Action Planning In Improving
Practice And Generating Educational Knowledge In Creating Your Living
Educational Theory
The update of the 10th October 2011 includes the above introductory video (click on the image)
I am making at least
three assumptions in the following text:
The first is that you
are asking a question of the kind, 'How do I improve what I am doing?' in
your professional practice.
The second is that you
already embody educational knowledge in what you are doing that is worth making
public as a contribution to knowledge through research into your question.
The third is that your
educational knowledge will deepen, extend and transform as you research your
practice and generate your living educational theory.
Your living
educational theory is your explanation for your educational influences in your
own learning, in the learning of others and in the learning of the social
formations in which you are living and working.
Whilst I would not
advise you to look at the following two papers immediately you can, when you
wish, see a more detailed description of living educational theories in the paper on Creating a living educational theory from
questions of the kind, 'How do I improve my practice?' in
the1989 in the Cambridge Journal of Education at http://www.actionresearch. net/writings/livtheory.html
and in a paper on 'Using a living theory methodology in
improving practice and generating educational knowledge in living theories'
in the first issue of the Educational Journal of Living Theories at http://ejolts.net/node/80
Clarifying and sharing your values
In working to improve
what you are doing I think you will find it helpful to talk with another person
(a response partner) about the local context you are working in and the values
you both use to give meaning and purpose to your productive lives. A conversation in which another person
pays close attention to the values that motivate you, helps to make public the
values you use to both evaluate your educational influence and to explain this
influence. You should take some
care to ensure that you both receive the recognition that attentive listening
can bring in giving each other a similar amount of time for each other's
attention. Whilst there may be an
initial embarrassment about talking about the values you use to give meaning
and purpose to your life, an understanding, expression and communication of
these values is essential in any valid explanation of your educational
influence in your own learning and in the learning of others. I am thinking here of values such as
freedom, justice, care, love, compassion, respect and knowledge-creation. When I use the word values I am
including the experience and expression of flows of life-circulating and
life-affirming energy that are necessary in distinguishing practices as
educational. I imagine that you are like me in distinguishing something as
educational because it involves learning something that I value as
life-affirming.
Developing some
understanding of the expression of such values in local contexts is important
because each context is constituted by unique individuals and their
relationships and by the history of the context and sociocultural
influences. Contexts offer
unique constraints and opportunities and it is wise to take these into account
when working on the action plan below.
In my own action
research workshops I usually begin with conversations between pairs of practitioner-researchers
in which we take some 4 minutes each to outline our contexts, what really
matters to us, and what we would like to improve. I encourage individuals to hold
ourselves to account with a responsibility towards each other for sustaining an
enquiry into living our values and developing our understandings as fully as we
can in improving our practice.
As well as talking
about the local context and the values that are motivating you to improve your
practice it often helps in the development of realistic action plans to share
an understanding of the national or global contexts that influence what you can
do.
Being clear about and understanding the constraints on your actions
In the UK, for
example, teachers have been subjected to oppressive statutory regulations that
have not served well the expression of teachers' creativity in improving
practice.
This problem was
recognised in March 2009 by the House of Lords Committee on the 'Merits of
Statutory Instruments Committee' in the UK, in a report on 'The cumulative impact of statutory
instruments on schools' :
"Able, brilliant and skilled professionals do
not thrive in an environment where much of their energies are absorbed by the
need to comply with a raft of detailed requirements... the evidence that we have seen during
this inquiry has highlighted the problems that are caused to schools when too
little thought is given to the systematic need to rely so heavily on
regulation, and too little effort is put into managing the overall impact of
statutory instruments issued, and monitoring whether the myriad requirements
being imposed on schools are being taken seriously and implemented on the
ground... We recommend that DCSF should now look to shift its primary focus
away from the regulation of processes through statutory instruments, towards
establishing accountability for the delivery of key outcomes." (House of Lords, 2009, p.15)
This kind of
understanding offers some hope that a most oppressive context of statutory
regulation that influences the expression of teachers' and pupils' creativity
may be giving way to a more supportive environment for the expression of
creativity and educational learning. Such changes may not occur quickly and it
is wise to recognise the limitations on action that can be experienced when
working under statutory regulation.
After the initial
conversation on values and context in relation to your desire to improve
practices that relate to helping students, yourself and/or colleagues to
improve their learning, I believe that you may find the following action
planning process most useful.
The questions can be
answered individually or in a conversation with others. Following such a
conversation it is important to write down answers to your questions as part of
the exploration of the implications of asking, researching and answering your
question 'How do I improve what I
am doing?'
Action Reflection Cycles
Here are questions,
ideas and actions that can distinguish an action reflection cycle:
1) What do I want to
improve? What is my concern? Why am I concerned?
2) Imagining
possibilities and choosing one of them to act on in an action plan
3) As I am acting what
data will I collect to enable me to judge my educational influence in my
professional context as I answer my question?
4) Evaluating the
influence of the actions in terms of values and understandings.
5) Modifying concerns,
ideas and actions in the light of evaluations.
6) Making public a
validated explanation of educational influences. 
I like the way Barry
Hymer writes about data in his recognition of the significance of data that he
had collected over years but remained almost unnoticed:
This email dates the moment I resolved finally to
abandon the experimental method, and to use instead the data which had arrived
almost unnoticed over many years, and which lay untidily all around me. These
data were neither obviously connected to each other nor did they conform easily
to the types of scale (Stevens, 1968) that my background training had taught me
to collect and work on. They weren't neutral, and they certainly did "bring me"
into the study. They held, I now realized, a potentially rich and fruitful
source of evidence. They also revealed gaps in my self-knowledge, which
suggested that I needed to collect further data, much more systematically and
self-consciously than hitherto. (Hymer, 2007, p.
26)
7) As I evaluate the
educational influences of my actions in my own learning and the learning of
other, who might be willing to help me to strengthen the validity of my
explanation of my learning about my influence with responses to questions such
as:
i)
Is my explanation as comprehensible as it could be?
ii)
Could I improve the evidential basis of my claims to know what I am
doing?
iii)
Does my explanation include an awareness of historical and cultural
influences in what I am doing and draw on the most advanced social theories of
the day?
iv)
Am I showing that I am committed to the values that I claim to be living
by?
In the light of the
evaluation the concerns, action plans and actions are modified and the process
of improvement and educational knowledge-creation continues. I have included an
action planning page with these questions as an appendix for you to print and
use if you wish. Joan Walton, the Director of the Centre for the Child and Family at Liverpool Hope University, has an excellent illustration of her use of such an action planning process in a collaborative enquiry 'Aiming High for Disabled Children' (AHDC) of September 2010.
If you would like a
more detailed introduction to action research for professional development I
recommend Jean McNiff's approach of September 2008 to Planning, Designing and
Doing Action Research at http://www.actionresearch.net/writings/jack/jmplanar.pdf
.
You might also enjoy
and find useful the McNiff and Whitehead book on 'Doing and Writing Action
Research' (Sage, 2009).
Much of my
professional life has been focused on enhancing professionalism in education
through the generation and communication of living educational theories that
can explain educational influences in learning. In producing a valid explanation for our educational
influences in the learning of others I believe it to be necessary for the
other's explanation of their own learning to be included in our
explanation.
In developing an
action research approach to improving practice and generating knowledge with
all the pupils in a class I have found most useful the TASC wheel (Thinking
Actively in a Social Context) developed by Belle Wallace (2001).
If you would like to
see the explanations of educational influence in their own learning and in the
learning of their pupils and students in both primary and secondary schools I
recommend the writings of Sally Cartwright and Joy Mounter. They have used both
the action research planner in their continuing professional development on
their masters degree programme and the TASC wheel in supporting their pupils
and students to improve their learning.
Both approaches have
been used by Sally Cartwright in
her continuing professional development on a masters programme and in her
research with her 17 year old students in their extended projects for an AS
examination and preparation for University entrance. You can access some of Sally's writings on How can I enable the gifts and talents
of my students to be in the driving seat of their
learning? at http://www.actionresearch.net/writings/tuesdayma/scgandtnov08.htm
In evaluating my own
educational influence in the learning of others I need to see this influence in
the living theory of the other in a way that recognises the creativity of the
other in engaging with ideas I have helped to generate and communicate. I think
you may need to do the same in the creation of your own living educational
theories. I believe that Sally's writings make an original contribution to
educational knowledge whilst showing that she has found useful some of my own
ideas in making this contribution.
Both approaches have
also been used by Joy Mounter in her continuing professional development on a masters programme
and in her research with her 6 year old pupils in exploring the question Can children carry out action research about
learning, creating their own learning theory? You can access this account
at http://www.actionresearch.net/writings/tuesdayma/joymounterull.htm
.
I think that you will
be particularly inspired by the three video-clips in Appendix 2 that show three
pupils explaining to Joy how they think the TASC wheel should be modified to
give a more appropriate representation of their learning.
Teachers accounts from a masters curriculum with assessments.
If you want to see how
teachers working on the masters of education programme in the Department of
Education of the University of Bath for registrations up to the 1st August 2008, have responded to questions of the kind, 'How do I improve what I
am doing?' for their masters units on Educational Enquiry (EE), Research
Methods in Education (RME), Understanding Learners and Learning (ULL) and Gifts
and Talents in Education (G & T) you can access these at: http://www.actionresearch.net/writings/mastermod.shtml . To see the 'given curriculum' for these units up to August 2008 click on the
links for EE, RME, ULL, G&TinEd,
here. To see the criteria used in assessing these units click on this link for
the MACriteria.
In 2003/4 I
contributed to a Senate Working Party on the regulations governing the
submission of research degrees at the University of Bath. Following a
recommendation to Senate from this Working Party the regulations were changed
to allow the submission of e-media. This has enabled the submission of visual
and multi-media narratives to communicate the meanings of the expression of
energy and values in living educational theories.
To access details of the 2011 - ongoing - international continuing professional development project go to http://www.actionresearch.net/writings/huxtable/LLCCPD/Home.html and if you would like to participate in the virtual learning space for this CPD project go to http://www.spanglefish.com/livingvaluesimprovingpracticecooperatively/ . You can also read Walton's (2011 a&b) ideas on developing a collaborative inquiry.
The use of video in recognising the expression
of life-affirming energy with values as practical explanatory principles in the creation of a visual narrative
and living educational theory.
The widespread use of
streaming servers such as YouTube has enabled the integration of visual data
into explanations of educational influence and the communication of meanings of
energy flowing values as these are expressed in practice. These forms of representation, with an
illustration below with Moira Laidlaw, are opening up possibilities for the
generation of new understandings of the values-laden explanatory principles
used by educators and other professional practitioners to explain their
educational influences. Alan
Rayner (2004) is at the forefront
of these new understandings with his idea of inclusionality. Without going into too much detail
here, inclusionality involves a relationally dynamic awareness of space and
boundaries that are connective, reflexive and co-creative. It involves a way of knowing that is
different from the two ways of knowing, propositional and dialectical, that
have dominated much thinking and argument about the nature of knowledge over
the past 2,500 years from the work of Plato and Aristotle. The problem of contradiction has been
at the heart of a disagreement between proponents of propositional or
dialectical thinking. Propositional thinkers eliminate contradiction from
correct thought on the grounds that contradictions between mutually exclusive
opposite statements such as 'I am free'/'I am not free' cannot both be true simultaneously.
Dialectical thinkers hold that contradictions are the nucleus of
dialectics. When reality is
communicated in purely propositional relationships that eliminate
contradictions, dialecticians believe that this form of representation is
masking the dialectical nature of reality. The problem for dialecticians is
that whenever they try to communicate their understandings through statements,
they are faced with the problem of contradiction. The dialectician Ilyenkov
(1977) put the problem well when he asked, 'If an object exists as a living
contradiction what must the thought be (statement about the object) that
expresses it?' The problem of recognising the rationality of the other between
dialectical and propositional thinkers is transcended in inclusionality.
In an inclusional way
of being and knowing an individual recognises that they exist in a relational
dynamic of space and boundaries. Hence one of the tasks of the
practitioner-researcher is to express and communicate this relational dynamic
in explanations of educational influence. Explanations from a perspective of
inclusionality can include insights from both propositional and dialectical
thinkers without denying the rationality of either viewpoint. For example, in the question 'How do I
improve what I am doing?', I exist as a living contradiction in the sense that
I hold together the experience of values together with their negation –
this living contradiction stimulates my imagination to create possibilities for
improving my practice in the sense of enhancing the expression of my values
more fully in my practice. As I evaluate the effectiveness of my actions and
seek ways to improve my practice I include insights from propositional theories
to help me to do this. An example
here would be the use of Foucault's (1977) ideas on Power/Knowledge to
understand the relationships between the Truth of Power and the Power of Truth
in the workplace when seeking academic legitimation for new living standards of
judgment.
To communicate my
meanings of a relational dynamic awareness of space and boundaries using video
I would like you to access the clip of Moira Laidlaw at the end of a lesson
with some 80 students at Guyuan Teacher's College (now Ningxia Teachers
University) in China.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1jEOhxDGno
Thinking that the
lesson had finished I turned the camera off. I saw Moira move to the door and I
turned the camera back on. I am so pleased that I did this because I have used
the clip many times to communicate meanings of the expression of a loving
dynamic energy in a relationally dynamic of space and boundaries.
The clip is 1.04 minutes long and YouTube now permits the cursor to be moved at any speed along the clip once it is loaded. By moving the cursor along at around 7 times the normal speed – take about 8 seconds, I think you will appreciate what I am meaning by a relational dynamic of space and boundaries. The students are flowing past Moira and Moira is responding receptively as they flow past her. At 25 seconds she gestures to a student to join her. This is a student who has questioned something that Moira wanted her to do in the lesson. This is unusual in a Chinese classroom that is usually compliant to what the teacher wants. Moira congratulates the student on showing the courage to speak. When I showed the clip to Moira she wondered what I was seeing that I found significant. I explained that it was her receptive responsiveness to her students and the relational dynamic awareness of space and boundaries within which I experienced Moira expressing a loving dynamic energy. Because this is Moira's 'natural' way of being in the classroom, it took several showings of the video-clip for her to recognise and acknowledge the flow of her dynamic loving energy in her educational relationships with her students. Because of such advances in digital technology we can now integrate this visual data as evidence in our narratives of our educational influences in learning.
I've been working on a process of clarifying and communicate the meanings of such embodied expressions of energy with values in visual narratives that include the empathetic resonance of the viewer.
Acknowledgements of
the importance of including expressions of life-circulating and life-affirming
energy with values as explanatory principles of educational influence are still
rare in academic texts about education.
An exception to this is Claire Formby's (2007) second Educational
Enquiry, How do I sustain a loving,
receptively responsive educational relationship with my pupils which will
motivate them in their learning and encourage me in my teaching?
You can access Claire's
writings at:
http://www.actionresearch.net/writings/tuesdayma/formbyEE300907.htm
When I asked Claire
about her courage in putting a loving relationship into her title she explained
that she had found her headteacher's way of being most supportive as he used a
language of love in relation to both staff and students in the school.
I hope that you have
found useful this introduction to action planning in improving practice and
generating educational knowledge in creating your living educational theory. If you would like to join a
practitioner-researcher e-seminar I convene for the purpose of sharing ideas
and helping each other with our enquiries do join at:
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=practitioner-researcher&A=1
I look forward to
hearing how you are getting on with your enquiries and with the generation and
communication of your own living educational theory.
Love Jack.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
When Martin Dobson, a colleague, died in 2002
the last thing he said to me
was 'Give my Love to the Department'. In the 20
years I'd worked with
Martin it was his loving warmth of humanity
that I recall with great life
affirming pleasure and I'm hoping that in Love
Jack we can share this
value
of common humanity.
Appendix 1
Action Planner
1) What do I want to improve?
2) Why do I feel that something could be improved in
what I am doing? (This is concerned with what really matters to me in terms of
the values that give meaning and purpose in my life. These are the explanatory
principles that explain why I do what I do.)
3) What could I do that might improve what I am doing?
(Imagining possibilities and choosing one of them to act on in an action plan)
4) As I am acting what data will I collect to enable
me to judge my educational influence in my professional context as I answer my
question?
5) As I evaluate the educational influences of my
actions in my own learning and the learning of other, who might be willing to
help me to strengthen the validity of my explanation of my learning about my
influence with responses to questions such as:
i)
Is my explanation as comprehensible as it could be?
ii)
Could I improve the evidential basis of my claims to know what I am
doing?
iii)
Does my explanation include an awareness of historical and cultural
influences in what I am doing and draw on the most advanced social theories of
the day?
iv)
Am I showing that I am committed to the values that I claim to be living
by?
Appendix 2
In July 1999 I taught a masters unit at Bishops University in Quebec. It was organised by the late Fran Halliday, a great champion of teacher research. The curriculum unit I designed with the participants fulfilled my educational values in being responsive to the questions being asked and researched by the participants. You can access this curriculum at http://www.actionresearch.net/writings/bishops/bish99.pdf
One of the most impressive educational journeys on the two week programme was undertaken by Tina Jacklin, a new teacher. Over the two weeks Tina produced 5 drafts and her final submission, with the help of other participants. You can access the final submission and the 5 drafts at http://www.actionresearch.net/writings/bishops/tjpaperall.pdf
References
Foucault,
M. (1977) Intellectuals and Power: A Conversation Between Michel Foucault and
Gilles Deleuze, in D. Bouchard (ed.) (1977) Language, Counter-Memory, Practice: Selected Essays and
Interviews by Michel Foucault.
Ithaca, New York: Cornell University
Press.
House of Lords (2009) The cumulative
impact of statutory instruments on schools: Report with evidence. The
Stationery Office Limited: London.
Huxtable, M. (2009) How do we contribute to an educational knowledge base? A response to Whitehead and a challenge to BERJ. Research Intelligence, 107, 25-26. Retrieved 10 October 2011 from http://www.actionresearch.net/writings/huxtable/mh2009beraRI107.pdf
Hymer, B. (2007) How do I understand and
communicate my values and beliefs in my work as an educator in the field of
giftedness? D. Ed. Psy. Thesis, University of Newcastle. Retrieved 3 May 2009 from http://www.actionresearch.net/writings/hymer.shtml
Ilyenkov, E. (1977)
Dialectical Logic. Moscow; Progress Publishers.
McNiff, J. &
Whitehead, J. (2009) Doing and Writing Action Research. London; Sage.
Rayner, A. Inclusionality and the Role of
Place, Space and Dynamic Boundaries in
Philosophica 73 (2004) pp. 51-70. Retrieved 2
May 2009 from http://www.actionresearch.net/writings/rayner/arphilosophica.htm
Wallace, G. (Ed.)
(2001) Teaching Thinking Skills Across the Primary Curriculum, p. 22. London;
David Fulton.
Walton, J. (2011a) A collaborative inquiry: How do we improve our practice with children? Educational Action Research, 19:3, 297-311
Walton, J. (2011b) A Collaborative Inquiry: How do we, individually and collectively, integrate research and practice to improve the wellbeing of children?