Exploring the implications of asking, researching and answering,

Action Planning In Creating Your Living Educational Theory

Exploring the implications of asking, researching and answering,

'How do I improve what I am doing?'

Your living educational theory is your explanation for your educational influences in your own learning, in the learning of others and in the learning of the social formations in which you are living and working. You can see a more detailed description in the 1989 paper on living educational theories in the Cambridge Journal of Education at http://people.bath.ac.uk/edsajw/writings/livtheory.html

In the creation of living educational theories in enquiries of the kind, 'How do I improve what I am doing?' many researchers have found it useful to start their enquiries with the help of action reflection cycles in an action planner that contains written responses to such questions as:

1) What do I want to improve?

2) Why do I feel that something could be improved in what I am doing? (This is concerned with what really matters to me in terms of the values that give meaning and purpose in my life. These are the explanatory principles that explain why I do what I do.)

3) What could I do that might improve what I am doing? (Imagining possibilities and choosing one of them to act on in an action plan)

4) As I am acting what data will I collect to enable me to judge my educational influence in my professional context as I answer my question?

5) As I evaluate the educational influences of my actions in my own learning and the learning of others who might be willing to help me to strengthen the validity of my explanation of my learning about my influence with responses to questions such as:

i) Is my explanation as comprehensible as it could be?

ii) Could I improve the evidential basis of my claims to know what I am doing?

iii) Does my explanation include an awareness of historical and cultural influences in what I am doing and draw on the most advanced social theories of the day?

iv) Am I showing that I am committed to the values that I claim to be living by?

6) In the light of the evaluation it is often the case that the concerns, action plans and actions are modified and the process of improvement and Educational knowledge-creation continues.

Whitehead, J. (2007) Action Planning in Creating your own Living Educational Theory. Retrieved 30 October 2007 from http://www.jackwhitehead.com/jack/arplanner.htm

In my own sessions I usually begin with conversations between pairs of practitioner-researchers in which they take some 4 minutes each to outline their context, what really matters to them, and what they would like to improve. I encourage individuals to hold themselves to account and to each other for sustaining an enquiry into living their values and developing their understandings as fully as they can in improving their practice.

There are many different approaches to the creation of living educational theories using action reflection cycles. I like Jean McNiff's approach of September 2008 to Planning, Designing and Doing Action Research at http://www.jackwhitehead.com/jack/jmplanar.pdf . I also like the attractive visual presentation of the Thinking Actively in a Social Context (TASC) wheel, generated by Belle Wallace. This can be seen on the WebQuest site. It has been used by Joy Mounter in her research with her 6 year old pupils in exploring the question: Can children carry out action research about learning, creating their own learning theory? You can access this account at http://www.jackwhitehead.com/tuesdayma/joymounterull.htm . I think you will be particularly inspired by the three video-clips in Appendix 2 that show three pupils explaining to Joy how they think the TASC wheel should be modified to give a more appropriate representation of their learning.

You can access the WebQuest Library at http://www.webquestuk.org.uk/webquestuk_library.htm

And see how the TASC approach has been used in the teaching of thinking skills across the curriculum within the publication.

Wallace, G. (Ed.) (2001) Teaching Thinking Skills Across the Primary Curriculum, p. 22. London; David Fulton.

If you want to see how teachers working on the masters of education programme in the Department of Education of the University of Bath have responded to questions of the kind, 'How do I improve what I am doing?' for their masters units on Educational Enquiry (EE), Research Methods in Education (RME), Understanding Learners and Learning (ULL) and Gifts and Talents in Education (G & T) you can access these at: http://people.bath.ac.uk/edsajw/mastermod.shtml . To see the 'given curriculum' for these units click on the links for EE, RME, ULL, G&TinEd, here. To see the criteria used in assessing these units click on this link for the MACriteria.