Repositioning Teacher Action Research in Science Teacher Education

Excerpt

For more than 50 years action research has been promoted as a way for teachers to engage in inquiry into their educational situations to improve their practice, their students’ learning, and to add to the knowledge base on teaching and learning (e.g., Corey 1953; Cochran-Smith and Lytle 1993; Zeichner and Noffke 2001; Altrichter et al. 2007). Teachers engage in action research as individuals or in groups, alone or in partnership with university researchers. They identify areas for improvement, if not transformation, in their practice and address them through the practices of inquiry, action, reflection, and learning shared by individuals and groups creating change for students, teachers, administrators, policy makers, and other major stakeholders in the field of education. …