investigating teacher educators’ reflections on challenges of conducting action research

Teacher educators need to be familiar with action research since it assists them to solve their class problems. the design of the study is qualitative and explores teacher educators' perceptions to address the benefits and challenges of conducting action research. for this purpose, 250 teacher educators with master or doctorate degree were invited to participate in this study. first, they were familiarized with action research through a workshop. then they were invited to conduct their own action research in their classes at school and reflect on that through reflective essays and interviews. the obtaining data were scrutinized to find emerging themes in relation to the main purposes of the study. results revealed action research led to improving students’ behavior, teaching techniques, engagement, interactions, and enhancing motivation. the teachers’ perceived benefits of action research were increasing reflectivity and awareness about their own practice, enhancing students’ motivation, improving students’ engagement and interaction and improving teaching techniques and students’ learning. the major challenges that teachers encounter in the process of conducting action research include a lack of sufficient time to conduct action research and administrative restrictions and lack of teachers’ freedom to conduct action research was a significant challenge for the teachers. implications of the study suggest that action research should be considered by educational policy makers to promote teacher educators' reflection on the use of local and practical research agendas. they also need to practice and conduct action research in their schools to follow problem-solving activities.