Overall Reflections: Hurdles to Overcome
In teaching, there are always difficulties and limitations, and this seems to hold true of classroom action research as well. In looking back on my own project as a whole, there were some hurdles that came up repeatedly. Given the opportunity, I would have made changes in a few areas.
- Struggling to grasp the big picture early on. As someone new to teaching and to action research, I spent hours attempting to determine how best to design the project for my students. Although I was given the opportunity to review the completed research projects of other colleagues, I often felt as though I was fumbling through the research process because I did not take the time before beginning to really understand how each step connected with the others. Looking back, I would have taken time before even beginning my own research to read and explore a handful of action research projects written by experienced educators. Dedicating time to observe more seasoned researchers would have given me the time and energy later on to focus on my particular students’ needs,
- Lack of time. The most frustrating aspects of my project was that there never seemed to be enough time to implement the lessons needed. Were I to do this project again, I would take a realistic account of the time needed to address the students’ needs appropriately, and then evaluate how much time would be available in the classroom for implementation. I realized too late that the growth I was trying to initiate in my students was the kind that usually takes months, yet I tried to pack it into a few lessons. I think that if I had been more aware of the time requirements and limitations, I would have narrowed the scope of the project more, or made adjustments earlier on instead of in the middle of the research.
- Not being in full control. Another major challenge for me throughout this research project was not being in full control. The combination of my personal perfectionistic tendencies and my newness to the very organic nature of the action research process made for a learning curve for me in my ability to let the cards fall as they may. For example, as a student teacher, I did not have the final say as to the daily schedule. Although my cooperating teacher was very supportive and often open to altering the day’s plan, I failed to consider the practical limitations of not having full authority to adjust the schedule at the last minute. I began to realize this part of the way through Phase II, when we simply would run over the allotted time for the day’s lesson. The more I was focused on fitting a lesson into the set time (usually an hour or less), the less I was able to give full attention to the students and their progress. Often, it was feedback or whole-group discussion time that was left out. If I were to repeat this project, I would be more mindful of the probability of things not going according to plan, and have an alternate courses of action in case it became a major issue.