What I've Learned About Action Research

    

While preparing for this week’s assignment, I was introduced to action research. Through the required reading and some unassigned reading, I was able to define action research, describe the process of action research, and realize the importance of reflection to the process of action research.

To me, action research is the process by which an educator can make inquiry into a problem that is taking place within his or her school/ district by means of analyzing data and reviewing pertinent literature. The research must then be applied to the situation to create change. Thus, the ultimate purpose for action research is improvement. This purpose requires consistent reflection to make corrections during the entire process.

                The greatest discovery I made this week concerning action research is the fact that I have already been participating in action research. For example, my first teaching position was at a district where high school writing scores were lower than desired by administration. After looking at disaggregated data, I decided to help African American males because, amongst my students, this sub-population had the lowest writing scores. I then researched into strategies to help students improve writing. I took several of the strategies and created a tutorial program to help students. I invited all students, but made an extra effort to invite African American males. The result of my actions was an improvement by twenty percent in the first year.

                During this whole process, I never knew this process that I stumbled upon on my own is called action research. I earned my certification through a post-baccalaureate certification program. My instructors in the program never taught action research in any of the courses for my certification. I did what I did that first year because I knew I needed to help my students. It just made sense to me to analyze the data, conduct a literature review, and apply what I learned to the situation.

                I now know that this is called action research. Action research starts with recognizing a problem in your classroom, on your campus, or within your district. For example, I can use action research to discover how to best promote the vision of the district on my campus or to discover the relationship between vocabulary and test performance among economically disadvantaged students. If you truly reflect on your current situation, you can easily recognize several ideas for action research within your own immediate context.