Proposed Action Research Study

My campus will be piloting a gender-based class to determine the impact on student achievement beginning next year.  We question if grouping students by gender will improve academic achievement.  We know that male and female brains develop differently, and we plan to take advantage of this knowledge.  We also believe the students will not feel obligated to impress or perform for the opposite gender therefore resulting in improved behavior and increased success. 

I am also considering using cognitive thinking as my action research topic.  At my school the teachers and I have been discussing why they believe students are not achieving academically, and one of the top conversations that is continually brought up in every grade level discussion is the lack of cognitive thinking skills.  They believe the students lack knowledge on how to think about what they are thinking.  I find this topic EXTREMELY interesting and I know our teachers would appreciate it if we looked deeper into the topic and formed some solutions that they could apply to their classes; however, I am a little afraid that I would be biting off more than I could chew.