EDLD 5301 How Educational Leaders Might Use Blogs

Educational leaders could use blogs to gain information and to inform.  Their staff could view their blog weekly to gain new and old school information.  Weekly reminders along with important upcoming dates would help ease teacher and staff anxiety.  The educational leader could also use this as a tool for communication and collaboration.

EDLD 5301 Action Research Week 1

Action research is research done by an individual who sees an issue in their environment.  The individual conducts research in order to come up with resolutions to that specific issue/problem.  The practioner collects data and interprets that data to conform a conclusion to their hypothesis.  These practioners have come up with their own hypothesis on how to fix an issue because they are the ones that deal with the issue on a day to day basis.  This is what makes action research different from other research processes; the researcher is the practioner rather than an outsider.

Traditional education research brings in outsiders to try to solve a problem rather than relying on the administrator and staff to collaborate and solve the issue.  One reason why traditional research is problematic is because no administrator wants to admit their problem to the district.  It could be a sign of weakness.  Therefor the problem stands still and nothing is done about it.  Qualative research does not offer solutions that can directly help those individuals who actually deal with the problem.  It helps, yet does not solve. 

Action research is done by the practioner and not an outsider which gives the issue a better chance of being resolved.  The practioner has live data about the issue which enables him/her to come up with a more practical resolution.  Action research builds collaboration within a school.  The practioners can highlight their faults through their investigation which will further help their progress and all those who are effected.  Since the research is done by the practioner change is more imminent.