CLASSROOM ACTION RESEARCH

"Action research is the process through which teachers collaborate in evaluating their practice jointly; raise awareness of their personal theory; articulate a shared conception of values; try out new strategies to render the values expressed in their practice more consistent with the educational values they espouse; record their work in a form which is readily available to and understandable by other teachers; and thus develop a shared theory of teaching by researching practice." - John Elliott

http://oldweb.madison.k12.wi.us/sod/car/carhomepage.html

DO REMEMBER

"Whatever happen, God is there to keep us safe within His care. And although each day brings challenges and things that are unknown, you don't have to face them by yourself or deal with them alone. For others care about you and will keep you close in prayer. And above all, God will guide us and for His truly always there. In whatever you do today, remember God is beside you. And no matter what comes your way, remember His hand will guide you"

FOOD FOR THOUGHTS

SIMPLE THOUGHTS FOR YOU AND ME

INTRODUCTION : Action Research Versus Clinical Supervision - Which is your choice?

Goodman (1998.p.50) claims that 'during the last two decades, the field of educational field and social research has undergone a great deal of intellectual and methodological turmoil. Many educational theories have been proposed and introduced. School administrators and teachers are encouraged to try to practice these theories. In order to adopt any of these theories into a normal practice in education, school administrators and teachers have to engage themselves in "change" and subsequently they need to transform the role as "teachers" to "learners" or playing the two roles simultaneously.

CHANGE is obliquitous and there is always something fresh to discover about change. School administrators and teachers need to be aware that "CHANGE IS A JOURNEY, NOT A BLUEPRINT" (Fullan 1994, p.24) and they have to marry theories with practice so as to put them into praxis. This inevitably becomes precarious and threatening to those who are newly exposed to action research. Even though David Boud and David Walker (1991. p.37) claims that learners are actively pursuing knowledge and will find opportunities for learning in a variety of situation, but the questions remain : How many school administrators and teachers are active learners? How many of them are ready or willing to be active learners?
Reference : Teh Oh Kian, Principal SMKJ Tinggi Cina Melaka

ACTION RESEARCH - The Rationale For Specific Change

Education need "change" to enlighten it and to move it away from the old deep-rooted and long-engrained misconception that teaching is a "lonely profession". Most of our teachers do not anticipate that "effective collaborations operate in the world of ideas, examining existing practices critically, seeking better alternatives and working hard together at bringing about improvements and assessing their worth" (Fullan & Hargreaves, 1991, p.55). The call for collaborative enquiry and enquiry by educators rarely surface (McTaggart, 1991, p.2) as the didactic approach and "chalk and talk" method of teaching have held back most of the teachers from the changing trend.

They may find it difficult to 'unlearn' (to forget the traditional teaching method they were told to adopt), to 'learn' (to gain some new knowledge or methodologies in teaching) and 'relearn' (obtain correct information and old things that may have been told in wrong ways). We regard this dilemma as being akin to that of an identity crisis amongst Malaysian teachers.

BEING A WOMAN

TITLES OF MY ACTION RESEARCH

Photo taken during "Seminar Selari Kajian Tindakan Negeri Johor" at the Kolej Profesional MARA, Kota Tinggi, Johor on 17 & 18 October, 2008. Token of Appreciation given by Tn.Hj. Sufaat bin Tumin, Pengarah Pelajaran Johor.


2007
MVB, FLS, FLEict - To Enhance Pupils' Mastery in Memorizing and Spell Correctly in Verbal and in Writing For Topic Parts of the Body for Year 2 Naim

Achievement : 2nd runner-up in "Action Research Competition for Teachers in Pontian District 2007" on 11th August, 2007 at SMK Dato' Yunos Sulaiman, Pekan Nenas, Johore

2008
Goldfish In Aqua Rules (GFAR) - A Technique On How To Construct Simple Sentences Among Year 5 Bitara for Paper 2 Section A Question in English Language Primary School

Achievement : 1st runner-up in "Action Research Competition for Teachers in Pontian District 2008" on 8th-9th August, 2008 at SMK Dato' Yunos Sulaiman, Pekan Nenas, Johore

2009
Yeo's BEG: A Technique On How To Understand Basic English Grammar (BEG) through acronym "I minum KHASIAT Yeos Teh Wangi AaA"

"Datuk K (He) married Siti (She)": A Technique On How To Understand and Differentiate The Use of Personal Pronouns "He" and "She" (S+He=She)

TEACH THEM GUIDE THEM

"LOVE THEM, HUG THEM, BRING ALL THE GOOD THINGS TO THEM"
"Love is the most powerful energy that will help each child grow strongly and confidently. It helps a person to overcome all challenges in life. The most wonderful gift that each parent could give to his / her child is unconditional love. This will give each child the ability to weather any challenges that comes his / her way"

LOVE OUR CHILDREN

Children are God's gift to us. We need to shower them with lots of love, guidance and care. A lack of any of these will be detrimental to their development.
They come into our lives with a divine message attached that only loving eyes can see.

"Take good care of him/her and make him/her a fully functioning, no limits, resourceful and an intelligent human being with your unconditional love and My continous guidance"

Life is but a fraction of time, time is but a fleeting moment, except for those who say, I am here with a reason, giving his best till his last breath, sowing the seeds of love, sowing the seeds of hope, reaching the heart of every man.

May God Bless Our Life

LOVE NOTES

Limiting thoughts and beliefs distort our children's abilities. They chain them to mediocrity. Our children can achieve success and be empowered if they are trained to break out of their comfort zone.

Let them feel that it is okay to explore their potentials. If they get wrong outcomes, teach them to learn from them and explore other possibilities.

The ability to learn from mistakes will diminish the fear and this will empower our children. Our children will make less mistakes, take ownership and learn from them if the fear is erased from their minds. When this happens, you will see them soaring in the sky!

CHILDREN ARE GOD'S PRECIOUS GIFT

A BOUQUET OF FLOWERS

WHAT IS ACTION RESEARCH : A QUICK GLANCE

"Action Research is a form of self-reflective enquiry undertaken by participants (teachers, students or principals, for example) in social (including educational) situation in order to improve the rationality and justice of : (a) their own social or educational practices, (b) their understanding of these practices, and (c) the situation (and institution) in which these practices are carried out"

According to Carr and Kemmis (1986), "There are two main intentions in doing the action research that are : (1) to heal - to enhance the teaching practices (2) to involve in - by solving and enhancing the understanding in teaching practices. Those who are involved in this process of action research are people who are involove in 4 stages : planning, action (do), observe and reflects or do evaluation."

ACTION RESEARCH - The Rationale For Specific Change

We cannot but to agree MacNaugton (1998, p.31) that within critical theory, people are perceived as capable of changing their lives to improve them. However, MacNaughton feel that research must be undertaken by expert researchers who can be objective and value-free in their research for truth about education (p.30). It remains a question as who is to make judgment on the research findings by the experts. Anyhow, we should not be dettered by MacNaughton's feelings about research to be taken by experts as his opinion may be is just a mere fallacy! As educators, we ought "to do something which will bring about improvement or change" (Kemmis & McTaggart 1988, p.48).

There is a general consensus that schools should be given a new identity as a dynamic organization. Teachers' and students' roles, teaching and learning processes, learning environment and method of managing the school curriculum need to be reviewed (Noor Azmi 1996). This is in line with the goals of action research.

Knaus (1997, p.10) asserts precisely that "IN ORDER TO OPEN YOUR MIND TO POSITIVE CHANGE, YOU NEED TO DEVELOP WHAT I CALL A RATIONAL PERSPECTIVE". Building a rational perspective involves putting failure into perspective confronting beliefs that are holding us back. It is not quite possible to have 'change' without reflection and evaluation. A possible wayt to perform 'change' is by taking up action research.

MY MOTIVATION

Love your life, believe in your own potential, wake up each day with the awe of just being alive. Forget the past. Take the power to choose what you want to do and do it well. Open your heart and mind to every opportunity. Don't be afraid to keep trying. Create your own dreams. Colour your life with people and things you love. Focus on all that is good. Life always gets better with a positive attitude..

BEING A TEACHER

Being a teacher has become something miracle happened in my life. After struggling in finance field, I believe, God is the greatest guide in our life. HE do really wants us to become a good "Guardian Angel" to our pupils.

Make me respect my mind so much I dare, not to read what has no meaning or moral. Help me to choose an equal care, my friends and my book because they are both for life. Help me to value art without being blind to thought.

TOKEN OF APPRECIATONS

Photo taken during Malaysian English Language Teaching Association (MELTA)18th International Conference 2009 at Puteri Pacific Hotel, Johor Bahru, Johor on 11-13 June 2009 : Gold Commendation for Creative Teacher Showcase

WELCOME TO ACTION RESEARCH WORLD : ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I am just new in this teaching field. I do really love to share with others about new, fun and enjoyable knowledge that can bring something good in life. I believe that walking through life is not hard but doing it alone is not as meaningful as sharing it with someone who TRULY CARE....emel me at jenrenita@yahoo.com

ACTION RESEARCH - What and Why?

ACTION RESEARCH involves and his group members sharing concern with everyday practical problems encountered by teachers and perhaps students. Broadly, action research can be divided into three types :

1. Participatory Action Research - an alternative form of social research
2. Critical Action Research - one that involves mixed groups of participants from
various sectors
3. Classroom Action Research - (Henry & McTaggart 1996, p.6)

Action research is a cyclic project involving PLANNING, ACTION AND OBSERVATION, REFLECTION and EVALUATION. It aims at a big concern - to attain meaningful professional development for the researchers involved in particular and improvement in educational situations in general, through systematic and strategic research methodologies. Most often than not, action research involves a triangular process of three parties - teacher, observer and students. In action research, each act (planning, action and observation, reflection and evaluation) is called a spiral. The researcher will move to the next spiral after the plan has been revised so to achieve more attainable or intended results.

Towards Creative and Innovative

More Information About Action Research

Action Research project aims to reduce teacher-student barrier by inviting students to be evaluators. A democratic relationship between teacher and students will be established if the teacher is receptive to criticism and students are not scared of giving constructive criticism. It is hope that by going through this process explicit change in action research group may bring forth implicit change in organization (school).

Nevertheless, this practice is too sensational and it may appear to be alienated to most of the teachers. It involves great courage to make a 'change' as in our normal practice, teachers are not used to be assessed by their students. It is indisputable that 'change' is uncertain and risk-taking. and at times, it can be precarious. Change under compulsion is defensive, superficial and short-lived (Fullan 1994, p.3.). As such, we can see that action research which involves 'change' is more of a political process (Kemmis & McTaggart 1988, p.22)

It is understandable that most of the time action researchers are left working on their own. This is particularly true in Malaysian schools where any teacher who is willing to take up action research may have great problem in getting colleagues to be involved in his or her action research project. Teachers need a platform to have a better understanding of the processes leading to the results of schooling (Kemmis & McTaggart 1988, p.32).