheer pursuit of knowledge nd a whole range of professional development experience through which we might learn. Research and/or enquiry!

I have (mistakenly perhaps) used the terms action research, action enquiry and practitioner research , interchangably. Many people do. The Americans seem to prefer enquiry or inquiry. I started to use enquiry because some started to be precise about "action esearch" i if it didnt do 2 cycles, if it wasn't collaboartive. McNiff described it as though she wanted no review of the literature first. (I sugges this is likley to reinvent the wheel!) So I used enquiry to distinguish from the purests. Well I guess for me its a whole range of different things. Your job is simply to justify it as systematic, as producing some knowledge , and improvements in action that lead to educational improvements for the benefit of society. I can't get hung up on terms on even methods as long as it does this.

Where I am based I am finding it difficult to find literature on inclusive SEN policies. But through my role with The Autistic Organisation I have ample wealth of real life day to day examples of dealing with autistic children and through action enquiry I can map these experiences and analyse them via posing questions and pursuing answers and solutions.
By keeping a journal and the six questions that you posed to us I find it very helpful to plan my research.

yes- action research can be useful to analyse whats going on with a view to improvin g it- without access to literature.- where are you based?

You might need to use different terms and language

I am currently based in Yemen and doing searches on the internet there was not much information to do with SEN or inclusion on Yemen as they are in the beginning of establishing their SEN policies.

I have managed to get a paper on SEN and inclusion from the Social Fund for Development,and I am in the process of interpreting it.

Here in Yemen SEN is not developed and when I do my audit on the Autism Organisation what do you suggest I use as my bench mark?

Yes. You are likley to find little but might be able to look at other countries and do a comparative?
unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0011/001181/118118Eo.pdf looks interesting as does http://www.ungei.org/[…]/Educations_Missing_Millions_Summary_Report.pdf.
and
http://www.unesco.cl/[…]/.

Hi Ian,

Sorry for the short notice.

I work in an after school provision for children who need extra help in their schooling careers. In terms of their ability it can vary from severe special educational needs to 'middle lower' children suffering from a lack of confidence and self esteem. It is an exciting project that uses sport, in this case Rugby, to help motivate students to learn and enjoy learning focussing on literacy, numeracy and ICT with emphasis on the self esteem and confidence side of things. So i dont work in a mainstream or special school. I was wondering if you had any ideas on how i could generally approach this year in terms of what my job could expose and support me. I have strong links with Richmond council, i am interested in national approaches and its continuity down the ranks, i am also interested in the role of out of school provision and its cause in helping inclusion from a schooling level to a national level as it is a sepperate role to the special and mainstream schools. i think what i am asking for are what questions could i ask about these areas and how could help to form my studies. After my initial degree i have little experience in setting up a larger and more comprehensive study. I obviously would like to have the next year as closely linked to my profession as possible - it being a little different i would like to see if you have any ideas?!
www.trylearning.co.uk

'Playing for Success' i s the national scheme happening in many professional sports clubs arcoss the country.

Thank you for your time.....i hope i'm not too late!!

Tom

Thanks for the message. You remind us of the diversity of provision. Certainly, the issues of inclsuion are still apparent to you. However, your interpretastion is differnet in your context. You may hold a different balance of beleifs and values about what is worthwhile provision (returning to the OU 6 questions) as your context is different. You will certianly need to focus on an issue. Self esteeem and confidence may be it. The former has some standard measures (questionnaires) but both are diffiuclt to spot accurately. (although both are frequently alleged by researchers.

I am not sure what you mean by "national approaches and its continuity down the ranks" can you explain?

hi there,

I think i was questioning if the government policy that is implemented nationally really reaches the needs of individual learners? And are the practitioners aware and in full understanding of what is required or indeed if they believe it is any good?


Thank you for your advise....i think self esteem and confidence could be really interesting. it is very relevent to my job and i am sure an issue for mnay SEN students.

Tom

Practitioner action research/enquiry is ethical, democratic and involves people. Some research does not do this but is "done to" subjects. Have you seen the materials on ethics on the front page of this community? (http://mwb.plone-hosting.co.uk/ma-inclusive-education).

Ethics is your perosnal responsibility to sort out.


Will this be difficult for you?

I have added 10 tips for action researchers above. (They are at http://mwb.plone-hosting.co.uk/[…]/view
)

Hope these work for you.

I am really embarrassed to say that i missed the October Hotseat discussion. I just don't know how I missed it. Any way I managed to read all the discussions. Ian thank you for the 6 questions. This will be a good start for me. Sorry for joining in late. I am sure I'll join you all in the next Hotseat discussion.

God! I ve been so busy reading journals and articles and trying to keep up that i ve just seen this! Indeed this IS EMBARRASSING!Really sorry about this Ian, still trying to get to grips with all the online stuff going on. Anyway, it still helped me think of what i am looking for and how i am going about doing that and hopefully i can catch up at the next discussion. Thanx anyway, Christiana

Hello Ian

Thanks for your help on this topic. I've seen the powerpoint presentation and the tips. Although I did not take part in the discussion I've still read all the comments posted in. Anyway thanks for the information.

Dear Ian,
I have been corresponding with Ruth about the slow moving CRB clearance. She mentioned that I should let you know about it and later remind you of my situation. It has been a hindrance in my getting some things done. I am trying my best to set up observations and interviews to help me through the first module, but getting appointments at this season is snail moving. Please, bear with me. Thank you. Jessica

I have looked at your PPP and have considered the six questions - I note, however, that the comments here are all from 2008 - Am I lost? Please advise, Ann