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Perhaps one of the most challenging aspects of research is identifying a useful, interesting, and manageable question or topic.
According to Eileen Ferrance at the Northeast and Islands Regional Educational Laboratory at Brown University, good are meaningful, concise, and higher-order questions that have not already been answered. Further, they should be of interest to the researcher and have the potential to lead to improved student learning.
: sample Action Research topics using drawings as a primary data source.: examples of Action Research by practicing teachers using a wide variety of research methodologies.
Get ideas and suggestions on developing your own research questions.
Whatever action research topic you decide to study, remember that it should enable you to take meaningful action. In addition, it should also be interesting enough to keep you engaged and motivated as you work through the process. Finally, your research should allow you to improve your teaching and your ability to help students learn and be successful.
Sharing my journey through landscapes of practice.
The minute I wrote that title, I realised that in a strict sense it is a little back to front. We all know that our choice of research methodology should follow the definition of our aims, objectives and research question – form should follow function! At least that is what the text books say.
But I’ll readily confess that I became a research student because I wanted the opportunity to learn more about and experience action research – others do that too for example some embark on a PhD because they want to home their quantitative data analysis skills. So the ‘search’ for a research question and defining aims and objectives is also informed by the sort of knowledge, skills and experience I want to develop through my PhD and ultimately the sort of researcher I want to be.
Although I produced a draft research proposal last July, I felt uncomfortable about the research question I’d included, it didn’t seem to home in on what was interesting to me. So I’ve been trying to focus on what an action research question looks like – unlike other forms of research there aren’t lots of published research proposals/protocols that you can easily locate so it is hard to get a feel for what you are trying to emulate. And, action research books just simply say ‘form your research question’ as if it isn’t a problematic thing to do.
The main problem comes with the ‘dual’ function of action research – it is simultaneously a process to generate knowledge AND a process to improve a situation. This distinction is described in different ways in the literature. I have two favourites…
In literature discussing doing action research for academic accreditation (e.g. Zuber-Skerritt and Perry (2002); Zuber-Skerritt and Fletcher (2007); Coghlan and Brannick (2014)), a distinction is made between the Thesis Action Research which is carried out independently by the research candidate and the Core Action Research which is carried out collaboratively. The ‘core action research’ is understood as being the fieldwork phase of the ‘thesis action research’. The Thesis action research kind of operates at a meta-level – i.e. research on the core action research. This means that the ‘thesis action research’ can have a different research question to the ‘core action research’.
The second way of making the distinction is even more powerful and quite exciting because it builds on the work of Checkland who developed soft systems methodology so it feels quite systemsy. It appears in information system research discussions of action research (e.g. McKay and Marshall 2001, 2007). The authors argue that action research has dual imperatives – what they refer to as a research imperative AND a problem solving imperative*. Drawing on the idea of action research as a cyclical process, they argue that the dual imperatives mean that two interlinked cycles are operating – a research cycle and a problem solving cycle each driven by their own interests, aims and objectives and therefore different understandings of progress and success. Importantly, they argue that it is important not to conflate the Methodology for the research (i.e. action research) with the Problem solving methodology (which could be any one of a range of organisational development or change management methodologies including systemsy ones like SSM or systemic inquiry). The balance of the two imperatives is really important – focus on the problem solving imperative, then it becomes more like consultancy than research with potential risks to the ‘rigour’ of your findings. Whereas focussing on the research imperative can lead to stakeholders in the research setting and participants feeling ‘done to’.
Taking the two distinctions together offers another helpful insight. In my case, the research imperative is fulfilled independently as the ‘thesis action research’ – I am its owner and its customer is the academic community. The ‘knowledge’ it generates is judged through the academic lens of validity, reliability and so on with all the caveats that those words have when drawing on qualitative data. The problem solving imperative is fulfilled by the participants together as a collaborative problem solving process. The participants are the co-owners and they and their stakeholders are the main customers. It can be referred to generally as the core action research – but in itself it needs to be understood through the lens of creating improvement/change with learning and knowing-in-action being more important than formal propositional knowledge. The change could be understood as ‘new’ learning generated through a process of social learning and/or it could be understood as new procedures, new practices, new ‘systems’ etc.
Back to the Checkland connection. According to Checkland, research consists of a framework of ideas (F), which are employed via a methodology (M) to investigate an area of interest (A). As a result of the research, learning will take place about F, and/or M and/or A. McKay and Marshall (2001, 2007) argue that the dual imperatives of action research result in an adaptation to this general model. The setting in which the research takes place has a ‘real world’ problem situation (P) which enables the researcher to find out about the area of interest (A). As already mention there are two methodologies in use – the research methodology (MR) and the problem solving methodology (MPS). This means the research can tell us about any combination of:
P – the real world problem situation A – the area of research interest F – the framework of ideas MR – i.e. action research (a methodological contribution) MPS – i.e. the chosen methodology to improve the situation
And so, opens up different options for framing your research aim(s) and question(s)…
It could focus on the area of research interest (A). The setting for the research is one example – a case study if you like – of the research phenomenon of interest. The research is about understanding and exploring this situation. You could do this by other research methods but the value of using action research is you take a dynamic perspective of the forces and factors that shape the phenonenon of interest and you go back to test your ideas as the research proceeds. As Lewin is cited as saying – you can’t understand a system unless you try to change it. In my case then a research question is something like “What shapes policy work practice and its development in English local government?”
It could focus on the real world problem situation (P). In my case the question would be something like “What is policy work practice like in local authority X?” In my view this could by a risky route to take – whilst providing a thick description of the real world problem situation could be valuable to help with the generalisable lessons, there is a risk that the findings in themselves aren’t useful to third parties i.e. those not directly involved. From the point of view of the research imperative, the Thesis has to make some attempt to go beyond the specific case and generalise. However, this question could well be a natural part of the process in the research setting whereby the participants inquire – it belongs to the problem solving imperative, not the research one.
It could focus on the research methodology (MR). This is more focused on making a methodological contribution and would be something like “What are the value and limitations of action research in understanding policy work practice and its development?”. Most research will include an element of this – potentially in an implicit way – as the strengths and limitations of the research are generally included as part of the Thesis or the research articles. The ‘answer’ comes as much from rigorous reflection on the experience of the process as it does from empirical data. This feels like a ‘sideline’ – something to be aware of but not the main purpose of the research.
It could focus on the ‘problem solving’ methodology (MPS). This is more like an evaluation – an assessment of whether the ‘problem solving’ methodology is useful and creates a ‘better’ situation. It has parallels with an experiment – you hypothesise that using problem solving methodology X will create an improvement in the situation – and your research therefore focusses on evaluating what changes if any arise and if so why. From the reading I have done so far I think this is a key way that action research is framed – “a what happens if I” orientation. In my case then a research question would be something like “Is [methodology] an effective way of making improvements to policy work practice in English local government?” This of course throws up other issues in terms of what constitutes an improvement, what constitutes effective and who gets to define that.
It could be on the framework of ideas (F). I’m struggling to articulate this a little more and maybe that is because I have yet to really identify, home in on, and justify my framework of ideas. In general I know that they all seem to fall into the area of things that feel systemsy – particularly the soft and critical traditions and social learning. McKay and Marshall (2001, 2007) don’t seem to suggest that there are different Fs for the research imperative and the problem solving imperative, but in theory they may not be congruent (probably leading to some cognitive discomfort!). So I know I have some work to do here articulating my F for myself and others. But a tentative research question about my tentative F would be something like “To what extent and in what ways are systems thinking and social learning helpful ideas in researching and developing policy work practice?”
Of course, there is no reason why these questions can’t be combined in a research project – making knowledge contributions and methodological ones. But you’d need to design your data generation and analysis differently to answer each question so in my view I need to major on one – make it my primary question – and then treat anything else as a useful ‘by product’ of the process.
The distinction of research imperative and problem solving imperative has also helped me develop clarity on how to write my research proposal. Again books can be a little light on action research proposals and what may be different in them from research proposals from other disciplines. But a general observation I have made is that some seem to imply there is no real difference whereas others imply a great deal of difference…but what I have realised is that this is all about whether you frame your proposal through the lens of the research imperative or the problem solving imperative.
Framing a proposal through the lens of the research imperative is more consistent with ‘traditional’ research proposals. You set the scene by talking about what is already known about your phenomenon of interest, what the debates are and where the gaps are. You then talk about what your research aims to do, what its question is. The problem solving imperative surfaces more when you talk about the setting in which the research will take place – what is the problematic situation that participants will be addressing there and how that offers an opportunity to generate data that will help you with your research aim and question.
Framing a proposal through the lens of the problem solving imperative is more like a business case for change. You start by describing the real world instance of the situation perceived as problematic in its wider context – why it needs to be improved and how you are going to set about doing that and later explain how the activities of research will complement and enhance that improvement/change journey. The more I think about this the more I realise it isn’t a RESEARCH proposal at all – it is a change or improvement proposal. In my case, this isn’t what my university wants but it could be what the stakeholders in the setting where I am going to do the research want. I think it gets confused a little in books because in some cases universities are asking for this type of proposal. One of the issues I have worried about with my research proposal is that I define too much up front, by myself, rather than involve the participants themselves in the ‘proposal’ – what I may find as I embark on the core action research is that this type of proposal is generated as part of the ‘action’ that the participants choose to take together. As I said above this is their process, they are the owners not me – I am their facilitator or helper.
*I’m a little uncomfortable with the framing of ‘problem solving’ here – I’d prefer to say something like ‘improving a situation perceived as problematic’ – but that is quite clumsy and wordy. So I am using ‘problem solving’ as the authors do but with some caveats about taking the words too literally.
Coghlan, D. and Brannick, T. (2014), Doing action research in your own organisation Fourth Edition., London: Sage Publications.
McKay, J. and Marshall, P. (2001), The dual imperatives of action research. Information Technology & People , 14(1), pp.46–59.
McKay, J. and Marshall, P. (2007), Driven by two masters, serving both: the interplay of problem solving and research in information systems action research projects. In Kock, N. (Editor), Information Systems Action Research: An applied view of emerging concepts and methods. New York: Springer US, pp. 131–158.
Zuber‐Skerritt, O. and Fletcher, M. (2007), The quality of an action research thesis in the social sciences. Quality Assurance in Education , 15(4), pp.413–436.
Zuber-Skerritt, O. and Perry, C. (2002), Action research within organisations and university thesis writing. The Learning Organization , 9(3/4), p.171.
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Understanding and analyzing your actions is vital for self-improvement. It would help if you recognized how your actions affect your future. Examining your progress is called action research. This method applies to psychology, marketing, and education. Action research is used by teachers to find solutions to problem areas or formulate research plans for factors that need improvement. The results of action research are useful to the participants since it helps them better themselves for the next tasks. This research has guaranteed relevance because the researchers get to decide what the focus of the study is. They are also the ones who will make use of the results.
Every action someone makes has a ripple effect on the future. One small act of kindness can lead to great fortunes. Likewise, any lousy act can turn into something terrible. A person’s mistakes are what makes him who he is today. Ziad K. Abdelnour even said, “Never erase your past. It shapes who you are today and will help you to be the person you’ll be tomorrow.” For one to grow as a person, one needs to be able to recognize one’s mistakes and learn from them. Perhaps you need to create an action plan or conduct action research to help yourself out.
Not all types of research are useful for all fields; some are effective only on specific studies. Luckily, action research can serve many disciplines. Although most applicable to educational research settings, the action research design works for an endless variation of studies. This research approach can also be used by individuals or by groups of researchers. The difference in researchers also signifies a difference in purpose.
Reflective Practitioner When an individual practitioner decides to look into his way of teaching, he unconsciously analyzes his actions to improve the instruction. The more he studies himself, the more he masters the science and process of it all.
Large-Scale Progress In education, as the school progresses, the students progress with it. That is why many schools continuously seek ways to strengthen their instruction to build schoolwide improvement. When instructors come together to fix a single issue, organizational growth is bound to occur.
Professional Culture Medical and educational professionals don’t always agree on particular methods. Sometimes they need to do what they think is appropriate. The only important thing is that they lean towards the same organizational goal . With their differing approaches, they can share their own discoveries to their colleagues, making for more holistic improvement.
The best way to improve yourself is by analyzing your actions and making adjustments along the way. This is a research method called action research. To help you further understand what action research is, here are multiple action research examples you can check out.
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Action research is an approach that lets an individual study one’s action to help enhance their basic skills and knowledge of a given task or topic. There is a cycle that this research follows to make continuous improvements to a group or individual. As with any research projects, there are steps you need to follow to accomplish your project goals.
The action research cycle begins with identifying an area that you think needs improvement. Only the researcher can assess if the research focus is worth the time. The outcome of the focus should be the betterment of a practitioner’s work. Thus, picking the right center is extremely important.
The next step is figuring out what approach works best for the problem area. You can try out different methods to solve your problem. This way, you can identify what process flow you are going to follow for the duration of the research. Studying various methods, beliefs, and theories can help you decide what you feel is most effective.
Your data should be valid and reliable to guarantee improvement. That is why it would be wrong to just stick to one source of data. If you can find various academic references to answer any of your questions, you should utilize them. This way, you can match the right technique with the unique qualities your research holds.
When conducting data analysis , you need not use complex calculations and statistical methods; you just need to examine the data you have collected. In studying the patterns and trends in your research data, you just need to answer two questions. What story does the data tell? Why is the story executed this way?
In a day, teachers face more students than fellow teachers. That’s why, given a chance to speak with their colleagues, teachers make share their discoveries from their research. This way, they get to express organizational knowledge they think is useful for other teachers while gaining insight as well.
The last step of the research action plan is, of course, to take action. This part is where teachers make their lesson plans . This part is satisfying to teachers because they feel they have gotten wiser with every piece of knowledge they have uncovered.
Everyone should learn from their mistakes. With every trial and error is a new way of looking at things. You just need to be vigilant with all your actions and know that there is always a better way of doing things. Once you’ve refined your skills, you are sure to become a master.
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🏆 best action research topic ideas & essay examples, 💡 interesting topics to write about action research, 🎓 most action research topics to write about, ⭐ simple & easy action research essay titles.
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The methods of action research in education include: conducting in-class observations. taking field notes. surveying or interviewing teachers, administrators, or parents. using audio and video recordings. The goal is to identify problematic issues, test possible solutions, or simply carry-out continuous improvement.
Stage 1: Plan. For an action research project to go well, the researcher needs to plan it well. After coming up with an educational research topic or question after a research study, the first step is to develop an action plan to guide the research process. The research design aims to address the study's question.
The first question asks for a ready-made solution, and is not focused or researchable. The second question is a clearer comparative question, but note that it may not be practically feasible. For a smaller research project or thesis, it could be narrowed down further to focus on the effectiveness of drunk driving laws in just one or two countries.
100 Questions (and Answers) About Action Research identifies and answers the essential questions on the process of systematically approaching your practice from an inquiry-oriented perspective, with a focus on improving that practice.
Action research is a research method that aims to simultaneously investigate and solve an issue. In other words, as its name suggests, action research conducts research and takes action at the same time. It was first coined as a term in 1944 by MIT professor Kurt Lewin.A highly interactive method, action research is often used in the social ...
Specific goals of this handbook are to help educators do the following: Define and explain Action Research. Demonstrate an understanding of how to use the recursive nature of Action Research to improve their teaching of instructional literacy. Provide examples of the Action Research process in action.
Action research is a process for improving educational practice. Its methods involve action, evaluation, and reflection. It is a process to gather evidence to implement change in practices. Action research is participative and collaborative. It is undertaken by individuals with a common purpose.
An action research project is a practical endeavor that will ultimately be shaped by your educational context and practice. Now that you have developed a literature review, you are ready to revise your initial plans and begin to plan your project. This chapter will provide some advice about your considerations when undertaking an action ...
A good research question is essential to guide your research paper, dissertation, or thesis. All research questions should be: Focused on a single problem or issue. Researchable using primary and/or secondary sources. Feasible to answer within the timeframe and practical constraints. Specific enough to answer thoroughly.
Passion is integral to doing action research and can be a resource for identifying a research question, as indicated by Dana and Yendol-Hoppey (2008, pp. 15-48). After analyzing more than 100 teacher class-room research studies, they identified eight passions as possibilities for finding a research question: 1.
The example also includes the use of student writing and interviewing to support the research. Action Research about Science Experiences: In this example of action research, drawings, along with other data sources, are used to study students' experiences with science outside of the classroom context. Sample Action Research Resources:
Sharing case studies or examples of impactful research can demonstrate the positive outcomes and improvements that can result from well-conducted action research. Conclusion In conclusion, action research is a valuable tool for educators seeking to enhance their teaching practices and improve student outcomes.
Creating an action research project. The action research process usually begins with a situation or issue that a teacher wants to change as part of school improvement initiatives.. Teachers get support in changing the 'interesting issue' into a 'researchable question' and then taking to experiment.The teacher will draw on the outcomes of other researchers to help build actions and reveal the ...
Action research is a research method that combines investigation and intervention to solve a problem. Because of its interactive nature, action research is commonly used in the social sciences, particularly in educational contexts. Educators frequently use this method as a means of structured inquiry, emphasizing reflective practice and ...
Action research is an intentional act, and the research questions can be used to state our intentions. When writing action research questions, you should keep the following criteria in mind: They should be broad in scope. You likely will have 1-3 questions that guide your action research process. It is unlikely that you will have more than 6.
Tips to write appealing action research paper in education. Here are some tips to write an appealing action research paper in education: Select a Relevant and Engaging Topic: Choose action research topics in education that is relevant to the field of education and aligns with your interests and goals.Select a topic that has practical implications and can contribute to improving educational ...
The examples provided below cover a wide range of topics and fields, demonstrating the versatility of action research in various contexts. Whether you are an educator, healthcare professional, social worker, or business manager, these action research question examples can serve as a starting point for your own research projects.
Abstract. 100 Questions (and Answers) About Action Research identifies and answers the essential questions on the process of systematically approaching your practice from an inquiry-oriented ...
Further, they should be of interest to the researcher and have the potential to lead to improved student learning. Action Research Topics Using Drawings: sample Action Research topics using drawings as a primary data source. Action Research Examples: examples of Action Research by practicing teachers using a wide variety of research methodologies.
Those familiar with the action research model (see Kemmis et al., 2014) will recognise the value of these questions in helping teacher researchers to initiate work on the first major step of the cycle which is planning. In contrast to Jones' numerous questions, McNiff and Whitehead (2011: 134) focused more on one key question, claiming that ...
The 'core action research' is understood as being the fieldwork phase of the 'thesis action research'. The Thesis action research kind of operates at a meta-level - i.e. research on the core action research. This means that the 'thesis action research' can have a different research question to the 'core action research'.
This is a research method called action research. To help you further understand what action research is, here are multiple action research examples you can check out. 1. Research Action Plan Template. Details. File Format. MS Word. Google Docs. Apple Pages.
Action Research for Professional Development. The idea is to enable the practitioners to follow certain actions and reflection procedures to enable them to improve upon the unsatisfactory situation. The prevalent methods or approaches to action research include the use of […] Action Research Plan in Education.
With AI expanding the world of data like never before, finding ways of leveraging it without ethical or security concerns is key. Enter synthetic data, an exciting privacy-enhancing technology re-emerging in the age of AI. It replicates the patterns and trends in sensitive datasets but does not contain specific information that could be linked to individuals or compromise organizations or ...
Take our quiz to find out which one of our nine political typology groups is your best match, compared with a nationally representative survey of more than 10,000 U.S. adults by Pew Research Center. You may find some of these questions are difficult to answer. That's OK.
Nicole Brauckmann focuses on helping organizations and individuals create the conditions for successful emergent change to unfold. As an executive and consultant, she has worked to deliver large ...