In today’s education approach, we often hear the phrase “Research skill” to be developed in learners. We see this being included in different Indian and International curricula as a learning and assessment objective.
In a session with teachers, this became a topic of discussion. Teachers expressed their ideas and ways to inculcate this in their learners. I realised that irrespective of the age group being considered, as educators, we need to define and list down the process of conducting “Research”. We must orient and familiarise the pupils with what to expect and how to carry out research. What may be acceptable and not acceptable as they progress in their research project must be clear to the learners. If this activity can ignite curiosity and joy, learners would develop great interest and continue to engage in finding out something meaningful in a scientific way further.
We discussed at length how to create this excitement of conducting “Research” and simple and relatable steps for the same-
1.Statement of the Research project/problem: To be clear and familiar to the learners.
2.Identify the Learning objectives to be achieved. Help learners to collect enough and valid data.
3.Find out the method/s and steps involved in conducting research.
4.List down the requirements-apparatus, equipment, location, people to be contacted, securing any permission, arrangement for travel, visits if appropriate and necessary, and any other as required. Prepare formats for these as necessary.
5.Finalise the time frame for beginning and ending the process.
6. Guide the learners to carryout sample investigation as a prelude to beginning the actual research project.
7. Share the feedback form this and help learners to reflect upon the findings, any improvements required, necessary precautions to be taken if ignored, identify steps for improvement and more.
8. Make learners prepare a Reflection journal to record progress and observation on a daily basis or as may be appropriate for the research project being chosen.
9.Prepare ‘Risk Assessment’ document to support learners to understand precautions to be taken and adhere to always while conducting research project.
10. Conduct a session on Academic honesty to inform plagiarism, duplication of work and other malpractices being strictly not allowed. Referencing other’s work, acknowledging support and contribution by everyone involved must be clearly outlined.
11. Prepare a schedule for regular meeting with learners to monitor the progress and share feedback.
12. Help learners to gather data, interpret, analyse and evaluate for conclusion. Learners must be able to identify if the learning objectives set for the research problem were achieved completely, partially or not achieved.
13. Irrespective of the outcomes achieved, if it was carried out systematically and step-wise, the research project is still ‘successful’ as it is knowing the process which is the most important goal of carrying out research.
14. Encouraging learners to identify the reasons for success or failure of achieving objectives is a great outcome to achieve.
15. With this, celebrate the conclusion of research project by the learners in many ways- as an article, appreciation in school assemblies, with recognition letters and so on. Learners feeling the joy of carrying out research, finding something on their own is the best outcome to be achieved.
Teachers felt absolutely thrilled and I can still see their joy of beginning this initiative with their learners. Happy researching!
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