Johnson’s (1997) action research study investigates how social skills can be developed in fifth and sixth grade students through the use of cooperative learning. Johnson is a teacher who advocates an interactionist approach between students and teachers in the classroom. In this manner he feels that by including students in the creation of rules and consequences, “it helps students to learn they are responsible for making the choices which determine their behavior and that they must therefore accept the consequences” (Johnson 7). Johnson also believes in a supportive classroom environment as opposed to the authoritarian classroom environment. In such an environment students are encouraged to take risks in their learning in an atmosphere of “cooperation and shared learning” (Johnson 19).
Such an environment is ideal for Johnson’s action research which studied pairs of 5th and 6th graders who carried out various computer implementation tasks with the goal of achieving social skill development. A variety of tasks included sharing, taking turns, encouraging participation of others, and listening as a means of valuing input from others. Students were paired randomly so as to limit resistance and favoritism. Johnson’s study showed that there were measurable improvements in social skills among the children: “Students became more socially aware and more skilled, as demonstrated by collaboration between wider groups of students and more on-task behavior” (Johnson 20).
Traditional research is typically undertaken by following a set of established procedures and practices that aim at verifying a knowledge claim is reasonable. Action research is very different. Action research involves three tasks: look, think, and act. So, too, action research is carried out by practitioners as opposed to researchers. For example, Johnson is the teacher of these students and he becomes a researcher in o
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