Many people conduct action research, but many seem monotonous or ineffective . What are the characteristics of good action research? How can I develop effective action research?
Yaqoub - the attached chapter may assist. It's focus is mixed methods and clinical disciplines - but the principles are generic. Please refer to the AR aspects of the chapter. I've also added a project that I believe helps to describe effective AR research.
Yaqoub Al Qutaiti I think Kurt Lewin needs to be mentioned here. In many ways one of the founders of action research. Action research is often about empowerment and for me quality action research can be recognized through if the participants: 1. Experience they can handle their situation better than before. 2. Experience that they can handle the interaction with the people relevant to the project better.
Another way of looking at it is through the lens of relevance: 1. Do the participants experience the project and it's results as recognizable? 2. Do the participants experience that the project actually works in their situation? 3. Does long term benefit emerge from the project?
Action research is for me about making things better together with the people it concerns. It is a lot about having dialogue about what is important for "us" and developing plans to do something about it. My action research is often connected to the following action development questions: '
1. What is our situation? What works? What does not work?
2. What do we need to become better? What are we interested in getting better? What are our dreams? What do we hope for?
3. What can we do about it? What is each participant willing to individually commit to do to get there?
This is just a simple outline but there are many book and articles that support this way of thinking action research.
Yaqoob - Action research is a reflective process of progressive problem solving led by individuals working with others in teams or as part of a "community of practice" to improve the way they address issues and solve problems. Action Research is either research initiated to solve an immediate problem or a reflective process of progressive problem solving that integrates research, action, and analysis. The research includes building a knowledge base to understand the effectiveness of the action or plan being considered. The success of action research is based on the framework and purpose to solve a particular problem and to produce guidelines for effective practices. Action research involves actively participating in a change situation, often via an existing organization, whilst simultaneously conducting research. Action research involves selecting a focus, clarifying theories, identifying research questions, collecting data, analyzing data, reporting results and taking an informed action. Action research is a research initiated to solve an immediate problem. It is base on team work and aims to improve the way of addressing issues and solve problems. It sometimes called participatory action research.
Dear Yaqoub, I participated to Cost Action 15111 EUROMENE, which is a multidisciplinary program financed by the European Union, focused on the study of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS). CA 15111 EUROMENE was implemented in 2015 by a small number of nations which have been increasingly joined by other countries for a total of 21 participants from all over Europe in 2019. Several working groups were created, which covers specific aspects of the disease, namely epidemiology (WG1), biomarkers (WG2), socioeconomic (WG3) clinical research enablers and diagnostic criteria (WG4), plus two working groups aimed at implementing training courses on this topic and finalized at the promotion and diffusion of the main research findings.
From 2015 on, many publications have been produced by researchers pertaining to different working groups. To this extent, I think that this Action benefitted from the several meetings that took place in different European town in order to facilitate the comparisons among countries. My reference WG was WG3 (socioeconomic) and together with my colleague Lara Gitto, we represented the Italian team devoted to study the socioeconomic impact of ME/CFS. Please find enclosed a literature review on this topic, which embeds some policy implications. Another empirical work has been done using an Italian sample of patients (the publication is in Italian).
New collaborations among WG3 researchers will soon drive to the first results of an empirical work collecting data from Italy, Latvia and France. All in all, I can say that this Action has been effective in producing both guidelines for clinicians and epidemiologists, and policy implications for governments.
You might find our recent paper of interest where we report on the distinguishing characteristics of action research; please see:
Article Interconnectedness and difference between action research an...
Yaqoub Al Qutaiti _
Action research, particularly in education field, is a term used to depict professionals studying their own practice in order to improve it. It is beneficial to teachers to use the research to inform and improve their own practice, so it is contextual and relevant to their specific circumstances. On the negative side, however, teachers can consider it as an extension and more load to their regular work. Without proper support and training, it can be difficult for teachers to critically examine their own practice.
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