As I read Action Research: Improving Schools and Empowering Educators by Craig Mertler, the topic of action research is something I feel as educators we are continuously doing in our day-to-day classrooms. I am constantly looking at my lessons, gauging how they are resonating with students, and reflecting on what I need to do differently next time. In the video with Dr. Kiley Thompson, she shares her story on how ‘action research’ was also something she does daily. This helped me relate to the content and made me more comfortable approaching this course.
I have decided to focus my action research on self-reflection through the use of ePortfolios and the affect it has on student engagement and student performance. I am excited to begin looking at this topic and digging into data. Since this is summer, carrying out the actual research will have to wait until I am in school next year. I have changed jobs for the upcoming school year, so I will get to start fresh and implement ePortfolios from the beginning with a whole new team, school, and district. Having this research ready to go will help me advocate for using ePortfolios in the classroom.
Action research has four stages: planning, acting, developing, and reflecting. Of those four stages, I believe the stage that will be most challenging for me will be ‘acting’. Having to implement your plan, collect the data, and analyze that data will be time consuming for one, and two, will take discipline for following through. It will be challenging to not let the day-to-day struggles of teaching interfere with the data I am wanting to collect in this action research plan.
Reference:
Mertler, C. A. (2019). Action research: Improving schools and empowering educators (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.