Week 2 (21–27 January, 2019) - Identifying a focus, and research questions.
Welcome to Week 2!
Objectives of the Week
This week's major task is identifying a focus – and questions – for your research.
You will be helped to identify a main research focus, which could be, for example, to understand a successful experience, a problem, a point that is worrying or intriguing you, or any kind of question in your mind.
Next, we will work to turn this focus into a clear research question or questions. During this process, you will gain feedback from mentors and other course participants.
This week's major task is identifying a focus – and questions – for your research.
You will be helped to identify a main research focus, which could be, for example, to understand a successful experience, a problem, a point that is worrying or intriguing you, or any kind of question in your mind.
Next, we will work to turn this focus into a clear research question or questions. During this process, you will gain feedback from mentors and other course participants.
Your major task this week
Think:
Write about a problem or area you are wondering about in your teaching, and write down your research question(s) in the Google+ Community under 'Your Problems/Puzzles, and Research Questions'.
- What are some problems you are facing in your teaching these days and/or what are some things you are wondering about in relation to your teaching?
- Choose one problem or area you are wondering about (this could include 'how to reproduce a success you've had' - it doesn't have to be a problem), and make a question or questions from it
Write about a problem or area you are wondering about in your teaching, and write down your research question(s) in the Google+ Community under 'Your Problems/Puzzles, and Research Questions'.
- Expect your own question / questions to be commented on by others (mentors and other community members) . They may ask you questions you can't answer easily - you can add these to your research questions.
- Please comment critically and supportively on other participants' questions, suggesting how they could be improved. Are they clear enough? Ask questions if you like - but don't give advice / don't try to answer other people's questions (that is for them to do, through their own research!).
If you are not sure about how to create a research question from the main problem / puzzle you identified, then just say what your problem / puzzle is (in Google+) and the online mentors or other community participants will try to help you. Please state your problem / puzzle as clearly as you can so that we - or other community participants - can give advice.
To complete this task you might also find it helpful to consult one or all of the following:
1) Chapter 4 in the book "A Handbook for Exploratory Action Research" by Richard Smith and Paula Rebolledo based on experience with the Champion Teachers programme in Chile as well as more recent experiences in India, Peru and Nepal, downloadable here:
A Handbook for Exploratory Action Research (British Council, 2018).
The following question frames are from this chapter:
2) Excerpt from a video of a webinar for the British Council's 2016 Teaching for Success conference in which Richard Smith and Amol Padwad explain why / how problems of teaching in difficult circumstances can be turned into questions.
3) The file entitled "Identifying Focus of Research" (by Asli Saglam, prepared for EVO 2016), which aims at guiding you in coming up with your research question(s). You can reflect on and respond to the prompts there.
3) The file entitled "Identifying Focus of Research" (by Asli Saglam, prepared for EVO 2016), which aims at guiding you in coming up with your research question(s). You can reflect on and respond to the prompts there.
Additional activities, resources and examples
1) Please aim to read one or two stories of teacher research by former EVO participants in Stories by Teacher Researchers in an Online Research Community before next week's live session.
2)See and hear Andrea Robles' story- in her own words (click on the picture):
3) Read more stories of secondary school teachers' teacher-research in Chile in Champion Teachers: stories of exploratory action research, edited by Paula Rebolledo, Richard Smith and Deborah Bullock (published by the British Council in 2016).
4) You can watch video-recordings of primary and secondary teachers from Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan sharing their research questions and responses gained from fellow workshop participants here:
Some written accounts of the same teachers' research are provided in Part 2 of this freely downloadable book: Teaching in Low-resource Classrooms: Voices of Experience, edited by Richard Smith, Amol Padwad and Deborah Bullock (British Council, 2017).
5) You can check IATEFL ReSIG book series on Teacher research for more research write-ups by teachers
2)See and hear Andrea Robles' story- in her own words (click on the picture):
3) Read more stories of secondary school teachers' teacher-research in Chile in Champion Teachers: stories of exploratory action research, edited by Paula Rebolledo, Richard Smith and Deborah Bullock (published by the British Council in 2016).
4) You can watch video-recordings of primary and secondary teachers from Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan sharing their research questions and responses gained from fellow workshop participants here:
Some written accounts of the same teachers' research are provided in Part 2 of this freely downloadable book: Teaching in Low-resource Classrooms: Voices of Experience, edited by Richard Smith, Amol Padwad and Deborah Bullock (British Council, 2017).
5) You can check IATEFL ReSIG book series on Teacher research for more research write-ups by teachers
Summary: hoped-for achievements
By the end of this week (week 2) we hope that you have:
You have already begun to do research by identifying a topic and clarifying your questions! Soon, you will learn how to begin to answer these questions by gathering evidence.
- identified a research focus
- considered how to turn successes, problems and other issues into research questions
- clarified your research focus and questions through feedback from mentors and other participants
You have already begun to do research by identifying a topic and clarifying your questions! Soon, you will learn how to begin to answer these questions by gathering evidence.
SECOND LIVE SESSION: Click here to join us on Sunday 27th January at 18:00 UTC+3
(Time where you are here). Enter as a 'Guest', writing your full name.
(Time where you are here). Enter as a 'Guest', writing your full name.
SLIDES: