action research:

According to the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory,

"Action research is inquiry or research in the context of focused efforts to improve the quality of an organization and its performance. It typically is designed and conducted by practitioners who analyse the data to improve their own practice. Action research can be done by individuals or by teams of colleagues. The team approach is called collaborative inquiry."

meaning of action research:

Action research is a research initiated to solve an immediate problem led by individuals working with others in teams or as part of a “community of practice” to improve the way they solve problems.

A brief history of action research

 

 

Ø  The term action research was coined by the social psychologist Kurt Lewin in the United States in about 1944 in connection with research which aimed to promote social action through democratic decision making and active participation of practitioners in the research process.

Ø  The target group for Lewin's programme of action research was field workers who were trying to improve relations between minority groups in American society. Lewin believed that through action research advances in theory and much needed social change might simultaneously be achieved.

Ø  It was in the field of group dynamics and human relations that Lewin's ideas flourished initially and continue to flourish today. For instance he directly influenced the foundation and subsequent work of the Tavistock Institute for Human Relations which was established after his visits to Britain in the 1930s.

Ø   Since that time, most attempts to explain action research have emphasized the close relationship between research or investigation on the one hand and action or practice on the other. For example Rapport (1970) defined action research as:

...   a type of applied social research differing from other varieties in the immediacy of the researcher's involvement in the action process. (In Deakin University, 1988, The action research reader, p. 89).

Ø  In addition there is a clear understanding that action research is research undertaken by those in the field: field workers, teachers, administrators or supervisors in order to change and improve their own practice. It is moreover usually thought of as a group process which enables co-operative work to influence both thought and action among group members.

Definition of action research

Kurt Lewin, a German social psychologist, has been credited with the development of the idea of action research. He first found that experimental methods, in many cases, were inadequate and unsatisfactory. He then tried to seek for a method that based on people’s real world experience; from that time on, action research has entered the world of researchers.

According to Kurt Lewin, action research is “a comparative research on the conditions and effects of various forms of social action and research leading to social action”; this type of research uses “a spiral step,” each of which is “composed of a circle of planning, action and fact-finding about the result of the action”.

A more succinct definition is, is given by Thomas Gilmore, -”Action research…aims to contribute both to the practical concerns of people in an immediate problematic situation and to further the goals of social science simultaneously.  Thus, there is a dual commitment in action research to study a system and concurrently to collaborate with members of the system in changing it, in what is together regarded as a desirable direction. Accomplishing this twin goal requires the active collaboration of researcher and client, and thus it stresses the importance of co-learning as a primary aspect of the research process.”

O’Brien’s states that “action research is a natural way of acting and researching at the same time”. To make it clearer, Dick affirms that action research is a true reflection of its names as it is intended to achieve both action and research at the same time. It is critically suitable for educational situations where teachers wish to bring about action in the form of change or improvement in their teaching and at the same time develop an understanding which informs the change and is an addition to what is known.

Carr and Kemmis put the definition of action research in education as “action research is a form of self-reflective inquiry that can be utilized by teachers in order to improve the rationality and justice of (i) their own practices, (ii) their understanding of these practices and (iii) the situations in which these practices are carried out.

Obviously, the role of action research in education has been acknowledged when Hutchinson and Lomax claim that action research is a research that “concerns with broader curriculum issues, and often with the administration and management of school and institutional change.

Characteristics of action research

·       Grounded in real life experience

·       Developed in partnership

·       Addresses significant needs

·       Develops new ways of seeing/interpreting the world/theory

·       Works with (rather than simply studying) people

·       Uses methods that are appropriate to the audience and participants at hand

·       Develops needed structures to allow for follow up or institutionalization of new practices so that the work may have a lasting, positive impact

Merits of action research

Ø It can be done by an individual or a group

Ø It improves educational practice and helps create better professionals

Ø Educators can develop ways to improve their craft

Ø The researchers identify the problems systematically

Ø It can lead to the development of research -oriented individuals

Ø It is collaborative and democratic

Demerits of action research

o  Lack of time

Action research is demanding of space and time, both of which are stretched to their limits.

o  Validity

Inevitable research bias

o  Results are not generalizable

Although a researcher’s findings may be tested by another teacher in their own classroom

o  Range of models and process

Action research is a messy process and the constraints of the models may “trap teachers”

Steps of action research

Ø 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.

Ø 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

Action research plan

1.  AREA OF PROBLEM:

Students don’t have practical knowledge for maintaining accounts in real life

2. DEFINITION OF PROBLEM:

Students of Swaminarayan Gurukul of grade 11 don’t have practical knowledge for maintaining accounts

3. SAMPLING:

Population=sample (students of grade 11)

·      Probable causes:

Þ                      Students are  not given complete information of maintaining accounts

Þ                      Students don’t take interest in getting practical knowledge of the subject

Þ                      Students are not aware about the importance of maintaining accounts in real life

Þ                      Students don’t find it necessary to get extra information about maintaining accounts as it is not in the syllabus
Þ                Students are not able to know how inventory(stock) management in accounts is done in real life

Þ                      Students are only taught the old and traditional method of maintaining accounts

·      hypothesis:                        

1st cause:  Students are not given complete information of maintaining accounts:

HYPOTHESIS: If students are given additional  and adequate information of maintaining accounts then they will not get incomplete information of accounts

2nd cause:  Students don’t take interest in getting practical knowledge of the subject

HYPOTHESIS: If students are taught using new and interesting methods then they will take interest in getting practical knowledge of the subject

3rd cause:  Students are not aware about the importance of maintaining accounts in real life

         HYPOTHESIS:   if students are taken for a visit to a bank to show how accounts are prepared and maintained then they will be aware about the importance of maintaining accounts

      4th cause:          Students don’t find it necessary to get extra information about maintaining accounts as it is not in the syllabus

 HYPOTHESIS: If courses like tally and data entry should are made compulsory then they will find it necessary to get extra information about maintaining accounts

5th cause: Students are not able to know how inventory(stock) management in accounts is done in real life

HYPOTHESIS:  If students are taken to a visit to a factory to show how inventory control is done and  how records of stock are maintained and they will be able to know how inventory(stock) management in accounts is done in real life

6th cause: Students are only taught the old and traditional method of maintaining accounts

    HYPOTHESIS:            If the students are along with the traditional methods are  taught how accounts are prepared and maintained by Chartered Accountants (C.A.) in real life then they will be able to learn the new methods of maintaining accounts