The Action Research Process

Most people approach a research class with some trepidation. Some believe that they will become involved in an intense, statistical study with little relevance to their everyday professional work setting. Others may harbor a fear of research as something that is done by a person in a white lab coat on unsuspecting test subjects.

Action research is not this kind of activity at all. It is participatory in nature, meaning you, as the researcher, are an active participant in the process. It is designed to focus on issues of significance in your own work setting in an effort to solve problems of practice that are meaningful to you.

See an article by Richard Sangor titled "Guiding School Improvement w/AR" located in the CUOnline course shell. He provides a good introduction and definition of action research.

On the left side of your screen are a series of seven links that more completely describe the steps of the action research process that we'll use in this class. It is recommended that you step through these links in order so that you can get a feel for the process.

Specifically, you'll learn about how to construct a problem statement and develop research questions to guide your work. Your problem statement and research questions will then become part of a research proposal that you will submit.

In order to answer your research questions, you will develop some data collection techniques, collect the data and then analyze and interpret the data you collect.

Finally, you will present your research and define what your next steps will be in the action research cycle.