Classroom-based Research

What is classroom-based research?

Classroom based research shares goals with traditional educational research. However, it also diverges in several ways:

• It questions the heavy dependence on the “scientific method” as the only or most valid approach to knowledge.

• It supports inclusion of individual observations and insights, and supports the struggles and triumphs of teaching and learning as valid and important.

• It supports individual applications, in contrast to “generalizable” findings and applications.

• It supports the challenge of a positivistic set of truths about education.

• It asserts that the pursuit of generalizable truths might be set aside in favour of “working hypotheses” to be tested in new contexts.

Classroom-based research is research done by "insiders", those with an intimate knowledge of the context, i.e. the teachers in the classroom, rather than by "outsiders", such as university academics who might only have a brief encounter with the school. Teacher research has been defined as “systematic and intentional inquiry carried out by teachers” (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1993, p.7). “By methodically examining daily classroom practices, educators portray an insider’s view of how learning happens” (Lassonde & Israel, 2010, p.4).

Why classroom-based research?

Schools are very complex entities. Statements about teaching and learning are often too general to inform teacher decision-making in relation to specific classes. Detailed ideas from education research need to be tested out to see if they transfer to our own context and apply in our classes. Teachers must also be able to argue a case for their actions based on evidence.

Researching one’s own professional work is now an accepted ‘part of the job’ . Teachers are increasingly being expected to demonstrate ‘evidence-based’ or ‘research-informed’ practice – they are expected to be research-savvy or even research-active (Taber, 2013).

Teachers need to know:

• what might be considered ‘effective practice’ in other classrooms (and be worth testing out in the present context); and

• how to collect suitable evidence to inform evaluations of (a) existing practice, and (b) the effect of any innovations introduced (Taber, 2013).

However, there is a substantial difference between the ‘research’ that teachers are being asked to undertake as a matter of course and the academic research being undertaken by professional educational researchers.

Characteristics of classroom-based research

Classroom-based research is:

• Learner-centered: “focuses its primary attention on observing and improving learning rather than on. . . teaching.”

• Teacher-directed: proposes that, “teachers are capable of conducting useful and valid research on classroom learning.”

• Collaborative: “requires the active engagement of students and teachers . . . benefits from full discussion and participation by all [stakeholders].”

• Context-specific: “is conducted to shed light on the specific questions of an identified classroom” and “involves the teaching of a particular discipline to a known group of students.”

• Scholarly: “intellectually demanding and professionally responsible. It builds on the knowledge base of research on teaching and learning. It requires the identification of a researchable question, the careful planning of an appropriate research design, and consideration of the implications of the research for practice.”

• Practical and relevant: “The questions selected . . . are practical questions that the teacher faces in teaching the class. . .the primary purpose . . . is to deepen personal understanding . . [and make a] contribution to the knowledge and practice of the teacher.”

• Continual: ongoing, and can “raise new questions, leading to cascading investigations" (Cross & Steadman, 1996).

Some principles of classroom-based research

• The study should be relevant and important to the real-life needs of the teacher, or there is no point.

• The strength of the researcher lies not in technical methodology, but in their closeness to the learning needs and realities of the classroom.

• Small, local studies of real, relevant needs are most useful and relevant to stakeholders and policy makers.

• There is equal interest in how the majority may confirm a hypothesis and how a minority may depart from it.

• Don’t try to save the world—just find out something important to improve your teaching and your students’ learning.

• You don’t have to have earth-shaking, quantitatively-solid data. Almost any kind of information that adds to your understanding of teaching and learning is important.

• Remember that the focus is on students and their needs primarily (Cross & Steadman, 1996).