Week 1 Part 3 Assignment

Action research is a collaborative activity among colleagues searching for solutions to everyday, real problems experienced in schools, or looking for ways to improve instruction and increase student achievement. Through collaborative means, this type of research allows “practitioners” to handle everyday teaching and learning from inside means and not outside. In the traditional research where principals and teachers were “technicians” to action research that creates “knowledge generators,” the identity of school is changing. This type of research creates an environment for the 21st century learner, administrator, and teacher. It involves everyone invested in the vision of the school because everyone is heard and not held back. The everyday environment changes in educational administration, as “leadership teams may be used for consultative purposes, participative decision making, strategic planning, policy development, monitoring and coordinating programs, and maintaining a commitment to collaboration and shared leadership.” (Dana, pg. 21.) Ways to use action research are:

a. Teachers and principals can identify problems inside their own school
b. Encouraged to examine their own work to see what works and doesn’t
c. Work in a collaborative setting
d. Betters their professional development

Steps for action research that helped me understand how it would help me in school;

1. Gather/Organize
2. Identify
3. Generate
4. Decide
5. Implement
6. Evaluate
7. Communicate
8. Learn from experience