Addendum to my research topic

I have made an addition to my research topic. I will not only be asking why our students are not financially literate coming out of high school, but I will also be assessing the methods used in my classroom to see if they are sufficient enough to prepare our students to be ready for what life throws at them financially. I will be doing surveys, tests, interviews, reading literature. Stay up to date, because I am sure something will change soon. Thanks again for reading. Please feel free to comment on my topic with any help or criticism. I can take it!!! Thanks again.

Action Research Topic

I have decided that I will be doing my action research topic on financial literacy for high school students. The question I would like to have answered during this project is "Why are today's students not financially literate, and what steps can we take to do help them become more aware of how finances work?" I will explore the causes of why today's youth are not financially aware, whether it be parents are teaching or modeling for their kids financial practices, or if the schools need to be doing more to make students financially aware. Stay tuned, there will be more. Any comments or suggestions are welcomed!! Thanks!!

Action Research for Educational Leaders

Educational leaders could use action research for a myriad of things. It could be used to find the question to why student absenteeism continues to rise (if applicable), how to get the staff of your school to be a more cohesive group, or just simply find out what kinds of improvements you as the educational leader need to make to help you be the professional you would like to be. I will be using the action research technique to find out how we can get our high school students to be more financially literate, as our students really do not understand finances, and how important it will be to them in the future.

ACTION RESEARCH

I have created this site to keep everyone up to date on my action research project. Action research is basically "looking inside" your profession, asking questions, or "wonderings" about the profession, and then finding answers to those wonderings by doing research. However, action research doesn't stop there. After reading literature, doing surveys, talking to people, interviews, etc., an administrator will then come up with solutions to help improve what you have been thinking about, evaluating how the solutions are working, and then finding answers to new things that need to be improved. Many times, we as teachers (or future administrators) sit in a professional development seminar, workshop, or conference, and are told by "outside experts" what to do, and how to do it. The material that we are given usually ends up being put in a filing cabinet, never to be seen or used again. Action research is done by the teacher/administrator (or a group), and the research gives "inside knowledge" about what to do and how to do it. I believe this type of professional development is much more meaningful for a teacher/administrator, because he/she or they have a part in making the decisions that will affect the classroom, school, or district.

 I will say it another way. An administrator (or a team of administrators, teachers, PLC leaders, or whoever else) will find ways to improve what he/she or they want to improve. Action research is also called administrative inquiry, and it is not meant to be a research project, as the name suggests. It should become a way of life for any administrator that wants to be the best leader they can possibly become to help our students, teachers, staff members all become the best they can be.

Stay tuned, there will be more to come!!! Thanks for reading!!