Week #2: What Did I Learn?

Week #2 topic, Research for Teachers has been very engaging. I have learned very important aspects of a leader in action when leading his/her own learning, and the thinking process to initiate an action research project.

As stated in Dana (2009): Leading your own learning is likely quite different from the majority of your past experiences in "sit and get" or "spray and pray" principal professional development" (p.29)

I have learned that there is a stage of wondering where leaders ask questions from real world issues that give him/her a better understanding of the environment as a whole.  

A leader have to be informed; a leader needs to read everything he/she can about the related problem in articles, periodicals, books, and in the internet; we as leaders have to also ask the people that have had similar experiences to know what was done and how effective those actions were.

I have also learned from one of the scholar's interview that we have to see both sides of the story, the quantitative and the qualitative sides. Many times we tend to rely on quantitative data, jumping into conclusions a little too early. We need to consider every aspect of the problem to be able to see the complete picture and make better and more educated decisions.

Also, I learned from the second scholar's interview that we need to perform research at district level, at campus level, at grade level, at a specific student level, and at specific objective level. Also, I learned that we need to look at data; to analyze what others have done in similar situations. I learned that we can do a lot of research that may look good in our resume, but if it is not practical, it does not do any good to the student learning.  

I learned about the nine passions: Staff development, Curriculum Development, Individual Teacher(s), Individual Student(s), Community/Culture Building, Leadership Skills, Management, School Performance, and Social Justice.