Action Research

A systematic investigation by teachers/leaders of some aspect of their work in order to improve their effectiveness. It involves identifying a question or problem, designing a response, and then collecting and analyzing relevant data. (Differs from conventional research because in this case the participants are studying an aspect of their own work and they intend to use the results themselves.)

In UVGSE, we believe that the “action researcher’s mindset” is an important habit of mind for teachers and school leaders. Through ongoing inquiry, and more intensively through conducting an action research study, UVGSE participants learn to develop theories of action when confronting challenges of practice, asking themselves:

· What is the problem or challenge here?

· What do I know, and what is known, about this problem?

· What is my actionable space for this problem?

· How will I evaluate the efficacy of the actions taken?

Action Research as an approach to identifying, understanding, and responding to educational challenges provides the thematic arc for further development. Shani & Pasmore (Coghlan & Brannick, 2005) defined action research as “…an emergent inquiry process in which applied behavioral science knowledge is integrated with existing organizational knowledge and applied to solve real organizational problems. It is simultaneously concerned with bringing about change in organizations, in developing self-help competencies in organizational members and adding to scientific knowledge. Finally, it is an evolving process that is undertaken in a spirit of collaboration and co-inquiry.”

John Creswell (2012) claims that, of all research designs, action research is the most applied and practical since action researchers explore practical problems with an aim toward developing solutions. The National Research Council singled out action research as critical tool for developing teachers’ meta-cognition and problem solving capacities (2000). Finally, Geoffrey Mills (2007) describes action research as “wonderfully uncomfortable” stating that: “Action research, like any other problem-solving process, is an ongoing creative activity that exposes us to surprises along the way. What appeared to matter in the planning stages of an action research investigation may be provide us with only a hint, a scratching of the surface, of what is really the focus of our investigations. How we deal with the uncertainty of the journey positions us as learners of our own craft, an attitude that is critical to our success” (Pg. 2).

References:

Coghlan, David, & Brannick, Teresa. (2005). Doing Action Research In Your Own Organization: Second Edition. Los Angeles: Sage.

Creswell, John. (2012). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantiative and qualitative research. Boston: Pearson.

Mills, Geoffrey. (2007). Action research: A guide for the teacher researcher (3 ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Merrill/Prentice Hall.

National Research Council. (2000). Teacher learning. In J. Bransford, A. Brown & R. Cocking (Eds.), How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.