Student-to-student legacies in exploratory action research

Abstract

In 2013/2014, I conducted two consecutive cycles of exploratory action research aimed at improving the quality of my French engineering students’ oral presentations in English. Each cycle involved a different group of students. I collaborated with the students extensively throughout the project and found that the experience was highly beneficial for everyone involved. Presentation quality and the learner/teacher experience were enhanced through student engagement in each cycle and from cycle to cycle, with the second group of students building on the experiences of the first. I tried to exploit this positive dynamic by creating and testing two ‘legacy tools’ explicitly designed to communicate ideas and experiences from previous to future student-participants. This article focuses on the project’s subsequent third and fourth cycles, which took place the following year, and demonstrates that, despite their limitations, the tools proved to be an effective way of conveying the findings from one group of students to another, helping to produce richer learner/teacher experiences and better oral presentations.