Reflections on My Time in EDLD 5301 Action Research

Photo by Kevan Davis

Course EDLD 5301 included constant self reflection to become a better teacher and prepare to become a better administrator.  The Action Research Plan helped focus that reflection into a living document that can be shared with others so that they also may benefit from it.

The lectures from Arterbury and Jenkins made use of the ability to share information regardless of who is teaching the class and what time the interviews took place.  It was good to get more points of view with the interviews from Briseno, Chargois, and Lewis.  More of these would have been helpful.  It also would have been helpful to have an interview with the professor of the course, Dr. Abshire.  An introduction to the course or her introducing herself with her expectations at a very minimum would have been greatly appreciated.

The Harris text was a particularly useful book for Applied Research.  It offered practical applications and real-world examples of what Action Research should be and how to successfully create an Action Research Project.  The Dana text was another useful resource as the Action Research Project was being created.

Most of the assignments could be summarized in one word – summarize.  It seemed as if all I was doing was summarizing what was read week after week.  I found week three's assignment particularly confusing.  It would have been very helpful to have a template included in the assignment instead of having to get it from the resources section of the website.  I had to email the TA several times just to be sure I was completing the assignment as expected.  I found week three's assignment very confusing and extremely frustrating because of the lack of information.

The Discussion Boards were light for this course.  I tried to make my original post by Thursday so that I would receive feedback, but it was not forthcoming.  I found that most people ended up posting on Sunday, therefore it was difficult to make the required two comments on others' posts difficult.

To get an idea for this assignment I searched the Internet for ideas on this summary.  I was disheartened to find several bloggers that express some of the same concerns I have and they have yet to be addressed.  Brooke Hughes made the comment on Cordelia's Action Research Blog: EDLD 5301 End of Course Reflections, “Dr. Abshire could have been providing us with far more useful information on the weekly assignments as well as maybe narrowed questions and concerns that took up a lot of time during the web conferences.”  It worries me that if nothing has been done to address these issues in this class, what are the classes going to be like for the rest of my program?  Do the student surveys we take at the end of the course really looked at?  Are any changes being made to improve the program?  This is especially scary considering this course is named Action Research and it has been stressed that things will change throughout our Action Research and we should embrace the change for the better.

In conclusion, Action Research is a wonderful method to use to improve one's own practice as an administrator or a teacher.  It has the power to positively effect every student on a campus and possibly even a district when done correctly.  I am looking forward to my own Action Research of Awesomeness.  However I think that this course could benefit from some of its' own teachings.  I would like to see the powers that be turn this course into an Action Research project of its' own so that future students may benefit even more from seeing seeing how it can be effectively implemented in a course in which they are students.

References Follow

Arterbury, E., Ph.D., & Jenkins, S., Ed.D. (n.d.). [Interview]. Retrieved November 10, 2012, from https://luonline.blackboard.com/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_51548_1%26url%3D

Briseno, J. (n.d.). Interview 1: Johnny Briseno [Interview]. Retrieved November 10, 2012, from https://luonline.blackboard.com/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_51548_1%26url%3D

Chargois, T., Ph.D. (n.d.). Interview 2: Dr. Timothy Chargois [Interview]. Retrieved November 10, 2012, from https://luonline.blackboard.com/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_51548_1%26url%3D

Cole, M., & Hughes, B. (2012, August 19). Cordelia's Action Research Blog. : EDLD 5301 End of Course Reflections. Retrieved November 10, 2012, from http://cordeliacole.blogspot.com/2012/08/edld-5301-end-of-course-reflections.html

Dana, N. F. (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge: The principal as action researcher [Kindle Edition]. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, a Joint Publication with the American Association of School Administrators.

Davis, A. (2012, September 26). Angela's Research Adventures. Angela's Research Adventures. Retrieved November 10, 2012, from http://adavis44941.blogspot.com/

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

Lewis, K., Ph.D. (n.d.). Interview 3: Dr. Kirk Lewis [Interview]. Retrieved November 10, 2012, from https://luonline.blackboard.com/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_51548_1%26url%3D