Action Research ?? Wondering what is it?

According to Wikipedia, action research is a reflective process of progressive problem solving who led by individuals working with others in teams or as part of a "community of practice" to improve the way they address issues and solve problems in certain aspects. Action research can also be carry out by larger organizations or institutions, assisted or guided by professional researchers, with the aim of improving their strategies, practices, and knowledge of the environments within which they practice. As designers and stakeholders, researchers work with others to propose a new option of action to help their community or country to improve its work practices as being said by Center for Collaborative Action Research.

Kurt Lewin who became a professor at MIT, first introduced the term “action research” in about 1944. Furthermore, in his 1946 paper “Action Research and Minority Problems” he portrayed action research as “a comparative research on the conditions and effects of various forms of social action and research leading to social action” that uses “a spiral of steps, each of which is composed of a circle of planning, action and fact-finding about the result of the action”.

Furthermore, according to (Reason & Bradbury, 2001) action research is an interactive investigation process that balances problem solving actions implemented in a collaborative context with data-driven collaborative analysis or research to understand the underlying causes enabling future predictions about personal and organizational change. After six decades of action research development, many methodologies have evolved that adjust the balance to focus more on the actions taken or more on the research that results from the reflective understanding of the actions.

Our group had been given a task to do an action research about Mathematical problems which we do not decide it yet. Still figured out what topic that our group want to discuss about that can make an interesting Mathematics action research. We hope that everyone will enjoy our topic when we will present it in front of the class and suited with the problems that faced by the teachers in the school. Good luck to my group...=)