As we have learned, action research can be defined as the way an issue or a conflict is solved by using collaborative work, not only by the action of an isolated individual, but by the input of a selected group. Such collaborative work is usually assisted by a professional in the researched issue, whose experience and knowledge give him/her the right tools to lead and guide the action research, but always with the aim to include all input of the people involved so together they can find the appropriate strategies, approaches, and techniques to solve the issue or conflict. Action research implies that researchers work with others to propose a new course of action to help their community improve what is not functioning properly.
In this case, we would focus our attention to discuss and propose possible solutions for a 21st century issue that all principals face in their campuses: Student behavior in the hallway. By using action research on this topic we will be able to reflect on everybody’s participations and find a common guide that can lead to a prompt solution for this problem. To start, I would like to invite you to watch the following video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVY0BO09deU. Although this blog focuses its attention on elementary students, this video would help us to reflect on the many problems that “student behavior in the hallways” brings within.
In the 21st century, blogs are not only to find solutions, but to share with others our reflection on a hot issue. Educational leaders have a great responsibility of sharing their thoughts and comments about educational issues like this one, so people who is not entirely related with this issue (or its solutions) can learn, and more important: have an opinion.
ReplyDeleteHallway misbehavior is a problem at my school as well. I like that you added a video- that was a nice touch and was a good addition to your blog. I hope to learn from your blog about ways to improve hallway behavior.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things that caught my attention during the videos of this week, was the comment that Dr. Jenkins and Dr. Arterbury shared with us, and that later was confirmed by Johnny Briseno, Principal in Angleton ISD: we do not have to reinvent the wheel, there are tons of articles and blogs out there that can save us a considerable amount of time when trying to deal with an issue. Reading those articles and implementing an idea that has already worked in another place with similar circumstances that in our school, is likely to have the same or better results than if we start from the scratch trying to find a solution. Therefore, I plan to use as many input from this discussion board and from the institutional articles out there that can help my inquiry.
ReplyDelete• Goals and objectives/outcomes of the research investigation
ReplyDeleteHallway events may influence children emotionally in a positive manner through encouragement and positive exchange or negatively because of associated aggression or behavior issues. Therefore, this action research project has target the following objectives:
1. Analyze the source of the problem in the common areas of the campus: main hallways, cafeteria and restrooms areas.
2. Provide teachers with positive and effective strategies to deal with behavior problems in these areas.
3. Provide teachers and school staff with enough knowledge and strategies to anticipate possible problems and crisis.
4. Inform all stakeholders in our school of the importance and benefits of having a good behavior politic for the hallways and common areas of the campus.
• Activities designed to achieve the objectives
ReplyDelete1. Observe the current situation of the campus, in terms of student behavior in the hallways and common areas, in order to know the source of the problem.
2. Analyze different articles related to this topic, including those that target similar situations in upper grades (middles and high schools).
3. Interview teachers, staff, and administrators of the school to know their thoughts about a good student’s behavior culture and their input to achieve it.
4. Use internet as a tool of research, to find relevant information about this topic.
5. Share information and strategies in teacher’s blogs, with parents and all school’s practitioners to know about strategies that they have observed, or know their input about the presented strategies for this research.
6. Once finished, publish the outcomes of this action research to all stakeholders.
• Resources and research tools needed for data gathering.
1) What Happens in Hallways? Behavior Patterns during Elementary School Transitions
A Prospectus for Doctoral Research
Department of Educational Psychology
University of Georgia
Athens, Georgia
by Donald Ratcliff
2) Internet tools: www.google.com , www.teacherstube.com, http://www.docstoc.com/ Fifth Street Elementary School - Expectations for Student Behavior
3) Mesquite Independent School District
Student Code of Conduct
2009-2010
4) Teacher, staff, and administrator interviews
• Process for monitoring the achievement of goals and objectives
ReplyDelete1. Constant monitoring of the hallways and common areas.
2. Input from staff and teachers.
3. Input from the students.
4. Comparison between the first observations and the current situation of these areas.
5. Publication of the project’s success or areas in need of improvement.
• Assessment instrument(s) to evaluate the effectiveness of the action research study
Comparison between the observations that were made at the beginning of the project and the current situation in the common areas, input from staff, teachers, and students about the noise in the common areas will let us know the areas of growth and the opportunities to improve. This written report will be shown to the SBDM committee in order to evaluate and discuss the effectiveness of the project and its future implementation.
Conference with Site Supervisor.
ReplyDeleteI have explained part of the conference that I had with my site supervisor when I shared with her my concern of having “a lot in my plate” with his project. I presented her the possible change in my project and we agreed that since this is a project involves all people in my campus and several strategies can be implemented at the same time by several people, the project should be left as it was at the beginning. We also discussed the critical importance of being consistent, just like one of my partners suggested, and how big it is the importance of keeping a good attitude for the implementation of this project. When we looked again at the plan, she encouraged me to include more input from practitioners than strategies from articles. She explained me that sometimes people who write these articles are not 100% dedicated to the educational world anymore, some of them are “instructional specialist” whose job is going from classroom to classroom or from campus to campus modeling strategies that might work in one or two classroom or campuses, but cannot work in others due to the different needs of each campus. I could not be more agree with this, because just like we saw during week one, sometimes the best information comes from real practitioners, people whose experience can be of excellent input because they can offer experiences that according to their practice, work. My site supervisor also asked me to see the project before I present it to the SBDM committee for approval. Although she expressed great confidence on the effectiveness of my research’s outcomes, she invited me to review it with her one last time before submitting it to the SBDM committee for its approval and implementation.