| Initial plans for this project called for collaborative action research to be used as a means of providing authenticity to the teacher development process by: (1) giving teacher opportunities to improve their understanding of their subject matter, (2) allowing teachers to improve their own practice, and (3) determining factors which may affect this type of professional development. After some time it became apparent that the collaborative nature of the action research engaged in by the participating teachers needed to be modified. The modified collaboration, termed purposeful action research, was employed through the remainder of the project. Purposeful action reaction can be viewed as a community of teachers who engage in professional development using 'purposeful' action research as a means of progressive knowledge building around science (and technology) education.;Two teams of elementary and secondary science and technology teachers were formed to work within collaborative communities. These teams identified common pedagogical problems that they agreed to use as the focus of their work. Over the four months duration of the project, the teachers worked together to prepare unit plans, organize lessons and share resources.;The thesis concludes with a reiteration of the aims of the project and a brief discussion of the implications of the findings for science and technology education, teacher professional development, and educational research.;Action research holds the promise of offering science and technology teachers more control of their growth as pedagogical practitioners. However, it appears that teachers need to be exposed to issues that extend beyond the reach of the government imposed curriculum guidelines. During the course of this research project it became clear that purposeful action research was necessary in order to address these issues. This thesis provides a detailed account and a description of the characteristics of purposeful action research in action. |
