Action Research: a New Perspective in Math and Science Education

This report is aimed to highlight the value of the action research methodology as a "catalyst for change" [1]. Our experience involved two Italian Secondary School, where small groups of students of the last two years, under the supervision of their teachers, respectively designed a drone powered by photovoltaic cells and an energy management system for classrooms, based on sensor networks and renewable energy sources. The basic processes of action research, as in Lewin (1946), according to the well-known paradigm PLAN – ACT – OBSERVE – REFLECT, with an EVALUATION phase after each stage, in order to deciding eventual transitions to next stages, required the full involvement of all participating students. The teachers, in turn, played the role of actor-researchers in these experimental activities. The overall vision consists in schools with enriched mindset, overlooking outside the classrooms, open to the territory, able to interact in wider horizons, in an European and worldwide outlook. Action research also involved a community of teachers as a framework for training and development of the didactic [2]. Students are the leading actors in the research action process, realized using the teaching strategies of Applied Problem Solving (APS) and the peer to peer education with seminars, lectures and workshops organized in different schools, but synergistically. Finally, the projects were accepted in an international forum, SKYSEF, held in Japan in August 2015. SKYSEF’s committee requires to the students a personal communication of their research, by scheduling parallel sessions of talks, divided by areas of interest, and poster sessions, adopting the practices of the official scientific conferences of the adult researchers. After spending several months in implementing their projects, repeatedly bumping into unavoidable obstacles, the students had the singular and satisfying opportunity of sharing their findings and socializing with international peers and teachers. The inspiring atmosphere immediately created contributed to a very fluid negotiation of knowledge, to sharing of best practices, to the generation of new ideas and to the creation of promising contacts, as it would be desirable for any educational activity in general and definitely for science.