Plan – planning the action

Plan – planning the action

1. Pre-reading questions

   • Identify a problem
     • 'Problem' is the research term for the topic
     • Areas you want to examine further and want to find possible answers
     • There are key ethical issues that are involved in do action research
   • It is important to take a few short notes to record key ideas.

2. Finding your focus

   • Opportunities to synthesize ideas by talking or writing about them
   • Some teachers find that focus becomes clearer only when the investigation begins.
     • The true knot of your area of focus only emerges as you go
       • They give way to a deeper understanding.

3. Identifying broad areas

   • At this stage, the construction of "burning questions" begins.
     • Strategies are selected to begin to identify your possible research areas
       • Often good AR experiences come about through feeling your way into the research
   • It begins to influence the "hunches" you have about ways to do better in your classroom or school.

4. Developing and refining your questions

   • Develop more specific questions
     • Better to have a question or two and research them thoroughly
       • Choose areas of direct relevance and interest, the immediate teaching context or your school.
   • The "what, why, and how" questions are probably the most important in the formation of the type of qualitative questions used in AR
     • It's a good idea to refer to techniques that can be used to help shape thinking and focus questions.
   • One of the key aspects of AR is that it focuses directly on the time change.
     • Adapt the questions to fit within the time limit available.

5. Getting permission and covering ethical issues

   • The goals of AR are to work towards educational improvement and more effective results to reflect on.
   • The goals that are highlighted in AR are more broadly connected to conducting research.
     • It is important to know the fundamental ethical standards.
       • Research ethics has to do with conducting research in a moral and responsible manner.

6. Preparing your resources and materials

   • 1. Consulting the literature/2. Involving others/3. Identifying and using equipment.
     • Reading the literature can help generate ideas for the approach area and questions.
     • Consulting the literature allows to strengthen the validity of the research by comparing the findings and results with what others have done.
   • Books, Journals, Databases and Internet

Images and files in the map