Description of Action Research

Action research is a tool for educators to enhance their knowledge about different issues within the educational setting. It is also an avenue for educators to collaborate and share different ideas with each other as well. Action research involves much more than reading relevant books or articles and putting those ideas into a paper or thesis. On the contrary, action research requires the collection and analysis of data. Standard dress code would be a great topic of discussion for action research. It would require a survey of students with a series of questions regarding their perception of dress code. Examples of questions are: Do you like dress code? Do you believe dress code helps cut down on discipline issues? What is your least/most favorite aspect of dress code? Do you feel dress code makes schools safer? Are your parents in favor of dress code? How many dress code violations have you had this year? Do think there should be some form of dress code? The responses could be broken down into sub-populations by gender, ethnicity and race. Upon completing the survey an action research could be developed based on responses given by the students according to their perceptions and relevant text based on the issues pertaining to dress code.

Blogs are an excellent way for educators to share ideas and information with one another. Moreover, it can be used to gather ideas and disseminate information to students, parents and community. Many districts are already allowing teachers and administrators to use blogs in schools for those reasons.