Collaboration and Your Personal Action Research Plan

Project description
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Application: Collaboration and Your Personal Action Research Plan
Professional learning communities (PLCs) help to connect and network teaching professionals by providing scheduled time for teachers to share their dilemmas, passions, student concerns, data-gathering ideas, and other valuable information that can lend to the success of an action research plan. As you learned from this week’s Learning Resources, teacher-inquirers who engage in collaboration find a crucial source of energy and support that keeps them going and sustains their work. Consequently, teacher-inquirers rely on the support of colleagues in their teacher inquiry journey. Based on your readings this week, devise a plan for how you will collaborate with colleagues as you engage in action research. Share your own perceptions of the importance of collaboration in teacher inquiry processes, providing evidence from this week’s Learning Resources. If needed, you also may continue to refine your wondering question. You will submit this plan, Part D, “Ways I Will Collaborate With Colleagues as I Engage in Action Research,” along with Parts E, F, G, and H in Week 5.

Learning Resources
Prior Knowledge
Consider the following profiles of two teachers—”Always Collaborating Annie” and “Go It Alone Gail”.
“Always Collaborating Annie” constantly seeks out others to give her feedback and provide insights into her teaching. In fact, she does not feel confident teaching a lesson if she has not run it by at least one other colleague formally or informally to garner ideas and test out her lesson plan by describing it aloud. Rarely does Annie ever take any actions in her teaching without utilizing her colleagues as a sounding board for any changes to practice she is considering.

“Go It Alone Gail” rarely takes the opportunity to discuss her teaching with colleagues. She often eats lunch with students and is rarely found in the teachers’ room, so she has few opportunities to engage in professional dialogue with others during the school day. Because she coaches the girls’ cross-country team and rushes to practice right after the final bell, she has few opportunities to engage in professional dialogue with others after school. Although the idea of collaboration appeals to Gail, theoretically, she secretly admits to herself that she is glad her busy schedule precludes her from discussions with colleagues, as she is very action oriented and likes her teaching to keep moving in new directions. She could easily see herself getting frustrated by collaboration because she thinks it requires consensus and agreement and could potentially slow any changes to teaching practice that she is considering.
Are you more like “Always Collaborating Annie” or “Go It Alone Gail?” What implications do you think the ways you describe yourself as a collaborator have for your engagement in action research?
Required Readings
• Course Text: The Reflective Educator’s Guide to Classroom Research

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o Chapter 3, “To Collaborate or Not to Collaborate: That Is the Question!”
Book Excerpt: Dana, N. F., & Yendol-Hoppey, D. (2008). Facilitating the professional development of others: The role of action research and professional learning communities. In The reflective educator’s guide to professional development: Coaching inquiry-oriented learning communities (pp. 1–20). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Copyright 2008 by Sage Publications. Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications via the Copyright Clearance Center.
Article: DuFour, R. (2004). What is a “professional learning community”? Educational Leadership, 61(8), 6–11. Retrieved from the Walden Library using the Education Research Complete database.
Note: This article can be found in the Walden Library databases, accessed from your myWalden page. Select Research Databases and under the title Search for journals, type the name of the journal in the box next to the pull-down menu that reads “Title equals.” Then search for the appropriate year and issue number to locate your article. As an alternative, after selecting Research Databases, click on the A to Z List of Databases to find a complete list of databases. Search the database (included after each article citation) using the article’s title and/or author(s).
Media
• Course Media: “Dial-A-Researcher, Week 3—Collaboration” (approximate length: 5 minutes). Teacher-inquirers share tips for making the most of professional learning communities within the teacher inquiry process and share how peer collaboration supported their own inquiry process.
o Transcript for Dial-A-Researcher Week 3: Collaboration, Elementary School
o Transcript for Dial-A-Researcher Week 3: Collaboration, Middle School
o Transcript for Dial-A-Researcher Week 3: Collaboration, High School
Optional Resources
• Book: Clauset, K. H., Lick, D. W., & Murphey, C. U. (2009). Schoolwide action research for professional learning communities: Improving student learning through the whole-faculty study groups approach. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

• Book: Hord, S. M. (1997). Professional learning communities: Communities of continuous inquiry and improvement. Austin, TX: Southwest Educational Development Laboratory.

• Article: Kruse, S., Louis, K. S., & Bryk, A. (1994). Building professional community in schools. Issues in Restructuring Schools, 6, 3–6.
Reprinted by permission of Wisconsin Center for Education Research via the Copyright Clearance Center.

• Book: Roberts, S. M., & Pruitt, E. Z. (2009). Schools as professional learning communities: Collaborative activities and strategies for professional development (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

• Book: Whitford, B. L., & Wood, D. (2010). Teachers learning in community: Realities and possibilities. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Application: Completing Your Personal Action Research Plan
As you explored in this week’s Learning Resources, the process of writing about your inquiry helps to clarify what you learned about your students and reflect on your research findings. Consider how your writing and sharing are integral to the action research cycle. Also, consider how choosing words that accurately reflect your research findings may result in recognizing something about students and their learning you might otherwise have overlooked. This new knowledge could potentially spark a new inquiry or guide you to refine your current inquiry plan. Think about what you hope to learn about your students when you implement your Personal Action Research Plan. Take a moment to reflect on the following:
• When and how will you accomplish writing your inquiry findings?
• What is your plan for sharing your inquiry findings?
• What is your tentative timeline for implementing your action research plan?
This week you will finalize Part D, E, and F of your Personal Action Research Plan and complete Parts G and H as follows:
• Part G: My Plan for Sharing My Action Research With Colleagues—Articulate a plan for sharing your learning with others.
• Part H: Tentative Timeline for Implementing—Articulate a month-by-month or week-by-week plan for implementing your action research plan (see example in the course text).
Application Rubric:Visit http://inside.waldenu.edu/c/Student_Faculty/StudentFaculty_970.htm and select your current enrollment date and then your specialization to view a rubric for the Application.
Submit all parts of the Personal Action Research Plan as one document to the assignment submission link by Sunday of Week 5. This document should include your revised Parts A–C, along with Parts D–H. Refer to the Course Weekly Planner for suggested page lengths.
Reminder: Use APA format and include a title page, in-text citations, and a reference page.
This week you will finalize Part D, E, and F of your Personal Action Research Plan and complete Parts G and H as follows:

Part G: My Plan for Sharing My Action Research With Colleagues—Articulate a plan for sharing your learning with others.
Part H: Tentat