Week 1 Action Research

What I have learned about action research so far in week 1:

Action research is the process of actually conducting or “testing” solutions to problems at your campus or in your classroom. These things have to be measured in some sense to see if your action plan is working or not. I have likened action research to that of a science project, seeing as I am a Science Teacher! You first must start with one variable, which is something you want to test. In the case of action research it will need to be a way to solve a problem like low science test scores. The reason you can only have one variable is simply scientific, trying to do two things at once to increase your science scores would leave you not knowing which solution actually improved your scores.  This would then make your research invalid, because you would have no conclusive solution to you problem.  For that reason alone you must test one thing (variable) at a time.  Once you have a solution you want to put in place and test, then you must be able to measure it in some way. This could be student growth on 6 weeks tests, STAAR results, reading growth or any other form that would provide you with measurable data.  This data should drive your action research and serve as an indicator of success or failure of your project.                 

My plan for using action research:

My sole purpose in using action research will be to improve either my science students testing scores, vocabulary, or math skills. I have not thought of how I am going to do this just yet, but I have been searching through others blogs to get ideas.