Action Research

To begin with, I believe that action research is a great method for teachers to employ to determine problems and possible solutions within their classrooms. My favorite aspect of action research is its convenience. Within the teaching environment, action research allows the teacher to make changes and reflect on those changes, or to inquire and reflect on changes that need to be made. If, as a result of reflection, there is something that the teacher believes needs to be changed about their class then they can make the change, or if this change is beyond their control then they have data to present to the higher ups. Every teacher should constantly evaluate their practice and their general teaching situation. This evaluation allows for changes to be made, improving their craft, and helping students learn.

The action research that I conducted focused on the resources available to ESL students at an elementary school. I am not currently a teacher, but while observing a practicing teacher I noticed two interesting things. First, the ESL class was held in a shared classroom, and second, technology wasn’t readily available to students and teachers. My research consisted of observation, interviews, comparing writing samples and informal focus groups. I had originally intended to include questionnaires, but I quickly realized that the reading level of many of the students was too low to really gain anything from them. To combat this I simply asked the questions I had from the questionnaire.

I learned that students and teachers have mixed feelings about shared and push-in classrooms. At times other students not in their class were definitely a distraction to students. This caused the teachers to waste valuable time getting their students back on task. It also caused students to occasionally miss important things from their lesson. On the other hand, teachers of the shared class were able to share some resources. From my research I saw that the benefit of this sharing was far less than the time lost because of the negative factors of a shared classroom. The solution to this problem is tricky. Teachers are forced into shared classrooms because of the lack of space within the school. In order to remedy this issue the school would have to be made larger, or rezoning would need to occur. These are both difficult things to accomplish, but action research offers a starting point to present the case.

While researching my second issue, lack of technology, I saw some interesting things. The classroom only has half as many computers as students. This is no great epiphany, but students enjoy using computers to learn. I think that learning games are a great tool for students, but I also think that if all lessons were centered around these games students would quickly become bored. I also compared writing samples, done on the computer and done by hand to try and determine if students saw improvement on one medium over the other, and aside from legibility saw very little difference. This small test showed me that although students enjoyed having the opportunity to be on the computer the learning taking place wasn’t changed by the presence of the computer. Within the classroom I did see places were technology would have made life much easier. During my observations I saw students gathered around a table all trying to look at a single transcription that the teacher was doing. This would have been a great time to have a smart-board or an overhead. This would allow students to remain in their seats and still observe the writing. Remedying this issue would require something schools are struggling for…MONEY! It may be difficult at this point to get additional funds, but being able to see through action research that these upgrades could help students gives you a chance to see needs and plan for the future.

I enjoyed doing the action research. I think that this will be a tool that I regularly use in my teaching, both to assess my needs and to assess myself as a teacher. Knowing your faults is crucial to improving.