In recent years, the concept of teachers as researchers in both special and mainstream school settings has become part of our everyday language. Whilst many educational practitioners will see the need for research within their setting, many may not be familiar with the technical elements they believe are required. This book will shows how practitioners can engage in a wide range of educational research and explores its value to the practice of teaching and learning. The experienced contributors to this book introduce a new approach to practitioner research: The Accessible Cycle for Teachers (ARC-T), which empowers the practitioner by giving them a clear cyclical structure for the research process, using familiar language. By presenting a variety of case studies to support each phase of the cycle, the practitioner-research will gain confidence from real-life research studies within settings relevant to their own practice. The reader will be guided through each stage of the ARC-T process with a set of chapters presenting real stories of research in the field of special education.
This book acknowledges that the challenge for teachers is to create a body of evidence-based practice to ensure teaching is informed, reflective and thoughtful, and it supports the teacher-researcher in this goal throughout. Supporting appendices will give access to further resources.