Monday, February 21, 2011
Action Research: What I Have Learned
After reading about action research so far, I must admit I am more excited about it than the "old" way of doing research where you read what someone else has done and summarize it. In the situation just presented at my school, I think action research will be the perfect way to learn more about interventions as well as implement my findings. Action research is a cyclical approach in which the researcher is asking the questions and finding the answers to their own questions. The researcher is not doing what has been asked or mandated of them, but rather finding the answers to problems that are important to them and their school. this kind of research is very important in today's schools. Leaders have to do more than just follow the directives of those people in positions above them. They must be problem solvers and take action when problems arise. If they are questioning and researching those problems specific to them, they are more likely to implement their findings in order to make their schools a more productive place.
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Hi Kristen, thank you for responding to my questions about how to set this blog up. It made it easier just to know that you thought it would be easy. Technical new things are a little intimidating to me, but I love to try things out, so I'm glad you mentioned that it would not be hard.
ReplyDeleteYou are researching a question about interventions and its uses, right? TAKS now STAR has really brought teachers to the point of exhaustion with trying and finding new ways to help students learn how to pass those state tests. I know when I taught 3rd grade Sp. Ed. we did benchmarking often and placed the students into tutorials each time they did not pass the benchmarks. It places pressure on the teacher as well as the students. My heart always went out to those poor 3rd grade kids who would say, "I'll never get it!" and we'd encourage them and tutor them and support them as much as we could, just to find out that they would end up in summer school to try to pass it for the last time. It's discouraging, but there has to be a solution out there. It will be encouraging to see what you find out. Best of luck.
Again, thank you for your technical support.
Deb K