The Educational Studies Association of Ireland (ESAI) promoted a well-attended conference on action research just before Christmas. Trinity College was the appropriate choice of venue and the organisers must have been very pleased  when over 200 participants turned up.

Action research is attracting much interest as a means of professional development. It is attractive because the practitioner controls the process. As a teacher, for example , you may begin by identifying one aspect of your own professional practice which you would like to improve. Having identified the general idea, you then move to a reconnaissance stage. This leads to the development of your first action plan. Implementation of this plan forms the next stage, followed by the evaluation of this action. In the light of your evaluation, you may then decide to revise your action plan and so you move to a second cycle of action research. The key to success lies in keeping a detailed, reflective journal/diary. This also acts as evidence of your research.This form of research is providing very beneficial not just for teachers, but also for other professions and the business community. thus, we heard about the benefits reaped by the nursing profession through rethinking their practises and priorities.

We also heard how action research could improve the quality of communications in a large industrial environment like Waterford Glass. Certainly this form of research has the potential to achieve improvements at many levels in many different settings.

What also makes it attractive is that it is possible to gain university accreditation for undertaking research into your own practice. Jack Whitehead of the University of Bath has been promoting educational action research for many years now. Students at Bath have been awarded M.A., M.Phil and Ph.D degrees in action research.You can visit their website at http:www.bath.ac.uk/~edsjw. Here in Ireland quite a number of teachers have received Master's degrees using the action research mode. Dublin City University can advise if you're interested . You can get more information on action research in Ireland if you visit http://www.iol.ie/~rayo.

Congratulations to the ESAI and to their President, Dr. Sheelagh Drudy, on providing such a prominent forum for this well-regarded means of teacher-development.