ABSTRACT
Studies demonstrate that when new school and classroom development activities emanate from research, they are easy to implement as they, essentially, are evidence-based and contextual in nature. From this analysis, the significance of action research in education include: revitalisation of school communities through practical involvement in research, enabling educators to address challenges within the school, providing a wealth of data and evidence on topics related to learning, teaching and assessment, aids the process of reflection amongst learners and educators, helps improve quality of learning, allows for the implementation of action remedies and the monitoring and evaluation of their effectiveness, changes and inspires classroom practices, enhances teacher and student empowerment as problem solvers while also helping link research to practice, thereby enhancing the lives of professionals in educational systems. Subsequently, this review recommends that school communities conduct action research in response to contextual problems and have as many players as possible brought on board for the realization of seamless participatory implementation of solutions that emanate from the research. From the discourse it is evident that action research, if adopted as a proactive inquiry tool in school systems, promises immediate, factual and contextual solutions to varied problems that arise time and again.