Continuing Action Research

I am excited about really beginning the journey that is action research. I feel that good educators constantly do this on an informal scale each day. Action research is about being a problem solver. I am so excited to see how general education students are effected by being in a co-teach classroom. I already see where some new wonderings will come in. I am thinking about how do the teachers work together and share responsibility. I know more wonderings will come up as I go along.

Creating my action Research Plan

When I began this class and found out I needed to have an action research project I immediately begin thinking about my own class. I am the general education teacher in a co-teach classroom. I have been in a co-teach or inclusion environment for the last 3 years. I know this is a great placement for special education children, but there have been times when I have questioned if the general education students are benefited. This has always been a concern of mine. As I read through the nine passions and read through my other readings it was clear where my heart was leading me. I always want to remember that the reason I am in education is because of my love of children. I always want to make sure they are ALL getting the best education possible.

Action Research Plan

Co- Teach Science Action Research Plan

Goal:   After reviewing the research on inclusion or co-teach classes I came up with a plethora of research proving the benefits for the special education population, however I could find no research on how it affected the learning of regular education students. My goal is to determine if co-teach or inclusion classes as beneficial to a regular education student as a non-co-teach classroom.

Action Steps	Person(s) Responsible	Timeline Start/end	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Student’s Grades- Did students in a co-teach class make the same growth as a students in a non-co-teach class?	April Dagley	June 2012	E-school Spreadsheet to compare data	Evaluate the academic growth of the student in the co-teach class compared to  their peers in the non-co-teach class.
Student’s Grades- Compare student’s growth in grades from last year compared to this year.	April Dagley	June 2012	E-School Spreadsheet to compare data	Did they show the same amount of growth from one year to the next?
Student Survey – survey the students two times during the year regarding their feelings about being in co-teach classroom.	April Dagley Karen Cravens	January 2012, May 2012	Paper for survey Copy clicks to run survey Spreadsheet to track responses from students	Student ratings in their opinion of how they felt having two teachers, the amount of time that was spent on them vs. special education students, and the rigor compared to previous years.

Nine Passions of Action Research

This week's reading was about the nine passions of action reseach. These passions(or wonderings) include staff development, curriculum development, individual teachers, individual student, school culture/community, leadership, management, school performance, and social justice. The passion that I find all of my ideas for action research come from student interest. I am truly not surprised by this finding since I  feel that if we really  know our students and we put their needs first we will succeed as leaders. Action research is the vehicle to help us to ensure that our goal is being met.

This was an interesting week as I really begin to think about where my action research would lead me. I believe I have settled on How do regular education students perform in a co-teach classroom? This is a topic that is of special interest to me as I am the regular education teacher in a co-teach classroom. I see first hand how kids are effected by this and I am anxious to collect the data.

Uses of Blogs for Educational Resarch

Blogs are great tools for principals to share their ideas with others and to get ideas from other administrators. Principals are often isolated from other administers and do not have time to meet with other peers to bounce ideas off of. Blogs are also a great way for principals to show their staff what they are working on and researching. This helps build collaboration between the principal and their staff.

Action Research

Action Research is a vital part of education. It is a complete process that I believe should be the foundation of education. If we want to reform the current education system then we must find a way to fix the ongoing problem of meeting children’s needs. Inquiry or action research is the vehicle needed to make this happen. Schools should reflect what the needs of the students are and not the needs of the district, board, state, or even sometimes the needs of what a group of parents believe.  Principals need to reflect on the children’s needs and then take action. Action research should be a continuous cycle of posing questions, collecting data, analyzing the data and researching to gain knowledge, and then making changes in practices based on the new understanding. Once the new practices are in place the process should start all over again to ensure that the process is still relevant to student’s learning.

      Action research for leadership comes from what quality teachers have done for years. Many teachers reflect on what they do each day, and what works and doesn’t work. Being a great teacher means you are always adapting your teaching to meet the needs of the students. Principals should use this process on a grander scale. Dana addresses this in her book Leading with Passion and Knowledge: The principal as action Researcher, “In a fashion similar to the ways teachers utilize this process to gain better understanding of themselves and their teaching practice, administrators can use it to gain deeper insights into their leadership role in school improvement efforts.” (Dana, 2009, p. 3) Action research is what makes schools and classrooms successful because it makes the student the focus of the schools.

Dana, N. F. (2009). Leading with Passion and Knowledge: The principal as action Researcher. Thousand Oaks: 2009.