Three Words That Define Action Research
Three Words That Define Action Research
Every definition of action research uses three words: systematic, reflective, cyclical.
Systematic means you do it on purpose. You plan it, document it, and follow steps. It is not a feeling about your class. A teacher who thinks her students are improving is not doing research. A teacher who tracks attendance, marks, and participation against a clear question is.
Reflective means you stop and ask honest questions. What worked. What did not. Why. The teacher cannot just keep doing what she did last term and call it research. She has to sit with the results and judge them fairly, including the parts that did not go well.
Cyclical means it loops. One round of plan, act, observe, reflect feeds the next round. The first attempt rarely solves the problem fully. The second attempt is informed by the first. Over a term or a year a teacher may run two or three cycles on the same question, each one sharper than the last.
The cyclical part is the one most new teachers forget. Each loop should feed the next.
A short way to remember the cyclical part on its own.
