**Action research is a process used by teachers,
administrators, and/or any person interested in the education field to evaluate
their own teaching practices and/or how students learn to make adjustments to improve
instruction and maximize student learning (Duganzic, Durrant, Finau, Firth,
& Frank (2009); Mertler, 2012; Pappas & Tucker-Raymond, 2011).
**
Over the past few months I've shared with you my research journey. There have been ups, downs, and some slow spots or should I say "snow" spots. :) The whole process has been a big learning experience. I have learned more about my school, my students, and the writing process just as the information above suggests that I should. I have learned a lot about writing in our school; although, the data didn't show what I expected to find. This piece of research was actually quite surprising and even a little exciting. I now know what I need to study more in order to help our students.
At this point in the process, I am continuing to work through all of the data I have collected. As Holliday (2002) said, "Many novice and experienced researchers find out once they have got their data, deciding what to do with it and how to talk about it on paper can become equally crucial and even more problematic." I am certainly a novice research and feel completely overwhelmed as I look at how to share the data I've collected. I feel like I have a good direction to go, but putting the findings into words will be a challenge. It is a challenge I am up for and ready to complete this action research project!
I love that you reminded us of the purpose of action research. The word “adjustments” stuck out to me. We have definitely learned how to adjust our teaching practices this semester. I am glad to hear that it sounds like you learned a lot from the research experience. It is interesting to see the things you can learn when you actually focus on one topic and collect data from the students on the topic. I agree that putting the finding into words is a challenge. We are almost finished though. We can do this!
ReplyDeleteJill........ What an awesome job you did! We have learned so much about research and our schools through this class! We are all novice and I sure am glad we had each other to bounce ideas off of and vent to throughout this process! Now lets get going and figure out how to wrap this all up in a good paper!!!
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