Abstract:

The issue of increasing education quality is the priority for many countries across the world. It is often connected to the introduction of effective changes in schools, in the teaching praxis of teachers. Action research is being presented in professional literature as an important method of supporting changes in the school practice.

The aim of the contribution is to characterize action research, outline its methodology and, via the analysis of published scientific studies, document the usage of the action research as a tool for successful changes in schools abroad and in Slovakia.

In the contribution there are analyzed scientific studies published in renowned databases (Scopus, Proquest, EBSCO) in the past 5 years, which present action research as a method of enhancing educational practice, supporting innovations in schools. When searching for relevant studies, we chose the keywords: action research in education, action research and improvement of educational practice, action research and school changes, action research and innovations in education. Studies show that action research improves the conditions and the learning process of students, enhances the quality of teacher’s cooperation, helps to identify the needs of the educational practice and teachers, even the problems that need to be solved. The studies also point to the main pitfalls or barriers to the implementation of action research in the praxis of teachers and schools, which are mainly related to the amount of time and effort invested in its implementation. Despite this, action research still appears as a suitable method to support positive changes is schools.

Keywords:

Action research, school changes, improvement of educational practice.