Four steps to conducting action research in the

classroom
6 min read
At some point, teachers and instructors will come across some form of problem that they would like to address
in their classroom or course. Some teachers will rely on traditional ways to solve these problems. Teachers will
also seek out the advice of experts or colleagues to try and address challenges. Really good educators will
conduct their own investigations to identify and solve problems while analyzing information about their school
and the learning environment. These learning environments may be brick and mortar classrooms, online
learning environments, or a hybrid mix of the two.

Action Research is either research initiated to solve an immediate problem or a reflective process of progressive
problem solving that integrates research, action, and analysis. The integration of action includes the
development and implementation of a plan or strategy to address the focus of the research. The research
includes building a knowledge base to understand the effectiveness of the action or plan being considered. Put
simple, action research can be viewed as a form of disciplined inquiry utilized by teachers, instructors, and
supervisors to better understand student learning and teacher effectiveness.

There are many guides and permutations available for conducting action research in the classroom. I will link to
some of these resources in the citations section at the conclusion of this post. The purpose of this post is to get
you up and running with four basic steps needed to conduct action research in your own practice.

Selecting a focus
The first step in conducting action research is to identify and define the focus of your investigatio n. You’ll want
to develop some questions about the area of your focus. Finally, you’ll need to identify a plan to effectively
study and answer the questions you’ve developed.

Please note that action research typically will include an examination of the school, programs, students, and
instructional practices. You’ll want to consider what aspects of these areas will you need to study in your
research. Specifically, will you need to examine student outcomes (dispositions, achievement); curriculum
(instructional materials, content standards, frameworks); instruction (teaching strategies, use of technology);
school climate (student morale, teacher morale, relationships between teachers and supervisors); parental
involvement (participation on committees, attendance at events).

As you develop your focus and identify a specific frame to guide your thinking, you should also adjust your
research questions. As an example, if you’re concerned with issues of school climate, you might want to
consider the following guiding questions:

 How can I document the morale of teachers?

 What impact does possible low morale of teachers have on student achievement?
 Will increased relationships between teachers and supervisors yield higher teacher morale?
 How might we increase more positive relationships between students, teachers, and supervisors?

Developing and revising the focus and guiding questions for your action research will help you understand what
elements you are interested in examining. You will also need to identify questions you can effectively gather
information about and conduct your research. What research questions do you want to answer? What research
questions do you think you can answer?
Collecting data
The second step involved in conducting action research includes collecting data to use in answering your
research questions. Once again, in step one you’ll identify questions you are interested in answering..and think
that you can effectively “answer”? In the second step, you’ll need to gather info to address these questions.
This data may consist of teacher-made surveys and standardized test data. Data may consist of surveys and
interviews. Collected data may also consist of student portfolios, observations, and other sources of information.

The data you collect may also consist of research conducted to identify best practices, or research tested
techniques. This is an opportunity to learn from others that may have been trying to unpack the same problems
or challenges. In my own work I use a two-step process of Google searches and then Google Scholar to quickly
learn more about a topic. After I have identified the focus, keywords, and relevant search terms, I can continue
my examination at the library or using online sources.

You’ll want to make sure that your data will address the focus of your action research. If you’re interested in
studying the district’s new ELA/Reading curriculum, you might collect interview and survey data. You may
also collect student scores on district-wide assessments. Finally, you may collect the previous curriculum, or
examine other curricular materials available.

As you collect data, you’ll want to make sure that you organize it to make it easy for you (and others) to
analyze. You may not present the data to others, but it helps you in the long run in you keep your work
organized as you work. You may also choose to share your data with others to help prove a point or connect
your findings with others.

One of the last points I’d like to make about data collection is identifying when you have collected enough data.
This is always a question that is asked as we begin the research process. What you’re looking for is “saturation
of data.” As you collect data, you’ll begin to recognize patterns in the data. If you start to get a “gut feeling”
that “you’ve already seen this before”…chances are you’re approaching saturation.

Analyzing and interpreting data

After identifying your focus and collecting data, you’ll need to analyze and make interpretations from your
materials. In this you’ll want to describe or summarize the data clearly. You’ll also look for consistent patterns
or themes across the data. Finally, you’ll want to use the data to answer your research questions and/or prove
your hypotheses.

There are multiple strategies and techniques that can be used as you analyze your data. In my own work I find it
is helpful to lay out all of my data and the identified themes or patterns in an area that is easily visible while
working. I’ll save these themes and patterns written on paper on my desk, or on a white board in my office. I
also find it helpful to just write and think through the data, themes, and patterns as I make sense of the results.

As you “make sense” of the results, you’ll want to identify how you’ll develop your findings. In qualitative
analysis, there is usually a focus on deductive or inductive analysis of the data. Deductive means that you’re
moving from concepts to examples while inductive means that you’re moving from examples to concepts.
Another way to consider this is that deductive reasoning has you examine your data with an open mind, look for
patterns, develop a hypothesis, and then move to theory. Inductive on the other hand has you moving from the
theory and using your hypothesis and the data to confirm your findings.
Please also note that it is possible and appropriate to move from one frame to another, or include bits and pieces
across the research process. You’ll just want to understand where you’re obtaining your results, and what lenses
you’re using as you analyze and interpret your data.

Taking action
The fourth step includes you making a decision about your research and identifying next possible actions. Let us
suppose you have researched the question above about teacher morale and have uncovered the root cause of the
problem. You’ve surveyed the students, teachers, and supervisors and you know exactly how to “fix” the
problem.

You now have to take action and this includes several possibilities. First, you may choose to continue the
system as it currently operates and make no changes. Second, you may choose to disband the organization to
address the problem. This may include shutting down the school and sending all of the students, teachers, and
supervisors elsewhere. Third, you may choose to modify or make small tweaks to the school, program, or
relationships between all partners to address the culture of the school.

Your decision on how you take action will be determined by a multitude of factors…some of which may be out
of your control. Please note that action research typically follows a cycle as you move through each of the steps.
As you work through the sequence, you’ll learn a bit more about the problem or research question. You’ll use
this information as a way to improve your focus, research, or action in subsequent steps through the cycle. This
most likely will not be the end of the cycle. You’ll continue to observe, act, and reflect as you continue to plan
and operate in the classroom.
Continuing the action research cycle
Information gained from previous research may open new avenues of research. You may choose to come down
to this last step and decide to move back to the top of the cycle and start the process over again after tweaking
one small variable in the sequence. Action research is ongoing. In this cycle, you are continually involved in
assessing instruction and seeking ways of improving your practice, classroom, or even more.

For more guidance, please review some of the resources I used to compile this post:

 A practical guide to action research for literacy educators

 Action Research: A guide for associate lecturers
 Action research in education
 Action Research in Qualitative Research

If needed, I am available to help guide you in this process. You should also subscribe to my newsletter to
continue your thinking about these skills and habits

RETRIEVED FROM: https://wiobyrne.com/action-research/

Guiding School Improvement with Action Research

by Richard Sagor

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. What Is Action Research?

A succinct definition of action research appears in the workshop materials we use at the Institute for the Study
of Inquiry in Education. That definition states that action research

is a disciplined process of inquiry conducted by and for those taking the action. The primary reason for engaging in
action research is to assist the “actor” in improving and/or refining his or her actions.

Practitioners who engage in action research inevitably find it to be an empowering experience. Action
research has this positive effect for many reasons. Obviously, the most important is that action research is
always relevant to the participants. Relevance is guaranteed because the focus of each research project is
determined by the researchers, who are also the primary cons umers of the findings.

Perhaps even more important is the fact that action research helps educators be more effective at what they
care most about—their teaching and the development of their students. Seeing students grow is probably the
greatest joy educators can experience. When teachers have convincing evidence that their work has made a
real difference in their students' lives, the countless hours and endless efforts of teaching seem worthwhile.

The Action Research Process

Educational action research can be engaged in by a single teacher, by a group of colleagues who share an
interest in a common problem, or by the entire faculty of a school. Whatever the scenario, action research
always involves the same seven-step process. These seven steps, which become an endless cycle for the
inquiring teacher, are the following:
 1. Selecting a focus
2. Clarifying theories
3. Identifying research questions
4. Collecting data
5. Analyzing data
6. Reporting results
7. Taking informed action

Step 1—Selecting a Focus

The action research process begins with serious reflection directed toward identifying a topic or topics worthy
of a busy teacher's time. Considering the incredible demands on today's classroom teachers, no activity is
worth doing unless it promises to make the central part of a teacher's work more successful and satisfying.
Thus, selecting a focus, the first step in the process, is vitally important. Selecting a focus begins with the
teacher researcher or the team of action researchers asking:

What element(s) of our practice or what aspect of student learning do we wish to investigate?

Step 2—Clarifying Theories

The second step involves identifying the values, beliefs, and theoretical perspectives the researchers hold
relating to their focus. For example, if teachers are concerned about increasing responsible classroom
behavior, it will be helpful for them to begin by clarifying which approach—using punishments and rewards,
allowing students to experience the natural consequences of their behaviors, or some other strategy—they
feel will work best in helping students acquire responsible classroom behavior habits.

Step 3—Identifying Research Questions

Once a focus area has been selected and the researcher's perspectives and beliefs about that focus have been
clarified, the next step is to generate a set of personally meaningful research questions to guide the inquiry.

Step 4—Collecting Data

Professional educators always want their instructional decisions to be based on the best possible data. Action
researchers can accomplish this by making sure that the data used to justify their actions are valid (meaning
the information represents what the researchers say it does) and reliable (meaning the researchers are
confident about the accuracy of their data). Lastly, before data are used to make teaching decisions, teachers
must be confident that the lessons drawn from the data align with any unique characteristics of their
classroom or school.

To ensure reasonable validity and reliability, action researchers should avoid relying on any singl e source of
data. Most teacher researchers use a process called triangulation to enhance the validity and reliability of
their findings. Basically, triangulation means using multiple independent sources of data to answer one's
questions. Triangulation is like studying an object located inside a box by viewing it through various windows
cut into the sides of the box. Observing a phenomenon through multiple “windows” can help a single
researcher compare and contrast what is being seen through a variety of lenses.

When planning instruction, teachers want the techniques they choose to be appropriate for the unique
qualities of their students. All teachers have had the experience of implementing a “research-proven” strategy
only to have it fail with their students. The desire of teachers to use approaches that “fit” their particular
students is not dissimilar to a doctor's concern that the specific medicine being prescribed be the correct one
for the individual patient. The ability of the action research process to satisfy an educator's need for “fit” may
be its most powerful attribute. Because the data being collected come from the very students and teachers
who are engaged with the treatment, the relevance of the findings is assured.

For the harried and overworked teacher, “data collection” can appear to be the most intimidating aspect of
the entire seven-step action research process. The question I am repeatedly asked, “Where will I find the time
and expertise to develop valid and reliable instruments for data collection?”, gives voice to a realistic fear
regarding time management. Fortunately, classrooms and schools are, by their nature, data -rich
environments. Each day a child is in class, he or she is producing or not producing work, is interacting
productively with classmates or experiencing difficulties in social situations, and is completing assignments
proficiently or poorly. Teachers not only see these events transpiring before their eyes, they generally record
these events in their grade books. The key to managing triangulated data collection is, first, to be effective and
efficient in collecting the material that is already swirling around the classroom, and, second, to identify other
sources of data that might be effectively surfaced with tests, classroom discussions, or questionnaires.

Step 5—Analyzing Data

Although data analysis often brings to mind the use of complex statistical calculations, this is rarely the case
for the action researcher. A number of relatively user-friendly procedures can help a practitioner identify the
trends and patterns in action research data. During this portion of the seven-step process, teacher researchers
will methodically sort, sift, rank, and examine their data to answer two generic questions:

 What is the story told by these data?

 Why did the story play itself out this way?

By answering these two questions, the teacher researcher can acquire a better understanding of the phenomenon
under investigation and as a result can end up producing grounded theory regarding what might be done to improve the
situation.
Step 6—Reporting Results

It is often said that teaching is a lonely endeavor. It is doubly sad that so many teachers are left alone in their
classrooms to reinvent the wheel on a daily basis. The loneliness of teaching is unfortunate not only because
of its inefficiency, but also because when dealing with complex problems the wisdom of several minds is
inevitably better than one.

The sad history of teacher isolation may explain why the very act of reporting on their acti on research has
proven so powerful for both the researchers and their colleagues. The reporting of action research most often
occurs in informal settings that are far less intimidating than the venues where scholarly research has
traditionally been shared. Faculty meetings, brown bag lunch seminars, and teacher conferences are among
the most common venues for sharing action research with peers. However, each year more and more teacher
researchers are writing up their work for publication or to help fulfill requirements in graduate programs.
Regardless of which venue or technique educators select for reporting on research, the simple knowledge that
they are making a contribution to a collective knowledge base regarding teaching and learning frequently
proves to be among the most rewarding aspects of this work.
Step 7—Taking Informed Action

Taking informed action, or “action planning,” the last step in the action research process, is very familiar to
most teachers. When teachers write lesson plans or develop academic programs, they are engaged in the
action planning process. What makes action planning particularly satisfying for the teacher researcher is that
with each piece of data uncovered (about teaching or student learning) the educator will feel greater
confidence in the wisdom of the next steps. Although all teaching can be classified as trial and error, action
researchers find that the research process liberates them from continuously repeating their past mistakes.
More important, with each refinement of practice, action researchers gain valid and reliable data on their
developing virtuosity.

Three Purposes for Action Research

As stated earlier, action research can be engaged in by an individual teacher, a collaborative group of
colleagues sharing a common concern, or an entire school faculty. These three different approaches to
organizing for research serve three compatible, yet distinct, purposes:

 Building the reflective practitioner

 Making progress on schoolwide priorities
 Building professional cultures

Building the Reflective Practitioner

When individual teachers make a personal commitment to systematically collect data on their work, they are
embarking on a process that will foster continuous growth and development. When each lesson is looked on
as an empirical investigation into factors affecting teaching and learning and when reflections on the findings
from each day's work inform the next day's instruction, teachers can't help but develop greater mastery of the
art and science of teaching. In this way, the individual teachers conducting action research are making
continuous progress in developing their strengths as reflective practitioners.

Making Progress on Schoolwide Priorities

Increasingly, schools are focusing on strengthening themselves and their programs through the development
of common focuses and a strong sense of esprit de corps. Peters and Waterman (1982) in their landmark
book, In Search of Excellence, called the achievement of focus “sticking to the knitting.” When a faculty shares
a commitment to achieving excellence with a specific focus—for example, the development of higher-order
thinking, positive social behavior, or higher standardized test scores —then collaboratively studying their
practice will not only contribute to the achievement of the shared goal but would have a powerful impact on
team building and program development. Focusing the combined time, energy, and creativity of a group of
committed professionals on a single pedagogical issue will inevitably lead to program improvements, as well
as to the school becoming a “center of excellence.” As a result, when a faculty chooses to focus on one issue
and all the teachers elect to enthusiastically participate in action research on that issue, significant progress on
the schoolwide priorities cannot help but occur.

Building Professional Cultures

Often an entire faculty will share a commitment to student development, yet the group finds itself unable to
adopt a single common focus for action research. This should not be viewed as indicative of a problem. Just as
the medical practitioners working at a “quality” medical center will hold a shared vision of a healthy adult, it is
common for all the faculty members at a school to share a similar perspective on what constitutes a well -
educated student. However, like the doctors at the medical center, the teachers in a “quality” school may well
differ on which specific aspects of the shared vision they are most motivated to pursue at any point in time.

Schools whose faculties cannot agree on a single research focus can still use action research as a tool to help
transform themselves into a learning organization. They accomplish this in the same manner as do the
physicians at the medical center. It is common practice in a quality medical center for physicians to engage in
independent, even idiosyncratic, research agendas. However, it is also common for medical researchers to
share the findings obtained from their research with colleagues (even those engaged in other specialties).

School faculties who wish to transform themselves into “communities of learners” often empower teams of
colleagues who share a passion about one aspect of teaching and learning to conduct investigations into that
area of interest and then share what they've learned with the rest of the school community. This strategy
allows an entire faculty to develop and practice the discipline that Peter Senge (1990) labeled “team learning.”
In these schools, multiple action research inquiries occur simultaneously, and no one is held captive to
another's priority, yet everyone knows that all the work ultimately will be shared and will consequently
contribute to organizational learning.

Why Action Research Now?

If ever there were a time and a strategy that were right for each other, the time is now and the strategy is
action research! This is true for a host of reasons, with none more important than the need to accomplish the
following:

 Professionalize teaching.
 Enhance the motivation and efficacy of a weary faculty.
 Meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student body.
 Achieve success with “standards-based” reforms.

Professionalizing Teaching

Teaching in North America has evolved in a manner that makes it more like blue-collar work than a
professional undertaking. Although blue-collar workers are expected to do their jobs with vigilance and vigor,
it is also assumed that their tasks will be routine, straightforward, and, therefore, easily handled by an isolated
worker with only the occasional support of a supervisor.

Professional work, on the other hand, is expected to be complex and nonroutine, and will generally require
collaboration among practitioners to produce satisfactory results. With the exploding knowledge base on
teaching and learning and the heightened demands on teachers to help all children achieve mastery of
meaningful objectives, the inadequacy of the blue-collar model for teaching is becoming much clearer.

When the teachers in a school begin conducting action research, their workplace begins to take on more of
the flavor of the workplaces of other professionals. The wisdom that informs practice starts coming from
those doing the work, not from supervisors who oftentimes are less in touch with and less sensitive to the
issues of teaching and learning than the teachers doing the work. Furthermore, when teachers begin engaging
their colleagues in discussions of classroom issues, the multiple perspectives that emerge and thus frame the
dialogue tend to produce wiser professional decisions.
Enhancing Teacher Motivation and Efficacy

The work of teaching has always been difficult. But now it isn't just the demands of the classroom that are
wearing teachers down. Students increasingly bring more problems into the classroom; parental and societal
expectations keep increasing; and financial cutbacks make it clear that today's teachers are being asked to do
more with less. Worse still, the respect that society had traditionally placed upon public school teachers is
eroding, as teacher bashing and attacks on the very value of a public education are becoming a regular part of
the political landscape. Consequently, teacher burnout has become the plague of the modern schoolhouse.

Many teachers now ask, “Am I making any difference?” Regardless of all the negative pressures on teachers,
the sheer nobility of the work keeps many dedicated educators on the job, but only so long as they can get
credible answers to the “efficacy” question. However, without credible evidence that the work of teaching is
making a difference, it is hard to imagine the best and brightest sticking with such a difficult and poorly
compensated line of work. Fortunately, evidence has shown that teachers who elect to integrate the use of
data into their work start exhibiting the compulsive behavior of fitness enthusiasts who regularly weigh
themselves, check their heart rate, and graph data on their improving physical development. For both
teachers and athletes, the continuous presence of compelling data that their hard work is paying off becomes,
in itself, a vitally energizing force.

Meeting the Needs of a Diverse Student Body

In a homogeneous society in which all students come to school looking alike, it might be wise to seek the one
right answer to questions of pedagogy. But, as anyone who has recently visited an American cl assroom can
attest, it is rare to find any two children for whom the same intervention could ever be “right on target.” The
days are gone when it was possible to believe that all a teacher had to do was master and deliver the grade -
level curriculum. It is now imperative that classroom teachers have strong content background in each of the
subjects they teach, be familiar with the range of student differences in their classrooms, and be capable of
diagnosing and prescribing appropriate instructional modifications based upon a knowledge of each child's
uniqueness.

Crafting solutions to these dynamic and ever changing classroom issues can be an exciting undertaking,
especially when one acknowledges that newer and better answers are evolving all the time. Nevertheless,
great personal satisfaction comes from playing a role in creating successful solutions to continually changing
puzzles. Conversely, if teachers are expected to robotically implement outdated approaches, especially when
countless new challenges are arriving at their door, the frustration can become unbearable.

Achieving Success in a Standards-Based System

In most jurisdictions standards-driven accountability systems have become the norm. Although they differ
somewhat from state to state and province to province, fundamentally these standards-based systems have
certain things in common. Specifically, most education departments and ministries have declared that they
expect the standards to be rigorous and meaningful, and that they expect all students to meet the standards
at the mastery level.

The stakes in the standards movement are high. Students face consequences regarding promotion and
graduation. Teachers and schools face ridicule and loss of funding if they fail to meet community expectations.
Of course, none of that would be problematic if we as a society knew with certainty how to achieve universal
student success. However, the reality is that no large system anywhere in the world has ever been successful
in getting every student to master a set of meaningful objectives. If we accept the truth of that statement,
then we need to acknowledge the fact that achieving the goal of universal student mastery will not be easy.
That said, most people will agree it is a most noble endeavor in which to invest energy and a worthy goal for
any faculty to pursue.

The reality is that our public schools will not prevail with the challenges inherent in the standards movement
unless they encourage experimentation, inquiry, and dialogue by those pioneers (the teachers) who are
working toward meeting those challenges. For this reason, it is imperative that these 21st century pioneers,
our classroom teachers, conduct the research on “standards attainment” themselves.

So the time is right for action research. The teachers, schools, and school systems that seize this opportunity
and begin investing in the power of inquiry will find that they are re-creating the professional practice of
education in their locale as a meaningful and rewarding pursuit. Conversely, school systems that enter the
21st century unwilling to invest in the “wisdom of practice” will likely find it increasingly hard to fill their
classrooms with enough teachers who are both capable of and willing to tackle the challenges that lie ahead.

RETRIEVED FROM: http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/100047/chapters/What-Is-Action-Research%C2%A2.aspx

Action Research: A Method for Improving Teaching

and Developing School Culture
by Richard Sagor Issue: Teacher Retention & Development

TOPICS : Leadership Teachers

Contemporary school leaders often praise the virtues of collaboration and the use of data for decision making,
yet it seems the more things change the more they stay the same. While it may appear that educational leaders
are fixated on improving academic performance and promoting excellent teaching, the reality is that at most
schools student performance is static and most classroom teachers fundamentally teach the way they did when
they began teaching.

The solutions to school problems require the sensitivity and wisdom of those most attuned to the context.

Why this contradiction? Why the disconnect between rhetoric on the importance of data for decision-making
and the need to change instructional strategies, and most schools continuing to operate as though everything
was just fine? The two most significant factors, which explain why teachers and schools consistently resist
change, are:

1. Teachers see no compelling reason to change their practices.

2. Most school cultures are hostile to meaningful collaboration.

Both of these obstacles can be addressed by school leaders by encouraging and supporting engagement in
collaborative action research by teachers and faculty teams.

What is Action Research and Why is it Important?

The term “action research” has been in the literature for more than 60 years and is now utilized in one form or
another in virtually all professions. I have defined action research as “any inquiry conducted by the people
taking the action, on their own action, in an effort to improve their future actions.”
The fundamental difference between the conduct of action research and traditional empirical studies lies in the
position of the researcher and the focus of the inquiries. In traditional research the separation of the researcher
from the phenomena under study is seen as a virtue (it is assumed that distance enhances objectivity). I have
heard it said this makes “action research” soft science. I had agreed with that assessment until I reflected on
another profession where we demand the best scientific knowledge, medicine.

It struck me that the best doctors I have encountered use action research as a routine part of practice. When a
patient goes to a doctor with a perplexing problem, what transpires? When confronted with a patient in distress,
the doctor considers the medical knowledge base, any information garnered through tests and physical
examinations, as well as his/her experience with similar patients. Then the doctor diagnoses the problem and
develops a treatment plan. The doctor’s reasoning and treatment plan are, in reality, no more than educated
hypotheses. The doctor (and patient) carries out the treatment plan and collects data (usually involving periodic
examinations for re-testing). Finally, the doctor concludes that his/her hypothesis was correct or adjusts the
treatment plan in accordance with the patient’s response.

That is action research, pure and simple. And I am very pleased that my doctors work in that manner. I certainly
wouldn’t want my doctor to assume that I will respond as every other patient had. Very often the unique context
(individual patient attributes) has as much to do with the success of a treatment as the pharmaceuticals
prescribed. Any doctor who treats every patient as identical would be judged as grossly incompetent.

The problem-solving process necessary for doctors is even more applicable for educators and schools. Students
differ radically in skills and attitudes, teachers differ dramatically in style and experience, and the content and
skills being taught can vary from physical education to Talmud. Clearly, the solutions to school problems
require the sensitivity and wisdom of those most attuned to the context.

How is Action Research Accomplished in Schools?

The model of action research that I have used with schools conceptualizes the inquiry process as containing four
sequential stages:

 Stage #1: Vision Setting/Identifying Achievement Targets

 Stage #2: Articulating a Theory of Action
 Stage #3: Taking Action/Collecting Data
 Stage #4: Reflection and Reporting

Action research can be conducted by an individual teacher, by faculty teams, or even by an entire school staff.
The focus for action research can range from teaching tefillah to mastering math, from learning conversational
Hebrew to understanding science. In a learning organization all staff members should be engaged in studying
some aspect of their work that relates to the school’s overall vision. To show how the action research process
might be employed by teachers in a Jewish day school, I will use a use a hypothetical illustration: students
learning about and coming to embrace tzedakah.

Stage #1 Vision Setting/Identifying Achievement Targets

The action research cycle begins by the participants (e.g. the individual teacher, the primary grade faculty, the
entire staff, etc.) engaging in dialogue regarding actualizing the vision/targets. The goal here is to turn a vision
into concrete measurable outcomes. Collegially the participants will develop answers to questions such as, What
precisely do want a student to understand about tzedakah? How do we want the child to feel about tzedakah?
What behavior changes do we hope to see in the students?
This results in the creation of a rubric that will be used to measure changes in knowledge, attitude, behavior
and/or skill regarding the target (in this case, embracing tzedakah). Once a rubric has been created, it serves
numerous purposes. Not only does it clarify the achievement target for the researchers, but it communicates to
other parties (students, parents, colleagues) precisely what is expected.

Stage #2 Articulating a Theory of Action

It is only worth conducting action research on issues where we feel it is possible to produce significant
improvement. Stage #2 requires much rigorous and disciplined thinking. Building a theory of action requires
applying all that is known about teaching and learning (our profession’s knowledge base), adding the wisdom
gleaned from our practice, and filtering this through what we know about the local context. What emerges from
this dialogue is what is called a “graphic reconstruction.” A complete graphic reconstruction looks like a poster
sized flow-chart or a mind-map. It reflects everything that must occur to produce the desired outcome (e.g., high
scores on the tzedakah rubric). I call graphic reconstructions “implementation roadmaps” because they visually
display the best route to a desired destination. The finished graphic reconstruction is a helpful instrument for
alerting students, parents, and one’s colleagues precisely what you are planning to do to realize your goal.

Stage #3 Taking Action/Collecting Data

Even the most sound and clearly articulated theory of action remains a hypothesis until tested. Our goal as
action researchers is to validate or invalidate the specific hypotheses contained in our theory of action. For this
reason, it is important that action researchers be disciplined about collecting data on two things: our actions and
intended student outcomes.

Let’s assume we are very successful. If all our students score at the top of the tzedakah rubric, how will we
know what accounted for this success? We will only be able to answer this question if we can document exactly
what transpired. This is why when conducting action research it is critical to follow the theory of action as
written and/or document all changes made during the implementation.

Note: Teachers must be free to make changes when and if things aren’t working. Students shouldn’t be
victimized by a teacher feeling compelled to follow though on an experimental protocol. Through the use of a
journal the teacher-researcher is able to document what truly transpired. Those records lead to insights into
which actions should be continued, modified, and/or deleted in the future.

The other area requiring disciplined deliberation pertains to intended student outcomes. Intuitively we vest more
confidence in data that is corroborated by multiple sources. To provide a valid and reliable report on student
performance we should triangulate our data collection (make use of multiple sources). Let’s imagine to assess
our theory on helping students embrace tzedakah, we decide we want to understand changes in the students’
attitudes towards tzedakah. To accomplish this we might elect to do three things: interview students, survey
parents, and review behavior data. These data sets will produce a far more comprehensive picture than would
any one of them alone.

Stage #4 Reflection and Reporting

Two minds are inevitably better than one. If I am seeking to understand a phenomenon, the more sets of eyes
that help me review my data, the greater the likelihood I will be alerted to nuances and unexpected findings.
This is why conducting action research in teams is so powerful. Equally important, many of the goals we choose
to pursue are not ours alone. In the case of tzedakah, as with much of the curriculum at Jewish day schools,
success will ultimately rests on the ability of the faculty as a professional community to work together to
provide a coherent and cohesive program. In schools where the ethic of action research has been internalized,
faculty meetings become venues for action research teams to disseminate their learning. Faculties that work this
way know that, as with all science, they will learn as much from the thoughtful initiatives that didn’t work as
planned as from those that succeeded.

Conclusion
It has been said that teaching is the world’s second most private act. In too many schools, teachers work in
isolation. Cultures of isolation breed unhealthy attitudes towards data. Needing to believe they are doing good
work, isolated professionals will intuitively avoid considering data that might bring their competence into
question. Absent a willingness to confront disconfirming data, neither learning nor change occurs.

However, in schools where the ethic of action research has taken hold, the attitude towards data and school
change becomes fundamentally different. These schools have transformed themselves into “professional
communities,” places where student success is no longer attributed to teacher charisma, but is viewed as
evidence of alternative theories of action worthy of consideration.

There are many positive things about teaching in schools that collaboratively attack problems of teaching and
learning. Not only does engagement in collaborative action research make the act of teaching far less lonely, but
in schools where teachers learn and grow, students tend to prosper and improve. With each successful locally
developed school improvement the faculty’s sense of community deepens, as does its commitment to the
process of professional learning.

Throughout the millennia it has been the nature of the Jewish people to study together as a community, to gather
together to debate, in an effort to generate deeper and more profound understandings. When the teachers at a
Jewish day school elect to study their work collaborative ly and do so in full view of their students, the students
observe their teachers demonstrating a major tenet of our culture: our learning is never complete. ♦

RETRIEVED FROM: https://prizmah.org/action-research-method-improving-teaching-and-developing-school-culture