Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Assumption Example
Teachers and other education A team of teachers, after discussions with the school
professionals have the authority to administration, decide to meet weekly to revise the
make decisions. mathematics curriculum to make it more relevant to low-
achieving students.
Teachers and other education A group of teachers decide to observe each other on a weekly
professionals want to improve their basis and then discuss ways to improve their teaching.
practice.
The entire staff—administration, teachers, counselors, and
Teachers and other education clerical staff—of an elementary school go on a retreat to plan
professionals are committed to ways to improve the attendance and discipline policies for the
continual professional development. school.
Teachers and other education Following up on the example just listed above, the staff
professionals will and can engage in decides to collect data by reviewing the attendance records of
systematic research. chronic absentees over the past year, to interview a random
sample of attendees and absentees to determine why they
differ, to hold a series of after-school roundtable sessions
between discipline-prone students and faculty to identify
problems and discuss ways to resolve issues of contention,
and to establish a mentoring system in which selected students
can serve as counselors to students needing help with their
assigned work.
ASSUMPTIONS UNDERLYING
ACTION RESEARCH
A number of assumptions underlie action
research:
Participants have the authority to make decisions
Those involved are seriously committed to improving
their performance
Educators and others involved in schools want to
engage in research systematically
Those performing the research will make the
necessary changes and recommendations
TYPES OF ACTION RESEARCH
There are two main types of action research:
1) Practical Action Research
Addresses a specific problem
Primary purpose is to improve practice and inform larger
issues
A “how to” approach
2) Participatory Action Research
Philosophically driven
Empower individuals and groups to improve their lives and
bring about a social change
Stakeholders are involved and are active in all processes
LEVELS OF PARTICIPATION
Provide Participate in
information interpretation
Become informed Participate in designing
of purpose of the the project
study Participate in problem
Receive findings specification
Assist in data Initiate study
collection
Review findings
STEPS IN ACTION RESEARCH
There are four steps or stages in Action
Research: