The following passage is a compilation of ideas from

various kinds of Action Research Books. It is intended

to help you in developing your action research
proposal. Read and understand it, especially topic 2, 3
and 4.
Action Research

A. Objectives
After completing these sessions you will be able to:
1. gain an understanding of action research particularly in the
areas of language teaching and learning;
2. gain an understanding of the various models of action
research;
3. improve your teaching practice by integrating modes of
reflection, research methods, and problem solving activities
through action research (planning an action research - problem
identification, research design and data collection and
interpretation) ;
4. write your research proposal based on your experiences in
the English teaching classrooms.

B. Focus Questions
1. What general ideas do you have for action research?
2. What are the common models of action research?
3. How is the action research conducted?
4. How do you prepare an action research proposal?

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 Topic 1: The Nature of Action Research
a. Outcomes
Your work in this topic should:
 Encourage you to reflect on what an action research is
 Make you understand better why an action research is different
from other educational researches
 Introduce you to the purpose of action research in language
education
b. About the Topic
1. Action Research
There has been increasing interest in recent years in teachers doing
research in their own classrooms or teaching situations. There are a number of
advantages in this. The teacher becomes more aware of the situation they are
teaching in. They also learn more about the research process and therefore better
able to judge the research they read about. Finally the teacher is made to rethink
some of theories they hold and they follow. This will give them a stronger
theoretical basis for their teaching and make them more confident and better
teachers.
Action Research can be carried out by a single teacher or by a group of
teachers in the same school or across a number of schools. The teacher or
teachers could also work with an outside researcher who can advise on the
research process and help in getting the results of the research disseminated to
others.
Action research is a research undertaken by a single teacher or a group of
teachers with or without a help of a researcher. The main purpose of the research

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is to gain insights into the teacher’s or teachers’ own teaching situation so that
improvements can be made in the teaching or learning.
Action research as it is called is a combination of methodology to gain an
understanding and to do a change. The purpose of this methodology is to
allow both a certain contribution to knowledge, and successful change. This
purpose is related to the definitions of the action research proposed by some
prominent scholars as cited in Chan Yue Weng like the following.

 Action research is a teacher–initiated classroom investigation which

seeks to increase the teacher’s understanding of classroom teaching
and learning and to bring about change in classroom practices.
(Kemmis & Mc Taggart, 1988)

 Action Research is an approach to improving education through

change, by encouraging teachers to be aware of their own practice,
to be critical of that practice, and to be prepared to change it. It is
participatory, in that it involve the teacher in his own enquiry, and
collaborative, in that it involves other people as a part of shared
inquiry. (Hopkins, 1993) ( Note : this is the one intended to be
carried out in your action research )

 Action research is a form of self-reflective inquiry (Kemmis , 1983)

 Action research is a form of disciplined inquiry that impacts

directly on a teacher’s practice and empowers them to renew their
classrooms and promote instructional improvement. (Glanz, 1991)

 Action research is the systematic study of attempts to improve

educational practice by groups of participants by means of their
practical actions and by means of their own reflection upon the
effects of those actions. ( Ebbut, 1985)

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  Action Research is a disciplined process of inquiry conducted by
and for those taking the action. The primary reason for action
research is to assist the “actor” in improving and /or refining his
or her actions. (Sagor, 2000)
Other scholars define the action research as: Action research is a problem
focused inquiry of (teacher) professional development (Wallace, 1991). Action
research is a collaborative approach to inquiry or investigation that provides
people with the means to take systematic action to resolve specific problems
(Stringer, 1999). Action research is to study a real school situation with a view to
improve the quality of current practice toward better one. ‘It consists of planned,
continuous, and systematic procedures for reflecting on professional practice and
for trying out alternative practices to improve outcomes’ (Schmuck, 1997)
2. The Characteristics of Action Research
The definitions of the action research imply the basic assumptions
underlying the action research. Those are:
 Teachers have the authority to make decisions
 Teachers want to improve their practice
 Teachers are committed to continual professional development
 Teachers are in control of their own research and are responsible
for decisions that affect their students.
 Teachers will and can engage in systematic research.
The definitions also lead to a conclusion that an action research is small
and manageable, classroom–based, teacher-initiated, problem-oriented/posing,
evidence-based, collaborative/participatory, qualitative/ethnographic in nature.
An action research has an immediate application, a direct link between theory
and practice, a direct link between research and teaching /learning, and a
knowledgeable change.
Chan Yue Weng characterized the action research in terms of its main
differences from formal research as the following:

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 Formal Research
Main aim : to make generalizations, test and
develop theories (objective)
Research context: organization- initiated,
theory – based and more global.
Research design: determined prior to research,
and complex design.
Subjects: non-involvement of the researcher,
large samples, subjects are strangers and
distant from the researcher.
Methodology: usually quantitative in nature,
complex sampling techniques, sophisticated
statistical tools and analysis.
Research report: technical in nature, special
knowledge is required to understand report.
General applicability (follow up) : none or
delayed, little /delayed potential for research.
Time frame: longitudinal
Cost: high
Action Research
Main aim: To improve one’s own practices and
make one’s own theories based on data
(subjective)
Research context: teacher- initiated,
school/classroom-based, more local.
Research design: can be changed to suit the
actual school needs and conditions, simple
design.
Subjects: researcher is part of the research
subjects, small samples, subjects are familiar
and easily available to the researcher.
Methodology: Qualitative/ethnographic in
nature, simple sampling techniques, simple
statistical tools and analysis
Research report: descriptive and narrative in
nature, written in a language easily understood
by teachers.
General applicability (follow up): immediate,
great potential for further research.
Time frame : short
Cost: low.

In short, the characteristics of an action research are: practical (from data

lead to immediate improvements), collaborative (teams of researchers and
practitioners), empowering (equal contribution of relevant parties, interpretive
(multiple social reality interpretation), tentative solution (based on the multiple
and diverse views of participants, rather than right or wrong answer), critical
(acts of participants as self-critical change agents) observation & interview based-
methods, findings are not generalisable, democratic, enabling the participation of all
people, equitable (acknowledging people’s equality of worth), liberating (providing
freedom from oppressive), incapacitating conditions, life enhancing (enabling the
expression of people’s full human potential).
3. Action Research in language Teaching

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 Research in language teaching and learning covers a wide area. We can
look at general principles of language learning or acquisition. These might
involve how language is acquired, how motivation and other personal factors
affect the process, how learning or teaching styles and strategies affect the
process. We can look at individual techniques. We can look at correction process
in the classroom. All of these areas can be investigated either through action
research or other researches.
Bailey and Nunan (!996), noted language classroom issues for those who
wish to carry out interpretive research in their own teaching and learning
situations. Those are issues on teachers and their practices, students, classroom
interactions, and curriculum implementation. Issues on teachers can be any
variable related with teachers’ beliefs and attitudes (both concerning what they
teach, and how they should teach) which in turn may or may not affect their
pedagogical styles and approaches. In the case of language teaching, these beliefs
and attitudes concern what the teachers believe language and language use to
involve, and how they believe language teaching should be carried out.
Students/learners factors concern with motivation, aptitudes, needs, learning
styles, etc. The more discussion on action research in language teaching will be
on Topic 3.

Activity 1.1
“List all different things that could be investigated. Work with your partner. (Try
some real ones)

Topic 2. Models of Action Research

a. Outcomes

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Your work with this topic should:
 Help you to recognize various kinds of action research processes
 Introduce you to some models of action research

b. About the Topic

Models of Action Research Processes
Mills (2000) share some kinds of processes of action research for teacher
researcher to follow, those are:
1) “spiraling “ cyclical process that include reconnaissance, planning, first
action step, monitoring, rethinking and evaluation, as illustrated in
gambar 1 (by Kurt Lewin and Stephen Kemmis),

2) Sequential model by Richard Sagor (1992), which has five steps process
(problem formulation, data collection and data analysis, reporting of
results and action planning)

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 3) Action research cycle designed by Emily Calhoun(1994), that include
selecting an area or problem of collective interest, collecting data,
organizing data, analyzing and interpreting data, and taking action. The
gambar 2 below show how the steps can be carried out.

1
Select Area

5 2
Take Action Collect Data

4
Analyze and 3
Interpret Data Organize
Data

4) Idealized model of the action research cycle introduced by Gordon Wells

(1994), that includes observing, interpreting, planning change, acting. It is
illustrated in the gambar 3.
Observe Act

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 Personal
Theory

Interpret Plan Change

5) Interacting spiral designed by Ernest Stringer (1996) that includes

looking, thinking, and acting as continually recycling set of activities.
6) Dialectic action research designed by Wolcot (1989) is a model for
research done by teachers and students which is designed to provide
teacher researchers with provocative and constructive ways of thinking
their works. The gambar 4 below show how the steps can be carried out.

Identify an area of focus

Develop an action plan Collect Data

Analyze & interpret data

Schmuck (1997) introduced two main models of action research i.e.
proactive action research and responsive action research

Proactive Action Research is meant to try a new practice. The inspiration

of the practice might arise from private reflections on the past public debriefings

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with colleagues or students, or new hopes and aspirations when reflecting on the
future. The steps of proactive action research are the following:

Steps
Try a new practice to have a different effect on
others or to bring about better outcomes.
Incorporate hopes and concerns into the new
practice
Collect data regularly to keep track of the
students’ reactions and behavioral changes.
Check what the data mean
Reflect on alternative ways behavior
Try another new practice. (The sequence has
traveled full circle back to step1. Revisions are
made in the original practices to make them
more effective)
Examples
a new way to prepare students to work in
groups.
Hopes : Students will work more diligently
together and not “hitch-hike” on the hard work
of a few peers.
Concern: Some students will require one-on-
one counseling before they are ready to work
cooperatively with their peers.
Once a week, the teacher asks students to fill
out questionnaires about their reactions to
group work. The teacher also asks a committee
of five students to observe the work groups
and give feedback to the class about what it
finds.
The teacher holds discussions once a week the
class to analyze the data on group work
How is what is happening during group
related to what is said about and done with the
group work? The teacher writes a solitary
dialogue between her caring self and
challenging (or confrontational self).
In the next group assignments, students starts
in pairs before creating larger work groups

Responsive Action Research is meant to collect diagnostic data before try

an innovative practice. Their caution might arise out of their belief that every
educational situation.

Steps Example
Collect data to diagnose the situation E.g.: A school-climate committee collects

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The school-climate committee notes a large
communication gap between the certified
faculty and the classified staff.
Distribute the data to others and announce
changes that will be tried.
Try a new practice to have a different effect on
others.
Check to see how others are reaching.
Collect data to diagnose the situation. (Again,
the sequence has circled back to step 1;
however, in this second data collection, the
general methods previously used will be
supplemented with specific questions about
the particular issues worked on.)
questionnaire data from all staff members on
their perceptions and feelings about the staff’s
social-emotional climate.
E.g.: The school-climate committee announces
its finding at a whole-staff meeting. It tells
everyone that it will be running a four-hour
workshop for the entire staff in a few weeks.
The focus of that workshop will be on
improving communication between classroom
teachers and other staff members.
E.g.: The school-climate committee designs and
orchestrates a four-hour workshop for the
entire staff. The topic of the workshop is
“getting to know our colleagues better – it
takes all of us working together to educate our
youngsters.
E.g.: The school-climate committee closely
watches to see that certified and classifies staff
become better acquainted and share
information about the school with one another.
E.g.: What happened to the communication gap
between certified and classified staff members?

Reflective practice, action research, and problem solving.

Reflective Practice can help a teacher gain competence, mastery and
understanding which serve a foundation for their professional development.
Teachers can integrate reflection with action research by using the STP paradigm
(current Situation, desired Target, using Path, Plan, procedure, Project, Proposal)
proposed by Schmuck (1994), then move to action research to gather data,

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involving students, parents, colleagues and the principals. Reflective action
research is commonly used to solve a problem. The problem is being solved as
paths are found from the current situation to a future goal. The steps of problem
solving are the following:

1. Specify the problem.

A high school English teacher think that over half of the students
do not like to write and do not write well. The target is that all students
will like to write and be able to do so reasonably well.

2. Assess the situation with the force-field analysis

Facilitating Forces Restraining Forces

Some popular students like to Many students spend a lot of time

write and can write reasonably
well.
Many parents support my objective
of improving students’ attitudes
and performance in writing.
watching TV and do not read much.
Only a few students have computers
at home.

3. Specify multiply solutions

 Assign students to write about what they watch on TV
 Encourage students to take notes on the underlying messages
on TV
 Check on whether a business organization will donate old
computers to my class
4. Plan for action
Next week: Announce to the class that I want to test a new way to
teach writing. It will involve writing about TV programs, much like
a newspaper reporter does. During class, we will discuss the TV
programs we watch and each student will choose one or two to
write about.

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 The week after: invite the principal to work on writing with my class,
talk with colleagues about collaborative writing project, and call a
few businesses about the availability of computers.

5. Anticipate obstacles
 A few good writers do not watch a lot of TV. (I might have to
include movies seen at the theater along with TV in the first
assignment)
 The students won’t know how to work as partners. (I will do
some training on giving and receiving feedback)
6. Take action
Implement the action plan.
7. Evaluate
 Collect questionnaire data from all students
 Interview four students who have had difficulty with writing
and two students who are good writers.

Activity 2.1
Think of a professional problem you face. What would you do in the following
steps:
 Specifying the problem
 Assessing the situation
 Specifying multiple solutions
 Planning for action
 Anticipating obstacles
 Taking action
 Observing
 Reflecting

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 Although the three, reflective practice, action research, and problem
solving, can be conceptually distinguished from one another, in practice, they are
interrelated and overlapping. Taken together good reflective practice and
effective action research are the main ingredients in constructive and sensitive
problem solving. Those three are synonymous with continuous improvement.
Reflective practice is simpler compared with the other model of action
researches, and sounds more beneficial for teachers professional development.
For that reason, the rest of the topics (planning an action research and preparing
the research proposal) will be based on the purpose of conducting reflective
practice.

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 Topic 3. Planning an Action Research

a. Outcomes
Your work in this topic should help you :
 Identify problems in your class
 Plan a research design
 Collect, analyze and interpret the data

b. About the Topic

1) Problem Identification
McKay(2002) noted that an important characteristic of reflective teachers
is that they do what they do. To identify your classroom problem, use the
following questions think of your reasons for making some of the choices that
you make in your everyday teaching.
Activity 3.1.
Answer the following questions about your own practices, then if you
wish, share your responses with other teachers.
1) In planning a lesson you are going to teach, how do you decide
 What to teach on a particular day?
 How to order the parts of the lesson?
 How much time to give to each part of the lesson?
 How to begin the lesson?
 How to close the lesson?
2) While you are teaching a lesson, what are some factors that lead you to
 Change the order of activities you have in lesson plan?
 Omit an activity your lesson plan?
 Give more time to an activity than you had planned to do?
 Do an activity you have in the lesson plan that you had planned to do?

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  Call on particular students in your class?
3) After you teach a lesson and reflect on the lesson, what leads you to
think that a particular activity
 Was successful?
 Was not successful?

2) Research Design
The research design shows how you make an overall plan for
collecting data in order to answer the research question. Also the specific
data analysis techniques or methods that the researcher intends to use. So
a research design should match the purpose of the research. Nunan
(1992) suggests that there are three required components to research: a
question, data, analysis and interpretation.
The first step then, is to formulate a question. First, you have to
think of an area that you are interested in. Once you have decided on an
area, you can formulate the question. The question must be worth asking
and it must be answerable. The question must also be limited in scope,
thus we need to ask a question that can be answered in the limited time or
resources that are available.
At this point it would be useful to read around the area that we are
interested in. This will help us to see what has already been done in the
area we are interested in and to add the necessary theoretical background.
While research generally hopes to add something new to the accumulated
knowledge of mankind, nothing is completely new and we must relate
what we do to what has been done in order for your research to be truly
useful. The reading will also help you more clearly define the question
you are asking.
The next would be the research process. This involve deciding
what data will be collected and how they will be analyzed. As part of

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 designing a research, it is important to “operationalize” the construct we
intend to use. A ‘construct’ is a mental model of some skill or attribute
that we are interested in. If we are interested in what makes a student
good at a foreign language, we need to define very clearly what ‘a foreign
language’ is and what is being ‘good’ at a foreign language is. Take an
example, of the case of our students English is a foreign language for
them. If they could read school English texts well but could not make
them understood in spoken English, would they be considered good at
English? How will you check how ‘good’ a student is? Will it be by test
results and if so what test? A listening test? If so can we defend that
decision? (It’s a question of validity, whether the research follows logically
or not.)

Activity 3.2.
Work with your partner to try to make your questions easy to research. Look
at the following as an example of what you might do:
Are of interest : Use of pop culture in language learning
Restatement : Does using pop culture help in the language learning
process?
Question : Will the study of American pop songs increase high shool
students’ interest in learning English as measured by attendance at class and
a self-rated questionnaire?

The action research design to some extend is influenced by the kinds of

models of the research. See each steps model as discussed in Topic 2.
However, mainly the action research design comprises a four – step process:
identify an area of focus, collect data, analyze and interpret data, and develop an
action plan.
Some references use the term pre-observing, reconnaissance, reviewing related
literature, and cycle planning. Each step deals with the activity as the following.

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  Pre-observing, clarifying idea and area of focus is shown by a statement
which links an idea to action .
 should involve teaching and learning
 something within your locus of control
 something you feel passionate about
 something you would like to change and improve
 Reconnaissance, establishing contact and gathering preliminary
information is meant to gain insight into your area of focus through:
 self-reflection (theories, values, historical contexts of your school and
schooling),
 descriptive activities (who, what, when, where),
 explanatory activities (why)
 Reviewing Related Literature, understanding the problem of the area of
focus through theories, relevant findings.
 Cycle planning: First Cycle
♣ Planning
 specify the problem
 assess the situation
 collect data to diagnose the situation
 analyze the data for themes and ideas for action
♣ Acting
♣ Observing
♣ Reflecting
 Second Cycle (similar steps)
In reflective research the stages usually cover the activities like the
following:

1) Identifying a classroom research

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 The primary purpose of teacher reflection is to solve specific
classroom problems. A teacher, for example, might notice that the same
students are always responding in class. Frequently, teachers’ beliefs and
values play a significant role in identifying a problem. For example,
teachers may believe that it is important that students use only English in
their English class. Hence, they consider the use of the mother tongue in
group work to be a problem.
There are some classroom problems that are difficult for teachers to
solve in their own. For example, teachers feel that she cannot adequately
deal with all of the required topics that the Ministry of Education included
in one academic year. One solution to this problem would be to change
the Ministry of Education curriculum. Whereas this solution is possible, it
would likely require a good deal of time and the cooperation of a variety
of individuals. Hence, a teacher might consider ways to dela with the
problem within her own classroom.

2) Hypothesizing a cause
There are various factors that could be causing the problem. For example,
the use of the mother tongue in group work could be due to several
things. Students may not have proficiency in English to complete the
requires task, or they may feel uncomfortable using English with their
friends.

3) Collecting data
The next stage in teacher reflection cycle is for teachers to collect data that
will be helpful in identifying the actual cause of the problem and thus,
solving the problem.

4) Analysing the data

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 The fourth step in the teacher reflection cycle is to analyse the data that is
collected. For example, if teachers give students a questionnaire about their
attitudes toward the use of English in class, they need to carefully analyse
students’ responses. Teachers need to consider how the findings might help
them arrive at a classroom solution to the problem arise.

3) Data Collection, Analysis, and Interpretation

There are many kinds of data that teachers can collect to help them deal
with their classroom problems. Some of the data can provide information on
what teachers and students actually do in the class. Students’ test scores and
their assignments provide this kind of information. It is called action data.
Other kinds of data provide information on what teachers and students feel
and believe. Questionnaires and students and teachers journals can provide
this kind of information. We will call this belief data.

CLASSROOM DOCUMENTS AND LESSON PLANS

Classroom documents and lesson plans provide primarily data. Classroom
documents include such items as homework assignments, exams, worksheets
and class materials and textbooks. It can be very valuable in helping teachers
address problems that involve individual students and their progress in English.
Lesson plans are a record of reflection-on-action. They describe what teachers
plan to do in a class; what they actually do, of course, could be quite different.
Lesson planning can also involve reflection-on-action after the lesson has
occurred.

A Lesson Planning Reflection Sheet

1. How did I indicate the stages of the lesson I just taught?
□ Paused

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 □ Said something to introduce the next activity
□ Checked completing of previous task
□ Gained everyone’s attention
□ Introduced new material
□ Changed position (e.g., sitting/standing)
□ Moved furniture
□ Signalled
□ Indicated time (e.g., “You’ve got 5 minutes to …”)
□ Other
2. Is there any other way I could have made the transition from one stage to
the next even smoother?
(Adapted from Pak, 1986, pp. 9-10 in McKay, 2002)

Activity 3.3
Lesson Plans and Classroom Documents
Describe a particular classroom problem you are having in which you think
class document or lesson plans would be useful data to collect.

TEACHING LOGS AND JOURNALS

Teaching logs are objective notes on teaching events. They generally
describe the goals of a classroom activity, the participants, the procedures, the
materials, and the outcomes. Teachers can use the logs to make a record of what
happened in a particular class. Logs are most useful when they are written
immediately after a class so that the teachers can recall and record as many of the
details of the class as possible. Because there are so many details that could be
recorded, it is best to focus on particular aspects of a lesson in a log.
Teaching or students’ journal are regular account of teaching or learning
experiences. They can include personal feelings, reactions, and reflections on
particular classroom experiences. Teaching and student journals provide
primarily belief data.

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 Teaching journals are a helpful way for teachers to identify and reflect on
their own personal teaching concern. Of course, it is possible to combine teaching
logs, which are objective description, and journal entries.
Teaching Log
Date Description of class activities Personal reactions to what
happened

Activity 3.4
Teaching logs and journals
For the next week keeps a notebook like the one shown above to describe
either a class you are teaching or one your are attending.

DOCUMENTED CLASSROOM OBSERVATION

Observations involve closely watching particular classroom events and
objectively recording them in some way. Teaching logs are one way of recording
classroom events but audio or video recordings can also be used. In undertaking
observations, teachers need first to decide on a focus for the observation.
Teacher, for example, could decide to focus primarily on opening or closing
procedures, on teaching aids, or on methods of handling discipline problems. In
making observations, teachers need to record the events as they happen or as
soon as possible as they can after they happened.
If the focus of the observation is on some aspects of classroom interaction,
sociograms, or maps of how students see one another, can provide teachers with
valuable information. A sociogram, for example, could be used to help a teacher
find out which students want to work together in a group. In order to do this,
teachers could complete the following procedures:
1. Explain to students why you are doing the task.
2. Hand out one index card to each student.

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3. Collect the cards and build a sociogram with the data.

Video and audio recordings of classes are extremely valuable ways to

document what has occurred in a class. Pak (1986: 2-3) suggest that teachers who
decide to audiotape their classes, use the following procedures.
Step 1: Silent Observer. Place a cassette recorder in your classroom,
preferably near the teacher’s table and record all your lessons from one to
two weeks or as long as is needed for teacher and students to become
accustomed to the recording. After ten or so lessons have been recorded,
pick out a cassette at random. This will be used as a basis for your initial
assessment.
Step 2: Decide which aspect of your teaching you want to assess.
Step 3: Listen to your taped lesson, concentrating only on the aspect you
have chosen.
Step 4: Listen to other cassettes and compare your findings.
Step 5: if you feel the aspect you have chosen is satisfactory, you might
like to look at another aspect, following the same procedure.
Step 6: Continue taping your lessons and using the follow-up listening
stage to focus on an aspect that you are not yet satisfied with or would
like to develop further. In these follow-up lessons presumably you will e
making conscious effort to “work on” that particular aspect.
Video recordings of classes provide more information than audio recordings
since they can show nonverbal behavior, visual aids, setting arrangements and so
forth. However, they can be more of a distraction in a classroom than an audio
recording and thus encourage behavior that is not typical.
One way to use audio or video recordings is to transcribe all or part of the tape.
The most efficient strategy is to transcribe only the section of the tape that is
relevant to the problem you are examining.

QUESTIONNAIRES AND INTERVIEWS

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Questionnaires are a set of written question that deal with a particular topic.
They can be open ended in which students are asked to write their responses to
particular questions. The following are examples of these different kinds of
questions.
Numerical Scale
What activities do you think are good for learning new English vocabulary?
Rate each activity using the five point scale (1 = most helpful; 5 = least
helpful).
□ using the dictionary
□ recording new words in a journal
□ memorizing vocabulary list
□ learning words parts
□ reading and guessing meaning from context

Ranking Scale
Rank the following activities from 1 to 5 according to their value in helping
you learn new English words.
□ using the dictionary
□ recording new words in a journal
□ memorizing vocabulary lists
□ learning word parts
□ reading and guessing meaning from context

Verbal Scale
Indicate if you are agree or disagree with each of the following statements
about vocabulary learning.
1. Using the dictionary is a valuable way to increase my vocabulary.
2. I can increase my vocabulary by recording new words I see in a
journal.
3. I find it useful to memorize vocabulary lists.

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 4. etc.

Yes/No Questions
Indicate which of the following vocabulary learning activities you use.
1. I regularly use the dictionary when I see a new word in something I
am reading.
2. I keep a vocabulary journal in which I record new words I see.
3. I memorize vocabulary lists to learn more English words.
4. etc.

Activity 3.4
Questionnaires
Select a teaching problem that you are having in which questionnaire data might
be helpful. It can be one that you listed in activity 3.3 or another problem. Then
write 10 questions that you might include on a questionnaire using any of the
formats listed above.

Interviews are face-to-face interactions that teachers can have with one or more
students. Like surveys they can be more or less structured. The unstructured
kind of interview is an informal conversational interview. Here teacher asks
questions that naturally arise from the conversation. Next there is interview
guide approach. With this approach, teachers have topics and issues that they
want to cover with their students but the order of the questions and how they are
worded is not determined. Another kind of interview is the standardized open-
ended interview. Here, teachers have the exact wording and sequence of the
questions that they will ask. In this case the questions and the possible responses
are fixed.
When conducting an interview, in general, it is best to avoid yes/no questions
since these kinds of questions don’t allow the students to give much information.

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Sri/ helping ideas PTK SM3T Page 26
 Topic 4. Preparing an Action Research Proposal

a. Outcomes
Your work in this topic will enable you to:
 Take considerations in preparing an action research proposal
 Make a rough draft of an action research proposal

b. About the Topic

In deciding that your topic is feasible, and also later in reporting it, two outcomes
of action and research are important to be considered. Those are related with the
following things.

Justifying the research

To offer reasons which explain why the research as worthwhile.
This is most typically because it addresses research questions which are
topical and/or have theoretical or practical importance.
Action: Is the intended change worthwhile?
Research: Will the study add to understanding of a worthwhile research
question?

Methodology

The purpose of the methodology is to allow both an assured contribution

to knowledge, and successful change. In the research you want to be able
to claim that your conclusions, and the data you base them on, have
survived your attempts to disprove them and find other alternatives. An
appropriate methodology is what enables you to make this claim.

Choosing an action research methodology requires you to offer a

justification for that choice. Action research provides the flexibility and

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 responsiveness that are needed for effective change at the same time that
it provides a check on the adequacy of data and conclusions.

Action: Will the methodology assist effective change?

Research: Are data and interpretations adequately assured by the

methodology?

Participants

People function at least as informants, directly or indirectly (for instance,

by being observed). A much more participative approach may involve
them as co-researchers. The level of participation, and the means used to
achieve it, determine the effectiveness of both the action and the research.

Action: What is done to involve those who can influence the desired
change? To what extent are all stakeholders involved, and by what
means?

Research: Are all relevant informants sampled? Are the processes which
are used suited to validating the information collected or contributed?

Literature

Accessing the literature is more difficult, in some ways, than it is for other
research.

First, there is a greater need to access the methodological literature.

Without this, it is harder to offer a sufficient justification for your choice of
paradigm and methods. To complicate matters, there are two
methodological literatures. One is directed towards bringing about
change. The other is about qualitative research, and action research in
particular.

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 Second, the content literature (the literature about your topic) may have to
be accessed twice. If you start with a research question, you will have to
identify and understand the literature most directly relevant to that
research question. When you have begun to collect and interpret the data,
you will find that more specialized literature is likely to become relevant.
You then have to identify and understand it. It allows you to refine and
further guarantee your conclusions.

(a) Methodological literature

The purpose of the methodological literature is therefore to

justify your choice of action research as the over-arching paradigm,
and your particular methods as suited to the situation.

Action: Have you taken into account the literature on bringing

about change in the situation you are researching?

Research: Have you also addressed, in your methodology, the

challenges to validity of results which the literature identifies?
Have you used processes which are consistent with the accepted
procedures of the current methodological literature?

(b) Content literature

The content literature guides you (and, probably, the participants)

in deciding which issues to address. It also provides a check on the
adequacy of your conclusions.

Action: Does the literature cover relevant aspects of the situation,

and of change in that situation?

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 Research: Is relevant theoretical and research literature on the
situation adequately covered? Are all claims tested against the
more specialised research literature?

In its pursuit of understanding and change, and its use of participation,

action research is unable to use the methods of experimental research to
develop a warrant for its assertions. It requires a different approach.

Action research achieves this in the first place by being critically reflective
within a cyclic process. In addition, at all stages, the researcher attempts
to find exceptions to the data so far collected, and to disconfirm the
emerging interpretations.

Cycles

There are many ways of describing the cycles. Kemmis and McTaggart,
for example, describe each as having four elements: plan, act, observe,
reflect. The important characteristic of each cycle is that the researcher
plans before acting, and reflects on the findings and the method after
acting. The reflection at the end of each cycle feeds into the planning for
the next cycle.

A typical cycle may look something like this:

1a. Decide which questions you wish to have answered; if this is the
first step in the process, it may be a very broad question: "How does
this method work?", perhaps.

1b. Decide who to ask, and how to ask them. ( 1a and 1b are both
"plan".)

2. Ask. (This is the "act" component.)

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 3a. Check the information you collected; devise ways of testing it in
the next cycle.

3b. Interpret the information -- what does it mean? Devise ways of

testing your interpretation in the next cycle.

3c. Check the adequacy of your choice of participants and way of

collecting information. adjust them for the next cycle if desirable.

3d. Check your data and interpretation against the relevant

literature; you may not do this for every step, but may limit it to
every few cycles. (This and 3a,3b,3c steps are part of reflection.)

and return to step 1a of the next cycle with an improved

methodology, questions, and sample of participants.

The planning and reflection, and perhaps the data collection, will
probably be carried out with the help of participants from the client
group.

In fact, there are cycles within cycles. If you are using interviews for data
collection, each interview is a cycle. The sequence of interviews forms
another cycle, as do the other forms of data-collection you use. In turn,
they are part of the still larger cycle of the overall project.

Triangulation or dialectic

You can better assure your data and interpretations if you use varied
informants, several different methods, different ways of asking the same

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question, and so on. Comparison between them provides part of the check on
their adequacy.

This is commonly called triangulation. However, the term is coming to be used

more often to mean the use of multiple methods. Therefore can be called
"dialectic". As far as possible the intention is to use multiple data sources within
each cycle. A comparison of the two or more sources of data then enables you to
focus on agreements and disagreements. Information which is unique, provided
by only one person, can then often be discarded. You need to carry forward only
your interpretations.

In comparing two or more sources of data, then, it is suggested to give your

attention to topics which are mentioned more than once. Your sources then
either agree or disagree about the topic:

If they agree, search for exceptions to this in the next cycle. You might do this,
for example, by asking questions which probe specifically for exceptions.

If they disagree, search for explanations. You might do this, for example, by
asking questions which probe specifically for explanations.

In this way, your questions and methods, and your data and interpretations,
become more focused as you proceed.

Documentation

You will also find it desirable to ensure that you document your procedures as
you go. In particular, you will want to keep a record of:

 the emerging interpretations, and any changes in these

 the changing methods, any refinements in them, and any
conclusions you can therefore draw about them

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  the literature you access, and any confirming or disconfirming
information you obtain from it
 quotes from raw information which capture well the
interpretations you are developing.

Without adequate documentation, it will be very difficult to reconstruct this

when you prepare the eventual thesis. It is much easier to keep good, if
selective, records as you proceed.

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F. Recommended Reading
Allwright, D. and Bailey, K.M. 1991. Focus on the Language Classroom: An
Introduction to Classroom Research for Language Teachers. Cambridge
University Press.

Bailey, K.M. and Nunan, D. (Eds.) 1996. Voices from the Language Classroom:
Qualitative Research in the Second Language Education. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.

Hadley, Gregory (ed.). 2003. Action Research in Action. Singapore: SEAMEO

Regional Language Centre.

McKay, Sandra Lee. 2002. The Reflective Teacher: A guide to Classroom

Research. Singapore: SEAMEO Regional Language Centre.

Mills, Geoffrey E. 2000. Action Research. A Guide for the Teacher Researcher. New
Jersey: Prentice-Hal, Inc.

Nunan, D. 1992. Research Methods in Language Learning. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.

Schmuck, Richard A. 1997. Practical Action Research for Change. Arlington

Heights, Illinois: Skylight Professional Development.

Stringer, Ernest. 1999. Action Research. Second Edition. Thousand Oaks,

California: Sage Publication.

Wallace, Michael J. 1991. Action Research for Language Teachers. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.

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