Latest Revised Action Research Plan

draft of Action Research Plan

Educational leaders using blogs

I feel that blogs might be used to promote professional discussions with educational leader colleagues without having to schedule meetings and travel to them. A post might share a problem and ask for insight from others. Others could reply and share their experiences. In short, professional advice can be obtained without sacrificing the time that might be needed to gather a circle of professional colleagues at one place at one time.

What I've learned...

I have learned that action research is something an educational leader can do to improve their school. Rather then trying to implement some traditional educational research theory, action research allows a principal to personally decide to study something that is or may not be going on in their school. The project may or may not be quantitative in nature, but must always be focused on the effectiveness of the school, be it student scores, parent relations, or teacher practices. Action research studies should be done in-house by those whom the results will impact. Action research does not deal with the theoreitcal aspects of education. Instead, it provides a deeper look into concerns unique to a campus. It addresses concerns that the campus leadership have some influence over and can change as needed.

I see myself using action research to improve myself as an educational leader, while improving the teachers on my campus, which should trickle down to student improvement. I see my projects focusing more on classroom practice and that impact on student learning. I would like to investigate the value added by professional learning communities that promote teacher discourse and the sharing of best practices. I think that such projects will have significant buy-in by the teachers who should be professionals with an interest in improving their craft.