Action Research

As a professional educator, I must be constantly willing to change and accept new challenges. If someone would have asked me a week ago to define action research, I would have probably gave them quite the puzzled look. Now that I have embraced the new challenge of creating an action research plan, I feel I can adequately define action research to an 'outsider'. Action research is having a desire to find a problem, dig deep to find research about the problem, plan out steps and strategies on how to resolve the problem, collect data on the strategies put in place, analyze the collected data, and then in the end, reflect on the entire plan to see if the action research did indeed solve/help the problem identified. It seems like a lot of work, which I am sure it will be, but the clue is finding that one topic that sparks the flame and running with any and all ideas that come to mind. I have no doubt that I will definitely be able to use this type of research in my classroom. I believe all educators complete action research on a small scale almost daily. As educators, we always see problems, we quickly try to solve the problem, and then take the time to reflect on the process. Yet, I will definitely use an action research plan in my daily teachings, as well as my professional opportunities in the future. My students are relying on me daily to educate, guide, and increase academic growth - I feel I can do this more adequately by implementing action research plans.