The Action Research Planner

Abstract

The Action Research Planner series has a long history. This is the sixth of a series that began in 1979 with a modestly produced version for education students at Deakin University in Geelong Australia. A course was offered as part of an ‘upgrading’ Bachelor of Education degree designed for practising teachers. The intention was to encourage teachers to conduct small action research projects, or preferably, to participate in larger ones, and to report regularly on their action research work and reading throughout the year through a course journal. Each student was also expected to write a critical review of another student’s work, and on an aspect of the action research literature. The early Planners were somewhat restricted by their need to guide assessment tasks required by a course. Nevertheless, the Planners became popular and were used in many projects in several professional fields and community projects outside Deakin University, with varying degrees of success.