Classroom action research as continuous professional development: teachers' experiences and views

Abstract

The key to professional development is inquiry. For teachers, it means that they becoming researchers, inquiring into their practices for purposes of professional renewal. This paper reports on teachers experiences in doing collaborative classroom action research and their views on classroom action research as their continuous professional development. The respondents were science and mathematics teachers and teacher' educators who participated in courses conducted at SEAMEO RECSAM, Penang, Malaysia. The data were drawn from their project works, journals, reports, and questionnaires. This study noted that most of the teachers acknowledge the barriers and benefits of doing action research. They agreed that action research can be used as effective tool for their professional development.