Getting Started

My action research is under way. Almost all of the teachers have administered the learning style survey, and this week we are going to collect the data on surveymonkey. I have assisted several teachers in setting up wiki accounts to use with their students.

You Take What Life Throws At You!

This week has been full of nasty surprises and had I not understood that action research is not a process written in stone, I would be much more freaked out. This week I found out that instead of teaching preAP Biology I would be teaching regulars Biology with a completely different team. Unfortunately, this change resulted in several modifications in my action research plan. Areas that were impacted included my sample group level and size, how the action research would be implemented among teachers on the team, and how the data will be analyzed. My new sample group is regulars Biology students and instead of using the entire group as a sample, two teachers will have students participating in action research and two teachers will continue to teach as usual. We will probably use a comparison of scores and survey answers for the two groups to analyze the data. At this point I have reworked my plan and am taking deep breaths.
My supervisor on campus reviewed the plan with me, offering suggestions to both improve the process and make the plan work with my new teaching assignment. It was really nice to have someone help me as I worked through my frustrations and really brought home the collaborative nature of action research. I know that this new situation is manageable and I will be able to count on the support of others in order to carry out my action research plan.

For an updated version of my action research plan go to:
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1LsmUP1Y0A9siC3V30rJDoa9zHjUF9KgmsykqryMiRi0

Rethinking The Plan

This week I reviewed and refined my action research plan based on my readings and examination of plans created by other students. In addition, I gained some strategies for moving forward and sustaining improvement that will be valuable to me as I implement and evaluate my action research plan. Based on my reading, it seems that the goal of all the plans is to reach consensus regarding future action to take even though each plan differs in the number of people in the decision making group and the decision making process. In education as in other areas, positive change occurs best through the actions of a collective group rather than through isolated practices of individuals.
Based on my readings and review of others work, I have updated my action research plan. Please feel free to review my plan and make comments or suggestions.


https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1yqfjKWI9J4Rxhdkv-NDgCNwaA3qufyd8MytDtlyHJys

Action Research Plan

This week I finalized my action research topic and developed an action research plan. This process required a lot of thought regarding critical topics that needed to be addressed, methods of data collection, methods of data analysis, and how my findings would be communicated with others. To see my action research plan click on the link below.

https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=15IF1SaqsFWZdEe4RNH6WbCtZzc9nMe-rAUcCaTMlvvI