Action Research And The Ability To Use It

Action research is the process of problem solving, in this case, led by a school administration to improve the way schools are run to achieve higher student success in all academic areas. Action research can also be performed by instructional leaders, team or departmental leaders, and districts as a whole with the aim of improving professional development using an introspective approach.

To put it simple, action research is like a computer. You input information into the computer, the computer then transforms it, and prints out your output. During input, you diagnose a problem, gather data using feedback of results, and create a plan. During transformation, learning is processed, the action is planned using a series of steps. During output, behavior changes, data is gathered, and then measured. The cycle then starts all over again.

We as administrators/future administrators can use action research when determining how things should be better run in an educational institution by inquiring about what does or does not work and by what means do we determine how it does not work.

William Torbert, in 2004, says that action research "is a way of simultaneously conducting action and inquiry as a disciplined leadership practice that increases the wide effectiveness of our actions. Such action helps individuals, teams, organizations become more capable of self-transformation and thus more creative, more aware, more just and more sustainable."