1, the definition of educator

Action research is a method to solve a fact by combining the wisdom and ability of scientific researchers and practical workers. (Lei Wen)

Action research is the study of social situations (including educational situations) and a research orientation from the perspective of improving the quality of action in social situations. (John? Eliot)

Action research is a reflective research conducted by participants in social situations (including educational situations), with the purpose of improving their rational understanding of social or educational practice and deepening their understanding of practical activities and their dependent backgrounds. (Kemis)

2. Comprehensive definition

Definition 1: Action research refers to a research mode in which educational practitioners comprehensively apply various research methods and technologies in a natural and real educational environment according to certain operating procedures, with the primary goal of solving practical educational problems.

Definition 2: Action research refers to a research method in which teachers cooperate with experts to develop problems into research topics and conduct systematic research in order to solve problems in education and teaching practice.

Definition 3: Action research is a method related to specific problems in the educational background. It aims at functional intervention in the real world and testing the effect of this intervention. It is a research idea that starts from action, proceeds through action and focuses on improving action.

3. Notes on concepts

The primary goal of action research is to improve the quality of action, improve practical work and solve practical problems.

② Action research emphasizes the combination of teaching behavior and scientific research, and the combination of action process and research process.

③ The environment of action research is a natural, real and dynamic working situation and a living classroom.

④ The action research plan is developmental, and the development process is systematic and open.

⑤ Studying learning and teaching in the information technology environment has added new qualities to action research.

Second, the characteristics of action research

Compared with general educational science research methods, action research has the following characteristics.

1. The main body of action research is teachers and educational administrators, who are cooperative.

Its main function is that front-line teachers should independently complete the whole process from determining research topics, making research plans, implementing actions, collecting and analyzing feedback information, adjusting actions and evaluation results, and applying research results.

Teachers have unique advantages in carrying out educational research. However, it is not uncommon to regard teachers as testers to provide demonstration data and experimental schools or classes as databases to collect data. This neglect of teachers' direct participation in research will bring two consequences: first, the research results lack pertinence and effectiveness and cannot be used in teaching practice; The other is that teachers are frustrated and not interested in scientific research results.

The traditional educational research model is "research-development-dissemination". Theory comes from educational research and is applied to solving practical educational problems. So as to compile a set of "products" for learners of a specific age, such as a set of courses, teaching materials, teaching methods and so on. These "products" are taught to teachers through training, so that they can accept and use this set of "products" and teach in strict accordance with the syllabus and teaching materials. Here, primary and secondary school teachers are only the intermediary of "means-purpose". Action research takes "participation-cooperation-action" as the basic model and advocates teachers' participation in the educational research process. Through the cooperation between theoretical workers and other teachers, we can consciously improve our own educational behavior, create the best educational activity situation, and achieve the best educational practical effect.

Of course, in order to improve the quality of action research and obtain better scientific research results, the cooperation and participation of professionals are not excluded. On the contrary, it advocates experts and scholars to participate in action research in order to foster strengths and avoid weaknesses and do a good job in cooperative research.

Action research requires teachers to apply theory and systematically reflect on their own practice. The role of professionals is to be a good teacher's consultant and give guidance on scientific research methods. Professionals should go deep into reality, directly participate in the whole research process, and fully communicate with teachers through various ways, including joint discussion, classroom evaluation, writing lesson plans, listening to each other, writing teaching diaries, etc. So as to reach an agreement on the goal of teaching reform, the understanding of teaching and learning and the specific implementation plan. This kind of communication and reflection is of great significance for improving teachers' teaching ability and changing teaching concepts. Therefore, action research builds a bridge between professionals and teachers through mutual participation and joint research.

2. The object of action research is an urgent problem to be solved in education and teaching practice, which has the following characteristics:

(1) directly. The problem must come from the teacher's own education and teaching practice, and it is the teacher's own direct experience and feeling. They only study the problems existing in their own work and do not study the problems existing in other people's educational practice.

(2) particularity. The problem or research object is usually confined to a school or a teaching class, which belongs to the running situation or class situation of a school and shows more local characteristics and is not universal. This requires people to be cautious in the scope of application when evaluating their own research results, to do more analysis, to listen to a wide range of opinions, and to overcome subjective randomness.

(3) Microscopy. Most of the research objects are specific micro-problems in education and teaching practice. The scope of the problem is small, the structure is simple and there are few related factors. Action research focuses on doing, pursuing real progress bit by bit.

3. The primary goal of action research is to improve the quality and efficiency of education and teaching, and improve their own work.

Different from theoretical research aimed at revealing the laws of education and teaching, investigation and research aimed at understanding the current situation and providing reference suggestions, action research aims at solving practical problems in educational practice, and the primary goal is to solve problems, improve the quality of action and improve practical work. It requires developing problems into topics, designing solutions and implementing them one by one, so as to achieve the ultimate goal of solving problems and improving the quality of education and teaching, which is the fundamental driving force for front-line teachers to carry out educational research.

Of course, action research puts solving practical problems in the first place, which does not mean that it is only satisfied with this and does not discuss the successful experience in theory. Since action research is a kind of research, we should think rationally about the process and effect of action and make our own theoretical contribution to a certain extent on the basis of practice.

4. The strategy of action research is to learn while acting in daily school life and real classroom teaching environment.

Because the process of education and teaching is a complex and changeable dynamic process, teachers should always reflect on the problems in the process of action. Professionals should also go deep into the reality of education and classroom teaching and study new problems with teachers. According to the actual situation of action, researchers should adjust their plans at any time, improve their actions, solve problems in benign changes, make the working process of education and teaching a research process, make the research process a rational working process, and achieve the perfect combination of research and action. The combination strategy of action research makes up for the gap between theory and practice in educational research, and makes the research receive immediate results.

5. The process of action research is situational, systematic, flexible and open.

Action research aims at diagnosing and solving problems in specific situations through field research, gradually adopting various reform measures to adjust actions, and constantly monitoring the effect of this adjustment through means of questionnaires, interviews, case studies, etc., so as to further adjust teaching according to these feedbacks and gradually realize the goal of reform, rather than just putting it into practice in a later situation.

Systematic performance is that action research has certain operating procedures, and it is a dynamic development process of cyclic and spiral rise.

The action research plan should be fully flexible and open. The reason is that the process of action research is different from that of natural science research, and it often cannot simply and centrally show the inevitable linear relationship between plan and result. People's understanding of problems is often one-sided and superficial from the beginning, just like a blind man touching an elephant. Therefore, we should constantly observe and reflect, and attach great importance to the new problems in education reform. According to the actual situation in the development, researchers can partially modify the implementation plan, modify the overall plan, and even change the research topic. This situation is very common in action research.

6. The methods of action research are widely compatible.

There is no special research method for action research, but we can flexibly choose relevant methods from the existing research methods according to the nature of the research problem, the research purpose and the ability of the researchers. The investigation method, experience summary method and thematic content analysis method in educational research methods can all be applied to action research. With the improvement of teachers' scientific research level, quantitative and qualitative observation technology, experimental technology and data analysis technology can be adopted in scientific research. At present, in order to break the mystery of education and scientific research, teachers should be encouraged to learn in simple terms. For example, you can start from writing teaching achievements, teaching case analysis and teaching essays, and gradually improve your scientific research ability until you write a high-level paper or research report and become an expert in educational research.

7. Sustainability and timeliness of feedback from action research and evaluation.

In the process of action research, with the development of actual activity situation, researchers will constantly and naturally evaluate and reflect on various intervention measures. In this way, according to the actual problems, the adjustment plan is put forward, the actual intervention is carried out, the effect of intervention is monitored at any time, and then more in-depth exploration is carried out for more and deeper problems, just like snowballing, gradually moving towards broader and deeper teaching reform.

Action research emphasizes the sustainability of evaluation, that is, diagnostic evaluation, formative evaluation and summative evaluation run through the whole research process. The timeliness of feedback can be seen from two aspects: first, timely feedback and summary make educational practice and scientific research in a dynamic combination and feedback. Second, once more positive results are found, they will be immediately fed back into educational practice.

Someone summed up the characteristics of action research in three sentences, that is, research for action, research in action and research by actors. Others briefly summarize the characteristics of educational action research as: "The problem is the subject, the work is the research, the teacher is the expert, and the effect is the result". All these can help us to understand the characteristics of educational action research to some extent.

Three. Advantages and disadvantages, types and scope of application of action research

(A) the advantages of action research

1 is a good way to solve the problem that theory is divorced from reality in educational research.

The disconnection between theory and practice is a long-standing problem in China's educational research. Some people think that there is no real educator and pedagogy in China, which is one of the main reasons. And educational action research has solved this problem well. On the one hand, its practicability is very obvious: no matter the starting point, purpose, subject or process of research, it is inseparable from practice. On the other hand, action research also attaches importance to the role of theory: it emphasizes the combination of theoretical workers and practical workers, so that they can cooperate with each other, talk on an equal footing and improve together. Teachers can get the necessary professional theoretical knowledge and research skills from experts, and theoretical workers can also get first-hand information from real educational practice, discover new problems, new topics, and even discover and create new theories, so that the research results are more easily accepted by primary and secondary school teachers.

2. It is adaptable, flexible, simple and easy for teachers to master.

Neither speculative nor empirical methods are suitable for front-line teachers. Speculative research needs a lot of theoretical derivation and data citation. In order to pursue quantification, objectification and accuracy, positivism research often tries to control some variables and try to make educational research imitate natural science experiments. Although these methods have certain guiding significance, for primary and secondary school teachers who undertake heavy tasks, speculative research methods are both difficult and lack of practical application value. Educational research has its own characteristics. It takes people as the object, the environment is ever-changing and the causal relationship is quite complicated, so it can't simply imitate and copy the experimental methods of natural science. In addition, before the experimental research, the theoretical level of the experimenter was put forward from the aspects of theoretical assumptions and experimental principles, which is not suitable for most primary and secondary school teachers. So I think "experimental research" should be mentioned carefully.

The educational action research is simple and feasible, and it is more suitable for primary and secondary school teachers who have not received strict educational measurement and experimental training. Starting from reality rather than theory, we can learn and improve at the same time, which just avoids the limitations of the above two research methods and is easy to carry out in primary and secondary education.

3. Action research solves the contradiction between daily work and scientific research.

Action research synchronizes daily work, reform and scientific research. Many primary and secondary school teachers think that their task is "teaching-centered", and the heavy teaching work leaves little room for educational research. Some people even think that "the seminar takes up teaching time". Action research can organically unify teaching and research and overcome the contradiction between production and research.

(B) the limitations of action research methods

The limitations of action research method are as follows: due to its informality, lack of scientific rigor, inability to strictly control conditions in practical research, and insufficient accuracy and reliability of results.

(III) Types and application scope of action research

Judging from the scale of research topics, there are generally two kinds, one is independent research and the other is cooperative research. It is divided into three levels, namely: the action research of a single teacher; Cooperative research of several teachers; Research on joint action in schools. The combination of researchers, teachers and administrative leaders is the most worthy of promotion.

A single teacher's action research is characterized by small scale, narrow research scope and easy implementation, but its strength is weak and it is difficult to engage in in in-depth, detailed and convincing research. Cooperative action research can give full play to the collective wisdom and strength of many teachers, but it may lack theoretical guidance. Intra-school joint research is a mature research team composed of professionals, teachers, government departments and school administrative leaders. This is an ideal action research, which has the advantages of professional participation, strong theoretical guidance, strong research strength, and giving full play to the role of various personnel.

From the research object, there are two kinds of educational action research: to reflect on the educational behavior that has happened and to explore the reform of educational action. The former is called "teaching case study", and its practice is to find the topic from the review and reflection of one's own work experience, and then write the whole process of finding and dealing with the problem into a teaching case, and then discuss and analyze it around this teaching case to form a teaching case study report. The latter is a research based on practical problems in work and aimed at solving practical problems, which is called problem research and is the main form of educational action research.

Action research method is an exploratory research method to adapt to small-scale education reform. Its purpose is not to establish theories and induce laws, but to constantly explore, improve and solve practical educational problems in view of the problems in educational practice.

Section 2 Procedures and Principles of Action Research

Since the emergence of action research method, people have put forward different views on its implementation steps besides recognizing it as an expanded spiral structure. Due to the different research purposes and conditions, the specific procedures will be different. Now, introduce the following four modes:

One, four links (four stages) mode:

British scholar Kemis believes that action research is a spiral deepening (ascending) development process, and each spiral development circle includes four interrelated and interdependent basic links: planning, implementation, observation and reflection. Among them, "observation" is not an independent link, but the work of collecting information and monitoring in the whole process of action research; "Reflection" is to think about the effect of action and plan the next action on this basis. It is the end of the first spiral and the intermediary of the transition to another spiral.

1. Plan

This plan should be based on a large number of facts and investigations. It starts with the needs and assumptions of solving problems. Imagination is the combination of action researchers (actors and researchers)' understanding of problems and their knowledge, theories, methods, techniques and various conditions to help solve problems; The idea also includes a plan for action research. "Plan" includes the overall plan and the design scheme of each specific action step.

action

Namely, implementing the action plan. The implementation and execution of the action plan is flexible. With the researchers' gradually clear understanding of the problem, and the timely feedback of all kinds of information during the action, and constantly absorbing the evaluation and suggestions of the participants, the established plan can be modified and adjusted in the implementation, that is, the action can be continuously adjusted.

survey

The contents of the investigation are as follows: 1. The background factors of the action and the factors affecting the action. The second is the process of action, including who participated in the implementation of the plan in what way, what materials were used, what activities were arranged, whether there were unexpected changes, and how to eliminate interference. The third is the result of action, including expectations and accidents, positive and negative results. Attention should be paid to collecting the above three aspects of information, and background information is the basic material for analyzing the effectiveness of plans or ideas; Process data is the test basis for judging whether the scheme brings action effect and how to bring it; Result data is the direct basis for analyzing the effect of the scheme. It is necessary to flexibly use various observation technologies and data collection and analysis technologies, and make full use of modern means such as video recording and audio recording.

self-examination/introspection

Reflection is the end of the first cycle of action research and the intermediary of the transition to another cycle. This link includes: sorting out descriptions, evaluating and explaining, and writing research reports.

Two, six-step model

The specific steps are as follows: pre-diagnosis, data collection, preliminary investigation, overall planning, specific planning, action, summary and evaluation.

1. Prediagnosis

The task at this stage is to find the problem. The problems in school work are found through reflection, diagnosed according to the actual situation, and the initial idea of changing actions is obtained. In every step, pre-diagnosis plays a very important role.

2. Preliminary study on data collection

At this stage, a research group composed of professionals, teachers and managers is set up to conduct a preliminary discussion and research on the problem, find out the relevant theories and documents to solve the problem, and fully occupy the information. Participants in the study should discuss together and listen to the opinions of all parties in order to make a diagnostic evaluation for the formulation of the overall plan.

3. Draw up the overall plan:

This is a systematic plan originally conceived. Action research method is a dynamic and open system, so the master plan can be modified and changed.

Make a concrete plan

This is a concrete measure to realize the overall planning and is based on the need to solve practical problems. With it, it will lead to interventions aimed at changing the status quo.

action

Action is the key to the success of the whole research work. Its characteristics are implementation, evaluation and modification. In the implementation of the planned action, pay attention to collecting the feedback information of each step. If feasible, you can enter the next step of planning and action. On the contrary, the overall plan and even the basic ideas need to be adjusted or revised. The purpose of action here is not to test an idea or plan, but to solve practical problems.

6. Summary and evaluation: This is the summary and evaluation of the whole research work. At this stage, it is necessary to scientifically process the data and information obtained in the research, draw the conclusions needed for the research, and explain and evaluate the practical problems that caused this topic.

Third, the new four-ring model.

Professor Chen Guisheng of East China Normal University put forward a new four-link model, namely, planning, execution, inspection and summary. He changed "observation" and "reflection" to "inspection" and "summary" because "observation" and "reflection" should run through the whole process of action research and should not be regarded as an independent step. Based on the theoretical discussion and practical experience of educational action research at home and abroad, some people think that the process of educational action research can be designed into the following five steps: diagnosis, learning, planning, implementation and reflection.

Diagnosis: that is, to study and analyze the present situation of education and teaching. Distinguish which are successful experiences, which can be carried forward, which problems need to be solved, what are the key problems and what are the objective reasons. This process can be a teacher's self-diagnosis or a teacher's common diagnosis. Some schools adopt the so-called "talking about mountains" (that is, in a relatively relaxed environment, all kinds of people are free to diagnose problems together), which is a prominent example of collective diagnosis.

Learning: Learning should run through the whole process of educational action research, but it is absolutely necessary to concentrate on learning for a period of time after the problem is diagnosed. The contents of the study are mainly the relevant national policies, new educational concepts and advanced experiences in various places, theoretical materials related to their own problems, development goals and requirements formulated by the school, etc. By studying, raising awareness and recognizing the gap between the new educational concept and the present situation, we can grasp the existing problems more accurately; Through learning, the direction is clear, and the ways to solve problems will also be inspired, which can lay a good foundation for making action research plans.

Planning: Planning means designing an action plan. The form of expression is to write an opening report. Its contents include: ① the background of the research, including the requirements of teaching reform situation and teaching concept, the current actual situation of our school or class, the significance of the research, etc. ② Research content, that is, the main problems to be solved and the measures to be taken. We should find out the improvement measures from the gap between the requirements to be met and the actual situation. These include the improvement of teachers' educational ideas and behaviors and the improvement of educational environment (leadership behavior, campus culture, parents' educational behavior, community environment, etc.). (3) Steps and schedule of action. Including preparation and research process. (4) Expected results and their manifestations, including written summaries or papers, research reports, observation of educational and teaching behaviors, and students' grades. It is allowed to constantly revise the plan during the operation, and incorporate all kinds of new situations and new factors that have not been considered in the operation into the plan.

Implementation: The implementation process of action research is a dynamic development and improvement process, and it is also a process of "planning-action-feedback-adjustment-re-action", that is, in the process of implementation as planned, attention should be paid to observing the effect, summing up experience, finding problems, conducting mid-term demonstration (feedback), and then adjusting the research plan before implementing the newly revised research plan.

Reflection: Reflection is actually a process of stage summary. Its contents include: ① arrangement and description. That is to sum up and sort out the whole process of making plans, learning theories, implementing plans and stage inspections, and outline a multi-faceted and vivid action process. ② Evaluation and explanation. That is, judge the process and result of the action, analyze and explain the relevant phenomena and reasons, find out the inconsistency between the plan and the result, and put forward suggestions for modifying the idea and plan. (3) write a research report.

Four, eight-step model

(1) Identify, evaluate and form meaningful problems from daily teaching situations. The problem here is not necessarily a topic in the strict sense, but it is meaningful to improve teaching.

(2) Conduct preliminary discussions and consultations with relevant personnel to form a preliminary intention.

(3) Consult relevant literature and learn from similar research, including its purpose, procedures and problems encountered.

(4) Modify and define the problem.

(5) Choose research strategy. For example, sampling, management, material selection, learning and teaching methods, resource task allocation, division of labor, etc.

(6) Choosing evaluation methods Researchers should continuously evaluate and reflect on teaching plans in a certain way in the teaching situation, including classroom observation and recording, interviews, questionnaires, tests, teaching diaries, etc.

(7) implementation. This includes teaching, data collection, monitoring and evaluation, feedback improvement, data classification and analysis. At this stage, it is very important to put forward further improvement measures according to real-time teaching feedback.

(8) data interpretation, inference and evaluation of subjects. Many data obtained in action research are qualitative data, which need to be classified and coded in the analysis to quantify the qualitative data. The purpose of action research is to obtain specific knowledge about specific problems in specific situations and the implementation effect of new methods, which can be used for reference in other teaching situations, but it does not require universal laws.

Five, the principle of action research

1, feasibility principle

Any research must pay attention to the subjective and objective conditions of researchers. Action research should not only improve the participants' thinking and working conditions, but also adapt the research methods to their thinking and working conditions.

2, the principle of practicality and application

It is advocated to find, study and solve problems in teaching practice, and the starting point and end result of research should be to improve practice and improve understanding of practice. The results of the project should be tested by teachers' teaching practice and students' learning practice.

The value of research results depends on whether it has the value of popularization and application, mainly depends on whether it solves practical problems, improves the present situation of education and teaching, improves the quality, and is conducive to students' learning, practice and creation.

3. The principle of active cooperation.

Whether it is independent research or cooperation with experts, teachers themselves must be aware of the necessity of this kind of research, and the research motivation must come from teachers themselves. This requires all participating researchers to complete the role transformation, so as to be calm, calm, lonely and frustrated. Educational research is allowed to fail, but it is not allowed to replace rationality with emotion, objectivity with subjectivity, and fact with conjecture. If the research belongs to "cooperation mode" or "support mode", it is very important for all parties involved to respect each other and cooperate on an equal footing. We should vigorously advocate emotional acting and be indifferent to fame and fortune. Argument, no argument, no excuse, no criticism.

4, dynamic and scientific principles

Strengthen the timely feedback of information between all links of operation procedures. Because, from the point of view of system theory, action research belongs to negative feedback type. Only by shortening the time course of information feedback can the system rely on the feedback information to correct or adjust the deviation caused by interference in time.

The premise of all educational research is science. But the essence of educational science is empirical science, so we should pay attention to the unity of opposites between experience and science.