Revised Action Research Plan

I couldn't get my chart to post here so I copied and pasted the information.

Goal: The purpose of this action research study will be to examine the effects of peer coaching on teacher and student success in the classroom.

Goal/outcomes:
1.How does peer coaching impact instructional practices with teachers?
2.How does peer coaching effect student learning?
3.What components of peer coaching are the most beneficial?
4.What components of peer coaching are the least beneficial?

Activities:
These will include Student questionnaires, teacher journals, peer coaches journals and their observations.
Staff development for peer coach and teachers.
*Student interviews to their input on the impact on peer coaching.
*Create focus groups to provide multiple perspectives on the data collected.
*Active Listening to the teacher participants.

Research/Resources needed:
Student questionnaire
Peer coach journals
Literature review



Timeline:

July-Get permission to contact the study
August- Request teaching participants in person. Then seek more participation via email as needed.
August (mid)-Identify participating teachers
September- Sent letter home to student’s parents for permission to use their academic scores
October-Study will begin
November/December- Teachers and coach will attend staff development
January- Continue peer coaching
February-Teachers will journal their lessons and conferences with peer coach. Provide staff development for the staff to be presented by the teacher participants and me.
Oct-March Collect grades, test, and projects for each six weeks
April- Conduct a student questionnaire.May- Examine the results of the research.



Persons Responsible:

Facilitator-Renee Sanders
3 Classroom Teachers (To Be Determined)

Students (approximately 60)



Process for monitoring achievement:

For question 1: Grades will be compiled at the end of each six weeks. A percentage will be calculated and compared. Each semester grades will be compared.
For question 2: Data will be taken from teacher journals and peer coaches journals. Information will be compared from each semester.
For question 3: Data from teacher journals and observations and student questionnaires. After analyzing data, the trends will be determined.
For question 4: Data from teacher journals and observations and student questionnaires. After analyzing data, the trends will be determined.
*Asking questions:
What biases do I have?
What value is this research?

How is this research going to improve my teaching?



Evaluation:


Findings/Conclusions:
Questionnaires, journals, implementation of specific instructional strategies, peer coaches observations and journals.
Next steps:
Compare student grades from semesters.
Conference with students about their learning.
Meet with peer coach and determine effective teaching strategies.
Determine which strategies should be included in the classroom.
*Document analysis technique (practice is needed in this technique)
*Explore the patterns in the data.
*Determine the direction the data leads me, priorities of the data, where more information is needed and recognize the limitations.
*Use the direction data to improvement campus’ needs.
*Form Action Committees to begin action planning based on the action plan research.
*Create action plan from the research data.
*Implement the plan.

Week 2 Reflections

This week has been quite insightful. The Dana text has proved to be a great resource rich with information. It delves into nine areas of wonderings that you may have as an administrator. It also gives an extensive explanation for each area and examples of each area. This assignments let me see how as a principal I could attach each inquiry I have. It certainly supports the need to continue with action research.
Watching the interviews was interesting as well. Each person provided their knowledge on action research and its effectiveness. Dr. Chargois provided some ideas for decision making for principals. His insight was clearly usable. He stateds that the teachers could use action research in the classroom. This would certainly teach the teachers how to fine tune their inquiry, by actually using it.

How Educational Leaders might use blogs?

Both of the texts discuss several reasons that educational leaders might use blogs. But the main reason I read about was using blogs as a way of reflecting on their thoughts and wonderings. The use of journaling or blogging is a form of data collection and “can be very powerful tools” according to the text Leading with Passion and Knowledge. An obstacle to blogging may occur when the author does not feel that their own thinking matters. I could certainly relate to that. If you are a novice to a profession, then you may not feel like your insights are valuable. And you may not want to share it with the world, which as a blogger is what you would be doing.
The text Leading with Passion and Knowledge also discusses that as you begin to using blogging to reflect and provide insight to your inquiry, “you will begin to take your own individual inquiry to a new level.” This means that your writing becomes more empowering and you begin to feel a sense of accomplishment. And you have something that you can share with your colleagues. This is powerful in that you will be sharing your thoughts and experiences with other principals. This will be foundational in engaging and sharing with other principals regarding your research or inquiry. This will help you develop and challenge your ideas about your inquiry.

What have I learned about Action Research? And how can it be used?

Administrative inquiry or more commonly refers to as action research is a process that an administrator used to study their administrative duties and identify any changes that need to be made and what will or can be learned from the inquiry.
Action research or inquiry is necessary for school improvement. According to the text Examining What We do to Improve Our Schools, “the inquiry process, based on logical reasoning, requires the collection of information in a systematic way.” This inquiry process includes thinking and questioning that focuses on school improvement. It is important to recognize the need for improvement which can be reached with action research or inquiry.
The text discusses four contexts that can be used to utilize action research. These contexts are: university coursework, superintendent/district meetings, leadership teams, and professional learning communities.
All of these contexts demonstrate benefits through the use of action research. Each context may have a different venue, but each has its benefits. They all provide insight to “wonderings” that you may have about a certain topic. Action research itself allows a school to go through a process that will produce reflection among the practitioners and improve their work. The research or inquiry will reveal any areas that need improvement and give the administration areas to target for staff development purposes.
As an administrator, just knowing what action research is will be crucial. But more importantly, recognizing the need for improvement within the school will prove to be more imperative. Becoming the “head-learner” of the school should an administrator main goal (Fichman, 2). And using the context previously discussed will be a way to implement action research within the school.
Leadership meetings are a way of utilizing action research or inquiry. It can serve the campus needs in many ways. The team works with the administrator to solve problems, share responsibilities, and make decisions with the administration. This team provides vital opportunities to learn as a team and not as an individual. According to the text, Leading with Passion and Knowledge unless teams can learn, the organization cannot learn.” That statement is very informative and accurate. A school must learn together so that they can grow together, thus students learn as well. Isn’t that the ultimate goal?