5301 - Final Reflections

I have learned a lot during this course and discovered that I had been participating in action research on an informal basis for years now under different names or without knowing the name for it at all.    Based on the course material and my personal experiences, I believe action research is a key part of being an effective administrator.   Schools are constantly getting new students, new staff and new standards.  A good administrator recognizes that and evaluates the current situations and poses questions about what is going on and how it can improve.  Dana (2009) says a benefit of principal inquiry is that “principals become role models for the teachers and students in their building.”   I do believe that principals should model the culture of being a life-long learner and action research seems to be a good way to get this accomplished.

The Dana text (2009) was very good at laying out the process of establishing an action research plan from developing a question, determining what type of data is appropriate to collect, how to analyze that data and how to share your results with others.  I do plan on referring back to this text as my how to manual during my research project. 

Several of the assignments helped me focus on what is needed to conduct a successful project.  This week’s activity to summarize the five quality indicators as identified by the Dana (2009) text was very useful for me.   I was able to walk through my plan and see if it lined up in each area and what I might be missing.  In week 4 getting feedback on the plan from my site supervisor and from others in the class was good as it gave me a look at my plan from a different pair of eyes.  Going through the process of summarizing the responses helped me take a deeper look at what comments were the most helpful and helped me think about what type of comments I leave for other people.

I have also enjoyed  blogging about the process.  I have had a how-to type of blog for several years now, but have never had a blog to track my learning and thoughts on a topic.   I have found that by having to compose blog posts about the topic I have had to give more thought to what I am doing and to the process as a whole.  I am looking forward to keeping my blog postings going to hold myself accountable to this process as I take other courses and need to be keeping up with the action research project as well.   I have found a few blogs that have similar projects to mine and have added those blogs to my iGoogle account so that I can keep up with their progress as well.

The web conferences were helpful in the beginning to get some direct feedback about my chosen topic and to hear what others were doing as well.  It is always nice to put faces with names.  I also learn from hearing other people’s questions and insights.   I did find the last few weeks that the conferences got bogged down in trying to explain the technical issues and requirements of TK20 and blogs.  Those conferences were better heard recorded so I could skip over the parts I understood.

I look forward to conducting my action research project.   I have chosen an area that I think I need to grow in and have difficulty doing well.   By focusing on this area I hope to improve as an educational professional and develop a blueprint for other instructional technology specialists to follow as they work with the people on their campus.

Dana, N. F. (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge: the principal as action researcher. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin Press, a Joint Publication with the American Association of School Administrators.