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Synthesisability and optimising exploratory action research for continuing professional development.

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Title: Synthesisability and optimising exploratory action research for continuing professional development.
Authors: Stringer, Thomas1 (AUTHOR) tjs27@st-andrews.ac.uk
Source: Educational Action Research. Oct2025, Vol. 33 Issue 4, p677-694. 18p.
Subject Terms: *Action research, *Teachers, *Professional employee training, *Career development, *Research methodology, *Qualitative research, *Effective teaching, Research integrity
Abstract: Teachers need to engage in effective professional learning, and Exploratory Action Research (EAR) supports Continuing Professional Development (CPD) in building teachers' knowledge and skills, even in low-resourced environments. This paper first explores mentored EAR for CPD, its affordances, and challenges. Asking EAR to serve too many functions can frustrate efforts if teachers view research as taxing, or academics undervalue teachers' outputs. One way of optimising CPD is to shift the focus onto particular concepts of research quality to help teachers and academics develop professionally. This paper next conceptually examines the conjunction of EAR with Qualitative Research Synthesis (QRS), a secondary research method that synthesises and offers new perspectives on aggregated qualitative research outputs. A critical exploration of a published study applying QRS methods in a related field, Technology-Mediated Task Based Language Teaching, is given. The analysis suggests that a novel research orientation be adopted- that of 'synthesisability'. The contribution to the field is amelioration of the researcher-practitioner relationship, and the pedagogical implications are that teachers can show the thoroughness and value of their impactful work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Copyright of Educational Action Research is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
Database: Education Research Complete
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  Data: Synthesisability and optimising exploratory action research for continuing professional development.
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="JN" term="%22Educational+Action+Research%22">Educational Action Research</searchLink>. Oct2025, Vol. 33 Issue 4, p677-694. 18p.
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  Data: Teachers need to engage in effective professional learning, and Exploratory Action Research (EAR) supports Continuing Professional Development (CPD) in building teachers' knowledge and skills, even in low-resourced environments. This paper first explores mentored EAR for CPD, its affordances, and challenges. Asking EAR to serve too many functions can frustrate efforts if teachers view research as taxing, or academics undervalue teachers' outputs. One way of optimising CPD is to shift the focus onto particular concepts of research quality to help teachers and academics develop professionally. This paper next conceptually examines the conjunction of EAR with Qualitative Research Synthesis (QRS), a secondary research method that synthesises and offers new perspectives on aggregated qualitative research outputs. A critical exploration of a published study applying QRS methods in a related field, Technology-Mediated Task Based Language Teaching, is given. The analysis suggests that a novel research orientation be adopted- that of 'synthesisability'. The contribution to the field is amelioration of the researcher-practitioner relationship, and the pedagogical implications are that teachers can show the thoroughness and value of their impactful work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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  Data: <i>Copyright of Educational Action Research is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.</i> (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
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        Value: 10.1080/09650792.2024.2362706
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        Text: English
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              Text: Oct2025
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