Teacher Research Initiative Webinar: Developing Pedagogical Research Questions

1. TESOL Africa / IATEFL Research SIG teacher-research initiative Webinar 1 – Developing research questions Richard Smith, University of Warwick, UK (r.c.smith@warwick.ac.uk)

2. Plan This session will help participants to: * understand the value of exploring before attempting to bring about a change* develop research questions to explore a pedagogical issue of concern to them

3. Images- and definitions - of research

8. ‘Research’: ‘The organised, systematic search for answers to the questions we ask’ (Hatch & Lazaraton 1991) ‘Teacher-research’ = research which is initiated and carried out by teachers themselves into issues of importance to them in their own work.

9. Examples of teachers doing research

11. Teresa’s story

12. Was this research? Research begins with questions (‘research questions’) What was Teresa’s main research question? (what did she want to find out?) How did she feel at the end of the research, and why?

17. Teachers inquiring / using one another as resource

18. Turning problems into questions

19. Turning problems into questions I have too much homework to mark. It is impossible to give effective feedback to everyone. How can I provide feedback to students? What are the different forms of feedback can I use? Not all students participate due to being in a large class. How can I design activities or group work so all students participate? It is difficult to promote active learning in large classes when resources such as textbooks, flash cards are limited. How can I help students to be active in their learning without using resources? What does it mean to be engaged in active learning? It is difficult to get students’ attention to stop them working on a pair or group task. How can I attract students’ attention during activities?

20. Sharing questions with colleagues

21. Sharing findings with colleagues

22. https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/low-resource-classrooms (Video)

23. bit.ly/low-resource-classrooms

24. bit.ly/champion-teachers

26. My research…Wrapping up classes, the end is as important as the beginning of the class! My Context… I have 44 hours per week I have 40 – 42 students per class www.britishcouncil.org

27. Step 1 …. The last part of the class… Am I doing it right? I decided to find out the answer… * What is a wrapping up? * What are the characteristics of a wrapping up? * How do my students react in that part of the class? www.britishcouncil.org

28. Step 2 * I asked some colleagues about wrapping up. * I surfed the web for answers. * I asked a colleague to observe my class. * I made a comparison of what I was doing and my ideal wrapping up. www.britishcouncil.org

29. WHAT DID I FIND OUT? * My colleagues and me had the same thoughts about wrapping up ☺ * The article on the web also confirmed my ideas ☺ * There was a huge difference between I what I was doing and what I thought it was right. * Every time I repeated the same question at the end of the class and my students packed their things to leave ☹ * I had to do something about it www.britishcouncil.org

30. Step 3 I decided to try a different activity and see what happened. www.britishcouncil.org

31. Step 4 Come back to step 2… ☺ I asked a colleague to observe my class again. www.britishcouncil.org

32. Step 5 Think and plan different activities as wrapping up. www.britishcouncil.org

33. Step 6 Come back to step 2 ☺ www.britishcouncil.org

34. Step 7 Asked my students about the activities! www.britishcouncil.org

35. Step 8 Video – written report ☺ www.britishcouncil.org

36. MY REFLECTIONS! * Discovering is more important than solving a problem. * Teaching is learning! * Teachers are powerful. * Research helps you to know why you are doing something and not just acting because of a feeling. * Research is not only for experts… teachers have much more things to say because we are the ones who are inside the classroom. * Accept that we make mistakes or maybe we do not do thing in the best way… www.britishcouncil.org

37. Exploratory action research

38. I analyse the results and make conclusions: My students would like speaking more in class. My students are not motivated. I ask my students their perceptions. I ask a colleague to observe my class. I plan ways to collect evidence about this issue. I plan and design an action plan. I ask my students their perceptions. I ask a colleague to observe my class. I analyse the results and make conclusions: My students are more engaged but need more practice. I teach more conversational classes.

39. bit.ly/handbook-EAR bit.ly/champion-teachers

40. Another example “From this exploration, the first finding was very surprising for me. Before the […] research I thought they didn’t want the class to be in English. [But in their answers to my questionnaire] a little more than a half of them said they wanted a class in English.  It was a total change of my point of view.” (Daniel Santana)

41. From problems to questions

42. Andrea’s questions What are the characteristics of wrapping up? What is wrapping up? How do my students react in this part of the lesson?

43. From problems to exploratory questions In relation to the issue you’ve chosen to focus on, what do you currently see, hear and feel? What makes you concerned / interested? What evidence do you have? What do you still need to know in order to act appropriately?  What are your exploratory questions?

44. Over to you!

50. bit.ly/handbook-EAR bit.ly/champion-teachers