Action Research and its types

1. ACTION RESEARCH

2. CONTENT
 What is Action Research?
 Concept of Action Research
 Types of Action research
 Characteristics of Action research
 Process of Action research
 References

3. Kurt Lewin
 Kurt Lewin (1890-1947)
 German social psychologist
 Generally credited as the person who
coined the term ‘action research’
in 1944
 Kurt Lewin define Action research as
a process of
Planning
Action
Searching

4. WHAT IS ACTION RESEARCH?
 Action research is inquiry or research in the context
of focused efforts to improve the quality of an
organization and its performance.
 It typically is designed and conducted by
practitioners who analyze the data to improve their
own practice.
 Action research can be done by individuals or by
teams of colleagues. The team approach is called
collaborative inquiry.”

5. CONCEPT OF ACTION RESEARCH:
 According to (Stephen M. Corey)’s view:
“The process by which practitioners attempt to study
their problem scientifically in order to guide, correct
and evaluate their decisions and actions in what
number of people have called action research.”
 According to (Good)’s view:
“Action research is research used by teachers,
supervisors and administrators to improve the
quality of their decisions and actions.”

6. ACTION RESEARCH IN EDUCATION:
 Action research is a systematic process that allow
you to try out different way of doing things in your
classroom or in your school, until you find
something that really works for you and for your
students.
(Laycock & Long,2009)
 Action research is very popular in the field of
education because there is always room for
improvement when it comes to teaching and
educating others.

7. EXAMPLES:
1st Example is:
 Problem: 12th grade students have low performance
on applying power and square root.
 Solution from reading: math software, supplement
with calculator, role play, games.
 Idea: role play and group presentation.
 Evaluation: using pre-test, quality of project, post-
test, students evaluation.
 Based on evaluation – what is going right and what
is going wrong ? What is the next action?

8. 2nd Example is:
 Problem: 9th grade students cannot write a good
sentence.
 Solution from reading: writing workshop, wiki, blog,
peer mentor, twitter.
 Idea: students tweet a sentence everyday and
peers and instructor give them feedback.
 Evaluate: quality of writing sentence, discussion,
interview student, student evaluation.
 Based on evaluation-next action.

9. TYPES OF ACTION RESEARCH
There are two main types of action research
 participatory action research
 practical action research

10. PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH:
 Participatory action research is an approach to research in
communities that emphasizes participation and action
 Members of a group discuss problem. All members approache
the topic of research with “critical intent”
 Practitioners work together as a group and collectively
identify problems and possible solutions.
 There is a strong social element here as well, in that it is
expected that participants will emerge with a new view or
theory of society

11. PRACTICAL ACTION RESEARCH:
 Practitioner identifies the problem or question which
he/she want to address and will seek out a
facilitator to give collaborateive feedback.
 Concern with practical knowledge or “craft
knowledge”
 Here the researcher and the practitioner identify the
research problem together and discuss underlying
causes and possible interventions.

12. CHARACTERISTICS OF ACTION RESEARCH:
 It is about action and research
 It is cyclical and evolves
 Each stage of the cycle is rigorous
 It is critical
 It tends to be collaborative
 It often starts with an engaging question

13. PROCESS OF ACTION RESEARCH:

14. REFERENCES:
 M.M,Manfra.Action Research: Exploring the
Theoretical Divide between Practical and Critical
Approaches .Journal of Curriculum and Instruction
(JoCI), January 2009, Volume 3, Number 1
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_research
 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2566
051/
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Participatory_action_res
earch
 http://www.arlecchino.org/ildottore/mwsd/group2fina
l-comparison.html
 http://celt.ust.hk/teaching-resources/action-
research/models-and-examples