Writing Up Your Action Research And Development Project

Writing up your action research and development project

The aims of the action research and development projects are to support the work of the CETT in developing and disseminating innovative practice in teacher training and CPD across the lifelong learning sector in the West Midlands.

Where appropriate, WMCETT will make the reports available on the website http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/study/cll/wmcett/

This guide is to help you to write your final report in a form that can be easily accessed by readers. Important: Please preserve anonymity. Only refer to individuals by their job titles/roles. Give organisations pseudonyms

Format Please could you send everything in a single file. Use Word (and Excel for graphs etc). Import any graphics, diagrams etc into the document, and don’t forget to include any supporting material.

Structure Use the following headings to write up your project report . Title . Keywords (see below) . Summary (up to 150 words) . Context (min 200 words) . Aims and objectives (min 500 words) . Strategies (min 1500 words) . Outcomes (min 500 words) . Key learning points (min 500 words) . Next steps (min 250 words) . Contact details . Supporting documents * Tip: you may find it easier to do the first 3 bullet points when you have finished writing the report. The number of words is given to indicate the relative length of each section. If you need more words, please use them. Your data is important to us!

Title: Use a title that gives an idea of the project’s focus and scope, eg Developing support for the initial training and continuing professional development (CPD) of adult, voluntary and community learning (AVCL) tutors in Shropshire.

Key words Identify up to 5 key words that best summarise your project. This will help others to identify the usefulness of your project to their situation, eg include key words that define your development focus, the occupational area, and the type of strategies you used to make the improvements you were seeking, etc

Summary This is important; it helps readers identify projects that are most relevant to their needs. Please identify the focus, main strategies and main outcomes of your development project.

[email protected] 1 AR &D project report template March 2008 Context What do readers need to know about your organisation to enrich their understanding of your project? Eg include details about the type of organisation, staff, number and type of learners (full time, part time), programmes, something about the area, and some details of the specific context of the project.

Aims and objectives What were the issues that you needed to address? How did they emerge? What did you set out to achieve? Did your aims and objectives change over time?

Strategies What did you do? How did you go about it? Who was involved in planning and implementing the project? Which strategies were successful, which did not work as well as you anticipated? [It’s often as useful to learn from things that don’t work as expected]. Did you change the way you went about it? Were any aspects of your strategies particularly effective or innovative? How did you gather your data? (see below)

Outcomes What impact have your strategies had (i.e. what you did and how you did it) on those you are seeking to benefit? Eg learners, staff. What has been the ‘distance travelled’? Eg what was your starting point and what is the current end point? I.e. where you are now? What has changed? Are there further implications – ie are any changes foreseen?

Please give accurate and reliable data that shows the impact of your strategies and please try to use BOTH quantitative and qualitative data to show this. . Quantitative data: anything you can count that shows the project has had an impact. . Qualitative data: People’s views, opinions; what people think about your strategies or interventions; what they say about their experiences. . Case studies: little ‘stories’ are useful e.g. to show how the project has affected an individual.

Learning points What have you learned from doing this project? What has the organisation learned? How far did you achieve your aims? Were there any unintended/unexpected outcomes? What worked well, less well? Is there anything you would do differently? How will you share your findings? How far is what you did or achieved sustainable? I.e. how is it going to live on?

Next steps What are you planning to do next? How will you/the organisation take the project forward? Will you be changing your strategy to do this?

Contact details: Please make sure you attach contact details to your report Supporting documents: Include anything that might be useful to others and illustrates your strategy/approach/methods, eg questionnaires, manuals/information sheets, guidance notes, checklists.

Please send your report, by 20 March 2009, to: [email protected] and [email protected] Along with a piece of headed paper with your full trading address and bank details plus a separate invoice for £500

[email protected] 2 AR &D project report template March 2008