1. RECONNAISANCE CEP-ELM April 2011

2. LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES By the end of the two sessions the CPs should be able to: Understand what reconnaissance in action research is in terms of gathering initial information. In groups link the understanding to areas of concern to their school leadership Individually identify an area in their school and think through their possible research areas.

3. W HAT IS RECONNAISSANCE ? It is an inspection or exploration of an area in a bid to gather information. It is generally thought of as preliminary data gathering where the researcher – Reflects on own beliefs – Understands the nature and context of the issue (Gay, Mills & Airasian 2009)  The issues are raised from personal experiences.

4. MENTAL THUNDER What do you do when preparing to or before you; Go for a wedding negotiation? Take students on a S/S tour of the rift valley?

5. Three forms of reconnaissanc e 1) Gaining insight through self- reflection Theories that impact your practice Your educational values How your work fits into the larger context of schooling and society Historical contexts of your school and schooling Historical contexts of your beliefs about teaching and learning

6. Three forms of reconnaissanc e 2) Gaining insight through descriptive activities » Focusing on who, what, when, and where » Provide evidence that your problem is, in fact, a problem » Identify students who are struggling with tasks related to your problem » Identify current methods for dealing with your problem » Identify the frequency with which your problem arises

7. Three forms of reconnaissanc e 3) Gaining insight through explanatory activities » Focus on why » Account for critical factors that have an impact on your problem » Develop a hypothesis stating the expected relationships between variables in your study Clarifies what the teacher believes about the relationships of factors, variables, and contexts that make up their work Identifies what the teacher believes can improve the situation

8. W HY ? – This could lead to identifying the theories to analyze – Finding more information about the issue you want to work on (on the ground and in literature) – What are the constraints and opportunities? – Identify who will be affected. – Who should be involved? – Start negotiating with gate keepers and participants.

9. A CTIVITY 1 Select 3 problems identified in your groups earlier. Prioritise them in order to identify one out of the selected three. Why do you want to improve it? Analyse situation as it is now? What is the reason? How can you be sure that there is a problem what are the indicators/evidence of the issue.

10. Cont…ACTIVITY 1 -Who will/should be involved? -What will be done? -when will/should it be done? -How should it be done

11. ACTIVITY 3

12. Draw a tree and link problem to cause and the eventual goal/outcome of your AR.

13. K EY C HARACTERISTICS OF A CTION R ESEARCH Three levels Individual teacher research Small teacher groups or teams in a single school Departments Common content areas School-wide research Objective 5.2

14. P ROBLEMATIZE THE ISSUE Rephrase the Issue to a problems that needs ACTION so that you could RESEARCH on the ACTION. Teachers come late to school How do I confirm that teachers in my school do not come on time to school? Find eviden ce Informed by data collected

15. AR CYCLE Plan Observe Act Reflect

16. C YCLIC NATURE OF AR PLAN Then AC T Then Observe Then Reflect Then (Kemmis and Mc Taggart, 1988)

17. C YCLIC NATURE OF AR()