Action Research and Reflective Practice
What this domain tests
Whether you can design a small, ethical, cyclical inquiry into your own practice and analyse your reflections rather than merely describing your day.
Action research
Practitioner-led, cyclical and aimed at improving practice in a specific setting. Models: Lewin (plan–act–observe–reflect), Kemmis and McTaggart's spiral (plan, act, observe, reflect, then re-plan), Stringer (look, think, act). Steps: identify the problem with evidence; carry out reconnaissance and read relevant literature; plan an intervention; act; observe and collect data; reflect; revise.
Data and trustworthiness
Triangulate across methods (observation, interview, questionnaire, artefact, test scores), sources and time. Lincoln and Guba's criteria are credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability. Ethics: permission from the head and participants, informed consent, anonymity, no harm, and sharing findings with colleagues.
Reflective practice
Schön distinguishes reflection-in-action from reflection-on-action. Gibbs's cycle runs description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion and action plan. Kolb's experiential cycle links concrete experience, reflection, conceptualisation and experimentation. Brookfield's four lenses are the autobiographical lens, learners' eyes, colleagues' experience and theory. Tools: reflective journal, peer observation, lesson study, teaching portfolio.
Worked example
An SHS2 teacher finds that only 6 of 38 students answer questions voluntarily.
Reasoning: she first gathers baseline data over two weeks (tallies of volunteers, question types used, wait time), reads about wait time and questioning, then plans an intervention: five-second wait time, a no-hands rule with thinking time, and think-pair-share. A colleague observes while she keeps a journal. After four weeks volunteers rise to 21, and she analyses which element mattered. The baseline is what makes the claim of improvement defensible; without it the study is only an anecdote.
Traps that cost marks
- Calling a one-off survey 'action research' - it needs cycles and an action.
- Omitting the baseline, then claiming improvement.
- Skipping ethics or gatekeeper permission from the head.
- Writing description ('I taught fractions') instead of analysis ('think-pair-share raised participation because...').
- Presenting reflection as a diary entry with no next steps.