Preface
I am excited to share my action research with you. For a full semester I worked with an amazing second grade class in National City. At the time we had 22 students, only six of which were boys. The class worked well together and supported each other’s learning needs. With my action research I chose to introduce my students to goal setting.
My action research was a very difficult journey, however it facilitated significant growth for me as an educator. When I first started to focus on my fierce wonderings, or questions we could not get off my minds, mine were only focused on individual students. I really struggled to think of a topic or question that would addressed all of my students. I wanted to try a new behavior management system. The class I was in used a clip system (see more), which I was not a proponent of. I could not find a substantial class data to support my efforts to try a new behavior management system. At the time I thought of action research as fixing a problem; I did not think of it as a way to introduce new teaching styles, topics, or a class functions. I presumed that because there were only minor behaved there was no need to introduce an entirely new behavior system. Additionally, I struggled with allowing myself to make such a big change in a classroom that was not mine. I thought that since I was a student teacher I did not have the right to implement such big changes, despite encouragement from my master teacher. I ended up switching my initial topic at least four times. So, from the beginning my action research started out a bit disjointed.
It wasn't until I reached the conclusion of my action research that I was able to reflect on my experience differently. I originally viewed the individual phases of my action research as a failure because I struggled so greatly, did not get enough data, or did not get to implement my action plans as I had intended. When I looked back on my research I was able to view the project as a whole and see the overall learning and therefore reflect on my experience rather than look at the face value of each phase.
Reading through my action research now, there are places that might seem disjointed, language that is jarring, and thoughts that do not come across in the way I originally intended. There is a part of me that wants to go back and change this, to deny that that these are my thought. However, the AR process is a journey and this website reflects my journey, in all of its messiness, and the true value it had for my students and myself.
To stay true to my growth and project, I did not go back and modify phase one, my findings from it, my action plan for phase two, or the findings I had there. I maintained the nature in which these phases were actually implemented and kept my reasoning and thoughts the same. I believe that even if I am not proud of my choices in phase one, keeping the experience authentic and truthful allows for my learning to be genuine. Exposing my choices and thinking as they were allows me to show my true understanding and learning from this experience.
Picking my action research topic was difficult and I felt an internal pressure to just pick a topic so I did not fall behind. In doing this, I now realize that my needs assessment does not support my choice for an action research topic as well as I originally thought it did. I thought I established a strong needs assessment by talking with students about their future and what subjects they liked and did not like. I knew at that point I was going to work with students on goal setting. I thought finding out about my students’ academic interests would help guide me in working with students to set goals. However I did not acquire enough information from my needs assessment to establish a strong action research focus. I ended up settling on a topic instead of working through my struggles to find a way to express what I really wanted to do. Therefore I went into my first phase already feeling confused and unsure of myself. This is why my first phase may come across as rough and disjointed. Phase one seemed to have heavy teacher control and little student choice. In reality I was pressuring myself and rushed to start implementing my first phase as soon as I could so I would have enough data, rather than doing something that was more true to who I am with possibly less data.
As I reflected on phase one I was able to create a phase two that allowed me to return control to my students. Phase two was still not executed to the full extent that I had imagined but provided for a large change in my role with my students and my belief in them. I gave the students more control and focused more on their experience than data, but ended up only getting the class to set two of their own goals. Ideally I would have had students begin to set their own personal goals after setting the two class goals, however I did not make the time for this.
You will find that my conclusion is the strongest part of my paper. My reflection on the overall project allowed me to apply my findings to my general practice as an educator outside of this one experience. I was able to recognize my shortcomings within this project and visualize how I would have liked to complete my project.
It has always been my teaching philosophy that regardless of a students’ race, religion, gender or ability they can succeed to their fullest potential. This project showed me that I was not acting on my beliefs because I was afraid my students might not succeed. I know that through struggles come success and that if my students had struggled it would have been fine and possibly beneficial to their learning. I was afraid that if students did not accomplish their goals, students’ self-esteem could be negatively impacted. Additionally, I did not want to have errors in my project.
I thought that if I had the students set their own goals then some students would set easy goals, others who set ill-fitting goals, some would set goals that were much too difficult to accomplish and only a few would set appropriate goals. If I had that many students setting goals that were not just right, how would I be able to track their growth? Again this goes back to my drive for data and a perfect project. At the time I assumed that if I set the goals for my students they would be able to successfully work toward their goals.
When I started my action research I did not understand that the main goal of this project was to learn to assess students and modify practices based on our findings, to grow as an educator, help our students to grow, to try new ideas, and to become confident in changing the way a classroom runs based on student needs. I saw this as comparable to a science fair project only on a larger scale- find a problem, investigate a way to solve it, make changes if the first way does not work and learn from you data. Clearly action research is much more than this, which is evident in my conclusion.
I ask you to read this project with an open mind and understand it is a true embodiment of my thoughts at the time and a representation of growth at the core of who I am as an educator. It shows my willingness to learn and fail forward (use failure to grow and learn). My action research should be viewed as a learning experience that resulted in a better understanding of myself, the actions I choose, and my understanding of and my work with children. I would not go back and change this experience as it allowed me to see my thoughts and actions in a rare introspective manner. I would like to do my action research again with a different mindset and stronger focus on student needs.
My action research was a very difficult journey, however it facilitated significant growth for me as an educator. When I first started to focus on my fierce wonderings, or questions we could not get off my minds, mine were only focused on individual students. I really struggled to think of a topic or question that would addressed all of my students. I wanted to try a new behavior management system. The class I was in used a clip system (see more), which I was not a proponent of. I could not find a substantial class data to support my efforts to try a new behavior management system. At the time I thought of action research as fixing a problem; I did not think of it as a way to introduce new teaching styles, topics, or a class functions. I presumed that because there were only minor behaved there was no need to introduce an entirely new behavior system. Additionally, I struggled with allowing myself to make such a big change in a classroom that was not mine. I thought that since I was a student teacher I did not have the right to implement such big changes, despite encouragement from my master teacher. I ended up switching my initial topic at least four times. So, from the beginning my action research started out a bit disjointed.
It wasn't until I reached the conclusion of my action research that I was able to reflect on my experience differently. I originally viewed the individual phases of my action research as a failure because I struggled so greatly, did not get enough data, or did not get to implement my action plans as I had intended. When I looked back on my research I was able to view the project as a whole and see the overall learning and therefore reflect on my experience rather than look at the face value of each phase.
Reading through my action research now, there are places that might seem disjointed, language that is jarring, and thoughts that do not come across in the way I originally intended. There is a part of me that wants to go back and change this, to deny that that these are my thought. However, the AR process is a journey and this website reflects my journey, in all of its messiness, and the true value it had for my students and myself.
To stay true to my growth and project, I did not go back and modify phase one, my findings from it, my action plan for phase two, or the findings I had there. I maintained the nature in which these phases were actually implemented and kept my reasoning and thoughts the same. I believe that even if I am not proud of my choices in phase one, keeping the experience authentic and truthful allows for my learning to be genuine. Exposing my choices and thinking as they were allows me to show my true understanding and learning from this experience.
Picking my action research topic was difficult and I felt an internal pressure to just pick a topic so I did not fall behind. In doing this, I now realize that my needs assessment does not support my choice for an action research topic as well as I originally thought it did. I thought I established a strong needs assessment by talking with students about their future and what subjects they liked and did not like. I knew at that point I was going to work with students on goal setting. I thought finding out about my students’ academic interests would help guide me in working with students to set goals. However I did not acquire enough information from my needs assessment to establish a strong action research focus. I ended up settling on a topic instead of working through my struggles to find a way to express what I really wanted to do. Therefore I went into my first phase already feeling confused and unsure of myself. This is why my first phase may come across as rough and disjointed. Phase one seemed to have heavy teacher control and little student choice. In reality I was pressuring myself and rushed to start implementing my first phase as soon as I could so I would have enough data, rather than doing something that was more true to who I am with possibly less data.
As I reflected on phase one I was able to create a phase two that allowed me to return control to my students. Phase two was still not executed to the full extent that I had imagined but provided for a large change in my role with my students and my belief in them. I gave the students more control and focused more on their experience than data, but ended up only getting the class to set two of their own goals. Ideally I would have had students begin to set their own personal goals after setting the two class goals, however I did not make the time for this.
You will find that my conclusion is the strongest part of my paper. My reflection on the overall project allowed me to apply my findings to my general practice as an educator outside of this one experience. I was able to recognize my shortcomings within this project and visualize how I would have liked to complete my project.
It has always been my teaching philosophy that regardless of a students’ race, religion, gender or ability they can succeed to their fullest potential. This project showed me that I was not acting on my beliefs because I was afraid my students might not succeed. I know that through struggles come success and that if my students had struggled it would have been fine and possibly beneficial to their learning. I was afraid that if students did not accomplish their goals, students’ self-esteem could be negatively impacted. Additionally, I did not want to have errors in my project.
I thought that if I had the students set their own goals then some students would set easy goals, others who set ill-fitting goals, some would set goals that were much too difficult to accomplish and only a few would set appropriate goals. If I had that many students setting goals that were not just right, how would I be able to track their growth? Again this goes back to my drive for data and a perfect project. At the time I assumed that if I set the goals for my students they would be able to successfully work toward their goals.
When I started my action research I did not understand that the main goal of this project was to learn to assess students and modify practices based on our findings, to grow as an educator, help our students to grow, to try new ideas, and to become confident in changing the way a classroom runs based on student needs. I saw this as comparable to a science fair project only on a larger scale- find a problem, investigate a way to solve it, make changes if the first way does not work and learn from you data. Clearly action research is much more than this, which is evident in my conclusion.
I ask you to read this project with an open mind and understand it is a true embodiment of my thoughts at the time and a representation of growth at the core of who I am as an educator. It shows my willingness to learn and fail forward (use failure to grow and learn). My action research should be viewed as a learning experience that resulted in a better understanding of myself, the actions I choose, and my understanding of and my work with children. I would not go back and change this experience as it allowed me to see my thoughts and actions in a rare introspective manner. I would like to do my action research again with a different mindset and stronger focus on student needs.