I attended a sharing workshop last few days, facilitated by my colleagues Kusrini and Lyndon, about the action research and I found this topic is interesting and very enlightening.

The presenter started the workshop by asking us a question “what is inquiry?”

My definition: inquiry is a process of learning; asking questions, finding information, seeking for answers about our curiosity about the world around us.

So… Today my inquiry is going to be about the action research…

What is action research?

Action research done by teachers usually is about their passion or tension to something. There is a degree of freedom to choose. Teacher is an actor to decide the topic.

Action research is about habit in mind…

  1. We need to have a clear goal
  2. Know the best way to reach your goal
  3. Collect data
  4. Analyze the data

Action Research starts from TENSION to QUESTION….

What is TENSION?

It is something or area that you are interested in or your area of need…

What kind of QUESTION that you can raise for the action research?

  1. Open ended, but achieveable
  2. Free from jargon
  3. Free from value laden and emotive language
  4. Relevant to your learners
  5. You are passionate about that

There are 8 cultural forces that define our classroom:

  1. Time
  2. Language
  3. Opportunities
  4. Routines
  5. Modeling
  6. Interactions and relationships
  7. Physical Environment
  8. Expectation

From those 8 forces, you might find one which becomes your tension or passion.


I am passionate about providing purposeful activities that require students to engage in thinking and understanding more about the lesson.

My tension to this topic is…

Many schools have decided to block twitter, facebook, skype or other social media. Despite of its bad impacts, using social media in teaching and learning can be also give beneficial impacts.

My research question is….

How can social media support students to be more engaged and develop their understanding of the world around them?

So… What I need to do next is to start my inquiry learning into how social media support students to be more engaged and develop their understanding of the world around them.

Here is my plan…

  1. Identify a general idea
  2. Finding facts
  3. Planning
  4. Take the first action
  5. Evaluate my action
  6. Have an ammended plan
  7. Take second action step

I am asking my self what the purpose of the research and why I want to do this research…

What do I want to find out? What sub questions do I have?

How will I collect the data?

How will I analyze the data?

How will I pace my self?

Who can help keep me going

Do I need parent or school permission in doing my research?

I feel challenged and am looking forward to taking some actions!




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