Instructors in educational institutions seek to help learners achieve their academic objectives across different grades or levels. As a result, they ingrain effective strategies to achieve the objective.
Action research in education remains central to enhancing teaching approaches for better outcomes. Any action research in Education definition clarifies that it promotes learning environment and teaching approaches, ensuring learners get positive outcomes.
What is Action Research in Education? A Detailed Description
Action research in education is a comprehensive process that enables stakeholders in the education sector to improve student outcomes in schools. Teachers and other stakeholders embrace action research in education ideas in their work to identify key topics on numerous aspects of education that would lead to better outcomes.
Through comprehensive research, stakeholders easily make decisions that enhance learning in schools across different academic levels.
One of the outstanding aspects of action research is that it allows teachers to make inquiries on diverse aspects that affect students’ performance.
Simply put, it signifies a more expanded self-reflection for educators based on their experiences in their day-to-day classroom activities.
An Evaluation of Action Research in Education Examples You Could Try
Just like in research paper writing, action research has numerous topics that educators could research. What determines the issue one is interested in researching depends on experiences and the anticipated end goals.
Here are a few examples of action research in education.
- How to increase student engagement in the classroom: One of the key determinants of students’ performance is how they engage in class activities. As a teacher, you may be interested in researching the most effective approaches to ensure students aren’t disengaged from class activities. For instance, you may explore new teaching approaches, classroom settings, or the management of your class.
- Involving parents in educational activities: Another of the key action research examples in education is how an instructor could involve parents in school activities. As professional research paper writers from CustomWritings explain, parents play a vital role in harnessing students’ performance. So, as an instructor, you can research and develop a practical guide to boost parent involvement in educational activities.
- Professional development: Another example of action research in education is professional development for teachers. Institutions or relevant bodies may be interested in implementing new approaches to help instructors become better. Through research, they can develop ongoing training and support programs for teachers.
- Curriculum development: Another example of action research is curriculum development. It is common for schools or relevant authorities to Review the curriculum to match and align it with the prevailing demands. For example, the research could focus on why use of virtual materials is better for harnessing students’ performance.
- How to improve special education: Of the many action research topics, improving the quality of special education is essential in promoting inclusion in the education system. Through research, educators will develop innovative approaches that enhance inclusion and boost special education for learners with special needs.
- Prevention of unwanted behaviors: In learning institutions, there are concerns about student behaviors, such as drug abuse and bullying. An action research project will enable teachers and other stakeholders to investigate and analyze the root causes of such vices, laying a foundation for developing strategies that deter students from engaging in similar behaviors. Action research creates room for teachers to assess the effectiveness of policies or programs they implement to determine whether they need improvements.
- Understand the unique learning needs of students: Another example of action research in education is understanding the unique needs of learners. The purpose of such research is to help instructors determine the most suitable teaching approaches for each learner. It will help them in providing instructions that are designed to meet the specific student needs.
Top 5 Ideas For Action Research in Education
As highlighted earlier, there are numerous areas, issues, and topics which you can apply action research in education. I will highlight 5 most Popular ideas that you use whether it is for elementary schools or higher.
Your choice depends on the primary objective of the research.
- Ingraining innovative technologies in education. In the modern world, technology has disrupted the norm, creating new approaches to doing things. As a result, institutions need to have effective strategies to adopt technology in classroom activities. For example, you could research how using Instagram would increase student participation.
- How To keep students motivated. Motivation is one of the main propellers of success for students across all levels. You could develop a clear research proposal to investigate the ways you could keep your students motivated. The research will help determine the most appropriate approaches to keep your students fully engaged and motivated to learn.
- The best assessment method. One of the ways instructors determine whether learners have gained the skills or understood the concepts of a given subject is through assessments. It is advisable to depend on the most appropriate assessment method. For instance, you will determine whether essays or class participation provides a better overall picture of students’ position as far as understanding the subject is concerned.
- Improving students’ study habits. You could research ways that will improve students’ study behaviors because no matter how well you teach in the classroom, they won’t perform exemplarily if their study behavior is wrong. For example, students with poor time management skills will almost always complete their assignments in a rush. Consequently, they will perform poorly as they will most probably miss out on important aspects needed to score high grades. Through active research, you will identify the most workable approaches to improve students’ study habits.
- How you could help struggling readers. In some cases, you may be teaching students with reading difficulties. Action research will help you come up with strategies that will help in intervening. Once you identify and implement the strategies you can assess how effective they are, whether they need improvement, or how they impact a student’s reading proficiency. You could compare your strategies with those published in any reputable journal to determine their effectiveness. The list isn’t exhaustive and it is upon you to determine the ideas you need to do action research on.
Read Also:
Learn What Action Research is.
As most commentators would define action research, it is a process that allows stakeholders in education to improve the learning and teaching processes for better outcomes.
As an instructor, you should determine the area of focus based on the needs or issues of interest. There are numerous topics you could research and therefore what I have provided in this article is just examples.
However, before you dive into research, ensure you understand the key challenges facing students to guarantee positive results.
