Traditional Research vs. Action Research
Definition:
Traditional researchers often seek explanations for existing phenomena and try to do so in an objective manner. The primary goal of traditional educational research is “to explain or help understand educational issues, questions, and process”. In traditional research, different research methods are used to collect and analyze data, consisting of quantitative approaches and qualitative approaches (Mertler, 2014). Scholars, professors, educators, graduate students are more likely to do traditional research in a more broad publication. It focuses more on primary resources and in a broad settings.
Traditional Research
Definition:
Action research goes the process from problem to the solution. Action research is defined as any systematic inquiry conducted by teachers, administrators, counselors, or others with a vested interest in the teaching and learning process or environment for the purpose of gathering information about how their particular schools operate, how they teach, and how their students learn (Mills, 2011). Action research is set to local research within the school. Mostly, teachers, counselors or other personnel make the research to particular local problems or contexts. The research should be easy to finish and convenient to collect data.
Action Research
Process
1. Identifying and limiting the topic
2. Gathering information
3. Reviewing related literature
4. Developing a research plan
5. Collecting data
6. ​Analyzing data
7. Developing an action plan
8. Sharing and communicating results
9. Reflecting on the process
Process
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Developing a research question,
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Selecting a method or research design
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Conducting data analysis
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Reporting findings, interpretations, and making conclusions (Mertler, 2014).
Reflection
ETEC 543 Technology & Learning I
ETEC 543 course provides me the method, the process and the techniques about how to do research in education. From this class, I learned how the action research is different from the traditional research. Qualitative, quantitative and mixed method is the most common used method in doing action research. Instructional design is based on the current area and community. Sharing experience within the community is also one of the important methods to improve teaching. Instructors are provided meaningful solution to the local problems as well. I learned useful tools to do research and to explore the technology and learning process utilized in instructional technology. This course explains the basic information of the process, research methods ,procedures, and more to me. The goal of the action research before designing the class is to make instructional practice more effectively in class. After research, advanced and reasonable instructional design will meet the requirement of the students need better. I find this class motivates me with a lot of knowledge and technology. I have a better understanding of how to conduct the action research, how to write using APA style and how well the technology influence and better the education field. I think instructional technology will play a more and more important role in instruction in the future because it emphasizes more on the current education environment and conduct a more interesting studying environment. Considering the results of action research, in my point of view, will help educators design a better study plan for their students.
ETEC 643 Technology and Learning II
ETEC 643 conveys the foundational knowledge of how to conduct instructional research. From this class, I find that following the instructional research model and separating all the process into small parts will make the research. At first, it is hard to image that I can finish the research within a quarter. But, cumulative writing helps me finish it and gain more understanding during writing. The topic I chose in this course is the comparison of how PPT and video affect learners performance and gain better test grades. I have 30 participates who are divided into two groups in order to make a comparison. As the topic is confirmed, instructional material is designed to all of my audiences. Later on, data analysis collection and plan is design to make the research smoother. As I got all of my data, I am able to make analysis of how different impacts of the PPT and video has in studying.
Action Research Process
Planning
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1. Identifying and limiting the topic
Researchers should identify the topic that is not too broad or too narrow. The topic should address the realistic classroom problem when trying a new teaching method, identifying a problem or examining an area of interest.
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2. Gathering information​
​Researchers can talk their topics to other teachers, instructors, administrators, counselors or others in school to gain ideas and suggestions from them and may receive deeper insight based on their knowledge and teaching experiences.
3. Reviewing related literature
Researcher can search resources from related articles and literatures, e.g. ERIC database, and then write a literature review.
4. Developing a research plan
After the former research, this step requires developing the concrete plan. Researchers need to write the research questions, hypothesis and decide the research method and methodology.
Acting
5. Collecting data
Researchers start collecting data based on their research method. There are quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative data is numerical mainly. You can present the results by number, such as survey, tests and so on. While qualitative data is narrative. In qualitative research, researchers can make interview, observation and others.
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6. ​Analyzing data
In this step, researchers gained many data and need to narrative the data into a readable and analyzed data. Different methods can be used to analyze data. For example, coding, scheme and more are used for qualitative research, while standard deviation, mean and more are used in quantitative research.
Developing
7. Developing an action plan
In this step, researcher could talk about the data analysis and the conclusions from it. From the data analysis, researchers will make the action plan and make plan for future implementation.
Reflecting
8. Sharing and communicating results
Write the action research report and the share it with the community, or make a presentation, or publish make significant meaning in sharing and benefiting education when sharing your results.
9. Reflecting on the process
This is the last but one of the most important steps. When communicating and sharing, researchers can receive feedback and suggestions from related field experts, in which they can improve their action research in the future.
Reference
Mills, G.E. (2011). Action research: A guide for the teacher researcher (4th ed). Boston : Pearson
Mertler, A. Craig. (2014). Action Research: improving schools and empowering educators (4th ed). Thousand
Oaks: Sage Publications.
Educational research process. Retreived from
https://facultyinnovate.utexas.edu/sites/default/files/ed_research_process.pdf