"Contextualising Action Research into Practice: my experience, difficulties and outcomes"

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Vikki Pullen

CED 305 : Contextualising theory into practice

Contextualising theory in practice CED 305

Portfolio Topic:

Action Research and Key Skills

Project Title:

“Contextualising Action Research into Practice: my experience, difficulties and outcomes”

Vikki Pullen


Introduction

For my research project I used action research at my place of work to determine the attitudes of the learners towards key skills after their first term of formal lectures.  In the course of this portfolio I want to analyse my experience of contextualising the action research theory in my practice.  For my research project I analysed specifically the attitudes of two groups and their course managers.  I did not focus upon the theory that led to me using Action Research.  In the project I was product focussed and I would like to take this opportunity to contextualise the theory that I used in my practice and reflect upon my experience of using the methods of action research.  For this portfolio I would like to discuss how I used the findings of my research project to further improve my practice during the spring and summer terms of this academic year.  I will begin by contextualising my workplace to the reader and then discussed the reasons for using action research with my learner body.  I will then discuss and analyse my experiences of the methods used and the theory supporting them.  I will continue by outlining the difficulties encountered during the experience, and finish the portfolio by writing about the outcomes of the action research and how it has benefited my work in the college as a whole.

Contextualising my Workplace

In order to fully understand this portfolio I must first set the scene of my teaching practice.  I currently teach information technology (IT) on a full-time basis in a land-based Further Education college in South Devon.  The college delivers vocational courses (mainly National Certificates and National Diplomas) in subjects such as Animal Care, Agriculture, Equine and Outdoor Leisure.  The majority of the learners at the college struggle with traditional academic subjects and sitting at a computer on a sunny afternoon, or indeed any afternoon, is not high on their agenda.  The government introduced compulsory key skills in September 2001 for all learners who are under the age of 19 when they commence full-time further education.  These core key skills are made up of IT, Application of Number and Communication.  For the purpose of this portfolio we need only concern ourselves with the details concerning IT key skills, as this was the focus of my research.  The key skill qualification is divided into three levels.  The majority of the learners at my college work towards level one or two depending upon their main course level of study.  The assessment for IT key skills consists of an external exam (multiple choice for levels one and two) and two pieces of coursework.  The formal lectures involve teaching the learners the theory of information technology in order to prepare them for the exam, as well as teaching the practical elements of Microsoft Office in order to enable them with the skills to complete their portfolio of coursework.  

Why I used Action Research

I chose to undertake the research project as I felt that the value of key skills was not appreciated by some of the course managers and that their particular learners were being influenced by their negativity towards the qualification.  I chose to use Action Research as Cohen, Manion and Morrison argue that “action research may be used in almost any setting where a problem involving people, tasks and procedures cries out for solution, or where some change of feature results in a more desirable outcome" (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2000, p. 226).  During the winter term the college was reviewing their key skills policy and I hoped that my project would support the key skills co-ordinator in her argument to integrate some of the key skills into a main course of study.  I hoped that this outcome would then allow (or compel) the course managers to take some responsibility for their learners' key skills and result in greater support for the work of our department.  

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I also felt that my research project leant itself to the four stages of action research as described by Carr and Kemmis as "planning, acting, observing and reflecting" (Carr and Kemmis, 1986, p.165).  The planning stage was the preparation of the project title, feedback sheet and interview questions.  It was the stage at which I decided what I needed to know in order to support my hypothesis.  The acting stage was the stage in which I used my methods of action research to gather my results and findings.  The observing stage was the stage at which I observed and ...

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