What I Have Learned About Action Research

I have learned so much about action research and it has the wheels in my head spinning. There are so many questions out there to apply action research to. As educators, I believe we have all taken part in some form of action research and have completed one or more pieces of the action research process. The process is a cycle of create, try, assess, reflect, and adjust. This sounds as if this is the best way for teachers and administrators to engage in staff development. Traditional in-service presents an idea with no hands-on application of how to apply it to your campus. There is no time built in for your team to plan, implement, and adjust the information; therefore, when brought back to the campus it is slowly pushed aside and forgotten. Action research provides the group to be in control and provide solutions to the real concerns of the campus. Time and resources must be made available for all pieces of the research model. Since the team works collaboratively on the process, everyone involved feels they have ownership and a shared vision for student achievement.

I think I will be able to use action research in my grade level PLCs. The group of teachers that I meet with everyday are intelligent, hard-working, and inspiring educators. They are truly in the profession to improve student success. Now and in the past, we have been given broad, general issues that are in need of action research (for example, improve STaaR scores) but because none of us knew this process we went about it in a jumbled, confused, “I don’t know where to begin” way. We tried to fix every problem with one swoop. This process will help us narrow our plans and research to small issues one at a time, which hopefully will bring about success.