A Simple Plan for Action Research (Part A)

During my tenure as a professor I often encouraged students to actively pursue thesis and project work that made sense to them as classroom teachers and school counselors. I challenged them to look at research with an eye to actually making a difference. In doing so I always reflected on what a very special colleague of mine used to refer to as the 5 “W’s” and an “H”. Jake Rogers, a veteran teacher and an instructor for several years in the Pre Service Intermediate Senior Program at Brock began every new class with an introduction to the words Why, What Where, When, Who and How as a means to explain almost every lesson plan he taught. In his words “if there ain’t no plan or purpose or action, their ain’t no use. Outcomes and student success meant everything to Jake and he taught his students that every lesson a teacher planned and taught should be directed with change and success in mind. I applied this model to the action research methodologies I taught in my statistics courses and research and change and innovation courses. It would be simple here to quote the likes of Michael Fullan and others who have championed the process of change in schooling in Ontario, or Friere’s approach to Particpatory Action Research which influenced social change throughout the world, but this article is intended to provide a brief and simple outline of what a teacher should do if s/he decides to pursue a research activity either in a school setting or as an assignment for a graduate or preservice professor with the intent of transformational change within a school setting. In my model I include the word “Will”.