Key Concepts

Action research is a practical approach to professional inquiry in any social situation. The context for professional inquiry might change, but the principles and processes involved in action research are the same, regardless of the nature of the practice.

Action research is either research initiated to solve an immediate problem or a reflective process of progressive problem solving led by individuals working with others in teams or as part of a "community of practice" to improve the way they address issues and solve problems.

The action research cycle consists of four steps – those of planning, acting, observing and reflecting. Usually represented (and just as badly drawn) in a cycle.

How you conduct these separate steps is up to you. Other parts of this site deal with the different methods of observation. The essential elements of these steps are that they are:

Small – the idea being that the research is responsive to any findings that may occur, i.e don’t carry out a second action before you’ve had a chance to reflect on your first

Practicable – an incredible innovative plan is no good unless you can implement it simply, and its effects are open to observation

Inclusive – action research usually has not only catalytic validity, but is also accountable, disseminated to colleagues, and above all, shared by the people who are being acted upon and observed (i.e. tell your students what you’re doing and why). This is because the leading action research gurus have mainly also had a humanist agenda about social change and altruism. It’s not essential, but perhaps still desirable.

Re-iterated – the cycle can be gone through as many times as is necessary, or until you run out of time.

The action research cycle consists of four steps – those of planning, acting, observing and reflecting. Usually represented in a cycle,

At the simplest level, therefore, action research involves a spiral or cycle of planning, action, monitoring and reflection:

This sequence underpins the process of the inquiry but be prepared to find fuzzy edges between the stages as your inquiry proceeds. For a start, you will probably not start with planning; there may be much monitoring and observation of existing practice (reconnaissance) before you are ready to plan and implement a change. As you become more involved with your research, you may find it hard to detach one element of the process from another. You may find yourself reflecting as you are acting – something that Donald Schön (1983) calls ‘knowing-in-action’ – and monitoring also will take place as action proceeds. However, once that first change is implemented the action research cycle proceeds generally in the above manne

The Action Research Cycle

The action research cycle consists of four steps – those of planning, acting, observing and reflecting. Usually represented (and just as badly drawn) in a cycle, thus:

How you conduct these separate steps is up to you. Other parts of this site deal with the different methods ofobservation. The essential elements of these steps are that they are:

small – the idea being that the research is responsive to any findings that may occur, i.e don’t carry out a second action before you’ve had a chance to reflect on your first

practicable – an incredible innovative plan is no good unless you can implement it simply, and its effects are open to observation

inclusive – action research usually has not only catalytic validity, but is also accountable, disseminated to colleagues, and above all, shared by the people who are being acted upon and observed (i.e. tell your students what you’re doing and why). This is because the leading action research gurus have mainly also had a humanist agenda about social change and altruism. It’s not essential, but perhaps still desirable.

re-iterated – the cycle can be gone through as many times as is necessary, or until you run out of time.

• Neo-ethnographic’ an in-depth investigation of a single case by a participant observer
• Evaluative’. ‘a single case or group of cases studied at such depth as the evaluation of policy or practice will allow (usually condensed field work)’.
• Multi-site case study, which consists of ‘condensed field work undertaken by a team of workers on a number of sites and possibly offering an alternative approach to research to that based on sampling and statistical inference’

• Explanatory (testing theories) examine the data closely both at a surface and deep level in order to explain the phenomena in the data.
• Exploratory (as a pilot to other studies or research questions) set to explore any phenomenon in the data which serves as a point of interest to the researcher.
• Descriptive (providing narrative accounts) set to describe the natural phenomena which occur within the data in question, for instance, what different strategies are used by a reader and how the reader use them. The goal set by the researcher is to describe the data as they occur.
• The intrinsic case study: the interest is in the case for its own sake, based on uniqueness. A researcher examines the case for its own sake.
• The instrumental case study, selected to help in the understanding of something else, based on issues. the researcher selects a small group of subjects in order to examine a certain pattern of behavior.

• The collective case study, groups of individual studies that are undertaken to gain a fuller picture, more than one case studied. The researcher coordinates data from several different sources, such as schools or individuals.

• The collective case study, groups of individual studies that are undertaken to gain a fuller picture, more than one case studied. the researcher coordinates data from several different sources, such as schools or individuals.