Doing Action Research

′The clear intention of the authors is to motivate, persuade and give confidence to those who might otherwise think that research can only be carried out by teams of university staff′ - ESCalate

Most Teaching Assistants (TAs) studying for Foundation Degrees need to do Action Research projects.

This book acts as an introduction to research methods, and will be especially useful if you are doing such work for the first time. It:

" introduces the basic principles and practice of research methods;

" provides an overview of the processes involved in Action Research;

" shows you how to identify an issue, design and carry out a course of action and evaluate the impact of this action;

" uses real case studies from practising TAs.

The content of the book relates to both Early Years and Primary settings, and there are case studies from a variety of settings.

Anyone studying for a Foundation Degree, or working towards HLTA status, will find this book meets their needs.

Claire Taylor is Programme Leader for the Foundation Degree at Bishop Grosseteste College, Lincoln. Min Wilkie is Programme Leader for the Foundation Degree in Educational Studies for Teaching Assistants at the University of Leicester. Judith Baser has worked in a wide range of educational settings, including 5 years as a teaching assistant. More recently, she has run training courses for teaching assistants in ways to support children′s learning and development.

Claire is a member of the Senior Leadership Team and leads the Academic Engagement Hub. The Hub contains the Centre for Educational Development and Research (CEDaR), Library Services, Student Support and Learning Advice, Student Recruitment and Admissions, Quality Assurance and Student Data, and International work. Claire joined BG in 2002 having been a Primary Headteacher and since then she has held a variety of roles including ITT Lecturer, Programme Leader and Head of Learning and Teaching. Claire is a Bishop Grosseteste Teaching Fellow, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) and a Fellow of the Staff and Educational Developers′ Association (SEDA). Before joining the School of Education, Min worked for many years as a teacher, mostly in Nursery and Key Stage 1 settings, but also with Key Stage 2 and with Year 9, 10 and 11 pupils. She additionally worked for Leicester College where she developed both the Cache Specialist Teacher Assistant Award and the Btec HNC/D Early Childhood Studies, targeting professional development for Nursery Nurses. Here at the School of Education, Min is committed to the development of the Foundation Degree in Educational Studies, designing course content and materials, and assessments to enable mature, talented people working in schools to attain a professionally recognised status, and move toward teaching if they wish. She is the Programme Leader, Course Co-ordinator and Admissions Tutor for this programme. Judith Baser originally studied German and French, and spent the early part of her career working as a commercial translator in industry and as a freelancer.  Her career in education has mainly involved working with adults in a variety of settings, teaching modern foreign languages and basic skills, and providing learning support in Further Education settings for students with dyslexia and English as an Additional Language. During a secondment to an Education Action Zone, Judith set up and managed a project developing training for school support staff.  Working for several years as a Teaching Assistant in a primary school during an earlier career break gave her a useful insight in the role of support staff and their work in schools and their importance in fostering children′s learning.  She also developed and ran adults basic education courses for parents in schools. Judith joined the School of Education at Leicester in 2003, and is responsible for managing and teaching the Foundation Degree in Educational Studies.  She has developed several of the Foundation modules and continues to work on updating these to reflect current trends in education.