Tuesday, October 9, 2012

What I learned about action research


I learned what action research is and how it is useful.  Action research, which is also known as administrator inquiry, is a way of ones was of thinking or reflecting on how well they are performing in their practice and being able to change anything that is needed.  It starts by collecting data, asking questions, looking at past examples and finding a way to improve.  Before schools relied on information from outsiders who knew nothing about what was going on inside the school.  Speakers would come and give presentations on topics that sometimes were irreverent.  Books would be read about theory.  Sometimes the theory was useful but it was based on information that was not part of the school. Now action research is done within the school by people who are insiders getting information first hand.  This helps in that problems affecting the school can be resolved by people experiencing the problems and who know what resources the school can count on to help.  This avoids having to use rescources that are out of the school’s grasp and repeating mistakes.  Also if the people who are trying to solve a problem are inside the school they are able to tell if the problem is being solved and not causing other issue to arise.  I can use action research by reflecting on something I see as a problem and taking the action research steps in trying to solve it.     






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