Action Research in Teaching and Learning: A Practical Guide to Conducting Pedagogical Research in Universities - Tapa dura

"Norton masterfully walks the reader through the gathering of data from questionnaires and interviews and then invites the analysis of data using concrete examples of how to do thematic and content analysis. This book will not overwhelm the beginner researcher who only has limited time at their disposal with the educational theory of action research. Instead it provides a useful, tacit knowledge that will help any professor of religious studies or theology discover ways rooted in research for improving their pedagogical teaching practices."―Teaching Theology and Religion

A practical, down-to-earth guide for those who work in teaching and learning in universities, this book will be indispensable reading for those who would like to carry out action research on their own practice. Lin S Norton's concept of 'pedagogical action research' has come from over twenty years' experience of carrying out such research, and more than six years of encouraging colleagues to carry out small scale studies at an institutional, national and international level.

This accessible text illustrates what might be done to improve teaching/supporting learning by carrying out action research to address such questions such as:

• What can I do to enthuse my students?
• What can I do to help students become more analytical?
• How can I help students to link theory with their practice?
• What can I do to make my lecturing style more accessible?
• What is going wrong in my seminars when my students don't speak?

Action Research for Teaching and Learning offers readers practical advice on how to research their own practice in a higher education context. It has been written specifically to take the reader through each stage of the action research process with the ultimate goal of producing a research study which is publishable. Cognisant of the sector's view on what is perceived to be 'mainstream research', the author has also written a substantial theoretical section which justifies the place of pedagogical action research in relation to reflective practice and the scholarship of teaching and learning.