Supporting and Sustaining Improvement

After reading chapter 8, I have decided to apply the 3 strategies for Sustaining Improvement to my action research plan. The following is a description of what these strategies look like as it pertains to my Action Research Plan – Professional Development.

                     

Force Field Analysis – Assessment of the driving and resisting forces that affect change. The current situation with my organization is that resources are utilized to support teacher professional development that will assist in academic growth and student engagement and success. My proposed plan is that for the upcoming school year, my principal incorporates a couple of professional developments that will support the teachers academically, which in turn further minimize some behavioral issues, as well as assist teachers in helping their students be successful academically.

Driving Forces           

1)      Teachers who embrace change

2)      Teachers who are willing to participate in professional development on their own.

3)      Principal’s support

Resisting Forces

1)      Organization that thinks it knows best

2)      Teachers who are content with where they are

In order to implement this change, I will primarily need the full support of my principal, which I have been given, to research professional developments that will be beneficial for teachers. Due to the nature of the organization I work for, having full support of the organization is not completely necessary as each school, at times, works as individual entities.

Delphi Method – A panel of experts or people who answer questions about a problem, then respond to the same questions after seeing how others in the panel responded to the same group of questions. As stated in the Harris text, this strategy would be extremely time consuming, not just in the one area , but the entire strategy when it comes to my campus. There are only 12 teachers total, and with the population of students that we have, no one has time to respond electronically. I would have to modify this strategy to a survey or make it similar to the evaluations that we respond to at the end of the year for my organization. Even at the end of the year, it becomes an issue getting employees to respond to evaluation.

Nominal Group Technique – A non-judgmental way to build consensus that leads to school improvement. Although I never knew there was a name for this strategy, we often use this strategy on my campus when we discuss the Campus Improvement Plan. The only problem that I’ve noticed with this plan is that once we discuss the needs of the school during one meeting at the beginning of the school year, we never revisit any of our concerns. I do plan to incorporate this strategy along with following through on my action research plan. I will not do this with the entire group of teachers on my campus, but those teachers who are open and ready for change will be the group that I feel I would receive the greatest response from.