Draft Action Research Report 1

The Power of Walk Throughs/ Do Walk Throughs Have a Purpose?

Needs Assessment

When I was trying to come up with my action research topic, I met with my principal and assistant principal and we discussed needs for our school.  During that disucussion my principal shared that we have many teachers who they feel are not doing a very good job teaching, but she felt that she was just as much to blame because there was really no consistant accountability.  I believe their thinking was stemmed from our new superintendent.  It is very obvious that he is very passionate about administrators being involved and being seen on a daily basis,by the kids, teachers, and parents.  When he came in, there was no evidence of that in any form or fashion. A big red flag to him was that there was very little, if any, proof of administrators doing regular walk throughs.  He took it upon himself to visit the schools and informally evaluate how the teachers were doing.  After reflecting on his observations, he reguired all principals and assisntant principals to do atleast five walk throughs a week with proper documentation.   This was a very successful tool for him at his previous district and he was eager to implement it within our district.  After sharing the new idea of walk throughs with our staff, it was already getting a bad rap because most have never experienced them.  Those that have never had walk throughs, got the wrong perception right off the bat which caused them to automatically have a negative attitude towards the idea.  This is why my principal and assistant principal felt very strongly about me completing my action research over “The Power of Walk Throughs.”

Objectives and Vision of the action research project.

The goal of my action research is to gather perspectives of administrative walk throughs, and be able to provide evidence that walk throughs have a positive effect on teacher performance.  My vision and objective is to change the attitudes of teachers and make them see that walk throughs are powerful.  Walk throughs hold everyone accountable, and keep administrators involved with what is going on all throughout the school that they lead.  

Review of the Literature and Action Research Strategy

As I stated earlier When I was trying to come up with my action research topic, I met with my principal and assistant principal and we discussed needs for our school.  During that disucussion my principal shared that we have many teachers who they feel are not doing a very good job teaching, but she felt that she was just as much to blame because there was really no consistant accountability.  I believe their thinking was stemmed from our new superintendent.  It is very obvious that he is very passionate about administrators being involved and being seen on a daily basis,by the kids, teachers, and parents.  When he came in, there was no evidence of that in any form or fashion. A big red flag to him was that there was very little, if any, proof of administrators doing regular walk throughs.  He took it upon himself to visit the schools and informally evaluate how the teachers were doing.  After reflecting on his observations, he reguired all principals and assisntant principals to do atleast five walk throughs a week with proper documentation.   This was a very successful tool for him at his previous district and he was eager to implement it within our district.  After sharing the new idea of walk throughs with our staff, it was already getting a bad rap because most have never experienced them.  Those that have never had walk throughs, got the wrong perception right off the bat which caused them to automatically have a negative attitude towards the idea.  This is why my principal and assistant principal felt very strongly about me completing my action research over “The Power of Walk Throughs.”  It was really interesting researching articles in reguards to my topic and made me even more excited about my project.  Ginsberg and Murphy stated something very beneficial to my research.  They said “Administrators usually visit classrooms only when they need to conduct formal teacher evaluations. A few, however, make a practice of stopping in and walking

through a few classrooms every day. These frequent, short, unscheduled visits can

foster focused, reflective, and collaborative adult learning; generally, teachers

welcome the opportunities for feedback and discussion that walkthroughs provide.” (Ginsberg & Murphy) Also, in Nancy Protheroe’s research report she list several ways as to WHY you should use classroom walkthroughs.  Two reasons that really stood out to me were that “administrators establish themselves as campus leaders and instructional mentors, influencing teaching, learning, and ongoing school renewal; and students see that both administrators and teachers value instruction and learning.”  (Protheroe, March/April 2009)  Another article, Classroom Walkthroughs to Improve Teaching and Learning  by Kacher, Stout, and Edwards had a list of benefits of conducting classroom walkthroughs that I can not wait to use in my paper.  Even more notably, the benefits were broken down by what the school, teachers, students, and observers gain from walk throughs.  (Kachur, Stout, & Edwards, 2010)  I am really looking forward to using my articles for my paper.   

Works Cited

Ginsberg, M. B., & Murphy, D. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://teacherweb.com: http://teacherweb.com/MA/Teachers21/JerryGoldberg/howwalkthroughsopendoors.pdf

Kachur, D. S., Stout, J. A., & Edwards, C. L. (2010). Classroom Walkthroughs to Improve Teaching and Learning. Eye On Education, 1-23.

Protheroe, N. (March/April 2009). Using Classroom Walkthroughs to Improve Instruction. Principal , 30-34.

Articulate the Vision

I shared my vision for this research with all of the staff at my school.  I informed them of exactly what I was doing and why.  Right after I shared this with them, I started right off by giving them a survey to voice their opinions about the topic.  My research does not pertain to parents, or community members outside of the school so therefore I did not share it with them.  This action research will hopefully effect the students of our schools in a positive way because they will see administrators more involved in everyday activities, and their teachers will surely be doing their job to the best of their ability because of the accountability.  I will keep staff updated on the progress of my research through everyday communication, my blog (http://gannsactionresearch.blogspot.com/), and at faculty meetings (if needed).

Manage the organization

When starting this action research I honestly did not have a clue how I was going to complete an action research.  I didn’t even know where to begin, but thankfully one of our assignments was to create an action plan. I have followed my action research plan just like I intended, with a few “minor” changes a long the way.  This is my “strategy used for organizing the implementation of the project” focusing on specific action steps, people involved, timeline, resources needed, and exactly how I would evauluate each step to make sure my objective was being met.

Action Planning Template
Goal:  The goal for my action research is to gather perspectives on administrative walk throughs, and be able to provide evidence that walk throughs have a positive effect on teacher performance.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
I will create and conduct a survey for teachers before formal evaluations begin and when administrators first start implementing walk throughs.	Linza Gann and all teachers willing to participate in the research.	September	Teacher survey	I will collect and analyze all of the teacher surveys to gather their ideas and perceptions of administrative walk throughs.
I plan to interview at least 5 teachers/ administrators at the end of the year to see if their thoughts have changed regarding their perceptions of administrative walk thoughts from the beginning of the year.	Linza Gann and 5 teachers/ administrators chosen to be interviewed.	May 2012	The interviewee, myself, interview questions, and notepad.	I will read over the interviews and informally compare the teacher’s current thoughts to their thoughts from the beginning of the year about administrative walk throughs.  I will make note of any variations.
I will strive to find an article related to my topic of administrative walk throughs on a professional internet site to gain insightful information.	Linza Gann	September 2011-May 2012	Internet access, computer, and links to professional websites	I will read through some articles so that I can gain information on my topic.
I plan to gather quantitative data from all teachers (or those that agree to participate) from last year’s score on evaluation, without walk throughs, to this year’s score on evaluations after implementation of walk throughs.	Linza Gann and all teachers willing to participate in the research.	January 2012-May2012	Paper or computer to record quantitative data for comparison.	I will gather the confidential data, comparison of scores, from all participating teachers.  I will then figure out the exact difference in the numbers and let this be a guide to my conclusion of the affect walk throughs have on teacher performance via formal evaluations.  I will make sure I use teachers that had Mrs. Dunlap as an evaluator both years for the scores to be valid.
I will conduct the same survey I did at the beginning of the year to the same teachers.  I will add some self-evaluation questions on the end of this one.	Linza Gann and all teachers willing to participate in the research.	April  2012	Teacher survey from beginning of the year, and blank teacher survey with the additional questions.	I will analyze the differences in the responses from the beginning of the year to the end regarding administrative walk throughs. I will also read over the self-evaluation questions.
I will document the qualitative and quantitative data I found during my action research study.	Linza Gann	September 2011- May 2012	All data and information gathered during study.  Computer to record results.	I will take all the data from the whole action research time frame, come to a conclusion, and record findings.
I will continuously reflect on my action research blog about the process and progress of my action research.	Linza Gann	September 2011- May 2012	Computer and data to be reflected on.	I will post on my blog things that I am learning, still wondering about, concerns, progress, mishaps, and interesting things that take place during the duration of my action research project. Continuously posting on my blog will allow me to always be able to reflect on my first, and hopefully beneficial, action research project.

Manage Operations

In order to successfully manage this action research, I have and will continue to follow my plan to the best of my ability.  The plan itself sets my priorities so that I must complete specific steps by a specific time.  When I have a deadline, I meet it.  As with anything though, things come up and you have to adapt to your situation.  Although my plan has specifics and I would like to stick to them, my plan is flexible so if changes need to be made they can be.  I used, and continue to use, the needs assessment and data to guide my research and make changes that need to be made.  I will continue to communicate throughout the remaining part of my research with all of the staff at  our school.  I will communicate with them about the progress of the research and will ask for their feedback as needed.  Thus far, I have not come across any conflicts with my research, but if conflict does arise I will handle is appropriately.  I will build consenses on my research topic when I complete the project.  I plan to share my action research project and the outcome at an upcoming faculty meeting or during staff development time.  Since my research project is based on a need for our school, it would be a great staff development opportunity specific to us. 

Respond to Community Interest and Needs

My action research is intended to improve ALL administrators and staff therefore it should effect all students reguardless of students with special needs and/or  students with diverse backgrounds.  Walk throughs should only encourage teachers to improve themselves everyday in their teaching which will hopefully be reflected in students performance and success.  My project also holds administrators accountable for being more involved with their staff and the students.  My project effects the community only by creating successful leaders for the future.

Much Better...

While really reflecting on my action research and making changes as needed, I realized a major change I needed to make was my vision/goal.  I was reviewing over my actin plan template and I was asking myself what my real goal was for this research.  So instead trying to sound all wordy and basically confusing, I "changed" my goal.  My new goal states what I really tried to say at the beginning of this research.  I am proud to say that I changed this, "The goal for my action research is to gather the advantages and/or disadvantages of administrative walk throughs, and gain knowledge of the affect walk throughs have on teacher performance through formal evaluations" to this, "The goal for my action research is to gather perspectives of administrative walk throughs, and be able to provide evidence that walk throughs have an affect on teacher performance." 

Survey...

One of my action steps for my research was to create, give, and analyze a survey.  The survey was about the feelings and thoughts of teachers in reguards to administrative walk throughs.  I had a great response on the surveys and several suggestions from teachers that would benefit the quality of  walk throughs.  The majority of the teachers that participated like the idea of walk throughs and ALL thought they were beneficial.  Most said walk throughs keep them on their toes all day long.  The question, "o you feel walk throughs encourage you to be more creative in your classroom in reguards to the activites you choose?" got an equal amount of yes and no's, which was interesting to me.  Lot's eel that walk throughs help them actively monitor more.  It was interesting that the majority said walk throughs frustrate them and about half said walk throughs make them nervous.  Walk throughs should only be frustrating if the principal is ONLY saying negative things, and is always coming when they KNOW you are not ready.  In that case, I would try to fix the things my principal feels negatively about and ALWAYS be prepared for a walk through.  Reading these surveys were very eye opening as a future administrator.  I will administer this same survey at the END of the year and look forward to seeing how opinions may change. 

Reflection...

As I reflect back on this course, I believe it was very beneficial to me as a future administrator.  I can honestly say that I was not looking forward to this class because of its name, Research, but I truly enjoyed it because I can now apply a type of “ongoing, relevant” research that will benefit me tremendously. 

I learned several benefits about action research.  First, there is really no “RIGHT” way to do it, and it is all based on the needs of YOUR staff, YOUR school, YOUR kids, YOUR needs, and YOUR circumstances.  Another benefit is that there really is no failing at research.  When you are reflecting on things that aren’t quite the way you want them, research and implementing a plan of action can only provide opportunities to make things better.   And, what better way to improve yourself than to be humble enough to reflect on your teaching or practice and realize that change is needed.

I learned that administrative inquiry is when a leader constantly reflects on his or her practices, questions what is working or not working, and creates a plan for changes that need to be made.  After implementation of those changes, the leader assesses how the plan worked or did not work and then makes further adjustments from there.  For a leader practicing administrative inquiry, this is an ongoing process and a way of doing their job.  It is not something “extra” to do, but just a different way of thinking.  When a leader finds solutions and positive results from his inquiry, he shares them with others because he wants others to have the same success.  A great point that was made in the Dana text was that the principal must be the “head learner” of his school (Dana, pg.2).  If a leader is constantly reflecting, then he is constantly seeking change, advice, approaches, and new ideas.  He is always challenging himself to learn more to create the best school that he can for his staff, students, parents, and community.  If a leader practices administrative inquiry, he is always ready to tackle a challenge or situation that comes up and feels confident about the process of making important changes.

 I also learned the difference between action research, or administrative inquiry, and traditional research.  A main difference is who is making the decisions. With action research the ones involved on a daily basis are the ones making decisions and in traditional educational research “outsiders” or people that are not involved in the school on a daily basis make the decisions.  I really liked the Dana text (pg.8) when it said the focus needs to be on improving the “schools from the inside out rather than the outside in.”  Traditional research is when someone else is telling you what to do, things to try, steps to follow that do not even know what is going on or what your situation is.  Action research is when YOU, as the leader, realize, reflect, and make decisions based on the needs of your staff, students and situations you encounter. 

This class also introduced me to many examples of inquiry in many different areas that really opened my eyes to how open ended action research is and how you can apply it to just about anything.  I learned about nine areas of importance such as staff and curriculum development, individual teachers and students, school culture and community, leadership, management, school performance, and social justice and equity issues (Dana, 179-186). 

When implementing an action research topic, it is very important to have a specific plan so you know exactly what is needed for your action research, and so you can work towards your ultimate goal.  You should know the specific steps your will take, who is responsible for those steps, a timeline and resources needed for those steps, and how you will evaluate and reflect on the steps you have taken to benefit your research. 

I learned different types of strategies to help support and sustain my action research.  The three I learned about are Force Field Analysis, Delphi Method, and the Nominal Group Technique (Harris, 94-97).

One of the most important things I learned from this class is how important it is to collaborate with other peers or people in the same position.  You can gain so much from other people’s insights, ideas, comments, concerns, and experience.  I learned that you can collaborate through blogs, emails, interviews, discussion boards, meetings, etc.  There are many opportunities that I will be motivated to participate in because of the benefits that come from it. 

All in all this class was a great success for me.  I am excited to continue my action research and reflect on others to gain much insight.  I know this will better me as a teacher and future administrator. 

References:

Dana, N.F. (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge: The principal as action researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Harris, S., Edmonson, S., & Combs, J. (2009). Examining what we do to improve our schools: 9 steps from analysis to action. Larchmont, N.Y.: Eye on Education.

Revisions...

I made a view minor changes to my action research plan thanks to imput from peers, and my site supervisor. These changes brought to my attention that my goal needed a revision as well.  So, my goal is slightly different with the same concept in mind.  I encourage you, as I update my blog on the progress of my action research, to give me constructive criticism and any ideas or thoughts you have. 

Revised Action Research Plan...

Action Planning Template
Goal:  The goal for my action research is to gather data based on teacher input focusing on administrative walkthroughs, and utilize formal evaluations to have a better understanding of the impact it has teacher performance.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
I will create and conduct a survey for teachers before formal evaluations begin and when administrators first start implementing walk throughs.	Linza Gann and all teachers willing to participate in the research.	September	Teacher survey	I will collect and analyze all of the teacher surveys to gather their ideas and perceptions of administrative walk throughs.
I plan to interview at least 5 teachers half way through the year to see if their thoughts have changed regarding their perceptions of administrative walk thoughts from the beginning of the year.	Linza Gann and 5 teachers chosen to be interviewed.	January	The interviewee, myself, interview questions, and notepad.	I will read over the interviews and informally compare the teacher’s current thoughts to their thoughts from the beginning of the year about administrative walk throughs.  I will make note of any variations.
I will strive to find an article related to my topic of administrative walk throughs on a professional internet site to gain insightful information.	Linza Gann	September 2011-May 2012	Internet access, computer, and links to professional websites	I will read through some articles so that I can gain information on my topic.
I plan to gather quantitative data from all teachers (or those that agree to participate) from last year’s score on evaluation, without walk throughs, to this year’s score on evaluations after implementation of walk throughs.	Linza Gann and all teachers willing to participate in the research.	January 2012-May2012	Paper or computer to record quantitative data for comparison.	I will gather the confidential data, comparison of scores, from all participating teachers.  I will then figure out the exact difference in the numbers and let this be a guide to my conclusion of the affect walk throughs have on teacher performance via formal evaluations.  I will make sure I use teachers that had Mrs. Dunlap as an evaluator both years for the scores to be valid.
I will conduct the same survey I did at the beginning of the year to the same teachers.  I will add some self-evaluation questions on the end of this one.	Linza Gann and all teachers willing to participate in the research.	May 2012	Teacher survey from beginning of the year, and blank teacher survey with extra questions.	I will analyze the differences in the responses from the beginning of the year to the end regarding administrative walk throughs. I will also read over the self-evaluation questions.
I will document the qualitative and quantitative data I found during my action research study.	Linza Gann	September 2011- May 2012	All data and information gathered during study.  Computer to record results.	I will take all the data from the whole action research time frame, come to a conclusion, and record findings.
I will continuously reflect on my action research blog about the process and progress of my action research.	Linza Gann	September 2011- May 2012	Computer and data to be reflected on.	I will post on my blog things that I am learning, still wondering about, concerns, progress, mishaps, and interesting things that take place during the duration of my action research project. Continuously posting on my blog will allow me to always be able to reflect on my first, and hopefully beneficial, action research project.

Action Planning Template...

Action Planning Template
Goal:  The goal for my action research is to gather the advantages and/or disadvantages of administrative walk throughs, and gain knowledge of the the affect walk throughs have on teacher performance through formal evaluations.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
I will create and conduct a survey for teachers before formal evaluations begin and when administrators first start implementing walk throughs.	Linza Gann and all teachers willing to participate in the research.	September	Teacher survey	I will collect and analyze all of the teacher surveys to gather their ideas and perceptions of administrative walk throughs.
I plan to interview at least 5 teachers half way through the year to see if their thoughts have changed regarding their perceptions of administrative walk thoughts from the beginning of the year.	Linza Gann and 5 teachers chosen to be interviewed.	January	The interviewee, myself, interview questions, and notepad.	I will read over the interviews and informally compare the teacher’s current thoughts to their thoughts from the beginning of the year about administrative walk throughs.  I will make note of any variations.
I will strive to find an article related to my topic of administrative walk throughs on a professional internet site to gain insightful information.	Linza Gann	September 2011-May 2012	Internet access, computer, and links to professional websites	I will read through some articles so that I can gain information on my topic.
I plan to gather quantitative data from all teachers (or those that agree to participate) from last year’s score on evaluation, without walk throughs, to this year’s score on evaluations after implementation of walk throughs.	Linza Gann and all teachers willing to participate in the research.	January 2012-May2012	Paper or computer to record quantitative data for comparison.	I will gather the confidential data, comparison of scores, from all teachers.  I will then figure out the exact difference in the numbers and let this be a guide to my conclusion of the affect walk throughs have on teacher performance via formal evaluations.
I will conduct the same survey I did at the beginning of the year to the same teachers.	Linza Gann and all teachers willing to participate in the research.	May 2012	Teacher survey from beginning of the year, and blank teacher survey.	I will analyze the differences in the responses from the beginning of the year to the end regarding administrative walk throughs.
I will document the qualitative and quantitative data I found during my action research study.	Linza Gann	September 2011- May 2012	All data and information gathered during study.  Computer to record results.	I will take all the data from the whole action research time frame, come to a conclusion, and record findings.
I will continuously reflect on my action research blog about the process and progress of my action research.	Linza Gann	September 2011- May 2012	Computer and data to be reflected on.	I will post on my blog things that I am learning, still wondering about, concerns, progress, mishaps, and interesting things that take place during the duration of my action research project. Continuously posting on my blog will allow me to always be able to reflect on my first, and hopefully beneficial, action research project.