Action Research Discovery

Action research is something that I was not familiar with until this class started. I just assumed that research was research, all done by professors or people who had been in the field for alot longer that I have been. Now I realize that action research can and should be used by all administrators. Active research is when an administrator engages in a systematic research plan that applies to their own administration. Administrators think of questions/issues that can be improved upon by research. This research is on going and ebs and flows with the administrator. There is a big difference between action research and traditional research. Action research relies on the administrator to determine their own research goals, collect data, and come up with a solution from the research. Traditional educational research is when administrators use outside research from experts to solve their problems. This often causes administrators to focus on problems instead of solutions. I think action research can be very helpful at low performing schools because they can look at high performing schools and anayzle their data and practices to set up an improvment plan. For example, my school just changed from a learning center to a comprehensive middle school and our scores dropped. We could use this action research idea to study other schools who have gone through the same thing and see what they did and did not do to improve.

Educational leaders can use blogs in many useful ways. It helps administrators create a real learning communitee in which they can grow and learn from each other. If I am blocked for where to look next in research or can not think of a different way to view problems my counterparts can help me via my blog.