Introducing action technologies in teacher education: a case study

Abstract

"Action research" and "action learning", each has a literature promoting itself as both a methodology for the professional practitioner to improve practice and as a technique that may be used to educate. Despite the fact that action research has been most commonly associated with the development of teachers, and action learning with management development, there is no reason why the approaches cannot be employed generically with other groups of professionals. In this article, I intend to provide a framework for using action technology approaches in the professional training of teachers. The emphasis, though, is on single modules. An introduction to action technologies and core principles that are useful for inclusion in action research and action learning are discussed. The article describes the results of an application of a variant of action research and action learning methodologies in a postgraduate module offered through distance education.


South African Journal of Higher Education Vol.15(2) 2001: 132-139