Week 2-Selecting an Action Research Topic

This week I had the opportunity to see how action research benefit leaders and stakeholders in educational settings. Nine areas were identified by school leaders as needing further research and I was able to aid in that process by selecting topics of interest. Also, three scholar practitioners were able to tell the importance of conducting action research in the educational environment to impact student performance. The common theme agmonst the scholars were to choose a topic that was practical, focused, and had relevance to helping student achievement. Last but not least I was able to identify my proposed action research topic which was, "How does utilizing a research based workshop approach over a traditional instructional approach improve student learning?" I look forward to the wealth of information that I would learn about this topic throughout this course.

What I have learned about Action Research?

This week I have learned about administrator inquiry through action research. Inquiry allows an administrator to self-initiate the process of reflecting on one’s own practice to identify potential learning opportunities. Action research is a cyclical process and makes it possible to focus on one owns systematic study at a time for inquiry and reflection. With the administrator, being in control of the decision-making process inquiry “becomes a powerful vehicle for learning and improvement.” (Dana, 2009) How I might envision using action research is to reflect over the past year at my campus and to collaborate with my team and colleagues suggestions on how to improve upon various issues. This use of inquiry would be beneficial for our bi-weekly PLC learning meetings and further lead important discussions with the Campus Instructional Leadership Team.

Educational leaders could use blogs to facilitate the learning process by posing or asking questions/wonderings and to have teachers share their input. Blogs could be a great vehicle for action research and team collaboration. Unlike a journal as a form of data collection, the principal-researcher who blogs can combine text, images, and links to other blogs as well as post comments in an interactive format. (Dana, 2009) The administrator and teacher’s comments are available 24/7 for commentary or immediate feedback. Journaling or blogging can serve as your personal pensieve to capture or store your thoughts and recollections safely so you can share them with teaching colleagues or other administrators and return to them at various time in the evolution of your inquiry, gaining new and deeper insights with each visit. (Dana, 2009)