What is Action Research? A Visual Explanation.

Here's a short description of action research.

TRANSCRIPT:

Teaching is a craft. It's both an art and a science, which is why great teachers always experiment and make tons of mistakes.

But how do you know what's actually working?

One option is action research.

Here you can identify a question or problem, test out a strategy, gather data, and determine if it works.

The end result is something dynamic, innovative, and tied directly to your classroom.

Action research dissolves the barrier between participants and researchers. In other words, the teacher actively participates in the situation while conducting the research.

There are many action research frameworks, but they generally follow a similar process:

You start out in phase one, planning for research.

Phase One: Planning for Research
It starts with an inquiry process, where you define a specific research question. It needs to be something you can actually test. Next, you conduct a literature review to gain a deeper understanding of the related research.

Finally, you move into the design process, where you determine your data methods, consider ethical issues, get required permissions, create deadlines and set up systems.

This is where you engage in multiple cycles of experimentation and data collection. Your data collection might include qualitative data, like observations, artifacts, and interviews or quantitative data like rubric scores, surveys, or achievement data.

Phase Three: Analysis
You will often start by organizing data with charts or graphs and looking for trends. You might also discuss it with peers, free write in a journal, or create a cluster map before eventually writing out your results.

Phase Four: Conclusion
This is often where you share your research with the world and reflect on your own practice. This will ultimately lead to new questions . . . and the cycle will continue again as you refine your craft as a better, more creative teacher.

[qwertymark]

You explain this topic in two minutes better than my lecturer does in one and a half our meeting

[coraldavis]

This was very succinct. I'm a first time researcher and this broke it down for me in a way I can understand. Of course now that I've seen this video, it's obvious, but sometimes a person just needs something to be said in a new way. The illustrations probably helped too. Thank you

[mrrownel]

Mr. Spencer,
Your post is one of the shortest, easy-to-understand, and impactful videos I have viewed on YouTube.
Thank you!

[reannagraves]

While watching the video, I found the Phase 2 explanation of the video is what I am applying to my project. The video also explained that gathering data will be either qualitative, quantitative, or both, and I will use both methods to collect data for my project.
I rate this video as a four. It is informative about the steps to complete an action research project, but it is very short. Watching this video, I would probably need to watch more videos with more profound information about action research.
This video received a lot of positive reviews from viewers. Many stated that the video was easy to understand even though the video was 2 minutes. I agree with the reviewers that the video makes the process of an action researcher project more understandable.

[KellyHarrison]

The perfect introduction and overview of action research!

[heathersokolowski]

Thank you! This gave me some comfort as I start a new class in college.

[anissashfung]

Excellent introduction of action research for beginners with simple, direct and precise explanation and interesting drawings.

[bekzodhayitov]

These two and half minutes have been organized very clearly. Thank you for your effort.

[LeoDragon]

Just over two minutes of my time that has saved me a great deal longer to understand the topic

[andrewperron]

Excellent, thank you for the introduction to action research

[vivianhubbard]

This was a very good explanation of the research process. It was interesting to hear my profession referred to as being an artist and a scientist. This video rates at a 4 for me because the information was useful to the class I am taking.

[manueldeljesusperez]

Gracias por la esclarecedora presentación. Esto es muy útil, especialmente después de leer un artículo de revista que adopta este método. No importa si pregunto amablemente: la única diferencia aquí y otros tipos de investigación es que esta es participativa (entre el investigador y el participante), ¿correcto? Porque otros procesos

[tommijackson]

John, you blew that explanation out of the box! Can you create a video for Explicit and Tacit Learning. Well done.

[caffiejrisher]

This was the BEST EXAMPLE Thank You!

I’m on my way!~.

[senseijeshika]

Great explanation, it helps me understand the action research :)

[alpatrickcasino]

Thank you po. This helped me understand the meaning of Action research and its processes.

[lizzaospina]

THANK YOU !!!! you explained in a better way than my teacher ! thank you so much!

[swhmuwf]

Thanks for this clear, concise explanation!

[iamjooheonswife]

Thanks for this. It's really helpful and easy to understand

[ambersalyers]

Fantastic explanation! And the Trekkie in me was totally jazzed about the Star Trek NG reference! Thanks