Action research is a vital tool that allows teachers to evaluate their teaching performance, identify problem areas, formulate an inquiry regarding this problem area, research the inquiry, either online or through other educational journals, and put into action a plan that will lead to the solution to their problem area. Action research is not admission of poor teacher performance. Instead, it is a tool that allows teachers to pause and reflect, in the midst of a seemingly endless array of distractions, on their performance and the need for continual "tweaking" of their teaching style, lesson plans, content and delivery of content in an attempt to engage the student and thus create a healthy and interesting learning environment.
Currently, my campus utilizes Professional Learning Communities as a way for teachers to meet on a regularly scheduled basis and discuss concerns such as failure rates, tardies, excessive absences and lack of motivation on the part of the students. Although our subject areas may differ (I teach a technology elective, and those teachers in my PLC, although not directly teaching my same course, struggle with some of the same student / learning issues), the teachers in my PLC all have the same goal: to raise the success rate of our students, be it in the classroom, or in their lives in general. Through my campus PLC, I have learned that raising questions, seeking solutions, and sharing ideas with colleagues, in other words, Action Research, is a useful tool.
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