Saturday, April 25, 2009

1st Lecture

What is Action Research?

Action research = a disciplined process of inquiry conducted by and for those taking the action, to assist the actor in improving or refining his/her actions
(an investigation conducted by the person or the people empowered to take action concerning their own actions, for the purpose of improving their future actions)
- Sagor (2000)

√ Action research is a quest for knowledge about how to improve
X problem-solving in the sense of trying to find out what is wrong.

√ Action research is about how we can do things better
X learning why we do certain things.


It involves people working to improve their skills, strategies and techniques.


Process of Action Research:
1. Look at the situation
Gather relevant data – define & describe – build a picture to describe the situation

2. Think about the situation
Explore & analyze – what is happening here – interpret & explain – how & why are things the way they are

3. Act
Plan – implement – evaluate


Steps of Action Research:
1. Identification of problem area
2. Collection and organization of data
3. Interpretation of data
4. Action based on data
5. Reflection

When these actions begin to change the students attitudes/school environment, another different set of circumstances may appear with different problem posed, which required a new look. Thus, the cycle of action research can be seen as below:



Types of Action Research:
1. Individual
- focus on a single issue in a classroom
- teacher may be seeking solutions to problems of classroom management, instructional strategies, use of materials, or student learning.
- example: a teacher is seeking solution on how to improve her teaching strategies to make boring history subject interesting

2. Collaborative
- 2 or more teachers involves
- focus on a common problem shared by single or many classrooms
- example: a few science teachers working together to design interesting laboratory experiments for the form 3 students

3. School-wide
- focus on a common issue in a school
- example: a school is working out solutions to improve the discipline in the school

4. District-wide
- focus on a common issue shared by several schools in the same district
- example: the district board of education is finding ways to improve the study environment among the schools in the district

2 comments:

  1. some of the references show different steps of action research. what is your opinion?

    ReplyDelete
  2. The steps of AR is all roughly about Plan, Act, Observe, Reflect and the same steps go on till the identified problem is solved.
    But then, usually some other problem/issues will be brought out throughout the implementation of these few steps to a paricular identified problem. So, that bring to new AR in some other problem/issues.
    Just as our National Philopsophy of Education (FPN), Education is a life-long continuous process. So as the AR. Different problem always occur all the way through our educational track, and so we are to carry out all the steps of AR for continuous improvement in both the educational quality as well as upgrading our own noble values.

    Till then, just for sharing.

    ReplyDelete