My View of Action Research

Action research is one of the most exciting and positive aspects of being a school leader.  Action research allows principals to work with teachers and other school leaders to create a plan that is unique and customized for the school and their classrooms.  Unlike more traditional methods of research, action research greatly involves the actual practitioners’ in the process of creating and planning, deciding what to use as data and how to gather it, and interpreting the results of their inquiry to decide if the result was effective.  I believe that action research allows the practitioners’ to have ownership of the project and that this will allow them to fully invest their time and efforts into their research. I believe that by empowering the practitioners' in the inquiry process that they will be more willing and motivated to go through with the change that needs to be made.  I also believe that allowing the practitioners’ to lead the action research will allow for flexibility with the design and with the implementation of change according to the schools needs.  After much investigation about what action research is and how it is an effective tool for school leaders and educators I have developed an idea for how I can use it in my current career as an educator.  I am currently a second grade teacher in a self-contained classroom and have discovered that many of my students' as well as the students' within the school struggle greatly with reading.  I have decided that an appropriate action research plan that would benefit my classroom, as well as many others if my plan succeeds, would be one that involves the revision of my Reading instruction.  I would like to completely reorganize and restructure my Reading instruction.  I plan to read a variety of literary work on best practices for teaching reading and how to help my students read in a way that is authentic and natural for them.  I believe that by using action research for this need in my classroom and school that I can learn and initiate a change in the way Reading instruction is taught in my classroom and for struggling classrooms throughout the school.