Becoming a teacher is unlike becoming any other type of professional. It is the only profession where the individual already has 13 years of experience (from attending K-12 school.) If one were becoming a physician, an attorney, law enforcement officer, fire fighter, an accountant, or any other professional there simply is not a history of over a decade of daily participation.
It is this unique situation that allows the developing teacher to bring many ideas, misconceptions and even myths to her or his teacher-credentialing program and into the classroom. While much of this situation is positive, i.e. the fond memories of one's own favorite teachers with highly effective instructional strategies, there is also a negative side. We naturally believe that we already know a lot and have the answers to many of the perplexing problems in K-12 education. We jump readily to conclusions. We may have no data, no sense of where to gather the data, or even what the data might look like if we stumbled upon it-but we make judgments and come to conclusions just the same. As this continues to happen, problems go unsolved and begin to mound up, creating a less than inviting environment.
What's a teacher to do? The veteran and mentor teachers are there to lend support, the scholarly journals hold valuable articles, and there are plenty of videos, DVDs, CD's and professional staff development opportunities-so what's the problem?! How is it that all of these "How-To's" are missing the mark? The truth is, they aren't missing the mark all of the time. It's all good, all well meaning, but if all of these resources get the problem- solving job done 80% time, it's the 20% that fails and that's what drives teachers out.
The action research entries on this site (all from teacher education pedagogy courses at Cal Poly Pomona University) represent what we hypothesize will retain teachers- the ability to make skilled, free of emotion and accurate observations of learners' behaviors. This is the critical element of action research. Once teachers realize the power of defining the "what" of the problem, identifying the "why" of the problem, then the true "how" to solve it becomes instantly clear. Honing action research ability yields educators who are "on their feet" problem solvers, able to be self-reliant and of greater service to their students, and ultimately career teachers.
