Action Research Plan Challenges

One of the biggest challenges I foresee in implementing my action research study is data collection. I will not be able to look at TAKs scores next year and disaggregate out what effect the note-taking and cross-curricular standards had on the statewide assessment. To counteract this I think teacher and especially student surveys will be one effective means to collecting data. A question on the student survey could be “How did the note-taking and cross-curricular standards help you better prepare and complete the TAKs test?” The same question could be posed to juniors and seniors for the SAT and ACT assessments. Choosing several teachers’ classes to observe frequently throughout the next school year will also be beneficial to data collection. I can then take the data from the direct observations and analyze the teachers’ TAKs scores and other assessment scores to see any relevance.

The other issue I see with my action plan is time. The program we are implementing on our campus is not a program that will be only a year long; this program is going to be in effect for the foreseeable future. Therefore, changes will occur and as time goes on more and more data will be collected and available to analyze. This is a good thing; it just does not provide immediate results that we all would like to have right now.

The third issue I see is teacher confidence and trust. I will have to implement a data collection plan to perform direct observations of teachers’ classes. I would like to observe the same 4-6 teachers throughout the year. The more I observe the better my data will be, however gaining all the teachers’ trust in the beginning is difficult. I just need to ensure that I communicate with them that I am here to observe and collect data; I am not there to judge their teaching. This will get easier as time goes on, but as these standards are implemented in the beginning it will be more difficult.

Finally...Action Research Plan

Action Research Plan

My action research plan is coming soon....as soon as I learn how to insert a table into a blog!

Educational Uses for Blogs

Education leaders can use blogs to keep parents, the community, teachers, and students informed. Teachers can be encouraged to use blogs as a means of parent communication. Blogs are also an engaging way to keep learners interested in their studies whether the students are children, teenagers, or adult learners. Blogs can disseminate information to a mass audience and provide a portal for two-way communications.

Action Research- What I've Learned

Action research is a cyclical process administrators use to evaluate their own processes by asking leading questions, collecting data, collaboratively finding solutions to found situations, implementing change as needed, and then evaluating those results. In Leading with passion and knowledge: The principal as an action researcher Dana (2009) provides a very succinct definition of action research or practitioner inquiry, “…systemic, intentional study of one’s own professional practice” (p. 9). Action research is a collaborative effort in which questions are raised by those practitioners within the organization and those questions are based upon their own concerns. Those same constituents then work to find solutions to or ways to improve situations; they collect data, and then evaluate effectiveness. The process does not end once evaluation has occurred. There is room for continuous improvement within every organization and administrative inquiry is the means to achieving that goal. I can use action research to help my campus continually improve as well as in my classroom to help achieve the goal of improved student academic performance. If my students are performing well academically then the research can provide the intrinsic motivation I need to continue doing what I do and to continually improve my teaching as well.