Action Research Tutorials

 

A. Reflecting -  Action Research Blog:

Your blog will be the record of your progressive understandings that you can review at a later date. Keeping a blog portfolio is keeping data about your thinking. See the activity for the first tutorial for information on setting up your blog.

 

• Reflect on any part of action research that is unclear to you at his point.

• How will you increase your understanding?

• How do you think action research will help you learn more about yourself,
  your practice, your community, and how to create and understand change?

 

 

 

 

 

B. Online Polls:

In the resources, we discussed some of the different ways in which action research has been conceptualized.  The reason for this is that different groups come to action research with different perspectives and these differences shape the way they do action research.  For example, academics might want to be engaged in research that makes a difference in settings other than the university.  In working with practitioners, they might stress more rigorous methodological,  empirical practices, and scholarly approaches to action research.  Principals might promote action research as a form of professional development at their schools and focus more on the transformational effects of doing action research. Community leaders might see problems that need to be solved and want to empower their community to better understand and solve their problems.  An organization might want to promote action research as a form of renewal of its mission, stressing the continuous learning aspects of action research. Practitioners might want to experience a more joyful career by challenging themselves to everyday learning where action research becomes a habit of mind. 

• Why do you want to do action research? 

• What is your background? 

• What skills do you bring to the process?

• What will you need to learn? 

• What outcomes are you interested in?

 

Complete these action research polls to see how your understanding is similar and different from that of others.​

 

C. Discussion Forum

Please share your understanding of action research either in your forums or learning circle meetings or with others whom you know who are doing action research. If you are working alone, you are welcome to use the forum on this site, or the Facebook link at the bottom of the page to share your ideas. The forum can be reached from the menu at the top of any page. 

 

• What are the characteristics of action research you find most compelling?

 

• What have you done in the past that comes close to the action research process?

 

• If you have an idea of what you might do for your action research, you might share it at this point?

 

 

 

 

D. Writing - Describe Action Research

If you generate your report over time, it will seem more manageable.  There will be a "writing" activity in each of the following tutorials, so at the end, you are assembling and editing rather than starting to write about action research. 

 

There will be a section in your final report where you share your understanding of action research and explain why you have chosen this approach to study. While your knowledge is growing and will evolve, it is good to write a few paragraphs that describe action research and why you have decided to undertake an action research project.