Action Research

OK, so you're interested in conducting action research after I explained some concepts about it this morning. Download the slides below, in case you need them.

Slides about Action Research (154 Kb)


Update April 9

I was a little bit shocked when someone mentioned the analogy between the classroom problem-action research and disease-medicine. In my opinion, you should not consider a problem in the classroom as a disease--an unwanted condition which you should "cure", eradicate, abolish, etc. If your students have a problem in writing an English essay, for instance, I'm sure they don't want to be viewed as "ill" or "sick" or "a person suffering from a disease". Such a view could be offensive for them, and in the end counterproductive for learning. (Believe me, I've been a university student three times, so I know how it feels to get negative reinforcement.)

Action research is conducted not only to solve the problems, but also to improve the results of learning. I have a book chapter about action research, titled "Introduction: The Nature of Action Research". It is a part of a book written by Henry and Kemmis (1985). Let me quote a relevant part of the book chapter:

[Action research] is not simply problem-solving. Action research involves problem-posing, not just problem solving. It does not start from a view of 'problems' as pathologies. It is motivated by a quest to improve and understand the world by changing it and learning how to improve it from the effects of the changes made (p 21).

So don't think that action research is a "cure" to a "disease" in the form of a problem in the classroom. The keyword in action research is improve, rather than cure.