This paper argues for the use of action research in improving the effectiveness of teaching by professors and briefly discusses the reasons why this is important. The paper stresses that if the purpose of education is student development, then teachers should also be developing in their chosen field of service. Action research helps bring faculty and students together in the teaching/learning process and lets both the professor and the student evaluate its effectiveness. In fact, in order for action research to be critical or emancipatory, students and professors should co-determine the ends of the research and whether these ends are met. This creates a single entity out of the researchers and those being researched. Action research then can become an explicit aspect of a course, with the mutual determination of ends/objectives and their successful completion. (GLR)