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

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.

Lin S Norton is Professor of Pedagogical Research and Dean of Learning and Teaching at Liverpool Hope University. She was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship in 2007 and continues to champion the importance of learning and teaching by extensively publishing in journals and books.