Contemporary teachers' action research: Basis for the development of reflective practice in education
- 1 January 2020
- journal article
- Published by Centre for Evaluation in Education and Science (CEON/CEES) in Research in Pedagogy
- Vol. 10 (2), 354-366
- https://doi.org/10.5937/istrped2002354o
Abstract
A reflective practitioner is an active individual who explores the possibilities of solving problems in practice and who is characterised by being reflectively open to reexamining their own opinion. The authors of this paper start from the premise that the process of education, however consistent and well-founded it may be, is exposed to constant inspection and improvement. The aim of this research is to identify the teachers' skills needed for conducting action researches. This goal is accomplished by examining the possibility of connecting action researches with teachers' reflective practice. The methods used are the descriptive method, scaling technique and the Likert-type scale (AIRP). This scale examines the teachers' skills for conducting action researches and is based on five factors extracted by the factor analysis: diagnostic skills, attitudes towards action researches, data collecting skills, practical skills and skills needed for conducting action researches. This study involved 305 respondents from the territory of the Republic of Serbia. The obtained results show statistically significant differences between the teachers with long teaching experience and those with a few years of teaching experience, p<0.05. This research represents an attempt to change the current practice at the micro level with the purpose of initiating qualitative changes and improving teaching practice by means of action researches. Therefore, it will be possible to induce changes at the meso and macro level of the system of education.Keywords
This publication has 18 references indexed in Scilit:
- Reflexivity in practice: Tools and conditions for developing organizational authorshipHuman Relations, 2015
- Relationally Reflexive PracticeOrganizational Research Methods, 2014
- The Failure of Inquiry: Preparing Science Teachers with an Authentic InvestigationJournal of Science Teacher Education, 2009
- The role of theory in the professional development of an educational theoristPedagogy, Culture & Society, 2005
- The rocky road of teachers becoming action researchersTeaching and Teacher Education, 2002
- Defining Reflection: Another Look at John Dewey and Reflective ThinkingTeachers College Record: the Voice of Scholarship in Education, 2002
- Capturing complexity: a typology of reflective practice for teacher educationTeaching and Teacher Education, 2002
- Developments in the Philosophy/Sociology of Science and Action ResearchEducational Action Research, 1993
- A Conceptual Framework to Guide the Development of Teacher Reflection and Decision MakingJournal of Teacher Education, 1993
- Creating a Living Educational Theory from Questions of the Kind, ‘How do I Improve my Practice?’Cambridge Journal of Education, 1989