Tom Maxwell's Current Projects
Back to Tom Maxwell's home pageProfessional Doctorates
Currently I am working on a refined version of the paper entitled ‘The Impact of Professional Doctorates on Doctoral Education in Australia’ presented at the European Community Education Research Annual Conference, Geneva, 13-16th September. I am research the status of Professional Doctorates in Europe and also their relationship with Bologna
Action Research
The manuscript Foregrounding Action Research is in progress with three chapters and more completely drafted. The work is unambiguously addressing teachers in classrooms and aims to assist them with making improvements in significant areas with a minimum of fuss yet with definite rigour involved.
This book intends to address gaps in the available literature (1) the lack of a strong, practical model of reconnaissance as a pre-cursor to the action research spiral, (2) there are no action research books that give sufficient attention to collecting baseline data as part of reconnaissance (or before planning starts) and (3) there is certainly insufficient attention to the time dimension in action research. I address this using data trend development and analysis (linked to baseline data) as the key form of evidence about improvement having taken place or not.
I am writing a self-contained book which shows the complexities of action research rather than producing a simple step by step guide. I searched for a theoretical framework that suited my experience and my supervision of more than 200 undergraduate action research projects. John Elliott's work has been privileged in this regard. I wanted to use my seven years of experience in teaching final year BEd interns, who use action research in their internship, to good effect.
Research Management Matrix
With Dr Robyn Smyth and Dr Darren Ryder I have begun work on the manuscript of The Research Management Matrix: A Practical and Conceptual Approach to Research Supervision.
This book sets out how to develop a well-researched framework for research in the social sciences hat assists greatly in the management of the project. It also shows researchers, supervisors and postgraduate students how to use the framework as it is being constructed. Researchers, particularly new researchers, would benefit from a single view which encompasses their whole project.
Readers can construct a single overview of their entire research project based upon a matrix/framework. Researchers and supervisors will be shown how to make use of the framework to achieve timely completions of quality products.
The book responds to practical desires to marry intellectual work with the reality demands of doing the research. In the framework the research questions are placed down the left hand side. To complete the framework, across the top researchers can place their key features of the research methodology. The multi-dimensionality of the matrix comes with the introduction of realities such as time frames and personnel required to the matrix. Thus the intellectual is linked with the practical in one simple approach. Using our experience as researchers and supervisors we develop alternative mechanisms of construction, case studies of how we and our students have effectively used the framework as well as an integrative case study which develops from one chapter to the next.
Rural (Teacher) Education Project
The Rural (Teacher) Education Project (R(T)EP) has reached the end of its funding and we are in the process of finalizing the two volume final report.International Education
Bhutan
My work with Bhutan is on-going. See http://www.une.edu.au/education/community_involvement/bhutan/index.php.
Together with colleagues I recently completed a review of the Bachelor of Education in distance education mode at Samtse College of Education which is part of the Royal University of Bhutan (see http://www.rub.edu.bt/). The report was entitled ‘Focus on student learning Outcomes – Report of the Review of the Bachelor of Education (Primary) in Distance Education Mode In-service Program (to the Ministry of Education and the Royal University of Bhutan).
Recently NB Gajmer and I completed an action research project that NB undertook in his own workplace. We have submitted ‘Improving the Use of Articles, Prepositions and Tenses: A Case Study of Action Research in Samtse College of Education, Bhutan’ to a journal for publication.
Currently Mr Nandu Giri is doing the analysis of data from our project on the effectiveness of teaching practice for undergraduate students at Samtse College of Education.
Zambia
I have recently completed an application for funds (DelPHE - British Council) for a three year development project in collaboration with University of Zambia and UNICEF (Zambia). This project aims to address key MDGs in Zambia by increasing human capacity (HRD) in the University of Zambia (UNZA) and associated institutions. The focus of activity is teacher education for multi-grade teaching/learning in association with an experienced overseas partner, the University of New England (UNE) in Australia. Members of the School of Education at UNE have more than a decade of experience in multi-grade HRD in collaboration with UNICEF and other partners. The project will also be facilitated by UNICEF (Zambia) closely in consultation with the Zambian Ministry of Education. The ultimate goal is to transfer leadership in pre- and in-service teacher education in the area of multi-grade from UNE to UNZA. Its title is ‘Zambian Teachers in Multi-grade Education’.
Transition Studies in Teacher Education
Our HEIP-funded project of 2005 has been reported in a number of ways (see publications). The original report can be downloaded from http://www.une.edu.au/education/projects/tasp.php.
Members of the original team have collaborated with staff from the University of Technology, Sydney and the University of Wollongong to develop an application for funding (Carrick Institute) to demonstrate and evaluate three models of reflective practice for final year students in order for them to explore and understand fully the new standards regarding teacher qualifications within NSW. The three models engage students in reflective processes within a layered professional community of practice. Within the professional community the various stakeholders will act as mentors to the students as they engage with the reality of teaching and in meeting the requirements to be a teacher in NSW. The three universities and key stakeholders will operate through a common website (see Figure 1).
The three universities will collaborate (1) to create the MUSTER website (based upon previous work) and (2) incorporate MUSTER into one or more of their teacher education programs. The professional online professional community of practice will consist of the key stakeholders who are the final year students, beginning teachers, experienced teachers from the Australian College of Educators, academics and a NSW Institute of Teachers (NSW IT) representative. As such this project will, amongst other things, ‘promote and support strategic change’ in three major teacher education institutions (Carrick objective (a)) and will address the links between teacher education programs and teaching practice in the field.
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