German approaches and international perspectives

Action research is a specific approach to empirical school research. In fourteen articles different authors explain, how, why and under which circumstances AR – done by teachers and focused on practice-related problems in schools – can initiate curriculum development and help teachers to increase their professionalism. This book contains articles from European authors on the theoretical and practical development of action research. In Europe this approach is also called „practitioner research“, „school improvement research“, „teacher research“ or „team research“. All of these synonyms focus on a type of educational research concentrating directly on practice-related problems in schools and aiming for practical improvements. The research practitioners are teachers as well as students, and the places of research are all fields of everyday school life. Experts from United Kingdom, Austria, Belgium, and Germany discuss history, nature, purpose, and outcomes of action research.