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.