Action Research

I find the idea of action research or inquiry to be intriguing. It makes so much sense! As a teacher I have been encouraged to reflect on my teaching, but I don’t believe that I’ve been challenged to seek out the research to better myself. I think that in my reflection I just sought how I could make improvements with my current knowledge and skill set, or perhaps I followed the traditional model of waiting for the “experts” to impart their knowledge to me. Now that I have done some reading on action research I feel that I have been letting myself down. Why didn’t I seek to be the problem solver and visionary? I believe the concept of action research will revolutionize the way that I do my job. I look forward to the opportunity to guide our campus PLC groups toward more action research. In our current PLC meetings we do a great job of discussing students and their learning, but how valuable it would be to add in the component of research and inquiry. We need to become more comfortable with “wondering.” As Senge said, “Unless teams can learn, the organization cannot learn.” (Senge, 1990)