Action research: Abu Dhabi II

In 2010, CfBT Education Trust published a book of action research conducted by ten primary schools and kindergartens in Abu Dhabi. The book was a huge success and inspired many teachers working in the region. The book was endorsed by the Abu Dhabi Education Council, whose Head of Research, Professor Masood Abdulla Badri, wrote in the foreword to the publication ‘initiatives such as this encourage and empower our classroom practitioners’ and called for the project to be built upon, both in other primary schools and kindergartens, but also in secondary schools in the Emirate.

With this in mind, CfBT offered a further 50 teachers the opportunity to participate in professional development workshops to learn how to conduct action research projects in educational settings. The training included: designing research questions; an introduction to qualitative and quantitative research methodologies; an overview of data analysis; and a brief discussion on research ethics. Following the training, four kindergartens, four girls’ schools and three boys’ schools decided that they would like to conduct an action research project.

The following chapters of this book have all been written by the teachers who participated in the action research project. They explain, for each school and kindergarten:

• the background to the research topic each chose and the reason they chose it;
• the methodology that they selected;
• the findings from their project; and
• conclusions and reflections on what was learnt and what might happen next.