How educational leaders might use blogs

Education leaders may use blogs to share their thoughts and ideas about educational subjects as well as read the opinions of others in regard to different topics.  Blogs may contain information based on personal experience that can help in the classroom in various aspects such as classroom management, new math techniques, reading strategies, testing updates, etc.

Action Research: What it means to me

Action research is the process in which administrators and/or teachers examine their educational practices using the techniques of research such as collecting data, performing data analysis, observation, etc. ( Ferrance, 2000).  Administrative inquiry is basically action research conducted by an administrator.  It is the process of an administrator studying his or her practices and initiating change based on what he or she has learned from data analysis and/or observation (Dana, 2009, p.2).  Action research in education is multi-faceted.  It’s more than teaching a lesson, gloating in the success of high achieving students and the upmost respect from colleagues.  Research involves finding out who, what, when, where, and why of successful teaching.  It also involves how to motivate and guide other teachers to accept and implement research based techniques that work in the classroom. Action research requires that the researcher observe the classroom and figure out which elements are needed in order to ensure the same experience can be effectively replicated again and again.

Action research has a vital role in special education.  New techniques are needed to meet the needs and interest of our students. I plan to use this blog to assist me in researching how to increase and improve Special Education students’ interaction in the inclusion classroom.     As research continues, the primary focus should be to benefit our students through new strategies to improve learning and solve issues that hinder the best performance of students.

References

Dana, N.F. (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge: The principal as action

researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Ferrance, E. (2000).  Action Research. Retrieved on April 14, 2012

                        from http://www.lab.brown.edu/pubs/themes_ed/act_research.pdf