This article addresses the conceptual question "what is lesson study?" as an issue that arises in the context of the globalisation of lesson study as a method for improving teaching and learning beyond its presumed origins in the Japanese education system. To what extent can adaptations of the method in different national settings be…

Curriculum aims often remain unrealised aspirations. This is because the values and principles implicit in them fail to get articulated in forms that can effectively inform and guide the practice of teaching. Ideas such as "learner-centred education", "independent/autonomous learning", "self-directed learning",…

The article will review some of Bridget Somekh's action research projects as attempts to build networks of trust and reciprocity across a range of educational stake-holders. It will also examine Bridget's wider role within the education action research movement as a whole, looking at her achievements as a facilitator of networks of action…

This article is a retrospective critique of "Becoming Critical" by Carr & Kemmis. Into it are woven responses to other retrospective reviews of the book by Susan Groundwater-Smith, Susan Noffke, and Carr & Kemmis themselves. The basic argument is that "Becoming Critical" was overdependent on the work of Jurgen Habermas…

The relationship between teacher appraisal and educational research in the United Kingdom is illustrated by the personal and professional experiences of an educator. An autobiographical analysis of this relationship, in light of M. Foucault's analysis of the relationship between power and knowledge, is presented. A clear relationship between…

This article focuses on the problems, dilemmas, and issues which confront facilitators of teacher-based action research in schools. Three action research projects in the United Kingdom are described. An attempt is made to clarify the theoretical and philosophical assumptions which underpin the action research movement in education. (IAH)

Schools and universities in the United Kingdom are coming to accept performance appraisal as a fact of life. The first part of this paper discusses appraisal policies as "negotiated ambiguities." Ambiguous criteria concerning wording subject to misinterpretation has created reservations on the side of the National Union of Teachers. This…

Changing views of models of evaluation are considered, with a review of models for program evaluation debated in the 1970s. The evaluation of a police probationer training program illustrates the relationship between the democratic evaluation advocated by B. MacDonald and action research. (SLD)