"Schoolwide renewal and improvement occurs only when a group of dedicated professionals decide to study and reflect on what they are doing and how it affects the students in their school and classrooms. Schmuck provides multiple examples of how school professionals use action research in their quest for improving the school experience for children."
―Shaneen Bell, President and CEO
Exchange Pointe International
Create alternative ways for enhancing classroom practices and boosting student achievement!
Action research can make a critical difference in helping educators collect objective data on their own practices and transform challenges into solutions. This new edition of a landmark collection reflects the editor′s extensive educational experience, recent developments in action research, and the voices of some of the best and brightest in the field. This updated volume helps educators navigate the action research process by offering:
- Articles by experts―including seven new contributions―that help educators define, understand, implement, and study action research
- Case studies that demonstrate how the multiple forms of action research are used in real-world situations
- Discussions of the main models of action research, including proactive, responsive, and cooperative approaches
- An exploration of methods needed for gathering reliable objective data
Well suited for individual reflection, group study, or staff development, the second edition of Practical Action Research is a valuable and much-needed contribution to the ongoing quest to strengthen educational outcomes for all schools.
Richard A. Schmuck is professor emeritus at the University of Oregon, where he chaired the dissertations of 132 doctoral students who are from all parts of the world. He taught thousands of other educators worldwide about action research, group dynamics, and organization development. He has served on the faculties of the University of Michigan, Temple University, and Leuven University (Belgium), was the first president of the International Association for the Study of Cooperation in Education. Schmuck is a visiting Professor at Arizona State University-West.
Schmuck is the author of 20 books and 190 articles. His best-known book is Group Processes in the Classroom (with Patricia Schmuck), now in its eighth edition. He received The Stevens Award from the Northwest Women in Educational Administration to honor his support of women in administration and his "commitment to equity, justice, and democracy." He received the Campbell Lifetime Achievement Award from the University Council on Educational Administration for "superior scholarship, distinguished service, and recognized international leadership" and "to celebrate an extraordinary and generous career." Schmuck continues to teach, consult, and write.
