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T h u r sday, 26 February 2009

WHAT IS ACTION INQUIRY AND RESEARCH?

UNDERSTANDING ACTION INQUIRY

CB130008S
 Theory
Exploring Action Inquiry and Action Research

Action inquiry and research are constitutional elements of overall reflective practice.
The idea of action research was first coined by Kurt Lewin (Right) in 1944. He later
produced a paper entitled ‘Action Research and Minority Problems’ and in this paper
he went on to describe the process of action research as:

“A comparative research on the conditions and effects of various forms of social action and
research leading to social action that uses a spiral of steps, each of which is composed of a circle
of planning, action, and fact-finding about the result of the action”

Others also provide definitions such as later research carried out by Eileen Ferrance in
2000 who described the process of action research as:

“A cycle of posing questions, gathering data, reflection, & deciding on a course of action.”

Both of these ideas focus on the same principal of the process of taking a problem and
finding a way to take it forward for improvement. Lewin approaches the idea in his
statement from the perspective of a scenario whereas Ferrance provides a more open
view.

So this is the premiss behind the preparatory steps for action inquiry, but what is the result and purpose of this? The end
result is to improve a small section or aspect of our practice, this process was again summarised by Lewin in his state-
ment of:

“Inquiry or research in the context of focused efforts to improve the quality of an organisation and its performance.”

The Process

The process as described above is cyclical as it is an element of reflective practice. The process as described by Waddell
(2007) is as follows:

Problem

Capture Design

Reflection Action

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Waddell comments that this process goes on “again and again” each time making an improvement on the previous cycle.

The Problem

To perform any kind of action research or inquiry you of course need a ‘good’ problem as Waddell describes. He goes on
to discuss that a good problem as important, complex, multi-functional, one that asks difficult questions, demands ac-
tion, resists structure and ultimately leads to surprises. He then goes on to say that is important to be able to reframe the
problem to give the perspectives of different contexts as a part of a larger system, in comparison and by applying to dif-
ferent groups of people (if applicable to the problem).

Johnson and Andrew P (2002) discuss that the initial problem must be identified after the situation is observed and rec-
ognition is made that things can be done better. They go onto say that actually defining the problem involves seeking to
understand the nature of the situation and discovering the possible cause factors. You look to see why things are as they
are.

The Solution

Johnson and Andrew P go onto give a summarised insight to how to actually find a solution to the problem and thus
conducting the action inquiry. Two methodologies that they describe are:

Creative Problem Solving

Means-End Analysis

Creative Problem Solving (CPS) is defined as the following ‘Thinking Frame’:

1. Define the problem

2. Generate as many solutions as possible
3. Choose a solution that seems best
4. Elaborate and refine
5. Implement the solution
6. Review, evaluate and refine as necessary

The thinking frame of CPS starts by defining the problem and generating ideas for solutions. A key part of this process is
generating as many ideas as you can and that no initial evaluation should be made of these ideas as this would prevent
the full range of possibilities from being explored. Often when an idea is put forward in a meeting or at a committee,
individuals will respond and say why the idea will not work. This is not conducive to good practice and only prevents
new and creative ideas from being considered. It is most effective to gather all the generated ideas, list them and then
engage in evaluative discussions to choose the one that seems to be the best. Often two or three ideas can be combined
for a solution. This would not have been possible had you not first generated a number of ideas. The last steps in this
process are to refine, implement, review and evaluate.

Means-End Analysis (MEA) also has a thinking frame associated with it:

1. Describe the desired outcome

2. Define the goals necessary to reach the end state
3. Describe the current state
4. Analyse the means necessary to get the desired outcome
5. Construct and implement the plan
6. Review, evaluate and refine the plan

This approach to action inquiry begins with a description of the desired outcome or end state. Next, it is necessary to
define the goals to bring about this end state. Goals are global objectives, traits, skill behaviours or specific conditions of
which your desired outcome is comprised. Goals are also important to the overall evaluation of your eventual solution.
Once goals have been defined, you must then describe the current situation and this is then followed by an analysis of

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the means necessary to reach your end state. Finally a plan is built to get from your current state to your end state. Just
like CPS, MEA requires solutions to be reviewed, evaluated and refined after implementation.

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 Application
Ethics

When carrying out any kind of practice especially when criticism could be involved, it is important to consider how
moral principals (ethics) apply. Looking forward now to how action inquiry will apply to the role of a teacher, some ethi-
cal considerations that could apply to the role:

Will a teacher take kindly to reflections made on their practice?

Will students be willing to make alterations to their learning?

Do the suggested improvements have a place within education, are they too ambitious?
What qualifies the action researcher to make inquiries on the education cycle?

There are many more considerations that could be raised, but these are general enough to apply to most action inquiries.

Possible avenues of research

Within the process of teaching there are a number of avenues to action inquiry. I will focus on one such question now,
and that is:

“How can I drive a sense of urgency and engagement in my students at both KS4 and 5?”

This question is very broad with a number of possible paths to the objective and many things that the objective could
actually be.

In later assignments I will take the theory to a further application level and use techniques of action inquiry (possibly
CPS or MEA) and apply to a scenario and hopefully determine a result.

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