Week 2 Assignment, Part 1- Action research from scholar practitioners

Johnny Briseno and Dr. Kirk Lewis are the two scholars I chose to discuss for this week’s assignment. Johnny Briseno is the principal at Rancho Isabella Elementary School in Angleton ISD. I felt I could relate to him because I currently teach at the elementary level. One area of action research discussed by Mr. Briseno was peers telling peers. In other words, he wanted his teachers to learn from his other teachers. Mr. Briseno seems to feel strongly about always getting the facts, figuring out what problems his campus faces, the source of the problem, and looking at qualitative measures as part of his action research. He recommended this process as a good way to implement action research. By researching and allowing his staff to be part of a campus plan, it helps them to identify students that may be in academic trouble and allows the campus to take part in achieving their goals.

I really enjoyed hearing how Mr. Briseno runs his campus and implements his action research. I do feel like our campus principal utilizes the same actions for our campus and I’m glad to know that our district is moving in the same direction as other districts across our state.

Dr. Kirk Lewis is the Superintendent of Pasadena ISD. I chose to discuss Dr. Lewis for two reasons. One, I have family that work in his district and two; I liked to see where the action research fell from a Superintendent’s point of view. One topic of action research mentioned by Dr. Lewis was grant research. He discussed in some detail about their district’s current research through the Gates Foundation. This research allowed for his district to provide teachers with the knowledge to change their instruction delivery to ensure that students understand what they’re learning at a deeper level. Dr. Lewis believed the detailed, informal professional development and disaggregation of data was essential action research topics for his district to flourish. He recommended that educators should research what was practical to them and what they could directly apply to student learning.

Dr. Lewis was my favorite of all three speakers, as his thoughts seemed to be the most realistic. He talked about how teachers who hold a Bachelor’s degree don’t have the understanding that those who hold a Master’s degree have, regarding action research. He believes that action research will allow for student success over theoretical research.

Listening and watching administrators who have put action research into place is exciting for me to see. I believe this will help me move forward with my own research project and realize those goals that I have set for myself.