Action Research Plan

Through an action research plan, educators have the opportunity to improve their schools in multiple ways. Some of these improvements could include: updating staff development while improving the morale and communication of the staff, creating a positive teaching environment between the teachers and their students, and increasing student achievement and self-confidence. Action research involves asking questions, analyzing, evaluating, reflecting, and collaborating with colleagues. For my action research plan, I want to increase our parental involvement on campus. I want to research and find out if parents were to get more involved, their students' self-confidence and grades in class as on state tests will improve from the previous years.

Educational Leaders Using Blogs

According to the Dana text, blogs are defined as “an easily created, easily updatable Website that allows an author (or authors) to publish instantly to the Internet from any Internet connection” (Dana 2009). Since principals can have extremely busy days dealing with central office, students, parents, and the community, they may not be able to get around their campuses to check on their teachers, counselors, or diagnosticians. To stay in contact with their staff, principals could use blogs as journals for teachers to post teaching ideas or other campus activities. Novice teachers could post their worries or recent teaching struggles allowing veteran, experienced teachers to offer advice and provide support.

Using Action Research

According to Dana, action research “focuses on the concerns of practitioners (not outside researchers) and engages practitioners in the design, data collection, and interpretation of data around their question” (Dana 2009). With the constant changes in education, like curriculum, technological advances, and state standards, educators must be aware of the latest trends and current research findings. Through action research educators can take a more hands on approach in investigating their current issues. Teachers are “more likely to facilitate a change based on the knowledge they generate” (Dana 2009) versus just reading an article written by college professors who are not in classrooms on a regular basis. Educators use action research to improve the learning process and education of their students. Once a problem or issue is defined, data can be collected and analyzed to allow for positive changes to take place. These changes can then be shared with the entire staff or even the district leading to future staff development.  As stated in the Dana text, “a school system committed to improve student learning will provide principals professional development in which they participate as members of ongoing study groups analyzing instructional issues for their schools” (Dana 2009). Every school can benefit from action research in some way. I cannot wait to get back to school in August to begin working on my action research project involving parental involvement. I am hoping to start improving the quality of education we are providing for our kids.