I gained a great deal of insight from the lectures by Dr. Johnny Briseno and Dr. Timothy Chargois. Dr. Briseno made a statement reminding us to look at the whole child and see the entire picture before making a decision (Dr. Johnny Briseno, lecture week 2, EDLD5301). Numbers tell the story and paint the picture, but we should never lose sight of the child and how the decision will affect their learning. Dr. Chargois discussed using action research to affect instructional strategies in the classroom (Dr. Timothy Chargois, lecture week 2, EDLD5301). Coming from the academic coach setting, this focus is my passion. Every day I do all I can to show teachers the value in using data to drive their decisions and ultimately impact student success.
The decision regarding my topic was made during my internship planning. Our campus, as well as the district, needs to do a better job of meeting the needs of our Gifted and Talented students. The GT program has struggled. Parents, students, and even teachers are frustrated, so identifying the need was obvious. The challenge then became how to organize and implement the inquiry. Eventually, I changed my driving questions to focus more on the student and less on the development of the teacher. My rationale was, once the needs of the student were met I could then focus on the development of the teachers. The CARE Model helped me in this decision. Assigning points enabled me to prioritize the decisions affecting change.
Chapter 2 from the Dana text helped me design and plan out my inquiry. The breakdown of passions driving inquiry enabled me to visualize how my inquiry needed to cover staff development, curriculum development, and student need. As I analyze the data and create a portrait of the problem, I also need to make sure teachers and students are supported in whatever changes occur. Trust will be a top priority throughout this entire process. When I responded on the discussion board about the purpose and significance of my inquiry, I realized my top focus would be identifying the true area/s of giftedness in students. This research would be closely connected to teacher collaboration, cooperation, and communication.
Development of the actual Action Research Plan helped me create the timeline I needed to guide the rest of my planning. My site supervisor and I had decided I needed to be finished with the identification by May 2012 with scheduling complete by July 2012. This timeline would enable us to implement any needed changes by next school year. The research plan also gave me insight as to how and when to reflect, re-evaluate, and take a new route in inquiry. I will consider the impact of any suggested solutions and continuously examine pros and cons. Student and school improvement will drive all decisions for action and sustaining improvement.
As I contemplated how to sustain the improvement, I read about Force Field Analysis and Nominal Group Technique in the Harris text (Harris, 2010, p. 95-96 and 96-97). As I did further research on Google about these strategies, everything came together. Once examination of the TX State GT Plan exposed our program strengths and weaknesses, I could use the Nominal Group Technique to brainstorm ways to improve the program. The teachers would be the ones leading the inquiry, I would facilitate. Force Field Analysis will enable us to clearly see the forces for and against change. I finally felt I had an organized plan to help me begin to implement my research project.
No comments:
Post a Comment