Ready, Set, ACTION......research

In many ways through our reading I've felt like a blind man in a maze, feeling my way through unfamiliar territory, not knowing where I was going or if I was any closer to my goal than when I started. Although I found much of what I was experiencing very interesting, I kept waiting for that "eye opening" moment when it would click with me. Action research provided that moment for me. In my present position this is our approach to improvement. We attempt to systematically build a body of knowledge about students and learning to incorporate infomation about an effective program of teaching and learning. This approach allows me to be both researcher, as well as participant. We look at barriers and enablers to our success. Since excuses are not an option, we don't play the blame game (if the previous year's teacher had only better prepared them, if the parents had only read to them more, if the student would only do their homework and try harder, etc)

Some of the quality tools I use in my current position that fall in the action research paradigm are:
Consensogram (as I used in our presentation for class) Consensograms can be used as a preassessment/postassessment tool to gauge the participant's understanding, knowledge base, or feelings before and after a task over time.
Force field analysis -can be used by the group or individual analyze behaviors or beliefs that may be “enablers” or “barriers” of the attainment of goals/objectives. and want to begin analyzing root causes.
Action Plans-Action plans can be used to record tasks that need to be completed in order to reach targeted goals. An action plan designates persons responsible, timelines, resources needed, and monitoring/ evaluation tools.

The goal of my research at work, much like the likely goal of my dissertation, is to engage participants in an active role to determine ways to continuously improve and then to provide those participants with the "tools" necessary to achieve their goals. When I work with teachers I ask them to look at their students and answer these 5 learning centered goals:
1. What do they (students) need to learn?
2. How are you going to engage them in this learning?
3. How will you know if they've learned it?
4. What will you do if they don't understand it?
5. What will you do if they know it already before you begin teaching it?

This process empowers teachers to take ownership of their student's success and learning and to develop plans of action, identifying "boulders and fishes" along the way. They search for root causes that keep them from being successful and address those through a systematic process of empowerment.

Much like Morpheus in The Matrix I too have chosen to take the red pill. My enlightenment through our journey and discovery have given me a new perspective of my professional world where I will not be able to view things the same anymore. Phrases thrown around like "research based" and "best practices" are being more closely scrutinized.