Action Research in Action

What is action research? The opposite of "inaction" research? No. Action research, as far as I am concerned, is a way for me, as a teacher and school administer, to monitor what I do in my classroom and school building, collect data on my current practices, and make adjustments to improve my practices. I have unknowingly used informal action research for many years. Most recently, I questioned how students took notes in my class and how effective their notetaking was. I created what I thought was a quality notetaking form and gave many copies to each student. Over the next for weeks, I collected data which included success on assessments of material covered in the notes and feedback from my students as to their comfort level and ease of using the notetaking form.

From this data, I redesigned the notetaking form and repeated the process. After the second 4-week period, I redesigned the form once again. The third design was far and away the best of the three forms. Student success on daily assessments was 8-10% higher, depending on the class, and the students reported being better able to not only take notes efficiently, but also to listen to the lecture, which resulted in better retention of the material.

The steps utilized in action research can benefit all school teachers and administrators for two major reasons:
1. The topic being researched is one that specifically addresses a problem or concern of THAT teacher or administrator. Before I designed the first notetaking form, I scrutinized numerous published forms and scholastic websites in search of an effective generic form. The forms I found were good, but apparently were not the best fit for my personal students. By using my student opinions's and assessment results as data, I was able to generate a form that best suited my students.
2. A teacher or administrator can conduct action research on numerous topics simultaneously. There are so many different things going on during a school day: instruction, discipline, assessment, etc. I have also learned, through informal action assessment, that I am not accomplished at creating multiple choice assessments. I either make them too difficult or too easy. As I am researching which notetaking form is best for my students, I can also research and monitor what style of assessments fits my teaching style and results in maximum retention.

For administrators, one can monitor most all goings on of his or her school via action research. I personnally intend to utilize action research through out the remainder of my Master's program regarding what time of day I work on it. As an undergraduate, I was most effective when I studied in the early morning. Now being 42 with three children, that still seems best but is not always possible. The data I will analyze will include the quality of work I produce and my frame of mind while working on it.