The purpose of my action research in Deaf Education

As a deaf educator, one main goal in my professional career is to advocate for deaf students and work with schools to find creative solutions to bridge the communicational gap between deaf students and their teachers through, not only better instructional practices, but also, through a better understanding of the deaf culture, greater parental involvement, and deaf professionals in the school.

I am firmly convinced that research is needed in order to identify, understand, and propose solutions to the various dilemmas that affect the deaf education programs. An urgent task to be addressed in research practices is determining the effectiveness of the current procedures to determine qualifications of teachers and interpreters working with deaf students, and means to increase participation of deaf professionals in careers related to education. A personal experience may further illustrate my point; two years ago, I attended a State Conference for Deaf Educators, however, only 11 of the 200 members were deaf (including myself). In addition, many of the “deaf/hearing educators” required sign language interpreters because they were not proficient in sign language. The question that had been bothering me since I was in elementary school came back to me in the same simple terms and unfortunately, remains without response; if deaf educators are not proficient in sign language, how are they able to communicate and teach deaf students effectively?

Research can bring new light regarding key questions; does our current educational regulation sets up appropriate procedures to qualify teachers to work with deaf students? Are there adequate workshops, trainings, and staff development activities that focus on improving sign language skills for deaf educators and enhance their knowledge about the psychology of deafness? Are our current teacher evaluation measures a true reflection of the teacher’s capacity to teach deaf students? School leaders need to take an active role in initiating a conversation about these issues and advocate for research that can bring new ideas about how to increase recruitment of deaf teachers and administrators, and ways to bring the parents of the deaf to become active participants in the educational process of their children.

I am convinced that action research is needed in order to identify, understand, and propose solutions to the various dilemmas affecting deaf education programs. My focus will be on determining the effectiveness of current teacher qualifications and interpreters working with deaf students, and identifying means to increase participation of deaf professionals in education-related careers.

This research may hold significant benefits for school leaders in charge of deaf programs. School leaders need to take an active role in initiating a conversation about such issues and advocate for research that can bring benefits to educators working with deaf students, such as new ideas for increasing recruitment of deaf teachers and administrators, development and implementation of effective staff development, and ways to have teachers of deaf students become active participants in the deaf students’ educational process for achievement at numerous levels.

What specific challenges do I foresee in implementing my action research on campus ?

Week 4 Discussion: What specific challenges do you foresee in implementing your action research ? How do you plan to address those challenges ?

#1 Challenge: Unexpected teacher absence.

Solution: Email to the teacher to reschedule the interview and observation.

# 2 Challenge: Teacher’s and interpreter’s comfort for observation.

Solution: Meet with teacher before the observation to explain the purpose of observation and ask their preference of observation setting (observer’s seat arrangement).

#3Challenge: Teacher understanding my role as internship and observer and do not confuse with teacher assistant or volunteer.

Solution: Meet with teacher before the observation to explain my role of observer.

#4 Challenge: Since I will be observing in the resource/self-contained classroom setting, I expect to see some student behavioral disruptions.

Solution: Discuss with teacher before the class observation about my role and boundary, how to handle with student’s behavior disruption and review the class procedure for behavioral management.

#5 Challenge: The interpreters may pause the interpreting during lecture to ask me for sign for a word.

Solution: Discuss with interpreter before the class, if the interpreters do not know the sign for the word, and then write the word on the list instead of pausing and asking me for the sign during the lecture. We will review the signs for the words after the class.

#6 Challenge: Limited budget and difficulties scheduling and implementing staff development focus on areas of sign language and deaf education for teachers and interpreters.

Solution: Discuss with supervisors to bring feasible solutions to make it possible to implement the professional staff development regarding to my action research.

EDLD 5301 Research for Teachers - Course Relfection

This course has provided valuable lessons in being an effective researcher as a school leader, and taught me new research techniques and other interesting information. I enjoyed learning about blogging, and better understood the benefits of action research. I learned great deal about using action research by reading Leading with Passion and Knowledge: The Principal as Action Researcherand Examining What We Do to Improve Our Schools: 8 Steps from Analysis to Action.This course also helped me ensure that I am on track for my research project through guidelines, valuable group discussion feedback, and key techniques.

I was not a big fan of reading blogs until this course required my creation of a blog and reading others’ blogs. I became intrigued because blogging is a great way for professional educators to communicate and give feedback especially in action research, and discuss general school topics. The blog can be used as a data feed and share results for action research activities and projects. The use of blogs to collect and extract data can be useful for decision-making and problem-solving processes, especially in relation to education and campus issues. This may provide the opportunity to receive feedback from classmates and colleagues or seek collaborative participants for advice and ideas.Blogging may fit with my inquiry into how the use of technology can be merged with professional development within campus environments.

I perceive action research as similar to scientific methods. Action research for addressing problems in schools is similar to hypotheses within science. The principal is akin to a scientist, exploring and identifying issues and problems in school atmospheres, such as policy, curriculum, schedule management, and cultural issues as part of the hypothesis process. Like a scientist runs a laboratory, the principal runs the school using similar systematic tools of examining the problem and then devising solutions. The principal then experiments with solutions by implementing policies and procedures and new teaching practices or programs. The principal then decides which method is effective for data collection and analysis, just like a scientist does. Different data collection methods can be used, such as force field analysis, the Delphi method and the nominal technique. Upon conclusion, the principal and scientist both have to disseminate the results, prepare reports, and so forth.

Action research is a great tool for enhancement and for increasing the success of educational leaders and schools. ”Expertise comes from the combination of action and reflection. Expertise is gained as one learns to adjust the performance based on the factors and one's experiences with them. Learning from one's prior actions (and mistakes) is basic to the development of expertise” (Harris, Edmonson & Combs, 2009, p. 104). Action research provides school administrators and instructors with ways to monitor the effectiveness and ineffectiveness of their work so that they can make changes in their immediate working environment (Dana, 2009).Action research can be used for so many different aspects within the school with numerous benefits School leaders should use action research when they see challenges or issues within their schools. I have gained insight into the fact that my action research was not where I wanted it to be, and action research will help me evaluate campuses for efficacy. Using action research can bring great benefits for my work, such as increasing collaboration between principals and stakeholders, helping effective practices thrive on campus, and slowing down the pace of a school leader's everyday activities.

Harris, S., Edmonson, S., & Combs, J. P. (2010). Examining what we do to improve our schools: 8 steps from analysis to action. Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education.

Dana, N. F. (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge: The principal as action researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

EDLD 5333 Leadership for Accountability- Week 1 Discussion Board

Week 1 discussion board

What critical attributes of a positive school culture does your campus exhibit? How does your principal contribute to that positive culture?

My school principal always promotes awareness of diversity, particularly religious beliefs, gender sensitivity and ethnicity, among students, staff, parents and community members. It is important for school principals to manage, and shape, the campus culture by analyzing and responding appropriately to diverse needs. This can be accomplished by using data, such as campus climate, demographics and emerging issues, to develop a campus vision and create a plan for implementation. When culture changes occur, school leaders should provide an effective monitoring system to ensure the appropriate campus culture and make sure that change happens in the right place. Such changes should promote student achievements by “[providing] feedback on the effectiveness of the school’s curriculum, instruction, and assessment practices and their effect on the student achievement” (figure 5.1, p. 71).

The culture change process also requires “developing effective means for teachers to communicate with one another, being easily accessible to teachers and maintaining open and effective lines of communication with staff” (p. 47). Input is required from staff and teachers to design and implement decisions and policies, and the leader has the duty in “providing opportunities for staffs to be involved in developing school policies, providing opportunities for staff input on all important decision, and using leadership teams in decision making” (p. 52). Communication and working with diverse groups to make certain all students have equal opportunities for educational success must take place. Additionally, school leaders must advocate for outreach throughout culture change processes by “maintaining responsibility of ensuring that the school complies with all district and state mandates” (p. 58).

Reference

Marzano, R. J., Waters, T, & McNulty, B.A. (2005). School leadership that works: From research to results. Alexandria, VA: ASCD Publications.

Review the article, “Ten Big Effect of the No Child Left Behind Act on Public Schools”, in this week’s readings. Choose 2 of the 10 effects of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), give your positive or negative impression of each, and briefly explain your reasoning. It influences how students are taught, new standard exams, school budgets and teachers participating professional development trainings.

President George Bush signed the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act into federal law in 2002. This act has had both positive and negative impacts on public schools. It requires a quantity of programs focused on improving U.S. education in early to postsecondary schools by increasing accountability standards. Ten Big Effects of the No Child Left Behind Act on Public Schools explains how NCLB has shaped schools and lists the NCLB act’s ten major effects on public schools.

There are positive and negative aspects of the two effects: 1. “State and districts officials report that student achievement on state tests is rising, which is a cause for optimism, it’s not clear, however, that students are really gaining as much as rising percentages of proficient scores would suggest” (p.110), and “…students are taking a lot more tests” (p.111).

The first effect on public schools focuses on increased test scores since the NCLB law was implemented. The authors explain factors contributing to this increase:, “…under NCLB, student achievement is equated with the proportion of students who are scoring at the proficient level on state tests, and states have adopted various approaches in their testing programs, such as the use of confidence intervals, that result in more test scores being counted as proficient” (p.110). This is a significant positive effect.

However, NCLB requires students to take more tests to closely monitor their overall performances. Students are often unmotivated to take tests that do not count for a grade or satisfy graduation requirements. Test-taking can be very discouraging for students, and their scores do not always reflect their actual day-to-day academic performances. Additionally, tests can be very exhausting for educators when they have to attempt to achieve standards. This often forces them to focus on state standardized testing materials with the goal of passing, instead of actually teaching contents.

Jennings, J., & Renter, D., (2006). Ten big effects of the No Child Left Behind Act on public schools. Phi Delta Kappan, 88(2), 95.