Planning for Research Essay

Define action research. Action research in education, is a firing-line or on job type of problem-solving or research used by teachers, supervisors, and administrators to improve the quality of their decisions and actions.   It seeks more dependable and appropriate means of promoting and evaluating student growth in line with specific and general objectives and attempts to improve educational practices without reference to whether findings would be applicable beyond the group studied (Good, 1993). Explain its intended outcomes The intended outcome of action research is to improve the lives of children through education and for teacher researcher to learn more about the craft of teaching. All action researchers are committed to looking critically at what we do in our classrooms and the effects our actions have on the children in our care. Hence, the main intended outcome of action research is for educational change that enhances the lives of children. Another intended outcome is to enhance the lives of professionals.   It is largely about developing the â€Å"professional disposition† of teachers, that is, encouraging teachers to be continuous learners—in their classrooms and in their practice. This intended outcome of action research for teachers to be professional problem solvers who are committed to improving both their own practice and student outcomes provides a powerful reason to practice action research (Osterman and Kottkamp, 1993). Give examples of action research projects that researchers in your organization or field of study might engage in. Investigate the effectiveness of current math curriculum on students’ process skills and attitudes. Investigate the impact of an intervention and to monitor if it makes a difference and learn more about how best to teach math to children and to implement some of cooperative learning strategies. Monitor the impact of a new mathematics problem-solving curriculum on student performance on open-ended problem-solving questions and students’ attitudes toward mathematics in general. Investigate the perceptions of colleagues, children, and parents toward absenteeism to more fully understand why the existing policy is not having the desired outcome. References Hammersley, M. (1993). On the teacher as researcher.   Educational Action Research,    1(3), 425–441. Kottkamp, C. (1993).   The effects of action research on a teacher education community. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association Conference, New York, NY.