Week 1 Part 1

To start with, I have never been a big fan of research. Well, research that involved me doing the research. I think it goes back to a bad undergrad experience I had that involved a research paper over the Russian revolution..but I digress. Anyway, when I saw the title of this course, I was understandably a little nervous. My forays into research have not proved successful. However, after doing all of the readings and watching this week's video, I am feeling a little better. Action research does not seem so intimidating. True action research is a process of inquiry and discovery. A process that does not always take the researcher down the path that he or she thought they would be going down when first starting. I have learned that action research involves time for reflection. Without reflection, there is no way to gauge whether the path you are going down is the correct path or if, heaven forbid, you should get off the path altogether and get back on the street. Maybe just changing paths would best the option, but without reflection, you would not ever know. Action research also allows for an educational leader to step out of his or her role as the campus leader and become a more active participant in the learning that is going on through Leadership Teams, in university coursework, district meetings,and/or PLC's.I am hoping to use my action research to address an issue that has plagued my school district and I know that it has been a problem in other districts as well. The issue is how to convenience upper elementary teachers (those in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades) to utilize small flexible groups for teaching reading and possibly math and other subjects if presented the option. I have a theory as to why there is such resistance and reluctance (a lot of it being because of high stakes testing that goes on in those grades) and I am hoping to discover ways and methods to meet the particular needs of those teachers so that they can better differentiate their instruction to best meet the needs of all of their students. At least, that is the plan. We will see where the research road leads me. More to come!