Action Research - End of class Reflection

“The notion of principal inquiry is adapted from the work on teacher action research (Dana, 2009).” This class took us on a path that will be extremely useful to us as administrators and leaders of our schools, which is Research Inquiry. As administrators, we need to ensure that everyone on our campus is conducting Action Research on our campus. By using action research, teachers will improve teaching strategies, which will improve student achievement and principals can use it to help them with inquiry and reflection. Action research helps everyone because they are able to focus in on a problem and make decisions and changes in order to alleviate it. Overall, Action Research is ideal for every aspect of the school setting since all involved must clarify and diagnose the problem, form strategies, implement and evaluate the strategies, and clarify the situation, therefore bringing about much needed change that can help everyone.

We also learned that reflection is an important part of action research since it helps the researcher think about the problem analytically and helps the school with narrowing the purpose of the inquiry. “Clarifying, pushing, and extending thinking helps lead to informed positive change in traditional school practices-the critical action part of action research and the reason you began this whole inquiry journey in the first place (Dana, 2009, p. 136)!” As researchers we should not only know how to share our research, but with whom to share it with. The decision of who you will share your research with will depend on the nature of your research.

The class was very beneficial to me as an aspiring administrator and helped me understand the power of conducting action Research on my campus. It allowed us to put together an Action Research plan based on our campus needs that would be implemented on our campus. My final identified topic for my Action Research was “How to determine what motivators improves teacher morale at the school and how this effects others in the school and their motivation and willingness to go above and beyond.” The discussion post allowed me to read others research topics and gave others access to my thoughts. Classmates were also able to comment on my post, which helped me narrow my focus. Overall, I enjoyed the class, but wish that we had more time to go in depth with how to conduct successful research and implementation.

Works Cited

Dana, N. F. (2009). In Leading with Passion And Knowledge: The Principal as Action Researcher. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press.

Week 4: Agreed Upon Action Plan

Goal: To determine what improves teacher morale at the school and how this effects others in the school and their motivation and willingness to go above and beyond.
Action Step(s)	Person(s) Responsible	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Discuss topic of interest with the principal and get her approval.	Annabell Villarreal	July – August 2010	None	None needed
Put a committee together that will work with this area of need.	Annabell Villarreal	August 20th – August 27th, 2010	Sign-up sheet	None Needed
Meet with the committee to talk about the needs of our school and teachers.	Annabell Villarreal, Committee members	September 3, 2010	OHI Results from several years	None Needed
Find different articles on morale and its effects on the work environment.	Annabell Villarreal, Committee members	September 7th – September 22nd, 2010	Internet and Professional Magazines	Articles found
Research which types of motivators boost morale and why.	Annabell Villarreal, Committee members	September 7th – September 22nd, 2010	Internet and Professional Magazines	Motivators found that are different and have not been used at our school.
Research Organizational Health Inventory (OHI) results from schools with our same demographics and find results with positive morale in the school.	Annabell Villarreal, Committee members	September 7th – September 22nd, 2010	District website, Southwest Learning Community Secretary	List of OHI surveys for other schools obtained
Interview teachers and principals from schools that had a high score on the OHI results	Annabell Villarreal, Committee members	September 22nd – September 29th, 2010	Contact numbers for schools, Principal, List of questions to ask	Interviews conducted and questions answered
Survey teachers on what they feel the school is lacking in order to improve morale.	Annabell Villarreal, Committee members	September 22nd – September 26th, 2010	Survey Monkey	Data Collected through Survey
Committee meets to Study the School’s OHI results, Interviews from other schools conducted, and Survey and make plans on how we can start improving teacher morale.	Annabell Villarreal, Committee members	October 4, 2010	Survey Results, OHI Data, Interview results, and articles found	Data Collected by all members of the committee
Implement Motivators and morale boosters at the school level.	Annabell Villarreal, Committee members	October 18, 2010 – January 7, 2011	Resources found from articles and committee suggestions based on survey and interview results	Teachers are more productive, show genuine feelings of happiness, work harder, and less complaints
Survey teachers on if the motivators and morale boosters made a difference.	Annabell Villarreal, Committee members	January 10, 2011 – January 14, 2011	Survey Monkey	Data Collected through Survey
Committee meets to Study the New Survey and decide what morale boosters are working and we want to keep and which ones we need to throw out. We will also agree on a new set of morale boosters to add to the working ones.	Annabell Villarreal, Committee members	January 17, 2011	Survey Results and articles found	Data Collected by all members of the committee
Implement Motivators and morale boosters at the school level.	Annabell Villarreal, Committee members	January 19, 2011 – April 20, 2011	Resources found from articles and committee suggestions based on survey and interview results	Teachers are more productive, show genuine feelings of happiness, work harder, and less complaints
Survey teachers on if the motivators and morale boosters made a difference.	Annabell Villarreal, Committee members	April 25th - 28th, 2011	Survey Monkey	Data Collected through Survey
Committee reviews current Organizational Health Inventory and surveys to determine if scores have improved and to determine teacher satisfaction with the current year.	Annabell Villarreal, Committee members	May 9, 2011	Survey Results, OHI Data, and articles found, teacher retention rates for the last 4 years	Data Collected by all members of the committee and teacher retention rates have improved
Committee shares results of the research project findings with the principal	Annabell Villarreal, Committee members	May 23, 2011	Survey results, Committee review notes and final recorded results	Retention Rates, Survey results, OHI results

Everything highlighted in yellow notes the revisions that have been made to the plan.

Research Action Plan

Goal: To determine what improves teacher morale at the school and how this effects others in the school and their motivation and willingness to go above and beyond.
Action Step(s)	Person(s) Responsible	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Discuss topic of interest with the principal and get her approval.	Annabell Villarreal	July – August 2010	None	None needed
Put a committee together that will work with this area of need.	Annabell Villarreal	August 20th – August 27th, 2010	None	None Needed
Meet with the committee to talk about the needs of our school and teachers.	Annabell Villarreal, Principal, Committee members	September 3, 2010	OHI Results	None Needed
Find different articles on morale and its effects on the work environment.	Annabell Villarreal, Principal, Committee members	September 7th – September 22nd, 2010	Internet and Professional Magazines	None Needed
Research which types of motivators boost moral and why.	Annabell Villarreal, Principal, Committee members	September 7th – September 22nd, 2010	Internet and Professional Magazines	None Needed
Survey teachers on what they feel the school is lacking in order to improve moral.	Annabell Villarreal	September 22nd – September 29th, 2010	Survey Monkey	Data Collected through Survey
Committee meets to Study the School’s Organizational Health Inventory and Survey and make plans on how we can start improving teacher morale.	Annabell Villarreal, Principal, Committee members	October 4, 2010	Survey Results, OHI Data, and articles found	Data Collected by all members of the committee
Implement Motivators and morale boosters at the school level.	Annabell Villarreal, Principal, Committee members	October 18, 2010 - April 22, 2011	Resources found from articles and committee suggestions based on survey results	Teachers are more productive, show genuine feelings of happiness, work harder, and less complaints
Survey teachers on if the motivators and morale boosters made a difference.	Annabell Villarreal	April 25th - 28th, 2010	Survey Monkey	Data Collected through Survey
Committee reviews current Organizational Health Inventory and surveys to determine if scores have improved and to determine teacher satisfaction with the current year.	Annabell Villarreal, Principal, Committee members	May 9, 2010	Survey Results, OHI Data, and articles found, teacher retention rates for the last 4 years	Data Collected by all members of the committee and teacher retention rates have improved