My Reflections

"Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose." - American Writer, Zora Neale Hurston


I think Zora hit the nail on the head, research is curiosity performed in a very organized and official way. Just in the preparation itself, it takes time to consider a top, formulate a plan, and to begin to act on it; sometimes being very tedious, involved and at times unorganized, trying to plan the right steps in the right order. As I reflect back, I realized that in order to make good on my ARP, I have to see it through and planning is the most important part. We all know at any given time, our plans may take a turn in any direction, but it’s all a part of the game. Through the resources we have, the friendships we’ve built and good communication, we are all on the road to success. 

As I developed my 8 steps from analysis to action from the book “Examining What We Do to Improve Our Schools,” I’m reminded of the process it took to form a compilation of what I hope to investigate, accomplish and gain from my action research. This was a detailed view of examining my ARP and a good guideline to help me along the way. Throughout this class I know I have relied heavily on my classmates to critique my work, give me feedback and share their work as well so that we could all draw from each other as valued resources. The blogs and the facebook pages that we setup have both been a tremendous help in discovering issues needing to be addressed, a source of all kinds of information and encouragement.


The discussion board and assignments that we have are very beneficial in helping gain insight on how to plan our action research. The discussion board allows us to freely explain our research and reflect back on the week we’ve had and our experiences and hopefully in the process help others. The weekly assignments have been a help in keeping our mind focus on all aspects of our action research. There are so many ways to look at our plans and objectives, but the weekly assignments keep us grounded and on track with what needs to be done and how. 


When researching different aspects of my plan I ran across previous years of student’s work on their ARP. That in itself was very encouraging to see. Action research is truly an expedition and one that I am ready to take!


Sandra Harris, Stacey Edmonson, and Julie Combs (2010). Examining What We Do to Improve Our Schools: 8 Steps from Analysis to Action. Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education.


Sandra Harris, Stacey Edmonson, and Julie Combs (2010). Force Field Analysis. Retrieved from http://mindtools.com