In schools,
action research refers to a wide variety
of evaluative, investigative, and analytical research methods designed
to diagnose problems or weaknesses—whether organizational, academic, or
instructional—and help educators develop practical solutions to address
them quickly and efficiently. Action research may also be applied to
programs or educational techniques that are not necessarily experiencing
any problems, but that educators simply want to learn more about and
improve. The general goal is to create a simple, practical, repeatable
process of iterative learning, evaluation, and improvement that leads to
increasingly better results for schools, teachers, or programs.
Action research may also be called a
cycle of action or
cycle of inquiry, since it typically follows a predefined process that is repeated over time. A simple illustrative example:
- Identify a problem to be studied
- Collect data on the problem
- Organize, analyze, and interpret the data
- Develop a plan to address the problem
- Implement the plan
- Evaluate the results of the actions taken
- Identify a new problem
- Repeat the process
Unlike more formal research studies, such as those conducted by
universities and published in peer-reviewed scholarly journals, action
research is typically conducted by the educators working in the district
or school being studied—the participants—rather than by independent,
impartial observers from outside organizations. Less formal,
prescriptive, or theory-driven research methods are typically used when
conducting action research, since the goal is to address practical
problems in a specific school or classroom, rather than produce
independently validated and reproducible findings that others, outside
of the context being studied, can use to guide their future actions or
inform the design of their academic programs. That said, while action
research is typically focused on solving a specific problem (high rates
of student absenteeism, for example) or answer a specific question (Why
are so many of our ninth graders failing math?), action research can
also make meaningful contributions to the larger body of knowledge and
understanding in the field of education, particularly within a
relatively closed system such as school, district, or network of
connected organizations.
The term “action research” was coined in the 1940s by
Kurt Lewin, a German-American social psychologist who is widely
considered to be the founder of his field. The basic principles of
action research that were described by Levin are still in use to this
day.
