Definition

As stated by Carr and Kemmis (as cited in Smith, 2007), action research
is a “form of self-reflective enquiry undertaken by participants in social
situations in order to improve the rationality and justice of their own
practices, their understanding of these practices, and the situations in
which the practices are carried out” (p. 162).

From a wider perspective, Bogdan and Biklen (1992) define action

research as a “systematic collection of information that is designed to bring
about social change” (p. 223).

Components

In the words of Borgia and Shulter (as cited in Tracy, 2015), the
components of action research are the Five Cs:

Commitment Take time

Collaboration Consider participants’ contribution

Concern Trust in participants and project

Consideration Require reflective practice

Change Grow to develop

Table 2, Components of Action Research-Five Cs

Characteristics

Mills (as cited in Alt, 2013) stated that there are some characteristics that
must be considered when conducting action research.

emphasizes on change.
is participatory and democratic.
is socially responsive and takes place in context.
Action research …
helps researcher examines the everyday.
generates action outcomes plus research outcomes.
enhances learning and policy making.

Table 3, Action Research Characteristics

Uses

If it is considered that action research entails learning by doing, O’Brien

(1998) emphasises that this has to be used in:

➢ Real situations rather than experimental studies due to the fact that it
focuses on solving real problems.
➢ Preliminary or pilot research when the situation is unclear to conduct
rigorous research.
➢ Situations that imply flexibility, participants’ involvement and immediate
changes.
➢ Studies done by practitioners who need to improve their research
practice, social change activists who want to achieve an immediate
change or academics in specific fields who lack of in-depth knowledge
of research methodologies.

Strengths and challenges

In the light of Dick (1993), there are a number of reasons why action
research should or shouldn’t be chosen. Then the importance to analyse
deeply the context to be improved.

✓ Can be used in work or community settings to change or

S improve situations, offering people the chance to make use of
t it because of its flexibility (Martin, 1989).
r ✓ Increase conscious learning as a result of systematic
e reflection, derived from the experience of working the action
n research cycle (Schön, 1987).
g
t ✓ Strengthen the research profile because of the relevance of
h practice.
s ✓ Participate with people involved is more ethically satisfying,
apart from ensuring the results.

× Be responsible not only for research, but also for changes.

C
× Imply a very high workload, h
a
× Be judged superficial because it ignores some requirements l
of conventional research. l
× Cannot be used in all disciplines because of its lack of rigor. e
n
× Define literature by the data collected is a challenge when g
findings must be interpreted. e
s
× Be time-consuming due to its methodology.

Table 4, Action Research Strengths and Challenges

Example

The example below highlights a way drawing might be used in action

research (University of Maryland, 2012).

Action research about science experiences

Ms S, a fourth-grade teacher, was pursuing her

Master's in education. Action research was a large
part of the requirement for a course in her program.
For her action research project, she decided to
study her students' experiences with science
outside of the classroom.

She had noticed that some students would discuss trips to museums,
parks, and after-school science programs. Ms S wondered how common
these experiences were and which students were involved.

Ms. S thought this information would be valuable in connecting her

students' experiences to classroom instruction. In addition, it would allow
her to encourage students to contribute to discussions and activities. She
also hoped that by understanding what her students were doing outside of
school she could offer suggestions to parents and encourage science
learning.

Action Research Question

After discussing her research with her professor and peers she decided to
investigate the research questions, "What experiences outside of the
classroom during the summer break do my students self-identify as
associated with learning science? How do they compare what and how
they learn science in the differing environments (formal science
classrooms and informal science settings)? How can I use that information
to enhance my science instruction?" Since Ms. S planned to collect data
at the beginning of the school year she wanted to focus on what took place
over summer vacation. This information would then be useful for the rest
of the year and help her get to know her students at the beginning of the
school year.

Research Plan

After visiting www.DrawnToScience.org, Ms S thought drawings might be

a useful and non-threatening way to collect data from her students,
especially early in the school year. In order to collect data, Ms S planned
to use a modified version of the drawing prompt used on this website. The
revised prompt would ask students to "draw the science-related activities
you did over the summer." Students would also be asked to write a
description of the activity on the back of the drawing.

Ms S conducted a review of the literature in order to understand what

research had already been done, and for ideas on conducting her action
research project. Based on what she found she then developed a plan to
collect and analyse data. To analyse the data she planned to develop her
own scoring rubric for the drawings using the rubric on this website as a
model and from information found in her literature review.

At the end of the semester, Ms S planned to turn in the final paper on her
research to her professor and give a presentation. She also was
considering submitting a proposal to present at a local education
conference.

Findings

The experiences using drawings as a form of evidence have led us to

believe that this methodology could be beneficial to others in the education
research community. In particular, we found that the use of drawings as a
data collection method helped us to:

- gain insights into teacher candidate thinking that had not been visible to
us before in written or verbal data;
- open discussion in interviews and emails about our insights taken from
the drawings with the teacher candidates;
- encourage teacher candidates to reflect on aspects of their developing
teacher identity that they had not previously realized; and
- give the teacher candidates a mode of expression that they enjoyed and
was novel to them as a data collection strategy.