What I have learned about action research.

                                             What I have learned about action research

Action research is the process of researching an area that needs improvement, then through using the information that was uncovered in the research, devising ways to improve that particular area that needed improvement. The goal of action research is to improve the educational process in order to allow it to run more efficiently.

Action research is mainly talked about in the Dana text on an administrative level, but good teachers should be familiar with action research because they use it yearly when they collaborate with other teachers. For example after a chapter test, three teachers may get together and compare results. If one teacher’s scores are dramatically better than the other two teachers’ scores those two teachers may research the successful teacher’s teaching strategies for that chapter then may implement them into their instruction in the future. I personally have and will continue to use action research in this way in the future.

On a more school/district wide level action research can be used to determine school start times. I am at a school district where school starts absurdly late in many people’s opinion (8:45 am). This late start time causes a late release time (4:15 pm) which causes students to continuously be released early from school for after school activities. I even know of a student who is involved in so many after school activities after school and on the weekend that he convinced his parents to get him out of school early so that he could just go get a haircut because their was no other time for it. Many people within the district have conducted action research to determine the pros and cons of starting school that late, but no plans for change have yet been announced.

Action research is a very good strategy to help school improvement. If an issue is properly researched and presented then it can have a progressive effect on the educational process.


Dana, N.F. (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge: The principal as action researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.