General Reflection About Action Research Class

One of the most important aspects of the class that I found useful was the video chat sessions.  I really liked the interaction with the professor and the other students.  Many of the questions that I had were asked and answered in the chat sessions.  I was also taken by the fact that very few students get to have face to face meetings with a professor on a weekly basis.  This was a very useful part of this class.

Both of the texts required for this task were useful and will remain in my library.  Giving step by step instructions and reminding the reader what is important in action research is a very useful thing to have around when you are about to take on an administrative position.    I found that the Dana text was much more informative that the Harris text it took greater pains in explaining the rhyme and reason of action research. 

The assignments forced me to stay on task.  Having an assignment that relates to what you are learning is very important.  These assignments made me think further into each of the topics and push myself to have a real understanding of the material that we were covering.  Much more useful that a simple true or false test or some other means of assessment.  When you have to actually do something hands-on and the task actually makes you understand the topic that you are studying better it is always a winning situation.  While I cannot say that I enjoyed each of the assignments, because I did not, I can say that I believe each of them made me a better action researcher and that was the point in the first place. 

I did find the discussion board and blog to be a bit repetitive.  One or the other would have been enough for the class.  I always found myself posting the same information in both places and so I thought that having requirements that both of them be used a bit over the top.  By using only the blog or the discussion board the interaction could have been accomplished between the students without it becoming just another burdensome task that had to be done each week.  I quite often found that one or the other got my attention and that the latter got neglected. 

I also found TK20 to be a useful tool for keeping all of the class information in one place.  I wonder, however, if throughout the program we are going to be asked to post information in yet another place for others to review it.  Hopefully not.  If this is needed to assist in the accreditation of the program then so be it, but we should just be required to post our assignments there also and be done with the TK20 instead of it being another integral part of our passing the courses.

All in all I have enjoyed taking this class and most importantly I feel like I have learned something that could be vital to my success as an administrator.

Week 4

Well I finaly got caught up in week 3.  I have learned how to use tk20 and get everything posted there.  It's interesting learning a whole new concept (action research) and then implementing it all in three to four weeks.  Escpecially when you are also working a full schedule and coaching a team! 

Research Project

ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT DRAFT

·         Goals and objectives/outcomes of the research investigation

Determine if the C-scope curriculum has positively affected the students on the campus and determine if continued use of the program is beneficial to an already exemplary rated campus.

·         Activities designed to achieve the objectives

1.    Interviews of teachers and students to determine the affect the newly implemented C-scope curriculum has had in the classroom.

2.    Survey of teachers to determine the ease of use of the curriculum and positive and negative aspects they determine have affected their instruction.

3.    Locate any previously completed surveys and statistics and relate them to the findings at Wolfe City Elementary school. 

·         Resources and research tools needed for data gathering

1.    Guided interview form

2.    Survey form

3.    Locate previous studies and statistics of the C-scope system

·         Draft timeline for completion or implementation of activities

1.     April 1 completion of teacher interviews.

2.    April 15 survey questions completed based on teacher interview questions and answers. Survey’s passed out to teachers on campus.

3.    May 1^st Data analyzed and begin comparison to data from other campuses or surveys.

4.    June 20^th Summaries completed and evaluated.

·         Persons responsible for implementation of the action research plan

Jonathan Lloyd

·         Process for monitoring the achievement of goals and objectives

A summary will be written on activities and the results of each component.

·         Assessment instrument(s) to evaluate the effectiveness of the action research study

A summary will be written that evaluates the effectiveness of each component of the action  research project.

What I have learned about action research!

I have discovered that action research is actually something that most people do internally every day.  However, we don't think about it in terms of "action research" and we don't write it down so that we will remember what we have learned. 

By simply following the steps of action research and taking the time to reflect on what we have learned we will increase our potential for success and for the betterment of our campus and students.  The effects of good action research can be profound on the results that we obtain through our projects and teach us what things that we are doing properly and what things that we need to change.  I think that the most important part is probably the first part.  We can discover what things that we are doing properly and are working on our campus.  Many times it might be things that we think need to be changed or re-worked that need absolutely no attention at all.

Action research also forces us to reflect on things that we have done.  I think that many times we do this but we avoid reflecting on things that we know maybe didn't work out so well for us.  By following the structure of action research we can be forced to review things that we might otherwise put on a back burner because we "know" that there is still something wrong with an issue that we addressed.  I will begin using action research immediately in my lesson planning to make sure that my lessons are reaching the students.  I hope to use it in the future as a principal.

Educational leaders can find a wealth of information by becoming a blogger and reading blogs that other people post.  By blogging educators will receive comments and suggestions from like minded educators.  By reading other people's blogs they will gain insight into what other educators are doing.