Action Research Potential

Welcome to my blog. I can already see how this can be an excellent tool for reflection and gathering information from my peers. This is my first experience with the idea of action research and I am definitely sold on it's potential as a tool to become a become a better educator. One of the characteristic's of action research that I believe is most important, is the fact that the research is done hands on by the people on the ground. Every school district throughout the state of Texas is different. Different student demographics, income levels, social problems, parent involvement, etc. will lead to circumstances that are often specific to that particular school district, or even school campus. Professional development stereotypically consists of someone coming in from the outside to a group of teachers and going over a presentation that contains the latest and greatest methods that research has shown to be effective in the classroom. The teachers go through this class for 4-8 hours, take notes, get hand-outs, form an opinion, and then the professional development is over. No one ever knows if those teachers are using the strategies that were presented in class. The instructor of the course is never seen on campus, until maybe the next summer when professional development starts up again. The knowledge gained from a course like this can be beneficial, but often times it is not effective, or the teacher has not been taught how to properly apply it in the classroom. I have learned many great strategies during this type of professional development, but I have learned more from collaboration with fellow teachers. We never really looked at this as "action research", but that is essentially what we were doing without knowing it. Coming together during PLC's to ask questions, reveal issues, give suggestions, and interpret data gave our department a chance to learn from each other and work towards a common goal. The main area we lacked from an "action research" approach was reflection. By reading the text, I now have discovered how reflection is such an important part of learning. Action research leads to a plan of action that is specific to that particular campus or district. It is an individualized plan of action, and I can definitely see where action research can have a major benefit for individuals and the school as a whole. I believe that the knowledge gained during this course will allow me to contribute to my current school district, and whatever district I end up with as an administrator.

As far as blog usage goes, I must say that the best benefit would be to gather information. Social media has allowed us to connect with individuals all over the world, and with that we can connect with educators all over the world. A principal could post a blog about a problem that was going on at school, and someone could respond with a solution that the principal had not yet thought of. There are often other school districts that are having to deal with the same problems that you are, and there is no reason to reinvent the wheel if some else has already figured it out.