200 word reflection

Before this course, I had never heard of action research.  In fact, just the thought of research kind of turned my stomach.  However, I’ve changed my tune about research.  I’ve learned so much about action research.  I've learned that an action research is research that is chosen and created by someone who is considered an inside source.  By this, I mean that action research is created by someone who is inside the everyday operations of the school, so they have a good understanding of the problem being considered for research.  I've learned that the topic being considered for research should be one that the researcher is curious about, or believes there is an issue within the topic that needs to be resolved. 

One very important thing that I've learned about action research is that it is not your traditional research. What is interesting about action research is that the person doing the research gets to actually choose the topic they would like to research.  This gives the researcher an invaluable opportunity to have more buy-in during their individual researching process.  Traditionally, this was not the case.

In traditional research, the topic and the research has already been done, so it is spoon fed to the intended professional.  The teacher, for example, would be told both what the problem is and the answer to the problem.  In traditional research, this answer would be universal for all schools.  We now know that all schools are not the same. 

There should be no doubt that traditional research has positive benefits. However, it should be recognized that, in some cases, action research is a more personal and valuable mechanism for individual growth and the promotion of change within our schools.  
I am excited to have the opportunity to possibly use action research to analyze how my high school locks down our campus on a daily basis.  Another way I could possibly use action research would be to research the increase or decrease of theft within our sub-varsity football team's locker room.  Theft has been a problem for us in the past, so I think it would be invaluable to complete an action research project on the theft in our locker rooms in order to collaborate with my fellow coaches in developing a solution for the problem.