After languishing for a few decades as a research, action research seems to be enjoying a revival of interest in almost all the countries. In Korea it has been emphasized for some time, providing various rewards to teachers who conduct it. But due to the peculiar culture of teaching profession in Korea, it is doubtful if the teachers\' enthusiasm for action research has resulted in the enhancement of student achievement, improvement of instruction, and school renewal. Action research is a form of collaborative self-reflective inquiry undertaken by teachers in order to improve their own practices, their understandings of those practices, and the situations in which those practices are carried out. Teachers who engage in action research generally become more aware of their own practices, of the gap between their beliefs and practices, and of what their pupils are thinking, feeling and learning. Action research helps sharpen teachers\' reasoning capabilities and facilitates the development of dispositions to self-monitor one\'s teaching practices over time. At the outset of knowledge-based globalized society there is a growing interest in the learning school which is similar to Schaefer\'s \'school as a center of inquiry\', which is what a school has to be like organizationally speaking in order to foster the learning of all its students. And the interest can be found in a school built around action research. There must be congruence between the two levels-classroom learning level and whole school organizational level-, and action research has the potential to make this happen within the context of \'the developing school\'. Action research as collaborative inquiry is what students and teachers do in the collaborative inquiring school. Such homological considerations are vital. With the thought that educational change is ultimately dependent on change in individual classrooms and in individual teachers, and action research can have a profound effect on individual teachers and individual classrooms as mentioned above, in this study the concept of action research, the development of action research in Korea and other countries, the present situation of action research in Korea and other countries, the cognition of elementary teachers on action research, and the development direction of action research are explored. Based on the analysis of the survey, teachers\' cognitions on the action research can be summerized into the following three positions. 1. Action research is useless and should be expelled. 2. Serious critical comments on the present situation of action research cannot be helped and outweighs the thought that it is necessary.. 3. Even though action research has its limitations, action research is necessary and some alternatives should be explored. Based on the literature review on action research and the analysis of the survey, the following development tasks can be suggested. 1. Department of education in the Do and City level should manage action research. 2. Diverse reward systems for good teacher-researchers should be developed. 3. In terms of research method and content diversity should be encouraged. 4. Collaborative action research among teachers, teacher educators, researchers, research centers should be encouraged. 5. In order to enhance teachers\' interest in action research, research conditions at school should be improved.