Choices! In the United States we have more choices than most other countries. We have the choice of where we live, what schools we attend and what kind of classes we want to take at the secondary level. The students can take Spanish, French or German as a foreign language. They can take a culinary class in some high schools or auto tech. Students have so many choices and yet they seldom take the classes that lead to their future careers. Do they have too many choices? Are schools offering the right classes.
Action research will allow this question to be stated in a very direct manner. The question will be "Are high school students offered the correct number of elective choices?". This is a reflective question that needs to be asked of the school administration. Though there are a lot of other factors that go into what is being offered. For instance, our high school is one of the top schools for those who enter the military after graduation. Yet we have no ROTC program. Would a ROTC program increase the military enlistee numbers? Research will need to be done to determine if the ROTC impacts the military enlistee count.
The benefits in all of these cases and in the use of action research are because it focuses on student achievement and supports reflective practice. The second thing it does is it provides opportunities to work, discuss, and solve problems with your peers.
Blogs would be the perfect way for peers to exchange ideas. Time is a key factor in most educators life. We just don't seem to have enough of it. Blogs would allow for each team member to post their ideas when they have time. It is hard for all the team members to be available at a certain time for a meeting so this would certainly make allow good ideas to be shared when they were thought of and not a week later when they could be forgotten.
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