Candidates interpret and use data to create and share new knowledge to
improve practice in school libraries.
Reflection
American Hotelier Conrad Hilton said that "Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit." As a librarian, I want my media center to be successful. That means that I must constantly work to make it better than it was yesterday. One of the things I loved about the Action Research class at McDaniel was that it showed us how to continually evaluate and improve our media program. It is very easy to become dated, particularly if I am not willing to change. Action research allows me to interpret and use data to create and share new knowledge that will make my library successful.
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Artifact
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For my action research project I focused on the role the library plays in STEM education. After doing some background research, finding examples of STEM initiatives in professional journals, and talking to my steak holders I felt that I was ready to tackle the data my own media center would generate. I knew that I wanted to target three key things, the students, the staff, and the resources. I decided to gather data in three different ways.
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First I would survey students and teachers about their needs. I created two survey forms to identify the way our users use STEM and also what they need when it comes to STEM education. The teacher survey focused on the connections that could be made between the classroom and curriculum that could be supported by the media center. The student survey focused on homework and student interests that pertain to STEM. I would also conduct focus groups with teachers and students in person to get some honest feedback. I would then use Google analytics to analyze the data and identify trends that will improve the practice of my library.
For my second set of data I would observe the physical use of the library by observing student patterns during unstructured times. I would look at what resources they were using and what types of activities they were doing while in the media center. To enhance this data I am able to pull the media use schedule and analyze it based on subject and grade. The data will show me where our collaborations with classroom teachers are successful but also identify departments that we should focus on to improve our collaborative practices.
The last way I could collect data is through the circulation statistics. By analyzing the circulation statistics in the STEM related sections of the library I am able to understand which resources meet the needs of the student population. This will inform our weeding and ordering practices and improve our library's collection.
At the end of the project all of the data will be combined to show both the librarians and the stakeholders how we can improve practices in the media center to better support the STEM initiative.
As I reflect upon this project I am really happy I did it. When I completed the project STEM was a fairly new term to me and a new focus within the school. Now, three years later, the Common Core has made STEM one of its target areas. This means that I may use this survey within my own library to figure out how we are doing. I think that in the future I would change some of the language in the survey to be more inclusive to the ideas of the Common Core. I also learned a lot about gathering and analyzing data. I was amazed by the many different ways to collect data and the informative way that different data sets connected together. I left the class feeling confident that I could successfully implement an action research project that uses the knowledge data provides to improve the practices of my media center.
For my second set of data I would observe the physical use of the library by observing student patterns during unstructured times. I would look at what resources they were using and what types of activities they were doing while in the media center. To enhance this data I am able to pull the media use schedule and analyze it based on subject and grade. The data will show me where our collaborations with classroom teachers are successful but also identify departments that we should focus on to improve our collaborative practices.
The last way I could collect data is through the circulation statistics. By analyzing the circulation statistics in the STEM related sections of the library I am able to understand which resources meet the needs of the student population. This will inform our weeding and ordering practices and improve our library's collection.
At the end of the project all of the data will be combined to show both the librarians and the stakeholders how we can improve practices in the media center to better support the STEM initiative.
As I reflect upon this project I am really happy I did it. When I completed the project STEM was a fairly new term to me and a new focus within the school. Now, three years later, the Common Core has made STEM one of its target areas. This means that I may use this survey within my own library to figure out how we are doing. I think that in the future I would change some of the language in the survey to be more inclusive to the ideas of the Common Core. I also learned a lot about gathering and analyzing data. I was amazed by the many different ways to collect data and the informative way that different data sets connected together. I left the class feeling confident that I could successfully implement an action research project that uses the knowledge data provides to improve the practices of my media center.