Longitudinal Action Research Study Research Articles

The effectiveness of using english as the sole medium of instruction in english classes: student responses and improved english proficiency

This longitudinal action research study investigates the effectiveness of English as the sole medium of instruction in Hong Kong by comparing the preferences of two non-native English language classes under two different teaching policies, while also examining both classes for any potential correlations with improved English proficiency. In one English class, an English-only policy was strictly enforced, while in the second class the use of Cantonese (the students' first language) was permitted. Results revealed that not only did the class under the strict policy have a stronger preference for English as the sole medium of instruction, but their English proficiency had also become higher than that of the more Cantonese-tolerant class. La efectividad del uso del ingles como unico medio de instruccion en las clases de ingles: respuesta de los estudiantes y mejora en los niveles

Sustainable Change

Globalization and intensified competition require organizations to change and adapt to dynamic environments in order to stay competitive. This article describes a longitudinal action research study supporting the strategic change of a trading company. The strategic change was accompanied by planned changes in organizational structures and processes, management systems, emerging changes in leadership, and organization members’ attitudes and behaviors, and it was supported by management development activities. Longitudinal data over a 4-year period including participant observation and interviews reveal that a systemic approach, a learning and becoming perspective toward change, trust, an appropriate role perception, and the specific use of management instruments contribute to sustained change that resulted in performance improvements and a move toward a learning organization. We conclude with implications for strategic change and suggestions for further research in this area.

New workforce roles in health care

PurposeThis paper seeks to present findings from a longitudinal action research study aimed at exploring one such innovation. Little is known about the micro‐level impact of health service innovations over time.Design/methodology/approachThe paper shows that action research is a participatory approach ideally suited to monitoring the process and outcomes of change. Over 20 months, an action researcher studied the work of four interprofessional care co‐ordinators (IPCCs), whose role was intended to speed patient through‐put within a London teaching hospital general medical directorate. The action researcher kept regular participant observation field notes and supplemented these data with a profile of IPCC patients (n=407), in‐depth interviews (n=37) and focus groups (n=16) with staff. Throughout the study, findings were regularly fed back to participants to inform practice developments.FindingsThe findings in this paper show that, in spite of the original intention for this role to provide clerical support to the multidisciplinary team, over time the role shifted beyond its implementation into practice to take on more complex work from registered nurses. This raised actual and potential governance issues that were not attended to by service managers. A complex and turbulent context disrupted managers' and practitioners' abilities to reflect on and respond to these longer‐term role shifts.Originality/valueThis paper argues that the complex nature of the innovation and the setting in which it operated account for the role shift and the lack of attention to issues of governance. Current innovation literature suggests that implementation into routine practice represents the end‐point of an innovation's journey. These findings suggest that certain innovations may in fact continue to shift in nature even after this “end‐point”. The conclusions drawn are likely to be of global interest to those interested in complex health service innovations.

Enhancing the Impact of an Open-Enrollment Executive Program Through Assessment

We describe a longitudinal action research study of an open-enrollment senior executive program at a top-tier U.S. university. Over a period of 10 years the faculty director and program staff made changes to meet clients' needs by creating an innovative curriculum design that integrates adult learning and human resource development theory with executive education. Specifically, we present the findings from the 5-year action research project that grew out of this redesign process, demonstrating how connections between learner-focused program practices can facilitate assessment of program impact. We then discuss the implications for integrating assessment with curricular design of the program for evaluating the benefits of programs for sponsoring companies.

Transforming Practice: Changing Patterns of Participation in Post-observation Meetings

Reflective models of supervision have shifted the emphasis from teaching observations as primarily evaluative events to events intended to promote teachers' reflective practice. This paper presents a longitudinal action research study investigating post-observation interactions between language teachers and their supervisors in an American university English Programme. The longitudinal design, data collection and analysis were ongoing and recursive, allowing each to inform the other at various stages of the study. The authors/researchers were also the supervisors/participants in the study, and were interested in improving existing practices based on an analysis of available data. A preliminary analysis revealed that the supervisors produced the majority of the talk in the meetings and that the teachers were more passive. Focussing primarily on data from four teacher/supervisor pairs from two semesters, we describe how this study enabled supervisors to become aware of the linguistic and interactional subtleties of their practices in post-observation meetings. We then illustrate how supervisors changed the meeting dynamics from supervisor-centred to more teacher-centred. We describe changes in the distribution of talk and discuss how and why these changes took place. We also illustrate important changes in the ways that teachers were positioned by supervisors in the opening of meetings.

Using action research to construct national evidence‐based nursing care guidance for gerontological nursing

This paper explores the development of a low-cost, involving methodology for constructing nursing-focused evidence-based national care guidance, known as Best Practice Statements, the intended users of which are gerontological nurses practising throughout Scotland. The Best Practice Statement construction methodology forms one cycle in a five-year longitudinal action research study that aims to achieve evidence-based nursing, facilitate professional networking to support practice development and promote the principles and practice of gerontological nursing. Achieving these aims involved designing a virtual Practice Development College. A Community of Practice comprising practising gerontological nurses, expert advisors, academic teaching and research nurses collaborated in face-to-face meetings and in the virtual Practice Development College to delineate and refine the procedural model for Best Practice Statement construction. Focus groups, telephone interviews, analysis of on-line archives and documentary outputs formed the analytic dataset. Qualitative analysis indicated that, from the perspective of the community of practice, the emerging methodology facilitated the melding of knowledge sources reflecting the dominant evidence hierarchy with other forms of evidence valued by gerontological nurses, in the Best Practice Statement. Current methods of care guidance construction rarely address the concerns of nurses and the evidence from which guidelines are developed is narrowly defined with regard to inclusion and acceptability. In contrast this model focuses on nursing issues, embraces a wider definition of evidence and ensures that the published Best Practice Statements are credible and achievable in gerontological practice, where they are tested and refined as an inherent aspect of the development process.

Defining Focus and Integrity in Building a Community Research Coalition

Pervasive and systemic barriers to collaborative university-community research make such studies highly challenging. Yet the necessity of participative research means that feasible ways to conduct high quality collaborative investigations must be sought. In a longitudinal action research study investigating adult literacy, issues facing community and academic researchers centred upon focus and integrity. Differing researchers defined focus and integrity in sharply varying ways, so that terminology employed within the programme formed contested sites of meaning and interpretation. This meant that ideas of research integrity held very different connotations for different actors. Yet the viability of the programme depended on both academics and community people attempting to expand their horizons by understanding and taking into account others’ perceptions.

Project learning relationships and situated learning: defensive deflection and protective veneers

This paper contributes to better understanding the dynamics of practically supporting the knowledge creation processes within a project management setting. Based on a longitudinal participative action research study of the dynamics of situated learning in a project case study involving organisational change, this paper describes and theorises about how the 'learning relationships' between project team participants significantly impact situated learning activity within a project team setting. As observed in the case study and then argued in this paper, through project team participants systematically and publicly exploring and communally reflecting on this sociological element (amongst others identified in this study), they aid their situated learning processes and incidentally, help develop their competency in 'learning how to learn'.

Supply network strategy

This paper presents an argument that it is possible for an organisation to manage networks, but understanding this involves consideration of what is meant by “managing”. Based on prior research and data from a major longitudinal action research study in the health sector, the paper describes six network management roles: network structuring agent; co‐ordinator; advisor; information broker; relationship broker; innovation sponsor. The necessary “assets” for effective performance of these roles are identified, in particular those relating to team competence. The findings enrich and significantly develop previous work on network management roles and activities, and their influencing factors. It is concluded that, given the specific nature of the networks studied, further research is required to evaluate the generalisability of the findings, though initial indications are promising.