Action Research Overview
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The action research process follows these steps:
- Identify the problem: What's a problem I've noticed in my setting that I want to address?
- Research the problem and solutions: Conduct a literature review to learn what others have done to address the problem.
- Develop an intervention plan: Based on my literature review, what will I do to address this problem in my setting?
- Implement your plan: The "action" part!
- Interpret your results: What happened? Why?
- Reflect, modify, and begin again: Research is an ongoing, iterative process. My research has given me a fuller picture of the situation -- what should I do with that now?
Resources for Brainstorming Your Research Topic
A Toolkit for Action Research (Ebook) by ISBN: 9781442206939Publication Date: 2010-11-16On pages 1-8 of this Ebook, you'll find several questions designed to help you think through your professional context and turn your experience into a research topic. Click on the title to read eBook in your browser.
- Minnesota Department of Education Data CenterPull reports, statistics, and analytics on different aspects of Minnesota schools, including student demographics, achievement, discipline, food and nutrition, school finance, special education, staffing, and more.
Tips for Brainstorming Your Research Topic
- Conduct a domain search for your topic in your preferred internet search engine. This will allow you to limit your search results to websites that end in edu or .gov
.
- Search available datasets from the Minnesota Department of Education (See Above), or search for data specific to your district