Action Research

Action Research is a process through which participants examine their own educational practice, systematically and carefully using research techniques. It is grounded in the real world practice of the classroom. It balances a classroom culture that is personal, contextual, open-ended, and ever-changing with a research culture that is rigorous, structured and systematic. Action research is an evolving process – it may start with one question but as the research progresses, may change to reflect more alignment to classroom/school issues and the researchers’ needs. The “action” implies that, throughout the process, the researchers will take actions and implement improvements based on what they learn. Action research implies that, throughout the process, educators need time to reflect on their work and focus on how to be more effective.
An action research project would prove to be beneficial to give us a road map to the solution to this problem. Through research, we can investigate what other schools are doing to solve this problem. However, what works for one school may not work for another. We must carefully blend different solutions to see what will work for our campus. I would begin by interviewing administrators, teachers, and students to find what obstacles exist and potential solutions that can be found within our own resources.