ACTION RESEARCH
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| Action Research |
This is the study on ‘Action Research for Teacher Professional Development: A
Narrative Study’.This chapter consists of the background of the study, statement
of the problems, objectives of the study, statement of the problems, objectives of
the study, research questions, significance of the study, delimitations of the study
and the operational definition of the key terms.
1.1Background of Study
Teacher development is a continuous process. Teacher development is the holistic
development of the teacher and ongoing process. Similarly, Guskey (2000, p.16)
states that, professional development is an intentional, ongoing and systematic
process. Therefore, professional development is long term process where teachers
develop in terms of knowledge, skills, planning and practice. It is consciously
designed effort to bring about positive change and improvement. Teacher
Professional Development (TPD) program should focus on teacher needs, interest
and demand. These programs should be teacher oriented. In this regard,
Hammond, Hyler and Gardner (2017, p. 4) state that TPD program should focus
content, incorporate active learning, supports collaboration, uses models and
modeling, provides coaching and experts support, offers feedback and reflection . Indeed, such program should be relevant to context and content, highly interactive
as well as should have planned and improve instructions. Teacher professional
development is important to gain confidence and to overcome from challenges or
obstacles in the classroom. These programs play vital role to bring educational
reforms. Reimers (2003, p. 19) states that professional development has a
significant positive impact on teacher's beliefs and practices, students' learning and
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on the implementation of educational reforms. So, these programs are crucial to
bring positive change in education.
Language teachers may rely on a number of strategies like: study groups, self- monitoring, journal writing, peer observation, teaching portfolios, case studies,
critical incidents, action research, team teaching, peer coaching, peer observation
(Richards and Farrell, 2005, p.14). Among them, action research is prominent one.
It is a process of systematic reflection, inquiry and action carried out by
individuals about their own professional practice. It can also be done in
collaboration. It was introduced in 1940's. The main purpose of its' is to bridge the
gap between theory and practice. Furthermore, it is directly related to solve
practical problems of the classroom. According to Burns (2010, p. 24), "The major
focus of action research is on concrete and practical issues of immediate concern."
Because of its practical nature and focus on immediate concern, it holds particular
appeal for classroom teachers and a promising direction for building theories
related to teaching and learning. He claims that action research is a process for
enhancing reflective practice, Professional growth and development. In the context
of Nepal, such strategies are not highly implemented. National. NCED was established in 1993 under the ministry of education aiming to provide
TPD opportunity. It was able to provide training to 98.2% of permanent teachers
of community schools in 2009. NCED (2009) states that the objective of these
programs is to refresh, strengthen and update the knowledge and skills of teachers
so that there will be visible change in the classroom and help for improvement of
learning achievement. As a result, teachers do self-reflection, teacher access to
knowledge and skills required for liveliness of classroom activities, developing
habit of self-study and reading culture. However, NCED mentioned that
application of training is partially achieved. This situation shows that in Nepal,
still there are drawbacks in effectiveness and implementation of such program.
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