3a: the project approach to learning has become a valuable therapeutic tool, especially with one 8 year old boy who struggles with maintaining attention during challenging tasks.  We have been going through the research process by having him take pictures in the community of things he is interested in.  I then ask him to tell me what he knows about those pictures and what he wants to learn more about.  He is not only working on a variety of technological skills, including data collection, presentation skills, internet research, hand writing, typing and dictation; he is also learning to manage his anxiety during challenging tasks by engaging in his own interests and directing the course of his own learning, even if our primary goal is behavioral therapy.

3b: I began applying the research process to my daily work back in March when I took the course on educational research.  It transformed my thinking and processes in therapy before I even realized what was happening.  I found myself tracking an increasing amount of data and experimenting with my processes, evaluating them in terms of client outcomes.  My therapy became increasingly intentional as I was now consciously aware of even the smallest details of my daily practice, constantly analyzing and evaluating them in order to improve efficiency.  Client outcomes soared and I began looking for ways to transfer those practices and outcomes to a larger scale, across entire teams and throughout the organization.  I have successfully begun implementing a research driven process to one team I'm working on, with the hope of demonstrating the value of this highly intentional approach to therapy.  The results have been phenomenal, with an entire team functioning at a high capacity and client outcomes going well beyond what I could ever hope to accomplish individually.

3c: The Universal Design for Learning had an immediate impact on my perception, as it represents an image I already had for K-12 education, but one which hasn't yet come anywhere near mainstream practice.  I was a fairly traditional student, highly visual and left brain organized, which meant traditional educational design worked just fine for me.  Listening to lectures, reading, writing papers, and taking tests presented little challenge.  In life since my K-12 education, I have learned the value of project based learning, as I spent many years learning to rebuild cars, build houses, and fix and repair almost anything out of necessity.  In my return to higher education and career resurgence, I have a greatly different perspective.  I am still very visual and left brain organized.  I love writing long research papers, but I also dance in the halls at work and find infinitely creative ways to connect to children with advanced developmental challenges.  I have a dynamic vision for education and community that breaks down traditional barriers and places children at the forefront of their own education.

3d: I have taken this action research proposal, refined and expanded it, and it is now in the process of implementation as a multi-phase project at work.  I am more interested than ever in altering the way teams function in our high stress environment in order to increase client outcomes, decrease staff stress, and as a result increase the intrinsic motivation of therapists towards a high standard of excellence in a field of low compensation, but high intrinsic reward (seeing children overcome challenges some say are impossible is powerful beyond description).  Creating a flat team hierarchy that emphasizes collaboration is at the core of this proposal, where all team members contribute within their means towards improved therapeutic efficiency.  Client outcomes, as a result of this dynamic, are already soaring and this experiment is going to change the way therapy plans and teams are organized.

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