1. What if teachers worked on the premise that we all have perfect memories and that students forgetting what we have taught them is not a reflection on their ability or even our teaching but on the fact that we have not taken the time to show them how to use the memories they have?
Give out provocation cards as staff enter the room.
Introduction of the day on the flip chart – summarise how this fits into the bigger picture
Talk about the question posed on the slide as an ice breaker
Any questions regarding research and the accreditation will be answered at the end.

2. In yellow pen answer the following question: What do you understand about yourself and your work from doing action research? Describe what you have learnt since the last meeting.
Ask the teachers to write this personal reflection on a separate piece of paper from their main notes.
This paper will be used again at the end of the session so it is important that it is kept to the side.
Give them 5 minutes to complete this task.

3. In the previous session we did a number of activities that supported professional dialogue. There were a number of conversations taking place about your professional interests and areas of expertise and enquiry.
In today’s session we are going to continue with this model. However, aren’t going to be doing as many activities and you will be working in one group for the main task. I want you to ask the same questions to each other, questions and scrutinize each other’s ideas so that everyone leave with some food for thought.

4. Instead of going over the action research cycle again, I’m going to model an action research project that have recently done in collaboration with another teacher.
I hope this supports your understanding.
- Use the flip chart paper for this task to demonstrate different learning point. Enlarge parts of the booklet to show the progression in my thinking.

5. Experts’ Challenge
As a group you will work together to create a 10 minute presentation that addresses the challenge you have been given. You must include:
Examples of your own work/ideas/experience
Theory/research from literature and readings
As a starting point, summarise your learning so far to each other.
You will have one hour to complete the task before you present to everyone.
Make sure the practitioners have a copy of the challenge on their desks.
Explain the time constraints
Presentation guidelines. You can use a flip chart, powerpoint, just talk or something else of your choice. Everyone has to participate.

6. Next stage of your research – involving learners!
learners as researchers
Research from the learners
Next steps of the action research process.
At some point I want you to involve your learners, whoever they may be, in the research process.
You might do this by getting the learners to do the research or to get some information from them or both. These strategies will either validate or challenge your findings and your outcomes so far in the action research process.

7. Validation and pupils’ perspective on evidence
learner
Formative dialogue about learning
Teacher-researcher
To summarise:
We want to find out what the participants think about your change or your professional enquiry.
This will validate your findings and this involves some sort of dialogue between you and the learners about your change. The whole process is supposed to be formative. Action research isn’t about isolated research, where you make sense of something without actually knowing what the participants think.
Data collection and interpretation

8. One strategy that I am going to personally recommend is a visual questionnaire.
In the past when teachers have used questionnaires with students, they usually give them an A4 piece of paper with black and white text, no photographs, no stimulation. Students look at it once, tick the boxes with their eyes closed and the results are fairly unsubstantial.
A visual question is about prompting thought with a stimulus. The thought bubbles separate thinking and communication and force the learners to think about how something is perceived and communicated.
From the example above, we looked at teaching and learning styles with the students and asked them using a visual questionnaire which one they preferred and why.
This prompted the students to think about the teacher had been adopting a different style of teaching and the change in his approach. The results validated what we previously thought.

10. What did the students say?
Another simple method that I used quite frequently with the teachers when I’m doing action research is to find out the students feedback at the end of the lesson with post-it notes. Instant feedback about the task will give you validation or food for thought and this can inform future planning for the next lesson.
This method is easy to plan, resource and conduct.

11. The following table represents the views of two Grade 10 classes The feedback indicates the reasoning behind the students’ thinking and the quantity of their views indicates a general opinion of these particular classes.
Student likes
Frequency
Way of teaching 17
Collaborative learning 9
Improved speaking skills 8
Interesting lessons
And this method can be summarized very easily into a table like this one.
Students’ opinions can get categorized and then analyzed.
This will form part of your evidence and should inform your future planning/change regarding the next action research cycle.

12. Additional strategies
Learners
Interview
Questionnaires
Observation
Improvement task
Feedback
Design
Get the students to interview each other
Get some students to observe the task that you designed
Get the students to improve the lesson
Interview some students
Get someone else to observe the lesson
Give the students a questionnaire

13. Teacher-researcher Stimulus learner Prompts Questions Illustrates
Dialogue
Initiates
Stimulus
learner
It’s really important that if you do choose to involve the learners in your process, you provide them with some sort of stimulus.
Young people are used to be stimulated by the internet, media, visual advertising etc. It doesn’t have to be really time consuming but it should provide the with stimulus to provide you with constructive feedback about your topic.
It’s supposed to be subjective and prompt them.
Annotates

15. Moderation Criterion Personal statement Evidence
We’re going to look at one personal statement for this aspect of the criterion. I want you to highlight the key points and make a note about where the evidence of impact is written or demonstrated.
We’re then going to look at the evidence and the criterion and give this person a level.
Discuss with the Practitioners the expectations for this level.

16. Describe what you have learnt.
Answer the following question in black or blue pen underneath your answer from the start:
What do you now understand about yourself and your work as a result of today?
Describe what you have learnt.
Using the paper from earlier.
Write in dark pen about what you understand about action research as a result of today’s session.
Give the participants 5 minutes to complete this. This should be your review task after this session.

17. Next Steps Involve participants in your research
Complete summary of findings
Write your personal statement
Complete another cycle of your action research project or more than one. Think about how you are going to fit this into your time and deadline for submission. If you want to continue with this until the deadline you are more than welcome. If you want to do a different topic you are more than welcome. However, try to involve the students in your work.
Share the summary of findings document with the teachers- this is the end product. This is what you will submit as part of your evidence in June.
Personal statement for this aspect of the criterion.

18. Future Session
Be prepared to make a Nano presentation (2 mins) about your own research!
In the next session, I will be asking you to make a 2 minute presentation about your work. It’s supposed to be a snapshot that will lead top further dicussion outside of the session.
This will also count as evidence for the criterion.

19. LP Road Map Accredited Impact Design Reflect Engage
Summarise where the participants are in the learning journey.
We still have a lot of time but we’re formulating evidence and engaging in the enquiry process.