Action Research

Action Research

1.Foreign language teachers develop insights into their students’ learning from observing their behavior. 2.Reflective teachers analyze the students’ behaviors, identify potential problems, modify their teaching practices, and evaluate the results. 3. Some ideas succeed; others fail—sometimes surprisingly. 4.This process is called action research.

5. Action research is classroom-based research conducted by teachers in order to reflect upon and evolve their teaching. 6.It is a systematic, documented inquiry into one aspect of teaching and learning in a specific classroom. 7.The purpose of teacher research is to increase teaching efficacy/student learning.

8. Reflective teachers do this every day, only not as carefully and systematically. 9.With training and support, every teacher can learn how to systematize her inquiry from informal reflection and teacher story sharing to formal research.

10. The first step is choosing a research question: it should be specific, answerable, and lead to significant information on an aspect of teaching or learning. 11.Reflective teachers generally have questions in their minds about what they observe in the classroom; this can be a good place to start. 12.If you don’t have a question in mind, keeping a teaching journal of observations and questions can provide potential questions. 13.As you choose a question, be sure that it is not too general or too big to be answered given your resources.

14.The second step is deciding what information you need in order to answer your question and how it can be collected. 15.Data can be collected in a number of ways: by keeping a teacher journal of observations, conducting student interviews, giving out questionnaires, and testing. 16.An instrument may already be available to collect the information. 17.You may need to develop your own instrument, for example, a questionnaire specific to your classroom practices.

18.Third, the data must be...