Running head: REFLECTION: ACTION RESEARCH 1

Reflection: Action Research Project

Culminating Assignment

Courtney Lipski

University of Nevada, Las Vegas, CIG 690

December 13, 2019

Author Note

Courtney Lipski is a graduate student in the Elementary Education Alternative Route to

Licensure M.Ed Program in the College of Education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Correspondence concerning this paper should be addressed to Courtney Lipski, Graduate

Student, College of Education, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 4505 South Maryland

Parkway, Las Vegas, NV, 89154

Contact: lipski@unlv.nevada.edu
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Reflection: Action Research Project Culminating Assignment

Educators have a wide range of roles in and outside of the classroom from working with

students, to improving upon their own pedagogies. As educators gain more experience working

with students and planning curricula that will effectively encourage growth in student learning,

educators are also considering the overall dynamics and structures of the classroom

environments, the politics within education, and the overall education system. Whether educators

are working to improve their classroom environment, focusing on individual student struggles, or

attempting to understand the dynamics of family and education relationships, one common

thread is the determination to become a more effective teacher. Action research is an incredibly

important method that encourages educators to determine problems or inquiries, research on the

topics, and act to make change.

Throughout this course I have learned the value of action research and how impactful it

can be within the classroom. Beginning as a simple inquiry and leading to findings that may be

enlightening to the dynamics of the classroom environment, teaching methods, or other topics, I

realize now that action research can have tremendous impact on education. Initially, I did not

understand how action research could be implemented within the classroom without adding

stress and pressure to my everyday tasks. I felt that it would be impossible to implement drastic

change and record findings that would be measurable within the short time frame of the

semester. What I quickly realized was that I would not have to do anything different than I

already was. I am constantly trying to find new ways and strategies that will positively benefit

our classroom and students’ learning, and action research allowed me to have a structured

approach to finding solutions that was supported by research that had already been conducted. I
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could implement methods of teaching and strategies that had been successful elsewhere to find

what would be best for my own students.

Research Topic and Growth as a Researcher

The topic I focused on for my research was reading comprehension, specifically student

reading comprehension scores on progress monitoring assessments (PMA). As a third grade

teacher, I understand the importance of reading comprehension in third grade and beyond.

Students in the primary grades focus mores directly on learning how to read and when they enter

third grade they are expected to read to learn, which is an enormous leap for them and their

learning mindset. I found that my students were performing poorly on our curriculum’s PMAs,

even students who scored above the 70th percentile on the Northwest Evaluation Association

Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) standardized assessment in August. I decided to research

methods and strategies aimed to improve overall achievement on the biweekly PMAs,

specifically addressing ways to target reading comprehension. With Nevada Senate Bill (SB)

391, known as Nevada’s Read by Grade 3 Act, it is imperative that students in third grade are

reading fluently while also comprehending what they are reading.

Throughout the process I quickly realized that although I had previously thought that I

was efficient at finding articles and sources relevant to necessary topics, reading comprehension

is a very broad and general topic, which made it difficult to quickly find useful articles. I found

myself spending hours searching through articles that were not relevant until I eventually began

refining my search. When I finally found articles that were useful to my purposes as a researcher,

I learned that reading articles and understanding the articles’ methods was different than

critically evaluating the articles and their methods while also rationalizing how those methods

would be applicable to my own action research. I found the process difficult but rewarding in
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that I learned how to evaluate articles more critically and with purpose. I also learned that the

implementation of methods stated in articles was not always as easy as it seemed to be in the

articles.

Evaluation of Action Research Process

Overall, I found the action research process to be at times difficult, yet mostly rewarding.

Although I found myself frustrated throughout the process when searching for articles and trying

to find solutions to my dilemma, I felt I learned much about how to be an efficient researcher,

where to look, and how to navigate through different teaching methods that I could potentially

implement in my classroom.

Successes

Although it took a considerable amount of time to find articles that would be useful for

my research, I felt that I was successful in my findings. I found articles that offered varying

perspectives on teaching strategies and methods aimed to improve reading comprehension, some

of which I implemented in my classroom with varying degrees of success. I also felt that I was

successful in collecting data that was useful in my evaluation of student progress, both

quantitative and qualitative. I felt my data points provided me with direct feedback on my efforts

in utilizing different teaching methods targeting reading comprehension. Looking at student

work and listening to student discussions provided timely feedback about the success of my

methods and strategies in the classroom. I could compare past work samples to new work

samples and old discussions with new discussions to find variations and patterns. This was

especially useful when analyzing the first phase of my research and determining that the arts

integration strategies were not effectively improving PMA scores, allowing me to change my

methods.
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Difficulties

As state previously, I found it difficult to quickly find articles relevant to my grade level

and topic. Although this forced me to be a better researcher, it was frustrating at times when I

was looking for direct instructional strategies that I could implement in the classroom and that

had been tested previously in third grade classrooms. I also found it difficult to take credit for the

improvements that I found in my students’ PMA scores because I felt there were too many

variables that could potentially have impacted student performance. It would have been ideal to

review the data and have findings that directly correlate to the specific teaching methods and

strategies that I used within the classroom. I found myself second guessing my own evaluation of

the findings, which would make it difficult to continue the research in the future.

Revisions for Future Research

For future research on reading comprehension, I think I would need to focus on smaller

groups of students and working on different strategies aimed at those groups of students

specifically. I think trying teaching strategies as a whole class may have made it more difficult

for my evaluation process because some students performed better, while others performed

worse. I could have potentially differentiated my strategies and maybe focused on one group of

students, rather than the class as an entire unit. I also would consider asking for an outside

perspective, perhaps inviting another teacher to observe my teaching strategies to have a

different perspective on student responses to the methods and strategies. This could have added

greater depth in my evaluation of the data, which may have impacted my overall findings.

Sharing My Research Findings

My research was conducted solely for myself to improve as an educator and to improve

my students’ performance and ultimately their grades. My audience was specifically the peers in
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this course, as well as my professors. If I were to continue this research, my intended audience

would be my colleagues, specifically my third grade team. As a grade level we have been

struggling with PMA scores and this research, when continued, would benefit all our teaching

methods and students. I would ultimately share my findings using the same data points in graphs

and written analysis to elaborate on my findings in hopes that the information would be useful

for their classroom practices.

Conclusion

The action research project was a wonderful learning experience for me as an educator. I

felt that I learned how to effectively find articles that were relevant and useful to my research,

while also critically evaluating the articles to decide which methods would be most effective in

my classroom. At times I did not enjoy the process, as expected with anything that is new and

difficult, but I found the process to be rewarding. I also enjoyed learning about my peers’ action

research findings because I found many of the projects to be relevant to my own classroom.

While listening to the presentations, I began developing new inquiries that I may consider

researching in the future. More importantly, I learned that it is imperative that educators continue

to develop and evaluate their own teaching methods to ensure continued growth and

implementation of the most beneficial learning environments that promote student success and

achievement.
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