Action Research

Just five days ago, even less than a week, I heard about action research for the first time in my life. This discovery represented, not shocker at all after seven classes, one more time that I learned about a significant topic of education that has been around for a while and that I had not been able to take advantage of due to my lack of knowledge. Today, I still feel like action research truly represents an uncharted territory, but I am willing to review the literature, meet the deadlines of the coursework, and get my hands dirty in order to master this powerful tool. According to the literature action research is a cyclical process rather than a linear one. Educators are encouraged to be reflective of their own practice in order to improve their quality of teaching process for themselves and most importantly for their students. The administrator inquiry can be used in multiple situations in educational settings like school-based curriculum development, professional development, PLC’s and School Improvement Plans. The self-reflective nature of the process makes us aware and critical of our own practice. The cyclical nature of the process promotes a constant search for improvement that begins with wondering that leads to literature reviewing, data analysis, collaboration with peers, supervisors and colleagues, action planning, and evaluation. I would also add that action research increases data analysis skills, problem-solving skills and promotes collaborative decision-making. Additionally, the process facilitates the creation of achievable action plans with a sense of ownership due to the active participation of people that is directly involved with the problematic situation instead of outside experts. As for my action research project I decided to study the effects of blogging on reading skills. How can we use blogging to improve comprehension, vocabulary, summarization, and so on. I have a particular interest for our ELL students because they represent a significant subgroup of Texas' student body and they deserve to get the best education we can provide.