Engaging students in a simulated collaborative action research project: an evaluation of a participatory approach to learning

This article reports an action research project designed to develop and implement a new participatory learning and teaching approach to enable postgraduate healthcare students to develop skills and knowledge in preparation for undertaking an action research study within their practice setting. The learning and teaching approach was based upon the principles of action learning and involved engaging students in a simulated collaborative action research project. The goal was to assist students to apply action research approaches to advance healthcare practice. Since action research is premised upon the core concepts of democracy and collaboration, the primary emphasis was to engage students in a democratic collaborative learning process in order to develop skills and knowledge related to action research. Requiring them to act as both students and co-researchers during the simulated action research project was considered an appropriate means to facilitate such processes whilst fostering confidence in students to direct and importantly take ownership of the learning process. The findings demonstrate that the relinquishment of power from lecturer to student was pivotal to the success of this participatory approach to learning. The process leading to this, however, created a decentring of role identities and a stage of dissonance within the student group.