EDLD5301 Summary

            Experience is a driving factor in learning.  Humans retain knowledge of what they do far greater than what they hear or read.  Through the course of EDLD 5301 I have been required to blog regularly about my action research plan.  Before the course began I had no experience blogging and had not heard the term “action research”; both of these valuable disciplines are now a routine part of my career.

            I was asked a couple of years ago to make a wiki for my classroom.  I did it well but once it was built and checked off the list I forgot about it.  I have no knowledge of the traffic it gets and I don’t use it regularly.  When we were required to make a blog for EDLD 5301 I expected a similar experience.  The great difference however is that for five weeks we have been required to make weekly updates to our blog.  I’ve heard that seven times makes a habit and while I don’t know the validity of that statement it has become a habit of mine to blog.  In fact, it has piqued my interest in my class wiki and I will be using both, in different ways, to publish my findings in my action research.

             Action research is a discipline that I have learned to love.  It has occurred to me as I’ve learned about it through the course of this study that I’ve been doing action research, albeit haphazardly, since I began teaching four years ago.  Having a clear protocol to flesh out my “wonderings” is invaluable.  Previously, had I wanted to begin a project like the current community garden I would have begun with a question: “I wonder if these kids would like to get out and do something with their hands?...I wonder if it would help their self-esteem?...Their sense of community?...Their grades?....Attendance?... Involvement in school?”  It wouldn’t have occurred to me to take specific data to learn and to prove before, during, and after that these efforts are worthwhile and impacting.  Now, after having gotten thus far, and having the action research process normalized, it seems like a self-cheating practice to pursue such lengthy endeavors without obtaining data to share with constituents, superiors, and shareholders.

            As a teacher, the theory has been re-enforced that quality work that a student is guided through is far more impacting than either lectures or readings.