ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a description of how to carry out a pedagogical action research study that would be sufficiently robust to be disseminated at learning and teaching conferences as well as improving the academic’s teaching practice. To make the process as accessible as possible, the author has used her own acronym of ‘ITDEM’D’ to explain a practical step by step approach to the pedagogical action research cycle. In the acronym, ‘I’ stands for ‘Identifying a problem or paradox’ in an academic’s own teaching practice. This could be an issue related to students’ academic performance, or equally it could be an issue troubling the academic about their own teaching practice. ‘T’ represents ‘Thinking of ways to tackle the concern that has been identified’, which basically means choosing a method of enquiry. ‘D’ stands for ‘Doing it’, which involves not only carrying out the study itself but thinking beforehand of the practicalities that will be involved. This might include gaining access to participants, location, timing and ethical issues. ‘E’ denotes ‘Evaluating it’, which means analyzing the research findings. ‘M’ stands for ‘Modifying practice’, which is one of the critical purposes of pedagogical action research where the aim is to reflect on the research findings to improve learning and teaching practice. This is the ‘action’ part of action research. The final step of this process is represented by ‘D’ which stands for ‘Disseminating your findings.’ This is the ‘research’ part of action research and requires sharing and presenting the research findings and conclusions to peers. The author has illustrated the ‘ITDEM’D’ process by presenting two quite different methodological approaches to the same issue; one of which was hypothetical, the other was a real example taken from the authors’ own research.
