Conducting action research

These learning environments may be brick and mortar classrooms, online learning environments, or a hybrid mix of the research is either research initiated to solve an immediate problem or a reflective process of progressive problem solving that integrates research, action, and analysis. The integration of action includes the development and implementation of a plan or strategy to address the focus of the research. The research includes building a knowledge base to understand the effectiveness of the action or plan being considered. Put simple, action research can be viewed as a form of disciplined inquiry utilized by teachers, instructors, and supervisors to better understand student learning and teacher are many guides and permutations available for conducting action research in the classroom. The purpose of this post is to get you up and running with four basic steps needed to conduct action research in your own first step in conducting action research is to identify and define the focus of your investigation. Finally, you’ll need to identify a plan to effectively study and answer the questions you’ve note that action research typically will include an examination of the school, programs, students, and instructional practices. You’ll want to consider what aspects of these areas will you need to study in your research. You develop your focus and identify a specific frame to guide your thinking, you should also adjust your research questions. And revising the focus and guiding questions for your action research will help you understand what elements you are interested in examining. You will also need to identify questions you can effectively gather information about and conduct your research. Second step involved in conducting action research includes collecting data to use in answering your research questions.

Action research in teaching and learning

Collected data may also consist of student portfolios, observations, and other sources of data you collect may also consist of research conducted to identify best practices, or research tested techniques. After i have identified the focus, keywords, and relevant search terms, i can continue my examination at the library or using online ’ll want to make sure that your data will address the focus of your action research. Finally, you’ll want to use the data to answer your research questions and/or prove your are multiple strategies and techniques that can be used as you analyze your data. Inductive on the other hand has you moving from the theory and using your hypothesis and the data to confirm your also note that it is possible and appropriate to move from one frame to another, or include bits and pieces across the research process. You’ll just want to understand where you’re obtaining your results, and what lenses you’re using as you analyze and interpret your fourth step includes you making a decision about your research and identifying next possible actions. Let us suppose you have researched the question above about teacher morale and have uncovered the root cause of the problem. You’ve surveyed the students, teachers, and supervisors and you know exactly how to “fix” the now have to take action and this includes several possibilities. Third, you may choose to modify or make small tweaks to the school, program, or relationships between all partners to address the culture of the decision on how you take action will be determined by a multitude of factors…some of which may be out of your control. Please note that action research typically follows a cycle as you move through each of the steps. As you work through the sequence, you’ll learn a bit more about the problem or research question. You’ll use this information as a way to improve your focus, research, or action in subsequent steps through the cycle.

You’ll continue to observe, act, and reflect as you continue to plan and operate in the uing the action research ation gained from previous research may open new avenues of research. In this cycle, you are continually involved in assessing instruction and seeking ways of improving your practice, classroom, or even more guidance, please review some of the resources i used to compile this post:A practical guide to action research for literacy research: a guide for associate research in research in qualitative needed, i am available to help guide you in this process. You should also subscribe to my newsletter to continue your thinking about these skills and published on steps to writing good research online resources and google scholar to conduct research in the steps to become a digitally agile one – online research & media skills in today’s classroom #. Succinct definition of action research appears in the workshop materials we use at the institute for the study of inquiry in education. That definition states that action research is a disciplined process of inquiry conducted by and for those taking the action. The primary reason for engaging in action research is to assist the “actor” in improving and/or refining his or her tioners who engage in action research inevitably find it to be an empowering experience. Relevance is guaranteed because the focus of each research project is determined by the researchers, who are also the primary consumers of the s even more important is the fact that action research helps educators be more effective at what they care most about—their teaching and the development of their students. When teachers have convincing evidence that their work has made a real difference in their students' lives, the countless hours and endless efforts of teaching seem action research ional action research can be engaged in by a single teacher, by a group of colleagues who share an interest in a common problem, or by the entire faculty of a school. These seven steps, which become an endless cycle for the inquiring teacher, are the following:Identifying research informed 1—selecting a action research process begins with serious reflection directed toward identifying a topic or topics worthy of a busy teacher's time. Selecting a focus begins with the teacher researcher or the team of action researchers asking: what element(s) of our practice or what aspect of student learning do we wish to investigate? 2—clarifying second step involves identifying the values, beliefs, and theoretical perspectives the researchers hold relating to their focus.

For example, if teachers are concerned about increasing responsible classroom behavior, it will be helpful for them to begin by clarifying which approach—using punishments and rewards, allowing students to experience the natural consequences of their behaviors, or some other strategy—they feel will work best in helping students acquire responsible classroom behavior 3—identifying research a focus area has been selected and the researcher's perspectives and beliefs about that focus have been clarified, the next step is to generate a set of personally meaningful research questions to guide the 4—collecting sional educators always want their instructional decisions to be based on the best possible data. Action researchers can accomplish this by making sure that the data used to justify their actions are valid (meaning the information represents what the researchers say it does) and reliable (meaning the researchers are confident about the accuracy of their data). Lastly, before data are used to make teaching decisions, teachers must be confident that the lessons drawn from the data align with any unique characteristics of their classroom or ensure reasonable validity and reliability, action researchers should avoid relying on any single source of data. Most teacher researchers use a process called triangulation to enhance the validity and reliability of their findings. Observing a phenomenon through multiple “windows” can help a single researcher compare and contrast what is being seen through a variety of planning instruction, teachers want the techniques they choose to be appropriate for the unique qualities of their students. All teachers have had the experience of implementing a “research-proven” strategy only to have it fail with their students. The ability of the action research process to satisfy an educator's need for “fit” may be its most powerful attribute. Because the data being collected come from the very students and teachers who are engaged with the treatment, the relevance of the findings is the harried and overworked teacher, “data collection” can appear to be the most intimidating aspect of the entire seven-step action research process. The key to managing triangulated data collection is, first, to be effective and efficient in collecting the material that is already swirling around the classroom, and, second, to identify other sources of data that might be effectively surfaced with tests, classroom discussions, or 5—analyzing gh data analysis often brings to mind the use of complex statistical calculations, this is rarely the case for the action researcher. A number of relatively user-friendly procedures can help a practitioner identify the trends and patterns in action research data. During this portion of the seven-step process, teacher researchers will methodically sort, sift, rank, and examine their data to answer two generic questions:What is the story told by these data?

Answering these two questions, the teacher researcher can acquire a better understanding of the phenomenon under investigation and as a result can end up producing grounded theory regarding what might be done to improve the 6—reporting is often said that teaching is a lonely endeavor. The loneliness of teaching is unfortunate not only because of its inefficiency, but also because when dealing with complex problems the wisdom of several minds is inevitably better than sad history of teacher isolation may explain why the very act of reporting on their action research has proven so powerful for both the researchers and their colleagues. The reporting of action research most often occurs in informal settings that are far less intimidating than the venues where scholarly research has traditionally been shared. Faculty meetings, brown bag lunch seminars, and teacher conferences are among the most common venues for sharing action research with peers. However, each year more and more teacher researchers are writing up their work for publication or to help fulfill requirements in graduate programs. Regardless of which venue or technique educators select for reporting on research, the simple knowledge that they are making a contribution to a collective knowledge base regarding teaching and learning frequently proves to be among the most rewarding aspects of this 7—taking informed informed action, or “action planning,” the last step in the action research process, is very familiar to most teachers. When teachers write lesson plans or develop academic programs, they are engaged in the action planning process. What makes action planning particularly satisfying for the teacher researcher is that with each piece of data uncovered (about teaching or student learning) the educator will feel greater confidence in the wisdom of the next steps. Although all teaching can be classified as trial and error, action researchers find that the research process liberates them from continuously repeating their past mistakes. More important, with each refinement of practice, action researchers gain valid and reliable data on their developing purposes for action stated earlier, action research can be engaged in by an individual teacher, a collaborative group of colleagues sharing a common concern, or an entire school faculty. These three different approaches to organizing for research serve three compatible, yet distinct, purposes:Building the reflective progress on schoolwide ng professional ng the reflective individual teachers make a personal commitment to systematically collect data on their work, they are embarking on a process that will foster continuous growth and development.

In this way, the individual teachers conducting action research are making continuous progress in developing their strengths as reflective progress on schoolwide singly, schools are focusing on strengthening themselves and their programs through the development of common focuses and a strong sense of esprit de corps. As a result, when a faculty chooses to focus on one issue and all the teachers elect to enthusiastically participate in action research on that issue, significant progress on the schoolwide priorities cannot help but ng professional an entire faculty will share a commitment to student development, yet the group finds itself unable to adopt a single common focus for action research. However, like the doctors at the medical center, the teachers in a “quality” school may well differ on which specific aspects of the shared vision they are most motivated to pursue at any point in s whose faculties cannot agree on a single research focus can still use action research as a tool to help transform themselves into a learning organization. It is common practice in a quality medical center for physicians to engage in independent, even idiosyncratic, research agendas. However, it is also common for medical researchers to share the findings obtained from their research with colleagues (even those engaged in other specialties). In these schools, multiple action research inquiries occur simultaneously, and no one is held captive to another's priority, yet everyone knows that all the work ultimately will be shared and will consequently contribute to organizational action research now? Ever there were a time and a strategy that were right for each other, the time is now and the strategy is action research! With the exploding knowledge base on teaching and learning and the heightened demands on teachers to help all children achieve mastery of meaningful objectives, the inadequacy of the blue-collar model for teaching is becoming much the teachers in a school begin conducting action research, their workplace begins to take on more of the flavor of the workplaces of other professionals. Nevertheless, great personal satisfaction comes from playing a role in creating successful solutions to continually changing puzzles. For this reason, it is imperative that these 21st century pioneers, our classroom teachers, conduct the research on “standards attainment” the time is right for action research. Thank you very much for your courses by r sional college icates of transferable credit & get your degree degrees by ical and ications and ry arts and l arts and ic and repair l and health ortation and and performing a degree that fits your schools by degree degree raduate schools by sity video counseling & job interviewing tip networking ching careers info by outlook by & career research : action research in education: methods & research is often used in the field of education.

The following lesson provides two examples of action research in the field of education, methods of conducting action research and a quiz to assess your understanding of the & worksheet - action research in to student error occurred trying to load this refreshing the page, or contact customer must create an account to continue er for a free you a student or a teacher? Definition & fying the scope of curriculum tanding diverse learning ing community involvement in t map: definition & ensory learning: definition & linary problems in the classroom: types & ng methods for remedial ctional planning: quality materials & ing student writing: examples, tools & psychology: help and growth and development: tutoring 102: substance growth and development: homework help psychology: study guide & test therapy approaches: help & ve psychology study social psychology: study guide & test logy 105: research methods in uction to psychology: homework help uction to psychology: tutoring ional psychology: homework help ional psychology: tutoring psychology: tutoring ch methods in psychology: help and psychology: homework help growth and development: help and al psychology: help and logy 108: psychology of adulthood and ch methods in psychology: homework help research is often used in the field of education. The following lesson provides two examples of action research in the field of education, methods of conducting action research and a quiz to assess your understanding of the is action research? However, the field of education often uses action research, an interactive method of collecting information that's used to explore topics of teaching, curriculum development and student behavior in the classroom. Action research is very popular in the field of education because there is always room for improvement when it comes to teaching and educating others. Sure, there are all types of methods of teaching in the classroom, but action research works very well because the cycle offers opportunity for continued reflection. Action research is also beneficial in areas of teaching practice that need to be explored or settings in which continued improvement is the focus. After you've had time to observe the situation, the entire process of action research is reflected upon. While there are various methods to conducting action research, there are also various types of action research in the fields of education, including individual action research, collaborative action research and school-wide action research. For example:Individual action research involves working independently on a project, such as an elementary school teacher conducting her own, in-class research project with her orative action research involves a group of teachers or researchers working together to explore a problem that might be present beyond a single classroom, perhaps at the departmental level or an entire grade -wide action research generally focuses on issues present throughout an entire school or across the district. As you can see, action research can be used in many educational 'll explore two examples of action research being used in the field of education.

Observation example (individual action research)step 1: identify the problemyou are a fifth grade teacher and have identified a problem in your classroom. By doing this, you feel that next time you offer group work, you will have some new insight into what works well and what needs improvement regarding conducting group work in your class. Step 4: observeduring this step of the action research process, you observe the groups of students working together. Surveys example (collaborative action research)step 1: identify the problemyou are a third grade teacher and have been asked to be a part of a collaborative action research project at your school. You are asked to be a part of an action research project where surveys are created and sent home to the parents asking for their thoughts on the issue. You and your team of researchers hope to identify reasons why students are not completing their homework and then be able to share the results with all staff at your school to garner some conversation on how to improve the 70,000 lessons in all major free access for 5 days, just create an obligation, cancel a subject to preview related courses:Step 2: devise a planthe plan includes creating a survey where both open-ended and multiple choice questions are used. You and your team of researchers (your colleagues) go through the surveys, take notes, organize the responses into categories and share in the task of summarizing each of the questions in regards to overall consensus of answers. In the field of education, action research is used quite often to explore new ways of teaching and interacting in the classroom. Some types of action research involve: individual action research, collaborative action research and school-wide action research. Remember the five steps of action research include:Act to implement a tely, the goal of action research is to improve processes. Learning outcomesafter reviewing this lesson, you should have the ability to:Define action research and identify its main common methods of action be individual action research, collaborative action research and school-wide action n the five steps of action er for a free you a student or a teacher?

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