Action research is a process of asking important questions and looking for answers in a methodical way. The questions are meaningful; that is, the researcher wants or needs to know the answers to the question, and the questions are closely connected to real work. Action research is very practical and is grounded in the day-to-day work of the researcher. One way it is different from traditional or scientific research is that the researcher is not removed from what is being studied, but rather is a part of it. Teacher researchers are researching their own problems or new practices. The research is modest, manageable, and, again, directly related to daily work.

Why use action research?

For teachers, principals, and district office personnel, action research promises progress in professionalization. The process allows them to experience problem solving and to model it for their students. They carefully collect data to diagnose problems, search for solutions, take action on promising possibilities, and monitor whether and how well the action worked. The cycle can repeat itself many times, focusing on the same problem or on another. The process can help develop a professional problem-solving ethos.

Action research can revitalize the entire learning community, as well as helping teachers change or reflect on their classroom practices. It can support initiatives by individual teachers, schools, and districts. In addition, more than one type of action research can be used in a given setting at the same time.

How do I get started?

Action research is a recursive process, similar to writing and thinking. Researchers must go through three stages: planning, implementation, and analysis and reflection. However, researchers often leap back and forth between the stages. Each stage involves researchers in specific actions and behaviors.

A problem, a challenge, or the desire to try something new is the impetus for educators to design an action research project. To get started on the planning stage of action research, educators identify the topics or ideas that the research may be related to, draft questions, revise questions, draft plans, revise plans, and create a timetable to guide the research. Planning is informed by reading related literature and by considering experiences. At this point, researchers may or may not have ideas or hunches about the answers to these questions.

As the implementation stage begins and researchers carry out the new actions, they also begin to collect data. They must track what they do and the results of what they do. Even as the researchers work, they revise their plans and their questions. Their work is informed by the work of others as they continue reading in the area of their research. Sometimes, answers begin to emerge as data are collected, but more often they emerge later, in the analysis and reflection stage.

During the analysis and reflection stage, researchers look closely at the data collected, analyze the information, and reflect on what the data mean in relation to the questions asked. This final stage is when the real learning comes. As researchers work to make sense of the information they have collected and to articulate the answers to their questions, they make meaning from their work.

Read More About It

Click here to read a selection from the book Guiding School Improvement with Action Research, by Richard Sagor, 2000, Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development

Other Resources on Action Research

• "Action Research: Three Approaches," by E. Calhoun, Educational Leadership, Vol. 51, No.2, October 1993, pp. 62-65.

• Becoming a Better Teacher: Eight Innovations That Work, by G. O. Martin-Kniep, 2000, Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development