Evaluating the Effects of Collaborative Action Research on Teachers' Basic Psychological Needs, Efficacy and Knowledge

Abstract

Research offers accounts of the reasons for variation in the quality of experiences across professional development models (Yoon, Duncan, Lee, Scarloss & Shapley, 2007), which has resulted in “a landscape littered with failed approaches” (Lierberman & Wood, 2001, p. 174) in traditional models and recent approaches have proven ineffective in providing opportunities for teachers that promote change in practice or student learning (Darling-Hammond & Stykes, 1999; Darling-Hammond, Wei, Andree, Richardson, & Orphanos, 2009; Fullan, Hill & Crevloa, 2005). The purpose of this study is to use basic psychological needs theory, an important aspect of human development, as a lens to determine if redesigning the action research model to include structured collaboration, expert coaching and extended learning time would provide improved support for teachers’ basic psychological needs and efficacy. Designed as a single-case embedded study, this is a first-hand account of four teachers’ developmental process and how they respond under the specified conditions. The study demonstrates potential links between teacher-led professional development, active meaningful learning, data-based decision making, job-embedded collaboration and autonomy; job-embedded collaboration, active meaningful learning and extended time and relatedness; and the collaborative action research process and job-embedded collaboration and knowledge.