The practitioner-researcher : developing theory from practice / Peter Jarvis.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 189-194) and index.

Part One: Understanding Connections Between Research and Practice
1. The Practitioner-Researcher
2. Educating the Practitioner-Researcher
3. Researching Practice
Part Two: The Nature of Practice
4. The Practitioner's Knowledge
5. Practicing
6. Reflective Practice
Part Three: Research in Practice
7. Case Studies
8. Action Research
9. Collaborative Research
10. Using Documents
11. Small-Scale Surveys
Part Four: Practice and Theory
12. Developing a Personal Theory
13. Theory Reconceptualized
14. From Practice to Theory?
Part Five: Reflections on the Practitioner-Researcher
15. Practitioner Research and the Learning Society
16. Practitioners' Continuing and Learning
17. The Universities and the World of the Practitioner-Researcher

Counter "Jarvis does a real service by introducing a new vision of research into the current debates over the nature and mission of the academy." --Continuing Higher Education Review "Jarvis has managed to bridge the worlds of theory and professional practice in a way that will help each better understand the other." --Jon Wergin, professor of educational studies, School of Education, Virginia Commonwealth University Genuine understanding of any field can only be developed through practice in that field. Peter Jarvis, an internationally known authority in the field of professional adult and continuing education, shows how theories of practice evolve from the practice itself and are unique to each practitioner. Doing professional work gives practitioners many opportunities to question, test, and revise theories taught in graduate programs. Such practice-based research gives rise to personalized theories of practice and also raises new questions for personal exploration. Using examples and vignettes drawn from professional fields and settings around the world, Jarvis provides valuable insights into the nature of professional practice, the ways professionals learn, and how education for practice can be enhanced at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Jarvis examines why so many practitioners find their professional education inadequate preparation for actual practice, and he calls for a partnership between higher education and the professional workplace that will meet the challenges of the relationship between the two. The Practitioner-Researcher is designed to help all practitioners for whom research is a tool in improving practice--from graduate students and their professors to employees in diverse industries or professional groups--and to facilitate an understanding of the relationship between practice and theory within the worlds of work and learning.