Involving students as collaborators in developing learning materials through action research

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study focuses on English as a foreign language (EFL) students’ involvement in a school’s action research (AR) project. The study aims to demonstrate how students develop their communication, interaction, and collaboration while joining AR projects in developing classroom-based materials. The ideas of critical participatory AR, material development theory, learning theory, and practices were used to construct the study. Differentiated instruction principles were also applied to create learning activities and tasks. A secondary school-level classroom-based initiative in Indonesia has been reported to show how AR can effectively aid in designing classroom-based materials. Through active engagement in the AR project, students develop their ability as co-researchers, co-creators, co-inquirers, and evaluators throughout every project stage. AR also allows instructors to study their students’ responses to new materials and interact with them to generate compelling context-specific content. The study also discusses the implications of having AR for developing more authentic classroom-based materials, challenging the prevailing established order, managing their collaborative roles while using their insights productively, and fully interacting with their peers.