Prior to this course I had no idea what action research was. I began to panic as I watched the first lecture videos and started to wonder how in the world am I going to have time to conduct action research? The lecture was extremely helpful in explaining what action research was. I began to get very excited about thinking of all the possible topics for my action research. It was difficult to choose just one. The weekly lectures kept me focused on what to do in my research and made it seem like something I could handle.
I enjoyed the readings that were associated with this course. Leading with Passion and Knowledge: the Principal as an Action Researcher by Nancy Dana Fichman and Examining What we do to Improve our Schools: 8 Steps to Improve our Schools by S. Harris, S. Edmondson, and J. Combs. Although both books were very informative, I feel I learned more from “The Dana Text”. In the book Leading with Passion and Knowledge: the Principal as an Action Researcher, “Administrator inquiry refers to the process of a principal engaging in systematic, intentional study of his/her own administrative practice and taking action for change based on what he/she learns as a result of the inquiry. Inquiring professionals seek out change and reflect on their practice by posing questions or “wondering”, collecting data to gain insights into their wonderings, analyzing the data along with reading relevant literature, making changes in practice based on new understandings developed during inquiry, and sharing findings with others (Dana p.2-3).” Action research is a long process. It will be challenging to work out the time with my job and other course loads and most importantly being a mother. The results from the research will be very beneficial though.
According to the book, What we do to Improve our Schools: 8 Steps to Improve our Schools, “To improve schools, leaders should focus on the work to improve schools on a continual basis of discovery. Discovery is rarely about creating something new, but is most likely about seeing what was already there with a new understanding (S. Harris, S. Edmondson, and J. Combs p. xiv). I really like this statement because I feel in education today we are constantly doing new programs and being told we are improving our scores. I hope through my action research that I can persuade some people to see that what we are already doing or have done is beneficial but just needs a few tweaks. That to enhance student performance we don’t always have to reinvent the wheel every year.
I really enjoyed the discussion boards from this course. The boards allowed me to see what others are working on and allowed them to see what I was working one. It was a great source to provide comments and feedback to each other on our research projects.
I also enjoyed creating a blog and being able to see the blogs of other students in the class. Blogs can be a great resource for all teachers to communicate ideas and discussions on current topics. I wish to learn more about them and encourage other teachers in my district to use them to communicate with each other. It would be a really good planning tool as we rarely get to visit with other campus math teachers and discuss ideas for lessons.
With all that I have learned from this course, I am very eager to begin my action research project and communicate my results with all involved in education. I am also very eager to read the results from others research as I had some of the same ideas or areas of interest that other students choose to research on. I really enjoyed this course and see the benefits from taking it lasting me throughout my Administrative career.
