Action Reaserach/ Week 5

As the course comes to an end, I reflect on the different topics that we studied during this five weeks and the one that caught my attention was the collection of data. With the accountability culture prevailing at our schools today, the most visible data type is test results. I never imagined that in action research, other sources of information would be taken into account such as interviews or surveys that might seem more informal for some. Interviews, when well planned, can reveal important information that can be useful in the improvement of a school (Dana, 2009).

I would suggest the use of this important tool as a way to discover how stakeholders at a school think or feel about an issue affecting the school performance, but in combination with other sources of data collection. I found this chapter very useful to implement strategies to resolve an issue or implement a solution to a problem based on different perspectives.

When the word research is heard, what comes to mind is graphs, quantitative data and

laboratories, but with technology; other strategies are also available such as pictures and videos which are a good strategy to document action research. I have also learned to use data collection strategies and more important, I realized that this strategy is also useful for any other discipline or project outside education. As I discussed in paragraph one, interviews are a good source of data and technology can complement their effectiveness when used to record information. With the ideas presented by Dana’s book on how to use technology, pictures and videos used in action research become a powerful tool to record information that I would use in every action research project. Technology becomes important to streamline the gathering and the processing of data, as I shared in a posting in week 4, when a survey is designed to give numerical value to an answer; the survey then can be shared in Google forms. This way, data can be organized on a spreadsheet, providing an effective way to filter and share the results with other educators.

Another part of the course that I also enjoyed was the three videos from three action research

practitioners. I think that their participation in this course was meaningful for me and presented the

opportunity to know of first hand how action research is made. Their advice was very wise. In the first video, Dr Briseno, talks about how data is imperative in the decision making process and how nothing is changed if data is not present or more research about the issue is made. Dr. Chargois tells us that through action research an educator can keep learning and how action research can be used by

classroom teachers to find solutions to pressing issues in a particular classroom. In other words, Dr. Chargoise suggests that teachers learn pedagogy and content, but also they have to be knowledgeable in action research to become better teachers and have a more profound impact in students’ learning.

I am really excited for the opportunity that this course gave me to know more educators and their valuable experiences.