Originally Posted: June 08, 2012
Action research is the 21st century research tool. In action research, the researcher poses a question or "wonderings" that he/she has.  In education, these questions could have to do with their leadership role, programs in the school, staff development, or a problem with students or student performance. As an action researcher, the researcher becomes the head learner as she engages in learning more about her problem and collecting and analyzing data. She then makes changes and adjustments and shares her findings with others, all in order to improve education (Dana, 2009). Action research allows the researcher to improve education on her own campus as well as problem solve and collaborate with colleagues.

Throughout history, effective teachers have always reviewed how they taught, what they taught, and made changes in order to make learning in their classrooms more dynamic so that it could evolve as needed.  Action research adds data collection, interpretation, and reflection to make instructional review even more effective. As an action researcher, I know that the research that I conduct is about me and my teaching strategies in my classroom. It directly impacts instruction in my school and ultimately makes my school better.

As a classroom teacher and technology integration specialist, I am constantly implementing new technologies and experimenting with how they impact learning.  Learning about how to do action research effectively will help me make those technologies even more effective. As our school integrates school-wide wi-fi and Bring-Your-Own-Device, I plan to research how teachers are using devices to put technology integration in the hands of the students. I plan to follow the attitudes about learning, test scores in the classroom and standardized test scores as we try to improve our freshmen end-of-course tests scores.

Blogging about action research aids in research in two ways.  First it gives an outlet for self reflection. Self-reflection is important because it allow the researcher to write down the feelings and thoughts about what they are doing at that moment.  Researchers can then read and reflect back on feelings and ideas to hopefully make research even better.  It also gets your research out and allows others to agree with, add to, or constructively criticize your work.

Dana, N.F. (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge: The principal as action Researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.