The challenge of creating knowledge through action research

Abstract

In the years preceding the twenty first century, contributions to knowledge had to be in propositional form, answering the question: What is new to what is already known about the topic under investigation? It had to add yet another abstract idea to the existing accumulation of abstract ideas. In more recent times, a contribution to new knowledge could also take the form of an answer to the question: How can I go about transforming ideas about the topic I am studying if I implement something which is not necessarily new within the field of research, but an innovation in my specific context? This article relates how action research was used to transform ideas on general skills development in a medical curriculum. The focus is on the measures that were taken to ensure that claims of having gained a deepened understanding of the incorporation of general skills into the curriculum were legitimate.