Action Research

Action Research is definately a new topic for me. I am much more familiar with traditional educational research. But, just as the name implies, action research is active and on-going, and requires motion type effort to come to conclusions that would most benefit educational topics of concern to schools and administrators. One of the main benefits of conducting action research is to truly understand what it is that your students or district are struggling with and applying the research to fit those needs. The needs based assessment and research can render great applications for the desired need and an opportunity to discuss and apply what is best for the situation. It also allows a type of open communication and information sharing to discuss other options and to talk through possibilities that are related to the research that might fit your situation or district better. Probably the major benefit is the improvement of teaching. Through the action research process, teachers or administrators gain great insight and improve their teaching abilities and become better educators. This is of great use when it comes to topics like staff development, teachers, students, community relations, morale, etc. This type of research could be very beneficial for me in the area of teacher apathy. I want to research this area and use the information gained to work into my position next year as principal. I have many good teachers on my staff but over a 1/3 are already at retirement time or close to. I feel that I can gain great help from this topic and course by learning more about action research.