Action Research conducted by school teacher

1. INTRODUCTION
Action research is an effective plan for the professional development of teachers. It
helps practitioners’ to improve their teaching skills. The teacher identified the areas of
improvement in action research. Classroom action research (CAR) is the systematic
investigation of what works in the classroom, with the goal of improving student
learning. Although we know a great deal about good teaching in general, every
teaching situation is unique in many areas, such as content, level, student skills and
learning styles, and teaching skills and teaching styles. Teachers conducting classroom
action research ask what works best in a particular teaching situation. These
teacher-researchers typically gather both quantitative and qualitative data from several
sources and share their results with those directly affected, so that others may take
action based on the findings.
What is classroom action research?
Classroom action research begins with a question or questions about classroom
experiences, issues, or challenges. It is a reflective process which helps teachers to
explore and examine aspects of teaching and learning and to take action to change and
improve.
Why does it?
It helps to:
● deepen our understanding about teaching and learning
● develop our teaching skills and knowledge
● try out different approaches and ideas
● develop reflective practice
● improve student learning.
How to do it
1-Reflect
Talk to colleagues. What questions do they have about teaching? What topics are you
and your colleagues interested in? Is there problem areas or aspects of
teaching/learning are all unsure about? Make a list. From your list, decide together the
topic for the classroom action research. To help you decide, discuss why you want to
do it. What are the benefits to teachers and to learners? When you have decided, write
one or two questions about your topic which will guide what you do.

2. 2-Explore
Reflect on your topic questions. Where can you find information to help you plan the
research? Do you need to consult published materials or the Internet for information
and ideas? Find out as much as you can about the topic to help you plan how to do the
action research.
3-Plan
Think about: how long it will the action research take? How will you record the
research? There are different ways of doing classroom action research. It can be as
simple as just writing down your own reflections relating to the topic after a lesson or
sequence of lessons or it could include questionnaires, observations, audio recordings
and so on.
4-Research
Carry out the action research using your chosen method. Some ideas are:
• Peer observation
• Teacher diary
• Learner feedback
• Lesson evaluation
• Recording lessons
• Reflecting on learners’ work
• Surveys
Choose the method which best suits your topic questions.
5-Researching together
It is also helpful to carry out action research with a colleague or a group of colleagues.
This gives you more data to reflect on, compare and discuss.
6-Analyse
This stage helps you to make sense of the data you have collected in your research. It
is a process of reflecting on, organising and reviewing your data to help you answer

3. your topic questions. What have you found out? What insights have you gained from
the research? What does your research show you?
7-Act
If you have carried out the classroom action research on your own, share your results
with your colleagues. Reflect on the results. How do the results help you and your
colleagues? What changes will you all make?
8-Review
It is important to review the impact of the changes made. How successful were they?
Is any follow-up action needed? Are there any differences amongst your colleagues?
OBSERVATIONS:
During my teaching practise there were certain observations that I recorded aptly and
carefully which laid the foundation for my Action Research. The one I found most
appealing was: The school lacked a firm order of discipline across all the classrooms.
The issue remained such a crucial one that without certain proper actions to be taken
the school can hamper the development of a learning community.
MAINTAINING CLASSROOM DISCIPLINE
In conversations with teachers, I've discovered some practical and universal ideas that will
help in achieving discipline in the classroom.
● Greet students at the door. Interact with the students on a personal level every day.
Greet them by name, interject a positive comment or observation, shake their hand,
and welcome them into the classroom. This sets a positive tone for a lesson or for the
day.
● Get students focused before beginning any lesson. Be sure you have their attention
before you begin. Don't try to talk over students; you'll be initiating a competition to
see who can speak louder and also let them know it's okay to talk while you are
talking.
● Use a positive presence. Don't park yourself in front of the classroom. Move around
the room continuously, and get in and around your students. Make frequent eye
contact, and smile with students. Monitor students with their physical presence.

4. ● Model the behaviour we want students to produce. If we exhibit respectfulness, trust,
enthusiasm, interest, and courtesy in your everyday dealings with students, they will
return the favour in kind. Remember the saying, “Values are caught, not taught.”
● Use low-profile intervention. When you see a student who is misbehaving, be sure
your intervention is quiet, calm, and inconspicuous. Use the student's name in part of
your presentation, for example, “As an example, let's measure Michael's height in
centimetres.” Michael, who has been whispering to his neighbour, hears his name
and is drawn back into the lesson with no disruption of the class.
● Send positive “I” messages. Thomas Gordon, creator of Teacher Effectiveness
Training, under-scores the importance of “I” messages as a powerful way of
humanizing the classroom and ensuring positive discipline. An I-message is
composed of three parts:
● Include a description of the student's behaviour. (“When you talk while I talk …”)
● Relate the effect this behaviour has on you, the teacher. (“I have to stop my teaching
…”)
● Let the student know the feeling it generates in you. (“which frustrates me”)
● Verbal reprimands should be private, brief, and as immediate as possible. The more
private a reprimand, the less likely you will be challenged. The more immediate the
reprimand, the less likely the student will feel you condone her or his behaviour. And
keep reprimands brief. The more you talk, the more you distract from the lesson and
the more you “reward” a student for inappropriate behaviour.
● Provide lots of positive feedback. Don't forget them; recognize their contributions and
behaviour:
● Acknowledge positive student behaviour when it is not expected.
● Acknowledge compliance with requests.
● Acknowledge hard work, kindness, and dependability.
● Be consistent! Although this is easier said than done, the key to an effective
discipline policy in any classroom is consistency. Make these principles part of your
classroom action plan:
● If we have a rule, enforce that rule.
● Don't hand out lots of warnings without following through on consequences. Lots of
warnings tell students that you won't enforce a rule.

5. ● Be fair and impartial. The rules are there for everyone, and that includes girls as well
as boys, tall people and short people, students with freckles and students without
freckles, and special needs kids as well as gifted kids.
After observing every aspect of a school in correlation to the institutional discipline and after
carefully monitoring the discipline situation in the school premises there were certain actions
that I personally performed in order to improve the condition of the school as well as to make
a long-lasting effect on the school administration. The students who never maintained the
discipline in the classrooms and whom about most of the teachers complained about were
called for personal counselling by me. I talked to them in and outside the classroom in the
most humble manner I could. The counselling was particularly to understand their issues and
to rectify and problems they were facing.
RESULTS
After performing the action research in my class 7 and 8 D I found that the student who is
most indisciplined and who are not taking part in the classroom but now more and more
involved in the activities in questioning and answering and they were also putting up very
good questions and they also behave in a most humble manner outside the classroom
weather in assembly for weather in games period or in gardening period or in art and craft
period for in computer lab so I conclude that students are very humble and it just requires
understanding on their path the reason why they are doing such activities and what we could
do as a teacher to help them