Understanding the process of cycles of innovation and research over time is critical for understandingaction research. We talk about action research as an iterative process. Iterative means that you revisit,rethink, and revise your ideas and actions to provide for progressive problem solving. Computerprogramers frequently use the word iterative to describe their work as it is always possible to keepmodifying a program to make it more responsive, faster, and better adapted to the changing needsof users. In action research, you don't just solve problems, but you keep finding more problemsthat might not have been visible with the first level of problem solving. The deeper your understandingof a social scene, the more you see areas for improvement. In action research you are looking atincredible complex social systems of activity. The way you develop your understanding is to workwith these activity systems over time paying very careful attention to how change occurs and therole you play in that change. Kurt Lewin, probably the first to use the term action research,said that the best way to understand a social setting is to be able to be able to predict how itwill change. This is why creating a theory of change-- a logic model-- helps you to work throughyour ideas.