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An action research approach to curriculum development

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Information Research, Vol. 1 No. 1, April 1995

An action research approach to curriculum

development
Phil Riding, Sue Fowell and Phil Levy
Department of Information Studies
University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

Computer-supported collaborative work and learning

A new research group has recently been established in the Department,

focusing upon electronic support for collaborative learning and work. In the
area of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL), we are exploring
and developing new pedagogic models for learning, using electronic support
and learner-centred approaches. For example, our current activities involve
the exploitation of appropriate technology to support open and distance
learning, and the design of curricula based upon constructivist and
experiential learning principles (Duffy & Jonassen, 1992; Kolb, 1984). The
research group supports departmental teaching and learning innovations as
well as pursuing its wider research agenda. In the area of computer-supported
collaborative work (CSCW), we are interested in the changing contexts for
collaborative work offered by new technologies, from both managerial and
social-psychological perspectives. The British Library has recently awarded
the group a grant to undertake a sixteen-month project entitled
Communicating Effectively in the Networked Library.

Action research

Action research into our own teaching practice is an important source of

learning for the group. Here, we describe the nature of action research, and
describe its use in the on-going development and evaluation of a new
undergraduate module. We hope to show that an action research approach to
teaching can be used to improve teaching and learning practice.

Action research has been used in many areas where an understanding of

complex social situations has been sought in order to improve the quality of
life. Among these are industrial, health and community work settings. Kurt
Lewin, often cited as the originator of action research (McKernan, 1991), used

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the methodology in his work with people affected by post-war social

problems. Action research approaches to educational research were adopted in
the late 60s and early 70s by the ‘teacher- researcher’ movement in the
secondary education sector. This sought to bring the practising classroom
teacher into the research process as the most effective person to identify
problems and to find solutions.

We believe that an action research approach can contribute very positively to

activity within the tertiary sector concerned with teaching quality issues, and
with national Teaching Quality Assessment initiatives. As "reflective
practitioners" (Schon,1983), we can achieve greater ownership of the
evaluative process by becoming systematically self-assessing, alongside, and
feeding into, external assessment processes:

"Through systematic, controlled action research, higher education

teachers can become more professional, more interested in pedagogical
aspects of higher education and more motivated to integrate their
research and teaching interests in a holistic way. This, in turn, can lead
to greater job satisfaction, better academic programmes, improvement
of student learning and practitioner’s insights and contributions to the
advancement of knowledge in higher education."
(Zuber-Skerritt, 1982: 15)

Despite progress in understanding of the way in which people learn and the
design of learning environments, teaching practice in higher education often
remains unaffected. Traditionally, lecturers have not been encouraged to draw
upon theoretical developments as a means of improving curriculum design
and delivery. However, more recently, a number of initiatives at national and
local levels have been established to create the conditions for innovation in
these activities, and teaching/learning is becoming recognised as a more valid
area of enquiry for academics across all disciplines, rather than as the unique
preserve of specialists.

Action research methodology offers a systematic approach to introducing

innovations in teaching and learning. It seeks to do this by putting the teacher
in the dual role of producer of educational theory, and user of that theory. This
is both a way of producing knowledge about higher education learning and
teaching, and a powerful way of improving learning and teaching practice. No
separation need be made between the design and delivery of teaching, and the
process of researching these activities, thereby bringing theory and practice
closer together.

A variety of forms of action research have evolved (Carr & Kemmis, 1986) .
All adopt a methodical, iterative approach embracing problem identification,
action planning, implementation, evaluation, and reflection. The insights
gained from the initial cycle feed into planning of the second cycle, for which
the action plan is modified and the research process repeated (Figure 1).

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Kolb (1984) extended this model to offer a conception of the action research
cycle as a learning process, whereby people learn and create knowledge by
critically reflecting upon their own actions and experiences, forming abstract
concepts, and testing the implications of these concepts in new situations.
Practitioners can create their own knowledge and understanding of a situation
and act upon it, thereby improving practice and advancing knowledge in the
field.

Action research has a number of further distinctive features, as described by

Zuber-Skerritt, (1982). For her, action research is:

Critical collaborative enquiry by

Reflective practitioners who are
Accountable in making the results of their enquiry public,
Self-evaluative in their practice, and engaged in
Participative problem-solving and continuing professional development.

According to this view, action research is critical in the sense that practitioners
not only look for ways to improve their practice within the various constraints
of the situation in which they are working, but are also critical change agents
of those constraints, and of themselves. It is reflective in that participants
analyse and develop concepts and theories about their experiences. Action
researchers are accountable in that they aim to make their learning process
and its results public, both to each other and to other interested practitioners,
using accessible terminology. Their practice is self-evaluated in that the
reflective and analytical insights of the researcher- practitioners themselves
form the basis of the developmental process. Action research is participative
in that those involved contribute equally to the inquiry, and collaborative in
that the researcher is not an expert doing research from an external
perspective, but a partner working with and for those affected by the problem
and the way in which it is tackled.

Curriculum Development

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We have decided to take a group-based action research approach to the

development of an introductory undergraduate module on the use of
computer-mediated communications, entitled Elements of Information
Management: communicating effectively in the networked organisation. This
activity has been supported by funding from Sheffield University Curriculum
Development Fund, enabling one of us to devote time to formalising a
suitable action research approach. We hope to develop a model based upon
our experience which will be transferable to other curriculum development
initiatives.

Our curriculum design seeks to address two major objectives in undergraduate

education: firstly, to enable students to experience "deep" learning; and
secondly, to facilitate the development of transferable skills. It has long been
recognised that traditional teaching techniques often fail to encourage "deep"
learning of subject content, which goes beyond short-term rote memorisation
to enable the assimilation of new knowledge in a way which allows re-
application to novel situations (Entwhistle, 1988). Strategies to develop
transferable skills in areas such as thinking and learning, self-management,
communication, group work and information management, are intended to
prepare students for work outside of the academic contexts in which they are
learned initially.

The teaching strategy we have decided upon uses experiential and

constructivist learning principles (Duffy & Jonassen, 1992; Kolb,1984; Boud,
et al., 1985). For much of the module, students are engaged in a group-based
collaborative project supported by the use of computer-mediated
communication technologies such as electronic mail, asynchronous
conferencing and synchronous chat. This is complemented by a range of
individually-based learning activities. Students are provided with a range of
on-line information resources, and have access to tutor support via electronic
mail and face-to-face meetings as necessary. A major issue for us as action
researchers is to come to an understanding of the nature and level of support
required by students to gain the most from their learning activities. A key
question associated with this is: what is the necessary balance between
externally-imposed structure and control and the students freedom to be self-
directed?

A number of features of the way we have decided to work on this module

mark the approach as being one of action research:

We aim to apply the model offered by the action research cycle.

Although not yet complete, the development of the module is following the
action research cycle illustrated earlier. By completion of the first cycle, we
will have:

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identified a number of objectives and formed initial working hypotheses about

meeting them. For instance, a key objective is to provide an appropriate
framework for deep learning, for which we believe it will be necessary to
encourage maximum student ownership of the learning process;
planned a curriculum model and devised materials and processes to support it.
For instance, a key feature of our curriculum model is students' engagement in
collaborative group project work. Materials and processes to support this include
process workbooks and learning diaries for individual work, process workshops
to support positive group functioning, and on-line tutor support.
put these into practice by running the module. The module is based upon one
hour of theory workshop and two hours of project work per week, over one
semester. The main form of assessment is by coursework (the group project),
supplemented by individually-produced learning diaries.
made observations on our practice and evaluated its effects. Evaluation and self-
assessment strategies include a range of on-going student feedback mechanisms
and tutor debriefings.
reflected upon the results of the evaluation, in preparation for modifying our
practice for the second implementation of the module. For instance, at present the
choice of focus for student project work is relatively limited. Given that students
participating in the module come from a very wide diversity of academic
disciplines, which are likely to hold distinctive perspectives on computer-
mediated communication, we would like to open this up to greater student choice
in future if appropriate.

We intend that the inquiry is critical in spirit and purpose.

We believe that it is useful for our own development to perceive ourselves as

a "critical community" of practitioners who not only want to improve the
quality of teaching and learning in higher education within the constraints and
practical considerations imposed upon us, but who also seek to be change
agents of those constraints. For instance, assessment by examination is
traditionally imposed at University level for this type of module; we anticipate
and hope that its outcomes will justify the future elimination of this form of
assessment in future implementation.

We aim to be reflective and self-evaluating.

Insights gained from reflection and analysis of our practice will be fed back
into practice. There will be continuous re-assessment of the module and its
structure. Built into the module are mechanisms which remind and encourage
us to reflect systematically on our activities. For instance, as tutors we keep a
collaborative on-line ‘tutor diary’ in which we share our reflections on
teaching performance, content, course structure, student response, etc.,
relating them to prior experience and to teaching/learning theory. Individual
experience is thus made available between colleagues for comment and
analysis, and we attempt to challenge as well as support each other. This semi-
public sharing of experience creates a collegial, collaborative approach to our
personal professional development.

We are accountable.

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We intend to make public the results of our evaluation, and the process by
which it was achieved, both locally and more widely.

We are engaged in participative problem-solving.

Those doing the research and those doing the teaching are one and the same.
We have not employed external evaluators to assess the module; rather, we
work together to gather data during its development and implementation
which will then be analysed collectively, taking account of the point of view
of each of us. We believe that reporting of the project should similarly
embrace all points of view, and reports will be jointly written.

Conclusion

We do not expect to achieve a cut-and-dried solution to the objectives we have

identified, and we are not concerned with producing a strictly generalisable
model of learning or teaching. However, we do hope that fellow practitioners
will find our experiences useful, both as an example of action research and as
a curriculum model. We would welcome communication with others working
in similar ways on curriculum development within the field of information
studies.

References

Boud, D. et al. (1985) Reflection: Turning Experience into Learning. London:

Kogan Page.Return to text

Carr, W. and Kemmis, S. (1986) Becoming Critical: Education, Knowledge

and Action Research. Basingstoke: Falmer Press. Return to text

Duffy, T.M. & Jonassen, D.J., eds. (1992) Constructivism and the Technology
of Instruction: a Conversation. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Return to text

Entwhistle, N.J. (1988) Styles of Learning and Teaching: An Integrated

Outline of Educational Psychology. David Fulton: London. Return to text

Kolb, D. (1984) Experiential Learning. Experience as the Source of Learning

and Development. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. Return to
text (a) Return to text (b) Return to text (c)

McKernan, J. (1991) Curriculum Action Research. London: Kogan

Page.Return to text

Schon, D. (1983) The Reflective Practitioner: how Professionals Think in

Action. New York: Basic Books. Return to text

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An action research approach to curriculum development 17/09/15 12:54

Zuber-Skerritt, O. (1982) Action Research in Higher Education. London:

Kogan.Return to text

How to cite this paper:

Riding, Phil, Fowell, Sue and Levy, Phil (1995) "An action research
approach to curriculum development". Information Research, 1(1) Available
at: http://InformationR.net/ir/1-1/paper2.html

© the authors, 1995.

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