Week 2 Interviews....SO WE'RE NOT THE ONLY ONES!!

Our week 2 assignment in the 5301 Research course had us listen to 3 interviews and answer a couple of questions from 2 of the interviews. I chose to use the interviews of Mr. Briseno and Dr. Chargois. The following is what I took from the 2 interviews I chose.


I found this to be a very eye opening experience for me. During my first year of teaching, we had a new principal take over our campus and he was extremely data driven. He made sure that we knew everything about all of our students, especially our sub-populations. When I would speak to other teachers in my district, they always said that they did not have to do any of the things our principal was having us do. In less than two years, our campus went from being the lowest scoring middle school in the district on all of our district assessments to consistently finishing in first or second on every assessment. It was great to hear these gentlemen speak about action research because it helped me understand that this is growing trend in education. We weren't the only ones working this hard on data collection!

Mr. Briseno seemed to be very focused on quantitative data. He wants to know the numbers and look for patterns or areas for improvement. Dr. Chargois seems very strategic in his research methods. He plans things out and makes sure that any research being done in his district is being done to help increase student performance.


Data is our future. Businesses have been data mining for years now to predict what customers want and are likely to purchase based on their searches and demographics. I feel like education is starting to follow that trend now. We have so much student data available to us these days. Learning how to analyze and breakdown this data through action research inquiries is going to be key as we work towards making sure we meet the educational needs of ALL OF OUR STUDENTS. 

Blogs for Educational Leaders

Educational leaders can use blogs as a way to organize their thoughts and research. A blog can provide an educational leader a tool that they can use to reflect on the research they have done and track their own personal growth through their posts. Blogs also allow for educational leaders to get input from their followers. It's basically a modern day journal that we can share with a huge population of readers. 

Action Research

This week, one of the main concepts that I learned about was action research. So far I have learned that action research differs from traditional educational research methods in that it is led by the principal or educator that is looking for improvement. Instead of learning about research and findings made by someone else, action research allows an educational leader the opportunity to lead their own research and discovery. The educational leader decides what they will inquire about. This allows them the opportunity for self-reflection while at the same time, being able to conduct research on issues they are facing at their campus. Every leader will have their own unique challenges at their campus. Assuming that research done by someone at the university level will address everyone’s situation is unrealistic. This is where action research becomes the best option because it allows for educational leaders to address issues that may be unique to their situation. I see myself utilizing action research to address a variety of unique issues that my campus may face. Action research provides education leaders with the flexibility to research a large range of issues. I plan on using this to answers questions I might have about all of our student populations. By doing the inquiry and research, I will grow professionally while simultaneously working towards improving the campus as a whole. 

HELLO!

Hello everyone!

My name is Adrian Chapa and I will be using this blog to keep up with the research that I will be doing as I complete my Master's in Education Leadership program. 

Please follow my blog and I will do the same and try my best to provide as much feedback as possible.