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Action Research In Education: An Instrument Of Injecting
Innovative Approaches To Teaching And Learning

By Swaleha Sindhi

13 September, 2013
Countercurrents.org

Introduction

More than ever, in many countries including India, students' achievement is equated to their performance on high-stakes tests, and teachers are held accountable for this success. Teachers and administrators must therefore identify what techniques improve student learning and which ones fail to do so; they are expected to develop successful instructional practices on the basis of this knowledge (Airasian, 2001). Here A ction Research prove to be an applied scholarly paradigm resulting in action for continuous improvement in our teaching and learning techniques offering the teachers immediate classroom payback and providing documentation of meeting our educational responsibilities. It is actually suitable for any person who wishes to improve his or her performance and d ue to its less formal nature, teachers and principals will find it to be the easiest form of research to conduct. It can involve a single researcher or a collaborative team working together to focus on a mutual topic (Ross-Fisher, 2008). It can even involve all teachers within a specific grade level, a particular department, or an entire school (Ross-Fisher, 2008).

The major difficulty is the basic belief of our teachers that the teacher's primary role is to teach so any research project must not interfere with or disrupt this commitment and that the method of data collection can be too demanding on the teacher's time. Thus, all those teachers who are immersed in their own classrooms may find research irrelevant. However, research is conducted in many educational settings and often has a positive impact. According to McBee (2004), “classrooms that become laboratories are better classrooms” (p.157) because, as Johnson (2005) explains, research is not effective if it is perceived by teachers as an edict that is passed down from researchers to practicing educators, but is much more effective when it is constructed with personal relevance. Action research allows teachers to take ownership over their teaching and occurs when teacher researchers contemplate a classroom or instructional issue, design a study, execute the study, track data and results, and reflect. The action research progression is interactive; it is not a passive process, as teacher-researchers are active constructors of knowledge (Abdul-Haqq, 1995; Miller & Pine, 1990; Williamson, 1992). As teachers construct new knowledge while linking prior knowledge, learning occurs.

Purposes of using action research in Education

The essential purpose of action research is to address issues of concern to individuals and communities in the everyday conduct of their lives. A wider purpose is to contribute to the increased well-being—economic, political, psychological, and spiritual. The following different approaches can be applied by teachers with specific level of focus and level of participation.

Different Approaches to Action Research

Thus, purpose of Action Research for the teachers in school can prove to be;

•  A means of remedying problems in a specific situations or improving a given set of circumstances.

•  A means of in-service training by equipping the teachers with new skills and methods, sharpening analytical powers and heightening self-awareness.

•  A means of injecting additional or innovatory approaches to teaching and learning into an ongoing system which normally inhibits innovation and change.

•  A means of improving the normally poor communications between the practising teachers and the academic researchers.

•  An alternative to the more subjective, impressionistic approach to problem-solving in the classroom.

Benefits of action research to Teachers

•  Teachers as researcher and students as change-receiver profit much from action research.

•  Teachers investigate their own practice in new ways, looking deeper in what they and their students actually do and fail to do.

•  Teachers develop a deeper understanding of students, the teacher learning process and their role in the education of both teachers and students.

•  Teachers are viewed as equal partners in deciding what works best and what needs improvement in their classroom or classrooms.

•  In most cases, solutions for identified problems are arrived cooperatively among teachers.

•  Teachers are often more committed to action research because they identify the areas they view as problematical and in need of change.

•  Professional development and school improvement are core aspects for any teacher who engages in action research

•  Teacher reflection can be conducted individually or in a school-based team composed of students, teachers and admistrators.

Conclusion

In summary, although some people may critique that action research is an informal research since teachers are not academic researchers, it is widely believed that action research is extremely suitable for education as its main purpose is to help teachers as researchers solve their teaching problems “in action”. It allows teachers to learn about their teaching at the same time that they improve their teaching. They are able to do this because action research has a cyclic process. Teachers notice what they do with what results. They learn from this. They apply their new learning to plan improvements. They try it out. They notice what happens, thus repeating the cycle. Briefly, action research is so suitable to education as it is a process of exploration in which teachers explore such things as themselves as an educators, their lives or unique perspectives of their students, the structure and practices of educational systems in order to bring positive change to their schools and communities.

(Swaleha Sindhi is an Assistant Professor in The M.S.University of Baroda, Gujarat. Her area of interest is Management of Education, Quality in Education, Educational Administration and Secondary Education. S he can be mailed at [email protected])

 

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