Action Research: What is It? How could I Use It?

I've learned the benefits of action research over traditional research. For example, action research allows you to more effectively engage with both students and staff in order to research a problem and develop best practices.  The increased interaction when performing action research can also serve to further motivate staff and students to perform action research of their own.  I was also interested to learn of the key role reflection plays when successfully performing action research.  I think many people have a tendency to try to “just hurry up and finish” a task.  This motivated me to take a minute to reflect on what I’m doing, why, and how to best proceed.

I believe I could use action research in a number of ways.  As a coach who will be moving out of the classroom and solely coaching P.E. and Athletics this year, I am interested in determining the impact that could be had by requiring students to "dress out" for the P.E. period.  Currently, many of the students stay in their regular school clothes and just visit with their friends during the period.  If students' grade was tied to whether or not they dressed out, would participation and physical activity thereby increase?  I think this is an excellent opportunity to employ action research while engaging with students and providing concrete motivation at the same time.

Educational leaders could use blogs to easily keep staff, students, and parents up-to-date on current events and happenings within the school.  Keeping a blog would be a great way to keep the lines of communication open…a must for any good leader!