Action Research:

Anyone who has ever felt the need to self reflect has committed to the first steps of action research. As a teacher working towards a Masters degree in Educational Leadership, I know just how important reflection can be.

Many questions arise everyday as to whether certain programs are working or what can our campus do to better equip our students for the future.  Action research, or action inquiry, allows a campus to create programs and procedures that will work for our specific students. 

At the campus level, we actively engage our staff leaders, to pose questions that pertain to our student population. We are able to create clear and concise set of questions that have meaning for our campus.

Although there are many wonderful theorists and in services that provide general processes or predictions to how the questions will be answered, they do not provide our faculty or students with a certain degree of ownership. Traditional research leaves too many questions unanswered.

As our teachers implement our proposed solutions, we can have valid and reliable data that either accepts or declines our explanations. With this data, we as a campus can decide if we should move in another direction.

Action research is a grand tool that is extremely beneficial for our staff as well as our students. It can foster a feeling of self worth for our faculty and allow the best in our teachers to shine through and onto our students.