I have learned a lot about action research. Action research is also known as
inquiry. Action research is not a
traditional type of research that comes from a university or other setting not
directly related to a true school setting.
Action research or inquiry involves the people that the research is going
to effect. Inquiry is a collaborative
process that involves many different staff members or administrators or
both. Action research takes the lone administrator
or teacher out of the individual office or classroom and gives them an
opportunity to work collaboratively, collect and analyze data and then reflect
on the question that was at hand. Action
research or inquiry is current and gives teachers and administrators more
accountability in the actions they take from the results that are found from
the research. It is more relevant to the
people involved because they identified a problem and then took the steps to research
and find ways to correct the problem.
After researching some different possibilities for action research, I
have discovered some ideas that interest me.
One idea that is interesting is improving basic math computation skills
in a 4th grade classroom. I
really want to know why students are having such a hard time learning their
math facts. Another idea that interests
me is the correct use of PLC’s and their effectiveness in many different
areas. It could be in technology, benchmarking
or motivational strategies that work for faculty and/or students.
I liked that you pointed out that action research leads to greater accountability and is more relevant because people were involved in the process. I think collaboration is key to school improvement.
ReplyDeleteI really like the fact that you are curious about the lack of basic math skills and learning math facts in fourth grade. As I teacher fourth grade, this is something I run into every year. I know the teachers in the lower grade levels teach addition, subtraction, and multiplication. However, it seems like the summer between third and fourth grade is a time when students somehow lose a lot of what they previously learned. I would like to collaborate more with the teachers of the lower grade levels to see what we can do to help the students improve their retention of math facts. Thank you for your post on this topic! It is something more math teachers need to consider.
ReplyDeleteI really like the fact that you pointed out that action research gives administration and teachers accountability. You are 100% correct in that statement. Great point!
ReplyDeleteHa after I published my comment I can not see others and I see that they pointed out the same thing. Sorry for being redundant. :-/
ReplyDelete