Get inspired with an action research project

Action research enables you to be both a teacher and a detective in your own classroom. It means simultaneously conducting research and taking action, and it allows you to test different theories and educational strategies with students, gathering results in real time.

Let’s take a deep dive into action research, learn about its benefits, and look at some examples.

What is action research?

To conduct action research, you simply follow a continuous loop where you iterate your research strategy based on your observations. It looks like this:

1. Plan: Start with a question or idea
2. Act: Try it out in your classroom
3. Observe: Pay attention to what happens
4. Reflect: Think about why it happened that way, and how the results impact your initial theory or approach

These steps allow you to connect theory with practice and fine-tune your methods to make your teaching more effective and responsive to your students' needs. Rather than just reading about theories in textbooks and academic journals, you get to roll up your sleeves and put them to the test. As a result, you’ll feel more inspired and empowered to develop professionally, creating a ripple effect in your students’ experiences and the wider school community.

Benefits of action research projects for teachers

Research shows that action research offers many rewards for educators and students. These include heightened teacher empowerment, better handling of classroom challenges, more tailored learning experiences, and in-depth self-reflection, to name a few!

Here are some of the main benefits associated with action research.

1. You can personalise projects to your own interests

Action research puts you in control. Whether you’re curious about introducing mindfulness into your classroom or are fascinated by multilingual education––you get to choose the ideas or challenges that intrigue you the most.

Rather than being forced to adopt approaches that have been recommended top-down, action research allows you to personalise your research, helping to keep you more invested and engaged in the process. Action research also allows you to tackle the issues that are most pressing in your classroom and address your students’ needs.

For example, if your classroom is very culturally diverse, or you have a lot of students whose first language is not the language of instruction, you might focus on projects that cater to these different needs.

2. You can share and learn from colleagues’ projects

Action research is not designed to be a solo pursuit. You can use it to team up with fellow teachers and share the approaches and strategies that you find impactful. In fact, some researchers have found that action research promotes a culture of shared knowledge, making learning more democratic in educational settings.

Action research also facilitates collaboration. For example, if you and many of your fellow teachers are noticing a problem that’s consistent across your classrooms, you could brainstorm solutions, share resources, try out different strategies and compare results.

3. You can assess yourself independently

Action research is strongly tied to teachers’ self-evaluation. By observing and recording the results of your strategies, you gain insights into the success of the approach and your performance as a teacher.

You therefore don’t need to wait for annual reviews or third-party inspections, action research can help you understand your strengths and areas for growth. With these findings, you can take control of your professional development, set goals for yourself, and continuously track the outcome of your methods in your classroom.

Learn more about how to assess your own performance in the classroom.

Action research project examples

The sky is truly the limit when it comes to action research projects in schools! Here are some examples to get you inspired.

Integrating interactive digital tools

Let’s say you’re curious about whether interactive digital tools, such as tablets, online learning platforms, or educational apps would increase student participation and engagement in your classroom.

You could turn this into an action research project by selecting a set of tools, measuring student engagement and incorporating the tools into your lessons over a period of time. You could then collect the data on participation through observations and surveys. Take a look at the data and compare it to before the experiment – has there been an improvement? What patterns did you see? You can then integrate your findings and repeat the cycle again.

Improving reading comprehension in multilingual classrooms

You could explore whether visual aids, like images, story maps, and graphic organisers would help non-native students improve their reading comprehension in the classroom.

Here, you could develop or source the visual aids, evaluate current reading levels, and then integrate the visual aids during reading sessions and teach the students how to use the tools. Then you could use the same methods to evaluate their reading and engagement levels and get their feedback on the process. With these insights, you can adapt the visual aids and instructional methods accordingly.

Boosting homework completion through parental support

You could also conduct an action research project to determine whether enhancing communication with parents might help students be more diligent with their homework. First, you could record current homework quality and completion rates. Then, you could leverage different communication channels, such as in-person meetings, emails, or online workshops, to engage parents and give them tips to support their children’s homework routine.

After this, you could collect data on homework quality and submission rates, as well as parent and student feedback on the methods used. With this data, you can tailor communication approaches and address any issues that come up.

Challenges in action research projects

While action research projects are powerful tools for transformation in schools, they aren’t without their challenges.

As a teacher, you likely already juggle lesson planning, grading, meetings, administrative demands, and extracurricular responsibilities, so adding a research project into the mix might feel overwhelming. If you feel like all the additional work might be too much, but you’re inspired to do an action research project, start small.

You don’t have to overhaul your entire teaching methodology – begin with a simple shift, set aside time each week dedicated to your research, get colleagues or students involved where possible, and use digital tools as support.

Another area that might create roadblocks to action research is resistance to change from colleagues. Your peers may be sceptical of changing the status quo and this lack of support can make it difficult for you to feel inspired and resourced enough to conduct your research. If you’re finding this is the case, share potential positive outcomes with the sceptics in your network, and seek out like-minded colleagues who will support your efforts.

Finally, implementing the research into your existing lesson planning can be tricky, especially if the curriculum is strictly defined and your students are facing high-stakes exams that take priority. If this is the case for you, get inventive around research projects that align with the curriculum. After all, action research is shown to increase student engagement and teacher enthusiasm – both of which lead to better academic scores and school environments.

Tools for action research projects

There are a number of tools and resources available to help you on your action research journey.

Data collection and analysis tools will help you as you gather and track your results. Survey platforms like Google Forms or SurveyMonkey are great, and never underestimate the power of Excel or Google Sheets to help you understand and interrogate your data!

NVivo is an excellent qualitative analysis tool, while ClassDojo helps you track student behaviour and engagement in the classroom. Evernote and OneNote are also good options for reflective journaling and organising your notes across devices.

If you want to get your teeth into the academic conversation, there are entire journals dedicated to action research: Educational Action Research, Journal of Teacher Action Research, and Action Research. There’s even an online community of practitioners, the Collaborative Action Research Network (CARN), which provides opportunities for professional development and networking.

Ready, set, action research!

There’s no doubt that action research holds huge promise for teachers looking to develop their skills and create a real impact in their classrooms in a context-relevant way. Through action research projects, you can become a researcher of your own practice, enhancing your students’ experiences and improving educational outcomes.