Action Research

Action research is a process used typically in school settings to deal with real issues or problems.  Action research is not your typical type of research in which you investigate and analyze a topic to develop an informed conclusion from the supporting research.  It is a search for ways to improve oneself and our working environments to alter the ways we teach in order to help students become successful in and out of school.  This type of research may involve on teacher dealing with a problem in their classroom, a select group of teachers working on a problem common to each of them, or a set of teachers and administrators working on a concern for their campus or district.  Action research often involves a collaboration among campus staff members including teachers and principals.  The issues they are dealing with are ones in which the individual or team has identified for themselves.  It is directly related to them.  The purpose of action research is to inform and change their practices for continued student and campus improvement.  According to Eileen Ferrance with Northeast and Island Regional Educational Laboratory at Brown University, 2000, within all definitions of action research there are four basic themes:  empowerment of participants, collaboration through participation, acquisition of knowledge, and social change.  Ferrance also stated that in conducting action research, we structure routines for continuous confrontation with data on the health of a school community and these routines are loosely guided by movement through five phases of inquiry:  identification of problem area, collection and organization of data, interpretation of data, action based on data, and reflection.  For my campus action research could be utilized to help individual teachers improve on the quality of instruction provided to their students.  With greater stress on accountability and academic excellence action research is a powerful means to approach positive self change.  There continued core personal improvements will affect both student and campus performances towards attaining greater achievement.      






www.alliance.brown.edu/pubs/themes_ed/act_research.pdf