Action Research

Tomorrow, I start the Action Research Project on the Drawing Reading Group and I am more nervous than what I thought. [Note to self: I mustn’t forget the minidisc].

I spent the whole weekend designing the ethics/consent form (with an outline of the project) preliminary feedback form and the 2 evaluation forms.

I had to do a consent form as I am running this project with Research Students. I have to give good example because they might take my project as a practical example of Action research. So they should. But I need to be careful about the procedures and do everything properly and think about the issues they don't like thinking about (like ethics, project management or writing up).

Deciding on the questions was a bit trickier as I realised you couldn’t go into it cold. I had to plan what sort of data I wanted from the students. In the end, I settled for feedback on usefulness, skills and the running of the session. I am quite happy with the feedback form; unsure about the evaluation forms. I had to plan the wording of the questions very carefully. Also how many questions could I ask them to answer just after the Reading Group meeting. I decided the preliminary feedback form, as it is only a questions of agreeing/disagreeing with statement could be a double sided a 4. The most cunning part, I thought, was to leave question 26 empty for them to write a statement they felt was missing. I have great hopes for question 26. The evaluation forms, however, could not exceed 1 side of A4. That allowed me to write only 6/7 questions and I had to be very careful about them. Can I get all the data I need in 6/7 questions? What if they don't prompt any interesting response? Well, this is the nature of research: stage fright just the day before it starts. I should get used to it because hopefully I will have 5 years of it very shortly.

I just have decided to print the feedback/evaluation in coloured paper to differentiate them better. The only task left is to draft and print the guidelines. Once tomorrow is over, I will be a lot happier and more focused on the project rather than the formatting of it.