Guidelines for Conducting Action Research Studies in Software Engineering

Without careful methodological guidance, case studies in software engineering are difficult to plan, design and execute. While there are a number of broad guidelines for case study research, there are none that specifically address the needs of a software engineer undertaking multiple case studies in an industrial setting. Through a synthesis of existing best practices in case study research, we provide a set of comprehensive guidelines for conducting multiple case studies in software engineering research. Our guidelines can assist software engineering researchers with all stages of multiple case study research, although in this paper we concentrate on the early phases, such as focusing the case study and detailed plan design. To date, three exploratory research projects found our guidelines very useful. We illustrate our guidelines with examples from one of these projects.

Although action research is recognized as an important tool in promoting reflective practice and educational change, little has been written about what it would mean for pre-service teachers to engage in action research. I examine 11 pre-service teachers' experiences of action research and unravel ways in which they made connections among pedagogy, research, and change. I contend that crafting an action-research course needs careful deliberation, because its content can powerfully influence the shape of teaching practice. I explain four critical components of such a course: reflection and inquiry; learning about students; learning about pedagogical content knowledge; and learning about social justice and democracy. Through a close study of three teacher candidates' action-research studies, I show how they used this framework as a springboard to develop and enhance their commitments, ideas, and practices as beginning teachers.

Paradigms for experimentation and empirical studies in software engineering

Although most scientific and engineering disciplines view empiricism as a basic aspect of their discipline, that view has not been the tradition in software engineering. There should be a symbiotic relationship between the development of theories and empirical studies that test and evolve that theory. This talk discusses of the role of empirical study in the understanding and improvement of the software product and process. It offers a personal, historical perspective of the use of empiricism through a series of example applications that demonstrate the various roles that empiricism can play. The examples are taken from the author?s own experience and include the use of empirical study to improve an organization's product quality and productivity in the Software Engineering Laboratory at NASA/Goddard and to evaluate and evolve the effectiveness of various software technologies for use in improving the dependability of software. It also suggests research directions for empirical study in software engineering.

An action research study on improving students’ written production in French as a second language was initiated with the aim of solving the difficulties they en- counter while writing in French. The main goal of this research is to increase the literacy level and improve students’ writing skills in French. Descriptive statistics was used. The techniques used during the research are observation of the current state and monitoring the course of the research through the testing technique. The interview technique, through focus group discussions, was used before and after the conducted action research. The research findings indicate that the application of various interesting and unusual activities leads to positive results. The respondents confirmed they had significantly improved their writing skills in French by being actively engaged in this action research. The results also suggest that participants became more aware of mistakes they often made while writing in French either out of ignorance or insecurity. Students’ attention span and the amount of time they are willing to invest in doing an activity stand out as the key outcomes of the research. The insights into this action research could hopefully help many teachers ‒ edu- cational practitioners to raise the quality of their work so that its practical application in the teaching process is of greater importance.

This article highlights how action research (AR) effectively supports the establishment and further development of an AI-supported system of systems lifecycle management with digital threads. The starting point is the growing complexity of networked product and system landscapes, in which technical, organizational, and data related issues are inextricably intertwined. AR combines planned intervention with systematic observation and joint reflection in real business environments. In several industry academic collaborations, recurring cycles of diagnosis, planning, intervention, and reflection were used to integrate heterogeneous processes and data models across the entire lifecycle: from CAD CAE PDM couplings to endtoend change processes to MBSE embeddings with SysML and model driven mechatronics. The results show three core effects. First, AR promotes organizationwide learning: boundaries between mechanics, electronics, software and IT are dissolving, acceptance of new roles and data sovereignty is increasing, and understanding of quality, consistency, and traceability is growing. Second, AR facilitates gradual technical integration because social negotiation and technical architecture are designed together including links to IoT MES data, digital twin approaches, and sustainability metrics (e.g., LCA integration into development decisions). Third, measurable improvements are emerging throughout the lifecycle, such as shorter lead times, more robust change statuses, and traceable thread links across domains and organizations. At the same time, the limitations become transparent: case transferability remains limited, the balance between participation and analytical distance requires clear roles, and SoS constellations with many partners require patience and reliable governance. A practical design framework can be derived from the overall view: AR serves as a sociotechnical catalyst that combines MBSE, digital threads, and sustainability into a learning system. Early joint hypothesis formation, iterative piloting with clear maturity criteria, the coupling of qualitative reflection and quantitative indicators, and the anchoring of communities of practice are crucial to success. In this way, AR not only enables the introduction of new tools, but also the transformation of the development culture a prerequisite for ensuring SoS capability, transparency, and adaptability in the digital age.

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsStress and Release in an Urban Estate: A Study in Action Research. John Spencer David R. HunterDavid R. Hunter Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Social Service Review Volume 39, Number 1Mar., 1965 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/641715 Views: 1Total views on this site Copyright 1965 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Tackling racism in prisons has a relatively long policy, practice, and research history in England and Wales. However, clear evidence of success in reducing racism in prisons has been, and still is, difficult to find. This article is based on a unique study that was carried out either side of the new millennium (late 1999 to mid-2001), but no equivalent exercise has been repeated since. Due to a unique set of circumstances at the time the study was carried out, it became possible to employ an action research approach that required policymakers, practitioners, volunteers, and researchers to agree on: an emergent research design; implementation; intervention; and measurement. There are many forms of action research, but this study could best be defined as a “utilization-focused evaluation, which is particularly applicable to the criminal justice environment. This approach also included elements of participatory action research.” The emphasis here is to show how the action research approach can be both more systematic and more flexible than traditional social science approaches. This applies to both epistemological and research methods considerations, because, by combining theory and action, action research can provide a more viable way of ensuring that policy works in practice, and is sensitive to unique institutional exigencies. Throughout, discussion is contextualised using policy, research and methodology texts from the period when the research was commissioned, but given an overall methodological context by referencing more recent methodology text books. The article first outlines the context in which the action research study was commissioned, before providing a summary of the international research findings on race relations in prisons, from which key concepts for the project were initially operationalized. The chapter then explains how the specific participatory action research approach was selected as the most appropriate design, the extent to which the approach was successful, and why. The article ends with a discussion of the implications of findings and conclusions from this study for current policy and methodological approaches.

ABSTRACTAs educational interventions that integrate death issues in the school curriculum are rarely designed, implemented and evaluated, our action research (AR) project aimed at investigating the complexities of integrating the concepts of loss and grief in the primary school curriculum of Cyprus. The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze convergences and divergences between AR and lesson study (LS), as they emerged in our project. We particularly focus on the ways that AR served to legitimate ethically and politically those aspects of the project that constituted the experimentation of lesson plans on loss and grief. The AR and LS elements of our project functioned differently and served different purposes, and we speculate that this is not irrelevant to the controversial aspects of the lesson plans’ topic, namely loss and grief. The paper argues that it may be strategically important, for ethical and political reasons, to both demarcate and associate AR and LS, navigating between them, particularly if a controversial issue is involved.

Research in the fields of second-language acquisition and education has supported the value of written reflection, but scant research has explored how other types of reflection may come into play when learners employ strategies and produce oral language. This paper reports findings from an action research study that focused on integrating individual oral reflection using digital recorders to facilitate 18 graduate-level English-as-an-additionallanguage (EAL) students’ learning of academic speaking skills. The qualitative and quantitative results provide important empirical information about what strategies graduate students used, the relationships between the learners’ strategic behaviours and oral performance, and differences in the quality of reflection between advanced and nonadvanced proficiency learners. The study’s findings indicate that weekly spoken reflection functions as a mediational tool that learners can use to deal with their language-learningrelated thoughts and emotions, which have important implications because of the online nature of speaking. In addition to generating empirical knowledge about a modality of reflection that has direct pedagogical implications, the paper includes a personal reflection on the challenges involved in conducting action research, for the purpose of inviting further dialogue and reflection among action researchers.

We present an action research study on student engagement in group work. The study was carried out within CPT202 Software Engineering Group Projects, a UK Level Two module with 370 students enrolled during the 2020-2021 academic year. The primary finding of our action research is that peer evaluation could encourage student engagement in group work. In addition, student engagement in group work positively correlates with their academic performances. We also discuss several effective strategies in supporting student engagement in the group work of software engineering projects. The results and findings have pedagogical implications in encouraging student engagement not only in software engineering group projects, but also in general activities that involve students working in a group.

Purpose The purpose of this action research study was to design, implement and evaluate interventions that enhanced the induction program for new teachers in a P-12 school district. At the outset, we hoped the study would provide new teacher support resulting in improved teaching practices, increased job satisfaction and/or increased teacher retention among the target population. With this in mind, our research question was: What structures and supports from a school-university partnership facilitate capacity-building among university teacher education faculty, school and district leaders, mentor teachers, and new teachers in the context of an induction program?Design/methodology/approach This study used an intervention-centered mode of action research methodology that aims to make systems-level change. This type of action research intends to solve real organizational problems with a focus on conducting “research in action” rather than “research about action” (Coghlan and Brannick, 2014, pp. 5–6). This approach necessitates that data collection and analysis are iterative processes, occurring throughout the research process, instead of solely at the end stages of the research process. Our action research process used Coghlan and Brannick’s (2014) action research cycle model. The cyclical four-step process includes constructing (verifying the problem in the local context), planning action, taking action and evaluating action. Facilitated by the interim director of a Professional development schools (PDS) partnership in the Southeastern United States, a team of co-researchers which included three university teacher education faculty and four school district administrators used action research methodology to create systemic change that enhanced the district’s induction program. We collected data through multiple qualitative methods, including surveys, focus groups, observations and interviews during the course of three action research cycles. These data and our theoretical framework (complex adaptive systems theory and social network theory) informed two major interventions that supported new teachers during the challenging first year of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.Findings The interventions and the research process were mutually beneficial for both institutions and contributed to professional learning and growth at the individual, group and system levels. The three major findings described include: (1) engaging in collaborative action research is mutually beneficial for both schools and universities; (2) induction programs benefit from university resources; (3) learning communities build all educators’ professional capacity.Research limitations/implications Our research recommendations are: (1) more research is needed on the benefits of school-university partnerships to induction programs; (2) school-university partnerships should leverage action research to improve systems; (3) within school-university partnerships, the connection between collaborative leadership and sustainability requires further research. One limitation was that this study was conducted in a single school-university partnership context involving a large public university and a mid-sized public school district that had a well-established partnership. More induction-centered research is needed in different types of school-university partnership contexts that have varying levels of longevity and partnership structures.Practical implications Our recommendations for practice include (1) school-university partnerships should leverage collaborative learning communities to catalyze individual, group and systems-level learning and change, and (2) school-university partnerships must prioritize induction support to strengthen the teaching profession.Originality/value Since Hunt’s (2014) literature review on induction support in PDS partnerships, very few empirical studies have been conducted in this research area. This study, which examined induction support in a PDS partnership over a two-year period, makes a significant contribution to the scholarly literature on induction teacher support in school-university partnership contexts. Facilitated by the interim director of a PDS partnership, a team of co-researchers, which included three university teacher education faculty and four school district administrators, used action research methodology to create systems-level supports that enhanced the district’s induction program.

BackgroundGood governance and regulatory supervision are required to conduct research in an international public health emergency context and to ensure compliance with ethical standards. The “Strengthening research ethics governance and regulatory oversight in Central America and the Dominican Republic in response to the COVID-19 pandemic” study is a regional effort in which research ethics stakeholders participated in addressing research ethics governance and preparedness response challenges to the COVID-19 pandemic in Central America and the Dominican Republic.MethodsA qualitative action research study was conducted following a participatory approach. Research ethics stakeholders in Central America and the Dominican Republic were mapped; a regional webinar and three virtual workshops were conducted discussing research ethics governance, ethics review and collaborative research practice during the pandemic. A roundtable session presented results and obtained feedback on a draft of a policy to strengthen regional research ethics governance.ResultsCountries across Central America and the Dominican Republic are at different stages in their development of research ethics systems. Countries with more established systems before COVID-19 were better organized and prepared to respond. This finding argues against improvisation and supports further work on strengthening governance of research ethics systems. Community engagement in research ethics public policy-making is practically absent in the region. Research and research ethics collaboration schemes are lacking amongst the countries; however, there are incipient initiatives in the region, such as the Central America and Caribbean Network of Research Ethics Committees. A policy brief with recommendations on how to advance towards strengthening the governance of research ethics systems was prepared and submitted to the Central American Integration System for analysis and possible approval.ConclusionNational research ethics systems in Central America and the Dominican Republic were unprepared to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic with respect to research oversight and effective collaboration. In most cases, national research ethics systems were found to be weak, and regional research collaboration was practically absent. To promote collaboration, a joint strategy needs to be developed with a regional vision towards sharing knowledge and best practices.

ObjectivesValue-based healthcare (VBHC) strives to improve the healthcare system by focusing on value of care, that is, patient relevant outcomes relative to the costs for achieving these outcomes. Within VBHC, patient participation is crucial to identify patient relevant outcomes and value improvement potential. However, patient participation in VBHC initiatives remains limited. Therefore, we aimed to improve patient participation within VBHC teams with the ultimate aim to develop a practical guide for patient participation in VBHC.DesignAn action research study.SettingThis study was conducted in seven collaborating Dutch hospitals from March 2023 to November 2024.ParticipantsSeven VBHC teams were selected to participate in the cyclical action research steps, that is, orientation, planning, implementation, and evaluation, in which patient participation was implemented or improved. These included the following patient groups: prostate cancer, vulnerable elderly, breast cancer, diabetes, maternity care, colorectal cancer and chronic kidney disease.OutcomesBoth qualitative and quantitative data were collected. Qualitative data included observations and minutes of meetings with the intervention teams. Quantitative data included responses to the Public and Patient Engagement Evaluation Tool (PPEET) by multiple members of the intervention (n=7) and control teams (n=94) at three time points (T1=6 months, T2=12 months, T3=end of study). Qualitative data were thematically analysed and quantitative data were analysed descriptively. Finally, the data were triangulated to create an overview of lessons learnt in improving patient participation.ResultsPatient participation goals varied across teams, leading to diverse actions, such as establishing a diabetes patient panel and distributing questionnaires to patients with colorectal cancer. PPEET results show that 71% of intervention team members reported that patient participation had an impact on the team’s outcomes compared with 44% in control teams (T3). Furthermore, 80% of the intervention team members initially wanted training in patient participation (T1), which dropped to 29% at T3. Overall, 22 lessons in improving patient participation in multidisciplinary project teams were identified and compiled into a practical guide.ConclusionsThe action research process improved the process and impact of patient participation in the intervention teams. Furthermore, the results indicate that the action research process enhanced the team members’ knowledge and skills on patient participation. The practical guide developed in this study can be used to support implementation of patient participation in VBHC.

In this chapter I will describe an action research (AR) study that I used to develop local managers in a multinational company where I was a senior manager and had taken over responsibility for managing a newly set up global engineering operation. My study also contributed to completing a PhD thesis with the University of South Australia. I have structured the chapter as follows: I have started with a description of the context for my study and the reasons why the problem addressed in the study was important to the organisation where it was carried out, to me, and to the six managers reporting to me who became my coresearchers in the study. I will explain why I selected the action research model that I used it in my study. I will then introduce my Australian doctoral supervisors, the Singaporean managers who were involved as coresearchers as well as three other Singaporean managers, who were also doctoral candidates and who were being supervised by the same supervisors, with whom I formed an action learning set during the study. The role played by a virtual action learning set that I formed with an international group of action researchers will also be explained. I will then describe the setting which was a Japanese company, where the study took place. This will be followed by a description of the research carried out. I will follow this up with insights from my study. I will close the chapter with a reflection on how my study could have been done differently as I have now gained experience as an academic and supervisor of doctoral students who are using action research.