ACTION RESEARCH: IT’S PURPOSE
“What is research but a blind date with knowledge?” And why?
Action Research in the context of education can be simply defined as the study of the learning environment like classroom with the goal of improving the teaching and learning process and its outcomes but not limited to it. It can also be a study of the school’s programs like the Brigada Pagbasa, TALA, Project E-SAILS, and the like. The process is scientific and systematic involving inquiry. Inquiry based approach is based on asking questions and finding possible solutions.
There are several steps in writing Action Research. They basically involved the identification of the problem, data collection (organize, analyze, and interpret the data), development of an action plan to address the problem, implementation of the plan and evaluation of the results of the action taken.
Action Research is tied up with professional development and very important in the teaching profession. It ensures excellent service delivery from the teachers and desirable learning outcomes from the students. Of course, teachers are adept in pinpointing the problem and in most cases give solutions to it, so why write an action research? The goal is to document everything systematically so that it can be shared to other educators who might be in the same situation or experiencing the same problem. Action Research also enables the teachers to be reflective. Reflection brings awareness of whether their teaching and classroom approach is effective, needs improvement or totally not working to get the desired results. It also enables the teacher to rely on facts as the conclusion will be based on facts not on opinion.
SDO Paraňaque is encouraging all teachers to write an action research. The teacher’s research will focus on the areas of his own teaching that need to be investigated or settings in which continued improvement is the focus. It involves practical actions to be undertaken to find a viable solution to any problematic situation found or areas that need improvement. Trainings, webinars, and Learning Action Cell (LAC) were conducted to jumpstart teachers into doing a simple action research. On November 23,2021 a LAC on research was held at Col. E. De Leon Elementary School. It was very fortunate to have Jennifer Tan from Novaliches Elementary School to share her expertise. She provided a comprehensive discussion about the processes in conducting action research. At the end of the session, she helped edit all the proposed titles by the teachers. A total of 15 teachers were able to submit their titles and 6 were approved by the school head Dr. Susan J. Corro. As reinforcement for the said LAC another webinar was conducted last February 4,2022 with Alvin Dumas an elementary school teacher from Marcelo Green Elementary School, a Basic Education Research Fund (BERF) recipient as resource speaker. In this LAC session, SDO Paraňaque’s research format was presented to ensure uniformity. With these trainings, more if not all teachers are expected to join the wagon of researchers and make a difference in the educative process.
Truly, to ensure success in any undertaking we must do research. We don’t just embark on any plan without properly preparing for it because it will be like preparing to fail and wasting valuable time, effort, and resources.
In a capsule “Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought.” Albert Szent-Gyorgi.
– LUCILLE T. MENDEZ /ROWENA CUTCHON