Reflecting on Research

This course has introduced me to a new world of research!  My district had actually implemented a ‘strategic plan’ a few years back, but in the middle of implementation our Superintendent retired and the direction of the plan fell apart. After learning more about action research, I realize the leaders were trying to implement action research. I believe it would have been much better received with a bit more background and buy-in to the process, or with some understanding such as what we have learned in this course.

In the first week of this course, we used Blogger to create our own blogs. This was a new format of social media or communication for me.  I have developed a Weebly and worked with Wikis, but using Blogger has been a whole new experience, and sometimes a challenge, for me. I plan to continue building knowledge in blogging through more practice and searching the Internet for tips.  I believe I will gain a better understanding as I work through it. I will also reach out to a co-work who loves to blog. She will be an outstanding resource for me.

The video interviews of educational leaders also helped me develop a better understanding of action research. The explanation Dr. Chargois gave for various ideas of research made me realize it can happen at a campus level, or come from an outside source.

The Dana text, Leading with Passion and Knowledge, was a very helpful resource for me. Chapter two gave explanations and examples of the nine areas of major wonderings, which pushed me to start thinking of examples from my campus that would fit into these categories. It seemed that several areas that came to mind addressed the need to improve student achievement. This led to my initial idea for action research.

The action research planning models eased a lot of my tension. When I developed my question, I felt lost and wasn’t sure how to work through the process, but the SIP/PIP Plan and Tool 7.1 Template helped me develop a very workable outline plan for my research.  This helped me feel much more confident in what I was preparing.

I would like to learn more about the procedures for quality literature review. I will discuss this further with my site supervisor and also research more articles similar to the one we read in our first week to gain insight into this topic.

I had never heard of Force Field Analysis, the Delphi Method, or Nominal Group Technique. It was fairly clear for me to understand how Force Field and Delphi Method could benefit a researcher. It took a little more for me to understand the process of the Nominal Group Technique. After first reading about it, I had a negative perception of this technique, but as I thought more about implementation, I felt it would actually be a great way to develop and increase staff buy-in. 

I was very nervous about taking this course initially, but it has actually been a very engaging and informative class that helped me build more confidence in myself as a leader and an educational researcher.