on Cycle2
This second cycle ended up much bigger than the first in terms of interactions, data and impact.
The dilemma of a co-researcher and the action of "no-action":
When one of the actions for improvement is to deliberately hold back and leave space for others to come forward and learn, this can be problematic so
* avoid these kind of actions for action research?
* but they will keep coming up eg for teachers, child support staff, online facilitation, managment and parenting pulling back is often exactly the action which the situation requires, and what learners need in orser to develop themselves. It's frustrating to sit back and watch others not getting on with it in the way you think they should and it's oh so very tempting to dive in and do everything for them but sometimes that is exactly what prevents learners from making progress and learning for themselves.
The skill is to know when and how much to intervene or not.
on DAR
1) Technical - when reflecting on the jourtnal in the journal, I need two instances of the same document open at once.
Linda tells me that in Voodoopad you can apple click on a page in the pagelist toopen it in a new window, so that's something useful I've learned.
2) Data -= need to be alittle more systematic in the daily extraction and collection of data to save time re-checking what I've already done.
In particular, web based email - even when it's as good as gmail - isnt really suitable for online research. You need to be able to quickly sort by author, date, topic etc and view offline if necessary so a POP3 client application such as Forté Agent, Apple Mail, Eudora, MS Outlook (not Express) , Thoth or similar is needed for that.
3) methodology - Needs tweaking a bit more deeply into the ~AR approach - more qualitative data, more collaboration
*Quantitative results reported back already - no reponse so far.
From 43things
The advantage of an emergent and iterative approach to methodology while learning about action research — 39 minutes ago
Having completed 2 cycles of research I am now appreciating the advantage of using an emergent and iterative approach to the methodology itself. By starting with a plan which is loose and flexible, as I learn more about Action research methodology and the practical implications for my own reserach, I can refine each of the small cycles in turn so that they approach further and further towards my own understanding of how action research should ideally be conducted.