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“Research by Design”: Forms of Heuristic Research in English Language Teaching

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  • First Online:
Second Handbook of English Language Teaching

Part of the book series: Springer International Handbooks of Education ((SIHE))

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Abstract

This chapter examines educational research approaches that study human activity through time by intervening in those activities. These forms of “research by design” share common features that can be termed ‘heuristic’. Participants engage in defining the focus and designing interventions to address it; the engagement is iterative and it generally leads to understanding (or ‘theorizations’) which can be applied in similar contexts and circumstances. Eight forms of research are examined: action research, design-based research (DBR), design-based implementation research (DBIR), developmental work research (DWR), lesson study, networked improvement communities, participatory action research (PAR), and social design experiments. The chapter summarizes these eight forms and reviews key research within each one. It details common principles shared by the eight forms and proposes a framework that defines their ‘family’ resemblance within research in general education and in English language teaching.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Donald Freeman & Claudia Cameratti

Authors
  1. Donald Freeman
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  2. Claudia Cameratti
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Donald Freeman .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Hong Kong , Hong Kong SAR, Hong Kong

    Xuesong Gao

Appendix A

Appendix A

Exemplars of publication for different forms of heuristic research in the field of ELT

Form of heuristic work

Exemplar from English Language Teaching

Type of publication

Action research

Burns (2005)

Paper in peer- reviewed journal

Burns (2009)

Book

Lesson study

Anwar (2015)

Paper in peer-reviewed journal

Participatory action research

Malebese (2017)

Paper in peer-reviewed journal

Networked improvement communities

Li (2015)

Dissertation

Design-based research

Hung (2017)

Paper in peer-reviewed journal

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Freeman, D., Cameratti, C. (2019). “Research by Design”: Forms of Heuristic Research in English Language Teaching. In: Gao, X. (eds) Second Handbook of English Language Teaching. Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58542-0_53-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58542-0_53-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-58542-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-58542-0

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