Action Research

Prior to this course, I had never heard of action research.  I was interested to learn that it has been around for a while and has been a form of professional development for teachers for some time now.

In my 12 years of teaching it has always been expected that teachers in my district would be reflective of their practices.  However, reflection for me has always has meant that I would analyze my own practices and then make adjustments based upon instincts, what had been taught in methods classes, or asking colleagues for suggestions.  Maybe the way I reflect has not been that far from action research but it has always felt a bit scattered to me and I certainly have never felt that I ever had the time to look for any literature on the subject/problem I was facing.  That would be especially true of recent years where there is little or no collegiality between administrators and teachers.

I have learned that action research is a systematic and sometimes cyclical approach to problem solving for improvement in teaching and learning.  It means taking time to look for any research and literature on a particular issue that an individual teacher or the school as a whole might be experiencing in order to be able to develop a plan of action that is based on solid scientific practices.

Instead of just guessing and feeling scattered and hurried to find a solution, it requires taking time to gather and review literature, according to the inquiry, developing a plan, putting the plan into action with viable ways of collecting data, analyzing the data, and finally evaluating the successes and short comings.  It then begins a new cycle with changes in the plan based on the data analysis from the first cycle, and the collection of more data and so on.  The process continues until the desired results have been achieved.  It could only take one cycle but it is not a failure if the process goes on for longer than that.

This process brings greater value to the act of reflection because there is measurable data to guide decisions.  If all teachers and administrators were allowed the time to follow this process there would be less stress and scattered thinking because of the immediate need for solutions.  It seems that taking the time for action research might actually yield better solutions faster than scattered thoughts and ideas masquerading as solutions.

 This is a process that is valuable for a teacher working alone to solve a problem specific to a single classroom and for groups of teachers and administrators working together for the greater good of the whole school.  Whether working alone or in groups it is empowering and instead of placing blame it allows for an open approach to problem solving.

I probably could have used action research to solve some issues I was having with some very stubborn 7th grade students.  However, for the time being, I have found that reverse psychology is working quite nicely.  Should I ever need another plan, I would do some inquiry for that.

I can see using this for our PLCs.  The team of related arts teachers in my building have PLC meetings, but we don't get to use them properly because our PLCs are not data driven. We are a diverse group so there isn't any data that we can work from.  However, we might be able to think about things differently and use inquiry to solve some issues with students that we all teach.

In the near future secondary art teachers will be having distance PLC meetings via Blackboard.  We can use inquiry to solve problems that are specific to teaching art.  Since we rarely meet with each other I can't give any examples on what that might be like.  However, it seems likely that things will become evident as we get to learn more about each other and the issues that we face in our classrooms.