Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Action Research
I had not heard of Action Research prior to my EDLD 5301 Research class. My academic and education research experiences were with the traditional research approach where I implemented change and found solutions based on the findings of someone else. After completing my school readings, action research seems to be the most beneficial and logical way to address problems, issues, or curiosities at your school. When you utilize action research you are taking action on something that YOU have noticed or wondered about within your school. You may have wondered if students would be more successful if you implemented change to a particular program or perhaps you were curious about different ways to improve teacher morale on campus. You could even take on the task of inquiring whether or not a change made last year is actually producing positive results. The bottom line is you are making the decisions based on the needs of your campus. The administrator poses the questions and creates a collaborative plan instead of implemented a solution to the latest educational issue decided by some outside expert who has no knowledge of the intricacies of your campus, its teachers, staff, or students. It is quite possible that your school has not experienced that particular problem so implementing change on it seems impractical. I plan on using action research as my primary approach to solving problems on my campus. As I work through my Lamar University Internship Plan and beyond I will utilize the action research model and focus on issues that are relevant to the specific needs of my campus teachers and staff. Some of my wonderings include the effect of district created curriculum on teaching and student success, how to curb the number of bus referrals and the affect of continuous campus common assessments on student burn out. I look forward to exploring these curiosities and many more.
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I agree that too many times schools use information from the "experts" who have never set foot on our campus. I also believe that we all do a little action research all the time without really realizing it. its is a great way to make improvements in tons of different areas in education. It makes it a little more gratifying when the changes and improvements are our own ideas.
ReplyDeleteI know I get frustrated when we are to implement something based on research findings that doesn't mesh with the current dynamics of student body, learning environment and faculty/staff on campus. Action research can turn those situations into a tailored implementation based upon ones own dynamics, environment and faculty/staff. I agree with Neil, I feel like I have always done action research because I am always searching for a better way. I think this is the most effective way to better any teacher, administrator, learning environment and the list goes on.
ReplyDeleteI know that too often I am a part of discussions on various topics / situations on campus in which we all are "wondering if..." as you mentioned. With action research it doesn't have to end there! We are able to collect data that is specific to our campus & student body, implement changes based on our findings, share our resutls and be a part of hopefully something that is an improvement to our campus and education.
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