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Teachers and Action Research
Action research is a form of educational research "conducted by teachers, administrators, or other education professionals to solve a specific problem or provide information to make decisions at the local level" (Wiersma and Jurs, 2009). This type of research focuses on the solution of every day problems at the local level. Most times, only a small, accessible population is used such as the social studies classes of a local school.

For example: //Suppose the science teachers in a junior high school are considering whether to use additional group work in conducting experiments or an individual, programmed workbook that simulates experiments. They conduct action research with the students enrolled in the science classes at their school to determine the relative effectiveness and efficiency of the two methods. The teachers are concerned about their own situation; they are NOT concerned about applying the results to other schools. (Wiersma and Jurs, 2009)//

Action research has been criticized by some as being less rigid in terms of design and methods, but it can provide high quality, local information that is very relaible to local audiences (such as school administrators or faculty). Often intact groups are used in the example provided above, and in some studies only a single group or individual is studied. Despite its criticism results of action research when paired with information from research literature can be very compelling to local decision makers.