Reflections of Five Weeks Gone By...

From the beginning of EDLD 5301 – Research, it has been an eye-opener and given me new insights and perspective of how research is has changed. We began with comparing and contrasting administrator inquiry and traditional research. We learned about the benefits of conducting an action research project. We also created a blog that will be used to keep track of changes or adjustments of our action research throughout its course.

In our second week, we viewed four interviews of administrators and researchers who provided advice about action research. This it was very useful information because it made me feel easier about action research. Many times schools are not open to change.

Moving on to our third week we created a blueprint of our action research plan.  Using the action planning template really helped me to organize my thoughts and action plan, step-by-step. We also use the 8 steps from analysis to action book that was very useful and insightful in assisting with further organization.  During this week we posted our action research plan on our blog. It was quite useful to have our peers leave comments on our plan. The majority of the comments were very useful and I was able to revise my plan based on some of those comments. 

The fourth and fifth weeks have been to reflect on what we have learned throughout the course of EDLD 5301. The lectures with Dr. Arterbery and Dr. Jenkins were very useful and they were very understanding and at times I felt they knew what I might be thinking, “Oh, this sounds difficult!” but they were right, things moved right along through the five weeks.

The web conferences (face to face) with Dr. Abshire were great. She answered our questions, without making us feel incompetent.  I really think the web conferences are very useful because it helps with connecting with a real live person that can answer our silly questions or help build our confidence in what we already know and applying it to the course.

Discussion boards are great forums for communicating with peers. It allows us to help each other by asking those questions we haven’t thought of ourselves. This assists us in creating a better plan by taking some of our peer’s advice to heart.

My favorite part of the textbook (and both are keepers to be added to my library) is in the Dana textbook, Chapter 3, entitled, “The Road Map,” I plan on rereading this section to help me with the various ways I can use and create data. I really think the strategies they spoke about can be incorporated into my research plan.

Dana, N.F. (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge: The principal as action researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Harris, S., Edmonson, S., & Combs, J. (2010). Examining what we do to improve our schools: 8 steps from analysis to action. Larchmont, N.Y.: Eye on Education.