Читать книгу 100 Questions (and Answers) About Action Research - Luke Duesbery - Страница 20

Because generalizability is not your priority, you will have little need for complicated statistics, although we present common statistical approaches in Part 8. Unlike traditional experimental research, with action research, you make change and observe the impact on your entire group of interest. You will not need to generalize from your sample to a broader population. Instead you generalize from your sample to a similar sample of people.

With action research, you are also interested in quickly making changes based on results. Traditional research might work in grand cycles of years where the investigator slowly and methodically examines an issue in depth. In contrast, action research is quick and dynamic. When a teacher tries a new math program, and it doesn’t work after 3 months, they might make a change before the start of next semester, all the while collecting data to inform decision making. If an entrepreneur develops a new marketing program, and there is little response after a month, they make an immediate change.

However, with action research, you are still interested in asking meaningful questions and gathering high-quality data. And so, like with traditional research, you need to define variables well, identify and describe a target population with precision, and design a methodology and collect data to ensure results are valid.

Action research typically encompasses projects that are informal and directed at improving some practice, whether in a classroom, at a bank, or in a hospital. While action research might use many of the same methods as formal research found in laboratories and universities, it is not typical. The focus of formal research is to discover broadly what can be applied in all settings, whereas action research is typically focused on a single discrete setting. Much of this book is devoted to these topics, so please, read on.

More questions? See questions 37, 66, 69, 70, and 74.