Tuesday, November 20, 2012

5301 Action Research Week 1 Assignment

Action Research
According to Dana (2009) administrative inquiry or action research is the systematic process where principals examine their professional practice in order to find areas to change to further enhance learning and school improvement (page 2). Administrators can solely, or with a collaborative group inquire about a localized problem. Working with the staff the administrators can propose and implement changes to address the problem. The research or inquiry occurs when data is collected and analyzed to determine if the specific changes are working or if any modifications need to be made. I have learned through the study this week the difference between traditional educational research and action research. The traditional educational research model uses research gathered on the outside to bring about a specific educational reform.  These reforms are more on a broad scope than at the local level.  One way that action research is being conducted on our campus is with the “flipped classroom” model.  The administration has asked many of the teachers at the high school to flip their classrooms.  A group of teachers that are flipping their classrooms including myself are meeting monthly to determine the effectiveness of this teaching approach.   The administration is going to use data gathered this year to see if the "flipped classroom" model should be implemented throughout the campus.   
         
 
Dana, N.F. (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge: The principal as action
          researcher.  Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

 
How can educational leaders use blogs?
The administrators can use blogs to check the pulse of what is happening in the school. The blogs can encourage parental, student, and teacher involvement.  The blogs can also be used to communicate with other administrators from different districts.  By blogging information can be shared with parents and parental concerns can be voiced and addressed in a timelier manner.    
 

5 comments:

  1. Nice job on your blog site. I'm trying to learn as I go because I have never used a blog spot. I do agree that it is a great tool to use within schools. The only problem, as always are for those who don't have access to the blog spot or not sure how to get to the blog spot. I think it would be a great idea to have a tech night at school to teach the parents these certain objectives. follow me at shaemoore.blogspot.com

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  2. Dustin,
    I am very interested in the "flipped" classroom model that you are conducting on your campus. I have never been exposed to this type of model. I will be looking forward to following your blog in the months to come.

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  3. I am looking forward to hearing about your research on the flipped classroom. I have heard many comments from students on the subject, both positive and negative. Several students have opened up to me on the subject and given me some great insight. I believe they are honest to me about it since I am not a core class teacher. Hopefully we can talk much more about in the months to come.

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  4. I, like the others, am intrigued by the "flipped classroom". I actually read about this in the newspaper a couple of months back and became interested immediately. It seems like the way that I would like to teach as I think it would be very effective - I'm interested to follow your research.

    Robert

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  5. Dusty,

    I am very anxious to see your final project report on the flipped classroom. This is such a relevant topic right now in education. Your plan is very extensive and I think that you are going to get some great data and will add to the body of knowledge regarding flipped classrooms.

    Dr. Cummings

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