research and academic working methods - 2

summary of the second class 13.03.2013

- research in primary education - connection Malaysia -

 

The role of research in primary education:

analysing a research report in groups

a) Please read: Jonathan Snell: Improving teacher-Student Interaction in the EFL Classroom: An Action Research Report. (http://iteslj.org/Articles/Snell-Interaction.html

 

 

b) Please explain the concepts “research style” and “research report"

Research report is an example for an research; research style is the way how you do the research (the method)
 

c) How is action research defined in the text and by Judith Bell?
Definition in the Text:
Teacher-initiated classroom research which seeks to increase the teacher's understanding of classroom teaching and learning and to bring about improvements in classroom practices. Action research typically involves small-scale investigate projects in the teacher's own classrooms. This usually includes, having an observer collect data, and together with the teacher develop a plan to bring about the desired change, act on the plan, and then observe the effects of the plan in the classroom.

Definition of Judith Bell:
Action Research is an approach which is appropriate in any context, when specific knowledge is required for a spec problem or in a spec situation, or when a new approach is to be crafted onto an existing system. It is applied research, carried out by practitioners who have themselves identified a need for change or improvement, sometimes with support from outside the institution; other times not.
 

d) Why can problem identification be difficult?
Because normaly everybody has to interpret what he sees. You have to find out why the pupils for example do not answer. You have to find out if the problem is, that they did not understand or that  they do not want to talk to the teacher or the difference of cultures is the problem but you have to identify that there is a problem.

It is so difficult to find out, that there is a problem because the teacher could not teach and observe at the same time. Most of the time teachers concentrate on the subject and on what they want to teach and do not recognize any problem. The teacher is just in the situation and he has no overview and in that way he would have to observe himself too. He is concerned about a specific topic and so he cannot concentrate on the problem. He has a focus on f. e. learning them grammar.
An outstanding person can identify the problem easier.
 

e) Observation, why ask another person to do the observation in the classroom? Could the teacher do the observation himself?
Because so the other person can concentrate on observing and you can concentrate on teaching. It would be good to get another point of view and another opinion about the situation in class. Maybe the person cannot see the problem you see but another one.

Observation is so difficult, because you easily interpret what you see. You should not interpret because you only have to observe and then find something out. You have to focus on a specific part of situation but not on everything you can see.
 

f) Differences in culture create differences in student and teacher expectations; please suggest alternatives and more ways to improve the situation in the class.
Learn about the different cultures and get some information about these cultures. So that you can understand how they learn what they expect from a teacher.

 

g) How would you plan the intervention and collect the data, please include Bell p.6-8 in the discussions.
Because the activity of action research almost inevitably affects others, it is important to have a clear idea of when and where the action research necessarily steps outside the bounds of collecting information which is purely personal and relating to the practitioners alone. Where it does so, the usual standard of ethics must be observed: permissions obtained, confidentiality maintained, identities protected.
Of equal or perhaps even greater importance is that before the research begins, everyone involved must know why the investigation is to take place, who will see the final report, and who will have responsibility for implementing any recommended changes.
Evidence has to be collected systematically, the relationship between variables studied (a variable being a characteristic or attribute) and the investigation methodically planned. Though observation and interviews are most frequently used, no method is excluded.

 

Globalization and research: Connection Malaysia

Definition of a vision: A picture of a preferred future, a description of how something will look like in 25 years. It is a dynamic picture of the future. It is more than dreams or hope; it is a kind of obligation(Pflicht). The vision provides the framework (system) to create and manage the changes that are necessary to achieve the goals.

 

My vision about my own class in 25 years I am a teacher in a primary school in a small town in Austria. Today it is the 15th of June 2038. In the last 25 years the educational system has changed very fast and in many different ways. You can see an obvious change, if you look at the technology that is used in class but also if you have a look at the organization of the school system. These changes of the educational system took place because of the drastic changes in society. Values of people have changed and everybody thinks that education and going to school for social reasons is the most important thing in a child´s live. Nobody wants his/her child to not go to school, because it can only achieve something with the right education. There are no private schools anymore, because every child should have the right to go to a good school, even without much money and without having everyone looking on their social or socio economical background. Everybody has the chance to get the education he needs and to improve in some ways. Today I just woke up at 7am to get dressed and to make me up. I am now 45 years old and live in a big house with my husband and our two children. After having breakfast and chatting with my partner, I am going to the bathroom and get dressed. I wear a school uniform, because not only the pupils but also the teachers have to wear uniforms. This is better for society, because so everybody is equal and will not be treated different because of his/her cloths or his social status. Another point why the decision for school uniforms had been made was that parents do not have to spend too much money on cloths for their pupils. It is a cheap offer and every school has the same uniform, so that there cannot arise any power struggle between different schools. After I have put on my cloths I am making me up, but only in a decent way, because teachers should be a positive example to the children in all ways. We should look natural. At 8:30am I am going to school with my hybrid car, which had been loading the whole night, so that I can drive to school today. It takes me 30 minutes to get to school. At 8:00am I am there and prepare everything for class. I teach one class with two other teachers, because there are so many different pupils to be taught. Everybody has the right to be treated in the right way especially because everyone in some ways has special needs. There are handicapped, highly gifted and all other pupils in one class. 25 years ago it started that pupils from different ages are taught in one class. This system is now generally accepted and children from 5 to 9 are now taught in one room at the same time. In the other classes there are pupils from 9 to 13 years. The great advantage of it is that pupils learn from pupils and help each other. It is a great thing in the social part of education but also in the specific subjects. School starts at 9:30 and every pupil is at school 15 minutes before class starts. They prepare their laptops and other technological resources. There are only eBooks, which the children can read. All things that can be done in reality are tried to be done in this way. For example the topic “tools” is taught in a very practical way, so that every child has the chance to use one of these tools on his own. In my class there are only 15 pupils, because there are so many different persons and characters. With my two colleagues I try my best to achieve everyone´s needs. When I started to teach I had to teach every subject but now things have changed and every teacher specialized on two favorite subjects. Through this change the status of teachers has increased highly and so now being a teacher is a highly regarded profession. Every teacher likes the subject he/she teaches and so pupils can really profit. I am finished at 5:30pm, because the children go home at 5pm. There aren´t classes the whole day, but there are different activities and some free time for the children. So my working day lasts longer than 25 years ago, but I can profit from it. I can correct texts and everything at school and so, when I come home I do not really have anything to do for school anymore.

   To my opinion the educational system has changed in a very positive way!



research and academic working methods - 1

summary of the first class 06.03.2013

- Malaysia project - changing landscape of education - practicioner research - my own values - investigative attitude - 

 

Connection Malaysia Project:

Get to know about their expectations. Are they as globalised as we are? How do they see themselves as teachers in the next few years? Maybe we need schools in future for socializing! What do we see in the future and what do they see in the future?
We will get data from this project and try to analyze it.

 

Changing landscape of education -> group work:

1) Nordic countries have reached the future first. They are coming up with highly innovative solutions.

2) Nordic countries are very powerful in two areas: innovation and social conclusion.

3) The Nordic’s success depends on their long tradition of good government, which emphasizes not only honesty and transparency but also consensus and compromise.

4) Increasing the share of “free” schools in a particular district leads to better performance on a variety of measures, from school grades to university attendance.

5) The Nordic countries are probably the best governed in the world.

The whole text is about why the Nordic Countries are better than the other ones.
(Skype, Lego, many famous authors, Pippi Longstocking, IKEA, H&M, many swedish musicians are in Hollywood, new ideas in restaurants…) They learn from their mistakes and are open for changes. Invention of free schools -> education got better!

 

Video:

Children have become agent of their own enculturation (=become part of a culture)
Children want to have their culture visible in the school (bottom up choreographer)

He wants to learn children to be cooperative (strong children help other children in learning in group works-individual product) and collaborative (working together on one project-team product)

 

Practicioner research:

"Practitioner research is often used as an umbrella term for a large number of research- based activities undertaken in the fields of practice in education and social and health care. It implies that practitioners will learn from their research into practice which is not always the case in other forms of research. It also aims at improving rather than proving as an approach to research. Groundwater-Smith and Mockler (2006:107) argue that in the field of practice based research, ‘those involved in practitioner inquiry are bound to engage with both ‘theoretical’ and ‘practical’ knowledge moving seamlessly between the two.
                                                                   
To define practitioner research we must turn to Stenhouse (1975), Elliott (1991), Cochran-Smith and Lytle (1993) and Ziechner and Noffke (2001) and their work which promoted curriculum reform and teachers as researchers of curriculum and the practice of teaching. They foreground:

• teachers’ work and teachers themselves as a basis for research;
• critical reflection and systematic study of practice;
• practitioner control and ownership of research.

These are key reference points for practitioner research.

Practitioner research is closely related to, and draws on, the methodologies of the ‘family of action research’ described by Kemmis and McTaggart (2005:560) as including: participatory research; critical action research; classroom action research; action learning; and action science. Practitioner research does draw on methods from a wider field than action research allowing practitioners to undertake small scale research in case studies, ethnographic studies and to be eclectic in their use of methods, as suggested by Campbell et al (2004:80). Narrative, story and fiction methods are also valuable tools for practitioner researchers." (http://www.tlrp.org/capacity/rm/wt/campbell/)

 

How do you see yourself as teachers in 25 years?

I see me as a coach and not as a lecture. It will be about integrating every child in the class, so I will have many different students in one class and every child has its own individual assignment. We will have to teach the children how to interact social and what social activities they could do, because everybody is just watching TV in their free time.

It is my ability to enter their mindsets and make them see alternatives. So that they can be social human beings.

What are the key concepts in the second video?

-        reflecting critical

 

-        take action on what you think is not working the way it should (so it has a focus on action)

 

-        my own values:because they lead to special behaviour and thinking; f.e. if you do a research and you have special values you would react in another way -> what is in control of my values?
What are my values and what are they based on? What are my preexpections? Do I expect the pupils to be in a certain way? And why do I do that?
My values has an influence on what I am expecting from the children and what materials I chose for class. How can I add my own personal engagement in this system?

 

-        Sometimes I as a teacher feel like I am hanging in a system, where I do not really know how I can help children to improve. So I have to do some action to change it.

 

-        How do I deal with the situation, that the values of a teacher are not important?

Investigative attitude:

In my opinion, having an investigative attitude means that I try to do something new. To me it means that I broaden my horizons and learn recent things.

When did I start to be investigative? As a child, when I started to crawl or to walk. How I got from growling to walking. How many times I had to fall to learn to walk.

It seems like the school system is making people less investigative! (When I was in school the teacher gave me a question and I had to investigate and research for an answer.)

My  first investigation was, when I was standing in the bathroom, put a sponge in the water and waited for it to sank.

I want to investigate, so I am travelling and I investigate in a school system and country I don’t know. This erasmus semester is part of my investigative attitude.