Action Research

 Introduction

            Action Research (AR) is a type of research that is started with the aim of developing a solution to either current or future problems. Besides that, AR is a reflective process of progressive problem solving which is initiated and led by individuals working as a team or working as a part of a community practice in a bid to improve how issues are addressed and problem solved. The strategy purpose of AR is solving a specific problem while producing guidelines for best practice in the future.

 AR involves active participation in change participation through an organization while conducting research simultaneously. Established organizations or institutions may also undertake AR with assistance from professional researchers with the focus being improvement of the situation within the environment in which they conduct the practice. Researchers collaborate with others as designers and stakeholders in proposing a new course of action to help the community in which they live to improve the situation in the workplaces (Brown & Jones, 2001).

Types of AR

            The choice of AR over the other is influenced by purpose, emphasis, and results. For this reason there are three types of AR that give educators an opportunity to conduct an investigation in the areas of concern and solve the challenges within their classrooms and their schools in general. AR can also improve the quality of an organization. The researcher collects data through which they diagnose problems, search for solutions, and act on developed solutions while they monitor the working of the action. The three types of AR are (Anderson & Herr, 1999):

·         Individual Teacher Research: It is conducted by a single teacher where the time spent doing the tasks depend on the teacher and the type of research he is developing. The area under investigation leads to the discovery of the problem in the institution or the society. Methods of collection, organization, and analysis of data depend on the researcher as well. The researcher then shares the outcomes of the research with members of the research group. The outcomes may be used in decision making.

·         Traditional AR: It originated from Kurt Lewin’s work within organizations where it comprises the concepts and practices of field theory, group dynamics, T-groups, and clinical models. Increase in the importance of relations between labor management resulted in the AR in the areas of organization development. The traditional AR is conservative and maintains status quo.

·         Radical AR: This AR focus strongly on emancipation and how to overcome power imbalances. It focuses on international development circles and strives for social transformation. It also focuses on strengthening peripheral groups in the society.

·         Educational AR: It is founded in the works of Thomas Dewey, the American philosopher during the 1920s and 1930s. The philosopher believed that educators should be involved in solving the problems of the community. Most of its practitioners operate out of educational institutions. It also focuses on curriculum and professional development.

·         Contextual AR: It is also known as action learning. It is a derivation of Trist’s work on organizational relations. It deals with reconstitution of the structural relations among actors in the society. It involves all the impacted parties and stakeholders. All the participants understand the work of the whole group, and it emphasizes that participants act as project designers and co-researchers.

History of AR

            There is no clarity about the origins of AR according to the current literature. However, studies have shown that AR originated with Kurt Lewin, a psychologist in the America in 1946. It has evolved since its first use where careful study of the literature shows that it is derived from the scientific method. However, there is evidence that there are several social reformers such as Lippit, Collier, and Radke might have been using AR before discovery by Lewin. A work by Altricher and Gestetner cites physician named Moreno using group participation as far as 1913 in a community development in Vienna. Kurt Lewin described AR that it proceeds in spiral steps where each comprises planning, action, observation, and reflection as follows (Heikkinen, Huttunen, & Syrjala, 2007):

·         Planning: The phase involves development of a plan of the action the researchers intend to take or the change they intend to make.

·         Action: The phase involves working and executing the plan previously made in the planning phase.

·         Observation: The phase entails monitoring and recording various activities from the action phase to help evaluate the effect of action and the effectiveness of the proposed intervention.

·         Reflection: The researcher reflects on what has happened using the outcomes of the observations and other notes in his diary. They also evaluate what has gone on well and what has not gone well and how they can be improved.

Application of AR

            AR is action oriented as the name suggests. AR is applied in affecting teachers’ actions, beliefs, activities, and effects. Researchers direct AR towards both understanding and improvement of the practice. Researchers essentially engage in AR with the intention of using the collected data to help educators understand or try new required methods for teaching and administering their teaching activities. There is action in the evaluation of the new strategies for the future use in instruction. AR leads in cropping up of new questions for examination. Therefore, it forges new forms of comprehending and deeper detailed insights into practice. AR, therefore, helps in fostering much of the teacher-based improvements in institutions of learning naturally (Moghaddam, 2007).

Appropriateness of AR in .Net Technology

            AR helps in understanding how systems interact is making it one of the simplest method of comprehending social and organization systems. AR advocates the researchers to understand systems by trying to change them. One of the things a .net technology introduces is the theory that has the potential to inject a change in the system. AR does similar things thereby making it a suitable methodology of .net technology. The .net technology involves problem and change management making AR fits it appropriately (Salmon, 2003).

            The .net technology passes through the process of gathering and consuming application knowledge. There is also the allocation of the piece of .net technology project to the developer. The .net technology developer identifies all the logical errors and finally corrects them. Other stages of the .net technology development are where the developer implements changes and documents everything. The development of .net technology is a full system development life cycle (SDLC) meaning the last stage also applies where the developers maintain the new development. For this reason, it can be attested the AR is a suitable tool that could be used in tracking and management of .net technology development (White, 1999). 

 References

Anderson, G. L., & Herr, K. (1999). The new paradigm wars: Is there room for rigorous    practitioner knowledge ion schools and university? Educational Researcher, 28 (5), 12- 21.

Heikkinen, H., Huttunen, T., & Syrjala, L. (2007). Action research as narrative: Five principles      for validation. Educational Action Research, 15 (1), 5-19.

Moghaddam, A. (2007). Action research: A spiral inquiry for valid and useful knowledge.            Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 53 (2), 228-239.

Salmon, P. (2003). How do we recognize good research? The Psychologist, 16 (1), 24-27.

T.Brown, & Jones, L. (2001). Action research and postmodernism: Congruence and critique.        Philadelphia: Open University Press.

White, J. D. (1999). Taking language seriously: The narrative foundations of public            administration research. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.

Sherry Roberts is the author of this paper. A senior editor at MeldaResearch.Com in article critique writing service if you need a similar paper you can place your order for top research paper writing companies.