Monday, February 25, 2013
How can Educational Leaders use Blogs?
Blogging, as a form of data collection can be very powerful tool. (Dana, 2009) Educational Leaders can come together to share both concerns and solutions with other administrators. Leaders can put their thoughts in writing and reflect on their thoughts later as a reflective tool. Educational Leaders can share inquiry with other leaders within their district, community, state, and even share world visions.
Action Research
Action Research can help you make a difference on your campus. Action research can change the climate of your school, can boost morale and improve student achievement. Action research is a systematic, purposeful study of a concern on your campus and finding a solution using the expertise of people within your school walls. People in the trenches with you, others that understand your population, your culture. Solutions are discovered through analyzing data and sometimes even analyzing ourselves. Through data collection, you are able to gain insight and a deeper understanding of problems need a solution. When using the expertise and leaders on your campus, you will be able to collaborate with teachers and administrators alike. Other team members will be more open to change because they were part of the team building process. As stated in Dana text, the practitioner will have new understands they are able to develop through inquire and will share their findings with other professionals in their community(2009).
Unlike traditional educational research, action research is based on the what ifs that specifically relate to concerns on your campus. It is not an outsider coming in to solve general problems. Traditional educational researchers base their solutions without knowing the culture of your school. The what ifs of an action research are personal in the way that the outcome or solutions will benefit the stakeholders from the school’s community. The input comes from the school’s community that is vested with positive solutions. Traditional educational researchers do not seek input from professionals involved with the campus, thus some information or outcome may not be relevant to all involved. Inquiring professionals seek out change by reflecting on their practice, with reading relevant literature, making changes in practice based on new understandings developed during inquiry, and sharing findings with others(Dana & Yendol-Hoppey, 2009)
One way I plan on implementing action research is by training teachers on my campus on how to use Running Records during Guided Reading. I plan on training the teachers both on paper and using IPads as a technology strand. I will compare the benefits of student achievement of using Running Records to teachers that used Running Records as an intervention to those teachers that did not use the intervention. I hope to observe classes during Guided Reading with the use of Running Records and compare the outcome of lessons where Running Records were not put in place.
Action research is not a here today, gone tomorrow fad. It is a state of mind and habit forming that will impact your school environment in a positive way!
Dana, N. F. (2009). Leading with Passion and Knowledge: The Principal as action researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press
Unlike traditional educational research, action research is based on the what ifs that specifically relate to concerns on your campus. It is not an outsider coming in to solve general problems. Traditional educational researchers base their solutions without knowing the culture of your school. The what ifs of an action research are personal in the way that the outcome or solutions will benefit the stakeholders from the school’s community. The input comes from the school’s community that is vested with positive solutions. Traditional educational researchers do not seek input from professionals involved with the campus, thus some information or outcome may not be relevant to all involved. Inquiring professionals seek out change by reflecting on their practice, with reading relevant literature, making changes in practice based on new understandings developed during inquiry, and sharing findings with others(Dana & Yendol-Hoppey, 2009)
One way I plan on implementing action research is by training teachers on my campus on how to use Running Records during Guided Reading. I plan on training the teachers both on paper and using IPads as a technology strand. I will compare the benefits of student achievement of using Running Records to teachers that used Running Records as an intervention to those teachers that did not use the intervention. I hope to observe classes during Guided Reading with the use of Running Records and compare the outcome of lessons where Running Records were not put in place.
Action research is not a here today, gone tomorrow fad. It is a state of mind and habit forming that will impact your school environment in a positive way!
Dana, N. F. (2009). Leading with Passion and Knowledge: The Principal as action researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press
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