Action Research

This week I learned about action research in my graduate class.  It was the first time that I had actually heard those two words put together so I was somewhat intrigued.     Action research refers to asking questions, reflecting, researching, reviewing the literature on the topic of interest, and sharing.  Nancy Fichtman Dana in her book, Leading with passion and knowledge: The Principal as Action Research states, “Action research, for instance, is the research intended to bring about change of some kind” (Dana, 2009, pg. 6).   An effective leader engages in daily reflections about school improvement and student achievement.  This constant reflection often leads to research.  I learned that action research has several steps.  Expert leaders follow these steps internally because it is something that has been nurtured and practiced.  The decisions that the leader makes are often informed because they are made based on research.  After I read about action research I realized that my principal practices action research at our campus.  She is constantly reflecting and asking questions about issues at our campus.  One concern at our campus is fluency throughout all grade levels.  After researching effective ways to improve fluency, she devised a weekly plan for teachers to follow.  She even took it a step further and modeled a fluency lesson during a staff meeting.  As she conducts her weekly observations, she monitors that teachers are following the weekly fluency lessons.  Fluency has improved this year at our campus because of this research that our principal conducted.  Action research is powerful because it leads to school reform and increase student achievement.  It is also important to share the research with others.  This sharing allows others to learn from the research.

As a teacher I reflect daily on my classroom practices and strategies.  I constantly reflect on my students’ strengths and weaknesses.  Action research will help me better address concerns in my classroom to increase learning.   One major concern at the moment is the district benchmark scores in reading that, were at a 50%.   I plan to research rigor in the classroom.  Will incorporating rigorous reading lessons increase our scores?