We’re moving into the last week of July (don’t kill the messenger) and hopefully, enjoying ourselves and indulging in some much needed self-care. Still, if your teacher-brain’s anything like mine, it may already be inciting mutiny with, what we call in Trini, outta timing comments: ‘Oh gosh, July done already? Only one month of holidays again??’ “Well, at least ah getting pay this week yes!’ ‘Hmmm….still…. I doh wanna hadda spend no money on clothes for work, nah.”
Before the downward spiral begins, switch gears. Close off the online KFC order, and open up a new document entitled: My Best School Year Ever. What do they say? Fake it till you feel it? Trust me 21st Century Educators, you’re going to be super-excited about the year ahead, knowing that we’re here for you. Even when you may not want us to be….like now….when you’re still on vacation…and we’re asking you to do something related to Academic year 23-24.
We’re not asking you to write an essay, neither are we encouraging you to be all frilly and Pollyanna-like: “I’m going to have the best Form 3 class, all my lessons will be well-planned, tech will not fail me-” Family, please. You and I have been doing this way too long, and we know the truth: you slay on the first day and then you do the best with what you’ve got.
Yet, that’s exactly my point: in the new academic year, you have to do YOUR BEST in the classroom. And no, your best isn’t using all your tried and trusted PPT presentations, copying/ pasting schemes of work, giving the same notes and (shudder), assessments. That is far from your best, it reeks of being jaded and excuses professional mediocrity. Sure, point fingers at the system, but let’s remember, your classroom is on YOU. You are the one who can take ACTION in your classroom: ACTION RESEARCH, I mean.
Defined by Efron and Ravid (2013) as “constructivist, situational, practical, systematic, and cyclical”, Action Research is inextricable from being a reflective practitioner. The authors posit that John Dewey, “recognized the central position of teachers in reforming education [...] and argued that educators need to test their ideas and put their emerging theories into action.”
Yes, feel that Diploma/ Degree in Education juice starting to flow through you again. Dewey, Schön...names that every educator knows (or should). Unfortunately, for many of us, the last Action Research (AR) we did, was for our course of study. It wasn’t meant to be that way and deep down inside, you know that too.
Now, let’s be clear. I’m not asking you to do a full-blown paper on an issue/problem in your class. Ain’t nobody got time for that (to write it or to read it). But I am asking you to IDENTIFY a specific area that needs improvement, with at least ONE class . And then, as we know from our studies, you need to cater for at least 2 cycles with your proposed intervention/s.
Let me break it down with my personal AR, conducted during the academic year 2022-3. I’m an MLA teacher for those who don’t know, specializing specifically in French and Spanish. After the first term, I noticed that one of my Form 1 French classes was straggling behind the other with the writing skill. So, reflective practitioner that I try to be, I committed to working on this skill with them through the remainder of the academic year. I varied the type of texts I asked them to write, making sure they were authentic and interesting: A Missing Pet Poster, An Ad for a House put up for Sale. I gave them linking words and showed them how to include them in a piece of writing; I posted model pieces of writing on their LMS platform and we deconstructed them together, highlighting useful phrases and terms they could use. Ah yes…my interventions…
Did they yield results? Well, I got such wonderfully written posters and ads, that I thought, surely, come End of Year, their results in the composition would be great...
They weren’t. I didn’t meet my target of 25% of students getting 75% and over in the composition section, or 75% of students getting 55% and over. In fact, my stats were much lower than I expected and yup, you betcha, I was helluva disappointed. I raged at them ( Just kidding! At their papers...), shook my fists, felt like a failure as a teacher and then...after a few fruity sangrias…..I got reflective. I even heard the nagging voice of my Dip. Ed lecturer: “Vikki, an action-research doesn’t have to show success, to be a success. It has to show ACCURATE, UNDOCTORED results, upon which, you can make informed decisions for the future.”
Yes, that was it. I faced the stats, I dried my eyes and I drank some water…lots of water (always rehydrate after imbibing). Cue Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger”, Rocky III from 1982 (my birth year) and I’m ready to go back to the drawing board. Like you, I’m opening a document for the Best School Year Ever, and Improving Writing is still my number 1 Action Research. Okay, actually, I’m more traditional and I’m opening my brand-new academic planner to write my AR in (it's so pretty with crisp pages!!).
But don’t miss my key point here: Not because your AR doesn’t go the way you expect it to, does it mean that you discard it, forget about it or move on to something else. In fact, more than ever, you should redouble your efforts and try new/ improved interventions.
To demonstrate what I mean, I reflected on my Improving Writing in French AR. I realized that I improved my students’ writing by PROCESS; meaning that they’d been allowed to revise, review and edit compositions as many times as they needed before final submission.There’d been no time/ resources constraints imposed on them. Therefore, I had never truly focused on writing as PRODUCT and under test conditions. Come to think of it, I’d even based my targets on conditions I hadn’t really trained my students for. Going into the new academic year, I know my interventions will have to involve a test-like environment and a time-limit. A new 2 cycle plan is forming in my mind.
And that’s really all I’m asking you to do this week. Identify an Action Research you’d like to conduct in the new academic year. In that Best School Year Ever document you just opened, give AR a sub-heading of its own. Even if you can’t formulate the perfect research questions, or envision what your interventions are going to be yet, pick a topic and start to gather some information on it. Read more about it, scan through some online forums that discuss it…sacrifice some of that mindless Instagram scrolling and posting. Yes, yes, the world knows you’re on vacation...how many sunny beach pics do you need to share, or much less, see?
We’re not trying to kill your vibe or spoil your fun. But like you, we’re 21st Educators. We’re proactive and prepared. We may not always get it right, but we’re committed to reflecting, revising and trying again. We’re committed to on-going Action Research, and you should be too.
