Week 2 Action Research Reflection

After identifying plans and ideas for my action research topic, I understand how action research can be a difficult topic to make a choice on.  I was engaged as I watch the three professional leaders give their responses to what they believed would be a great action research project on their campus.  Action research ideas have a wide variety of ranges between elementary. middle and high school. I began with ten ideas for research, then narrowed it down to 5.  I took the top two choices for action research and I am now being an investigator on my two topics. Sometimes action research could be researching what other administrators have implemented within their research plans and finding ways t implement them within your plans.  As a leader you have to find what works and be flexible and willing to change as well as gain creative ideas and get further insight from your peer professionals.As a teacher I know that I have always had ideas wondering in the back of my mind about things that work well and not so well in education.  I would think how could I fix the issue, what changes can be made and who do I need to meet with to discuss such plans and ideas. I am excited about starting my new research project on a topic that i know will weigh heavily in education today as it did yesterday. 
According to the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory,

"Action research is inquiry or research in the context of focused efforts to improve the quality of an organization and its performance. It typically is designed and conducted by practitioners who analyze the data to improve their own practice. Action research can be done by individuals or by teams of colleagues. The team approach is called collaborative inquiry."

The Action Research Network states that
Educational Action Research refers to taking a systematic look at some educational practice and recording what was done, why it was done, collecting data, analyzing the data and reflecting on how the results might influence future teaching endeavors. If done carefully and thoughtfully, Educational Action Research can improve an individual's teaching. If done by multiple teachers at a single school, it has the potential to enhance the overall quality of the school.

The strength of the action research approach to professional development rests upon a creative and critical dialogue between members of a community which includes teachers, academics, parents, industrialists, and politicians. We move ahead through creative leaps of imagination. We learn from our mistakes in detailed criticisms of our positions.
Jack Whitehead, Action Research, Principles and Practice, McNiff,1988, xi

Six questions to ask yourself as a professional leader or educator
1. What did the children do?
2. What were they learning?
3. How worthwhile was it?
4. What did I, the teacher, do?
5. What did I learn?
6. What do I intend to do now?,
Open University "Curriculum in Action", quoted in Action Research,Principles and Practice, McNiff, 1988, 47-48