All Ireland Society for Higher Education
| Name: | Jacqueline Potter |
|---|---|
| Email: | potterj@tcd.ie |
| Institution: | Trinity College Dublin |
The allocation of funding and the provision of support for small-scale action research projects is now a common-place mechanism within higher education to enhance teaching. Individual academics or small teams are encouraged to innovate and subsequently evaluate targeted changes to teaching, assessment and curricula. In large part, the successful engagement of academics in a systematic approach to improving student learning through a research-focused or evaluative approach is itself the priority outcome; the rigour and quality of the approaches taken are often of secondary consideration. This paper explores how and why institutions and academic developers can and must enhance the quality of action research projects to mirror the rigorous approaches adopted by academics within discipline-based research. It argues that this is critical if the outcomes of such projects are to be valued and sustained locally as well as to be shared, adopted and adapted to other, varied contexts.