ACTION RESEARCH IN EDUCATION

European Scientific Journal May 2014 edition vol.10 ACTION RESEARCH IN EDUCATION Jonida Lesha 0 . C 0 0 Universityof ShkodraLuigj Gurakuqi, Faculty of Educational Sciencies , Shkoder , Albania Action Research is a formative study of progress commonly practiced by teachers in schools. Basically an action research is a spiral process that includes problem investigation, taking action & fact-finding about the result of action. It enables a teacher to adopt/craft most appropriate strategy within its own teaching environment. Action research is actually suitable for any person who wishes to improve his or her performance; or any group or organization who hopes for doing the same. As a matter of fact, action research is widely used in education, especially by teachers who use it to improve their teaching. Teachers from all over the world have employed action research as a part of their teaching and research. Obviously, action research well matches with education and benefits both teachers and students in their teaching and learning since it meets the need of education and enables continuity in research with its cyclic process. The suitability of action research to education reveals in its nature, characteristics, circle within circle process, etc. This article will look at all aspects concerning action research including definitions, advantages, steps, etc to see the importance and the benefits of action research to education. Action research; education; benefits; teachers - Introduction Throughout the nation, teachers and administrators are being challenged to collaboratively investigate the effectiveness of research-based instructional practices currently used in classrooms to improve student learning. Teachers are encouraged to reflect on and analyze student data on a consistent and collaborative basis to ensure success for all students. In order to meet the challenges being faced, schools are encouraged to restructure their professional development system providing faculty members with opportunities for collaborative inquiry, reflection, and dialogue what is driven by student data. Action research is a model of professional development that promotes collaborative inquiry, reflection, and dialogue. Within the action research process, educators study student learning related to their own teaching. The origins of Action Research (AR) are unclear in the literature but generally Kurt Lewin is considered the father of AR (Kemmis & McTaggert, 1990; Zuber-Skerrit, 1992 & Holter & Schwartz-Barcott, 1993), who first coined the term, in his paper about Minority Problems (Kurt, 1946) . Its function in educational system began with the Science in Education Movement of late nineteenth century in which scientific method was applied to education (Masters, 1995) followed by the UK originated TeacherResearcher Movement advocating that all teaching should be based upon research (McKernan, 1991). By the mid 1970s, it was discussed as a separate field of research and four major types were reported including: 1) Traditional: that was applied within organizations in the areas of Organization Development, Quality of Working Life (QWL), Socio-technical systems (e.g., Information Systems), and Organizational Democracy. This traditional approach tends toward the conservative, generally maintaining the status quo with regards to organizational power structures. 2) Contextual: that encompasses relations between organizations. It stresses that participants act as project designers and co-researchers. The concept of organizational ecology and the use of search conferences come out of contextual action research. 3) Radical: it has a strong focus on emancipation and the overcoming of power imbalances. 4) Educational Traditional Action Research: A fourth stream, that of Educational Action Research, has its foundations in the writings of John Dewey, the great American educational philosopher of the 1920s and 30s, who believed that professional educators should become involved in community problem-solving. Educational action research is founded after John Dewey, an American educational philosopher, who held that professional educators should become involved in community problemsolving. Naturally, it concentrates on development of curriculum, professional improvement, and applying learning in a social context. From a different point of view, Creswell [16] argues that there are two main types of action research as follows: Practical action research Participatory action research Practical action research is used in situations in which teacher researchers seek to enhance the practice of education through the systematic study of a local problem. It usually involves a small-case research project, narrowly directs at a specific problem or issue and is undertaken by individual teachers or teams within a particular education setting. Participatory action research is usually implemented in larger scale to improve the quality of peoples organisation, communities and family lives. Namely, it has a social and community orientation and it focuses on research that contributes to emancipation or change in our society. Its practitioners, not surprisingly, operate mainly out of educational institutions, and focus on development of curriculum, professional development, and applying learning in a social context. It is often the case that university- based action researchers work with primary and secondary school teachers and students on community projects (OBrien, 2001). Initially AR was limited to school settings and practiced by teachers to observe the effect of any teaching strategy modification on focused students or to incorporate progressive changes in the syllabus taking all stakeholders but owing to its flexibility and more practical approach, now it has been experimented at all levels of professional & formal education. Action research is a model of professional development that promotes collaborative inquiry, reflection, and dialogue. Within the action research process, educators study student learning related to their own teaching. It is a process that allows educators to learn about their own instructional practices and to continue to monitor improved student learning (Rawlinson & Little, 2004). The idea of action research is that educational problems and issues are best identified and investigated where the action is: at the classroom and school level. By integrating research into these settings and engaging those who work at this level in research activities, findings can be applied immediately and problems solved more quickly (Guskey, 2000). What gives action research its unique position is the set of principles that guide the research. Richard (1989) provides a comprehensive general overview of six key principles. These can be considered in any of the educational settings. 1) Reflexive critique: An account of a situation, such as notes, transcripts or official documents, will make implicit cl (...truncated)